Conference: Teacher Workshop: Science and Technology Applied to Radio Signals (STARS)

A one-week workshop will be held as a dissemination of the NSF Research Experience for Teachers program: “Digital Signal Processing in Radio Astronomy” (DSPIRA). The primary goal of DSPIRA is to provide training for teachers in grades 9-14 on how to use radio telescopes for educational purposes. The workshop will utilize new, well-tested material that will enable educators to provide opportunities to excite their students in astronomy, engineering, and computer programming.

In addition, this workshop will serve as a pilot for similar workshops in the future. The primary goals of this workshop are to instill confidence in teachers to use radio astronomy and observations to enhance engineering and science education in the classroom and to broaden the reach of the DSPIRA program to more educators and students.

The use of a radio horn telescope is a great hook for a project-based learning curriculum. This workshop program will use curriculum materials that are grounded in inclusive and multicultural pedagogies that are known to enhance student learning and appeal to a diverse audience. The workshop will take place at Concord University in southern West Virginia, and it will enhance the STEM presence on Concord’s campus.

The workshop will promote science, technology, and engineering opportunities to local, state-wide, and national educators to share with their students. A key feature of this workshop is its one-week time frame, which will increase the ability of more teachers to attend, as time constraints are a limiting factor for many in participating in summer workshops.

Additionally, training more teachers will expand our nationwide network of teachers who are collaborating to put forward a hands-on engineering, software, astronomy project for students that is based on the construction and use of radio telescopes to observe our Milky Way Galaxy.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.