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GCSU has partnered with NASA to provide interstellar education to the Baldwin County community and beyond.
Over the last year, GCSU director of the Science Education Center, Dr. Catrena Lisse, has hosted events funded by a NASA grant. The goal of the grant is to introduce the public to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope that launched into space December 2021 from French Guiana.
According to a GCSU press release, “The James Webb Space Telescope, hailed as the most powerful space observatory ever built, the $7.6 billion scope is said to have the capacity to peer back billions of years, maybe even to the Big Bang itself. It’ll advance evolutionary study of galaxies and the formation of stars, as well as identify potential life on planetary systems. Since April 2022, the telescope has been sending images back to earth. It’s expected to beam 458 gigabits of data each day for ten years—until 2032.” Before its launch, Lisse stated that GCSU was able to see its development throughout the design and building process all the way to launch. This garnered the university access to photos yet to be released to the public. In addition, NASA’s grant allowed the partnership of events and provided lesson plans about space and other curriculums that could be given to the Baldwin County School System.
“We were 1 of 200 selected to receive this grant and we met all the criteria for their application,” said Lisse. “Part of our goals is to bring education to our community and other counties, so this grant was perfect.
No money was given but they offered resources and lesson plans with curriculum through K-12 for engineering, hands-on activities and more.
Through that support, we’ve been able to do a lot.”
The first event hosted through this grant was the “Out of This World” telescope viewing on front campus during summer 2021. Then on Family Weekend in November 2021, Dr. Kavitha Arur, a NASA presenter and postdoctoral individual at Georgia Institute of Technology, zoomed in to speak to attendees. More than 400 people attended these events.
In addition, GCSU sponsored a state-wide engineering design challenge among Georgia school systems. Students grouped together to replicate NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope using only paper products, thick manila folders, aluminum foil and tape.
More than 100 schools participated. A middle school in Savannah won the competition.
“For the group that won, we hosted a Sky Party for them and their community,” said Hinz. “It was a very large event and for many of those students and community members, it was the first time they had ever looked through a telescope.”
These past events were building up to a Sky Party planned to be hosted in Baldwin County. However, weather conflicts have caused the sky party to be rescheduled twice.
“Our sky viewing party is a major opportunity for our county and surrounding counties to be exposed to something amazing,” said Lisse.
“Many people have never even looked through a telescope, much less had the opportunity to visit an observatory.”
The Sky Party was initially planned to be a two-day event open to 10 counties in central Georgia including Baldwin, Bibb, Jones, Twiggs, Monroe, Jasper, Putnam, Hancock, Washington and Wilkinson. Friday night attendees would be invited to Georgia College’s Pohl Observatory to observe the Milky Way, moon and planets through the university’s 24-inch Corrected Dall-Kirkham (CDK 24) Astrograph telescope optical tube.
Then Saturday, at least 10 telescopes were planned to be set up on GCSU’s intramural fields for community viewing along with informational booths and games to interact with.
“While we are sad that we once again had to reschedule, we can assure that the community will be able to enjoy the sky party soon,” said Lisse.
“And we have already made plans to ensure students have the opportunity to enjoy it as well.”
The Community Sky Party Festival will be rescheduled for later in March with games, activities, telescopes for viewing the moon and stars, and an Astronaut’s Journey.