Oley Valley students participate in data study at AAS241

There is learning science, there is doing science and then there is presenting your scientific findings for peer review in the scientific community. In early January 2023, Mrs. Janine Bonham and a group of four high school student researchers traveled to Seattle, Washington, to join their research team from the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program (NITARP) to present their findings from a year-long data analysis study. Their presentation was part of the American Astronomical Society’s 241st meeting (AAS241) and represented the culmination of 13 months of learning and studying data in a live scientific exploration led by a NASA astronomer.

The Oley Valley High School student team included seniors Claire Robertson, Wyatt Ulsh and Jeron Zimmerman; junior Eliana Kopicki; and Mrs. Bonham and Ms. Jenni Hoffman, both teachers at Oley Valley High School. The team traveled to Seattle, Washington, for the duration of the AAS meeting January 9-12 where they joined the NITARP project team of teachers and students from Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas to present their findings. The team began with 42 million sources from NASA’s SEIP catalog and, through a selection criteria driven by analysis of infrared signatures, measurement of GAIA distances to determine relative size, visual inspection of images and cross-referencing to known stellar objects in the SIMBAD catalog, the team was able to identify 69 M-Dwarf stars with infrared circumstellar disks that may indicate earth-like planets in the star’s habitable zones. The team employed methodologies used by astronomers to raise scientific questions, hypothesize, organize and analyze data, and report their conclusions. The team created a scientific poster which they presented and defended among the hundreds of posters presented during the four-day meeting. Mrs. Bonham similarly developed a poster defining the process of using NGSS science and engineering practices for teaching with real astronomical research through the NITARP program.

In addition to presenting their work for peer review, the team was welcomed throughout the meeting as they attended general sessions describing the development and results of the James Webb Telescope project, learned about education and public outreach of the United States’ five large telescopes, posed questions in the daily press conferences to reveal new science learning, and participated in networking and career development workshops. AAS241 was nearly overwhelming in the scope of sessions available, but with their experience of big data analysis, the team was able to identify interesting sessions and connect with astronomers, exhibitors and program developers from across the country.

Any school trip taking students beyond the scope of southeastern Pennsylvania cannot limit itself to workshops and research. In pursuit of a well-rounded learning experience, opportunities to explore the community and culture must be explored. Students visited Seattle’s Pike Place Public Market, visited Seattle Center to overlook the region from the viewing platforms of the Seattle Space Needle, and marveled at the glass work of Chihuly Garden and Glass.

The Seattle trip and AAS241 was the culmination of a year of study that included students meeting weekly with Mrs. Bonham and connecting regularly with their cross-country student collaborators. The program was bookended initially by a summer trip to CalTech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where they met Dr. Varoujan Gorjian to learn of his hypothesis about circumstellar disks of M-Dwarf stars potentially enabling life-bearing planets. On that trip the team learned the data analysis strategies they would employ and returned home with their initial study assignments. Working together at Oley and connecting virtually with the larger collaboration team, the project became visible among Mrs. Bonham’s earth and space science students and has generated quite a bit of interest in continuing the study and developing similar opportunities for live science inquiry and data analysis.

In addition, the current study team will be sharing their work in planned presentations with the STEM Advisory team, school board meeting and the Lynx Expo on May 17, 2023, as well as the international ISTE Conference in Philadelphia in June. Partnership with Reading Public Museum and Neag Planetarium in an effort to further widen the outreach scope of the NITARP program is also sought.