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 The NAU/NASA Space Grant and the Department of Physics and Astronomy has previously sponsored a Workshop in astronomy for Native American high school students.  The Workshop has been discontinued due to budget challenges and changes in the focus of our NASA programs.
 

Past Program Information

Previous participants have joined with Native American Ph.D. astronomy teachers, other Ph.D. astronomers, scientists from NASA, and many others for an exciting introduction to both modern and ancient star knowledge. The students get to meet other students who have similar interests from the 4-corners/Arizona region and from other parts  of the country, and live on campus.  The NAU/NASA Space Grant provides the tuition, room/board, field trips and materials.

 In addition to morning and afternoon activities, such as model rocket building and
launching, the program  involves nightly use of the  24-inch reflector on the NAU campus and an indoor Starlab. Observational techniques will include astro-photography, spectroscopy, and CCD imaging. Topics to be covered in the classroom include basic astronomical and physical principles, history of Native American astronomy, the scientific method, philosophy and ethics of science, telescopes, and the theory and application of the observational techniques used at the telescopes. Field trips may include visits to Lowell Observatory, the Astrogeology Branch of the U.S. Geological Survey, the Barringer Meteor Crater, and an ancient Archaeoastronomy site.
This program ran for 12 years.

Updated on December 18, 2007 by Kathleen Stigmon. 
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