2003 summer institute students
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INTRODUCTION
The
CfCP Yerkes Summer Institute (YSI) is a one-week, immersive,
residential, science program for inner city middle and high school
students held at the historic Yerkes Observatory. The institute is
the high point of the year for the students who have participated in a
full range of CfCP activities including weekly laboratory sessions,
faculty lab tours, and enrichment trips. The institute's long
duration and all-day schedule encourages the participants to delve
deeply into the process of scientific inquiry. This structure also
facilitates extended discussions and interactions between researchers
and students as well as peer-to-peer communication. The instructional staff is a mix of research
scientists and educators, a mixture which ensures that the science is
accurate and that the activities are appropriately targeted.
This year the Space Explorers tackled a core cosmological
conundrum with the unifying theme of "How Big is Our Universe?" They
explored this question in a variety of manners, from constructing
model solar systems on the Yerkes grounds, to analyzing Sloan Digital Sky Survey data, which
they used to build a distance ladder that stretched 6.5 billion light
years. These interrelated activities helped to focus the students on
the concept of determining astronomical sizes and distances.
A number of pre-institute preparation sessions were held to
motivate the investigations, and more practically, to develop needed
skills. Topics ranged from a basic introduction to the components of
the universe, to small angle approximations, to using software to
measure apparent size. Students were also given a course booklet that
contained an overview of the week, detailed schedules, and
instructions for the different laboratory activities.
The institute commenced with introductions and an overview of the
week, followed by a Star Party hosted by the Milwaukee Astronomical
Society. The rest of the week was spent cycling through
interrelated daytime laboratories in small groups,
nighttime observations, peer discussions, and
deeper explorations into each laboratory. The week culminated with
student presentations that engaged parents, siblings, and younger
students in the experiments that they had conducted during the week.
Certificates of accomplishment and appreciation were presented at a
closing ceremony. Further information on this year's summer institute,
including the schedule, is provided here.
Testing our Model of the Solar System
Andrew Puckett, Charles Brass
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Based on the predictions of the Solar System model constructed
during the day, the Space Explorers developed a detailed observing
schedule that predicted when and where each planet was expected to
rise and set. The students asked themselves: Which planets will be
too far away to be seen? Which will be lost in the glare of the Sun?
Are there any planets that will only be visible in the early morning
hours? They then tested their predictions by observing planets
with binoculars and telescopes, confirming their relative positions
and noting their primary features.
Satellite Parallax: Measuring the Distance to Nearby Objects
Jonathan Mitchell, Takemi Okamoto & Brian Wilhite
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Have you ever noticed how objects that are close to you will seem to
shift from one side to the other if you look through one or the other
eye? This is due to parallax, which is defined as the apparent shift
in the direction to an object due to a change in the position of the
observer. The size of the shift is depends on both the distance to the
object and the change in the observer's position. In this lab, the
students attempted to measure the distance to a satellite orbiting the
earth by measuring its parallax. This measurement requires the
detection of an apparent shift of a few arcseconds with two telescopes
spaced about a half kilometer apart. Astronomers can measure the
parallax of nearby stars using this technique. However, because of
the enormous distance to the stars, astronomers use telescopes on
satellites spaced the equivalent of 6 1/2 times the diameter of the
earth! (Although the actual measurement proved too challenging, the
students learned how to operate a remote telescope and how to locate
satellites.)
Distance Ladder
Vivian Hoette, Matt Hedman, Sarah Hansen, Dan Holz
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During this lab, the students used the principles of size, scale
and distance that they worked with during daytime laboratories to
study astronomical objects. The students used the 24-inch telescope
to take images of various objects such as the star clusters and galaxy
shown below. (More images are available on the photos page.) With the help
of Hands-on Universe
software they were then able to measure how big these astronomical
objects appear to be on the sky. Finally, assuming similar objects are
all roughly the same size and brightness, the students were able to
construct a distance ladder and determine how far away these objects
are.
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Two Images from the Distance Ladder lab
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Handout
