Education and Public Outreach Highlights (January – March 2021)

Education

The Ángel Ramos Foundation Science and Visitor Center of the Arecibo Observatory has continued with its mission to keep educating the next generation of scientists of Puerto Rico in space sciences and other STEM related areas.

STAR Academy has continued stronger than ever, exposing the students to research and participating in seminars offered by experts from different STEM areas. The 30 high school students that were selected for the spring 2021 session have already started to develop their research projects and are being trained in radio-astronomy, planetary radar, space and atmospheric sciences, programming and engineering. Four students and a mentor from the Academy presented their research projects in the 52th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Immediately after the collapse of the radio telescope, the Center started to establish alliances with different science museums and local communities. In that search, the EcoExploratorio: Museo de Ciencias de Puerto Rico has helped us to connect with the community by explaining the importance of the Arecibo Observatory to Puerto Rico and scientists around the world. Another alliance was made with Centro Criollo de Ciencia y Tecnología del Caribe (C3Tec). This alliance provided a space to move and preserve some of the exhibitions of the Science and Visitor Center. Also, it give us a physical space to conduct workshops and seminars to teachers and students. Lastly, the Science and Visitor also established an alliance with the municipality of Arecibo to rehabilitate a nearby school located in Barrio Esperanza in Arecibo. With this, the Arecibo Observatory wants to engage with the community and provide a space to offer workshops and seminars to the nearby communities.

Additionally, we have submitted several proposals to different agencies to continue strengthening the Education and Public Outreach (EPO) component and to continue with our mission. The proposals involve the training of students and teachers from all over the island in different STEM areas such as energy, space sciences, biology, chemistry and nanotechnology.

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Article written by Dr. Abniel Machín - Director of AO-Science & Visitor Center Contact: machina1@uagm.edu Arecibo Media Contact Ricardo Correa Universidad Ana G. Méndez (UAGM) 787-878-2612 ext. 615 rcorrea@naic.edu

Associate Director of the Science and Visitor Center Ms. Yasmín Santiago Universidad Ana G. Mendez (UAGM) / Arecibo Observatory machina1@uagm.edu

Keywords: observatory, arecibo, GIRLS, radio, telescope, education, outreach, workshops, STEAM, STEM, visitor, center