GBT20A-412

Mapping the Milky Way: A Outreach Project for Highschool Students

Abstract

West Virginia is in need of better STEM education to create a workforce equipped for high-skill jobs. In service of this goal, we are leading a project where high school students participate in scientific research. The goal for this project is to have the students identify HII region candidates from public infrared and radio data, and then to observe them with the GBT in radio recombination line emission. Such observations confirm the candidates as true HII regions and allow us to determine their heliocentric distances. This is a mini-version of the large HII region surveys that have been done with radio single-dish telescopes over the last few decades. The students therefore will be participating in real scientific discovery.

This year, we are working with three schools. We have already arranged dates to visit GB. Our schedule is constrained therefore to 4/25 afternoon onwards and the morning of 4/26. This project will give the students hands-on experience with a premier scientific instrument, and will give them the thrill of scientific discovery.

Investigators

Name	Institution
Loren Anderson *	West Virginia University

* indicates the PI