Maggie Turnbull has been awarded a two-year Space Grant Fellowship, co-sponsored by The University of Arizona's Department of Astronomy.

My primary motivation for choosing a career in astronomy is that although reason and instinct tell me there must be endless forms of life in the Universe, no one has actually proven the existence of life anywhere outside of the planet Earth. I also strongly believe that understanding the nature of life in the Universe will ultimately serve to uplift the health and harmony of human society. Lucky for me, the Arizona Space Grant Graduate Fellowship program makes it possible for graduate students to reach out to people of all ages and share what I'm learning at one of the most respected institutions for astronomy in the world.

In order to get in touch with some of the youngs minds in the neighborhood I have recently begun working with Stephen Patrick at Pistor Middle School through Tucson's Project ASTRO. The purpose of the program is to team professional scientists with enthusiastic teachers in bringing real scientific experiences to kids. I plan to visit Stephen's class twice a month and take part in activities ranging from hands-on lab projects, special lessons on my favorite astronomy topics, star gazing, and (historically accurate) storytelling. More than anything my hope is stir up and analyze ideas and create a non-threatening atmosphere where all questions are good questions.

The second part of my outreach objective involves reaching out to the adults in the community by setting up an series of informal no-prerequisite presentations on anything from stellar evolution to the marriage of science and religion. Depending on the topic, these gatherings could take place around a campfire while roasting marshmallows or in the classroom while watching NASA videos on space probes. Again, the goal is to encourage free and imaginative thinking supported by solid scientific reasoning. I hope to involve other scientists at the University of Arizona and set up one such series of meetings by next semester.

Summary of outreach for 1999-2000:

After last year's experience with Project ASTRO, I decided to use the feedback I got from students and take this year to improve several outreach presentations I've had in the works for a while. I chose three topics that seem to be of interest to students and fall within my range of knowledge:

• The search for extraterrestrial intelligence
• Planets detection
• Stars and their evolution

In general, teachers have been very happy just to have me come and talk to the class, but I have found that it takes more than talking to really keep a group of students engaged. For instance, in order to start understanding how something works, students need to see it for themselves and participate in the discovery process. With that in mind, I took my basic presentations and added:

• more revealing pictures and several movies (For instance the SOHO satellite team made a movie of the Sun, fading from optical wavelengths to ultraviolet to xrays. This helps students understand how light comes in many colors beyond what we see, and how different the universe looks in different "colors.").
• real-life familiar examples and demonstrations (using car horns to demonstrate the doppler shift and rainbows to start a discussion about the spectrum and kick off a lesson on planet detection)
• thinking assignments that don't involve any memorizing, but are based on the context of their own lives. What if we recieved a signal from another civilization? What are all the things we would need in order to survive on another planet? Can you invent a creature that might be able to survive on Mars? Jupiter?

Things help bring the material into a familiar or fun context. I tried them out in six classrooms of chemistry and physics students, and while the students were certainly interested, I still felt they weren't claiming what they were learning as "theirs." In order to participate in the discovery process, students need to stop being told about stuff and start finding things out for themselves. When I researched this concept a little more I discovered that the latest catch-phrase in science education is "inquiry-based learning," and that there are several groups here at the U of A trying to improve the science curriculum of local schools using this concept. At the end of last semester I introduced myself to Gail Burd, a professor in microbiology, who runs the "Science Connection."

Science Connection is a program that invites teachers to request a science connector to visit their classroom regularly--not to tell the students how things work, but to bring activities so the students can decide for themselves how things work. The goal of inquiry-based teaching is not to bring a lab with predetermined instructions, but to provide students with the materials they need to answer a question. Students can go as far as they wish with the activity, and they are encouraged to ask and answer questions of their own. I will start working with Gail this spring in a variety of capacities, including creating astronomy and physics activities, helping undergrads be better "connectors," being a connector myself, and evaluating the inquiry-based merit of science activities currently used by the Tucson School District.