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| Paper: |
Bringing the Virtual Astronomical Observatory to the\newline Education Community |
| Volume: |
457, Connecting People to Science |
| Page: |
283 |
| Authors: |
Lawton, B.; Eisenhamer, B.; Mattson, B. J.; Raddick, M. J. |
| Abstract: |
The Virtual Observatory (VO) is an international effort to bring a
large-scale electronic integration of astronomy data, tools, and
services to the global community. The Virtual Astronomical
Observatory (VAO) is the U.S. NSF- and NASA-funded VO effort that
seeks to put efficient astronomical tools in the hands of
U.S. astronomers, students, educators, and public outreach leaders.
These tools will make use of data collected by the multitude of
ground- and space-based missions over the previous decades. The
Education and Public Outreach (EPO) program for the VAO will be led
by the Space Telescope Science Institute in collaboration with the
High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (HEASARC)
EPO program and Johns Hopkins University. VAO EPO efforts
seek to bring technology, real-world astronomical data, and the story
of the development and infrastructure of the VAO to the general public
and education community. Our EPO efforts will be structured to
provide uniform access to VAO information, enabling educational and
research opportunities across multiple wavelengths and time-series
data sets. The VAO team recognizes that the VO has already built many
tools for EPO purposes, such as Microsoft's World Wide Telescope,
SDSS Sky Server, Aladin, and a multitude of citizen-science tools
available from Zooniverse. However, it is not enough to simply
provide tools. Tools must meet the needs of the education community
and address national education standards in order to be broadly
utilized. To determine which tools the VAO will incorporate into the
EPO program, needs assessments will be conducted with educators
across the U.S. |
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