Bringing Gamma-ray astronomy to the classroom

Gamma-ray astronomy is the newest branch of astronomy, and the field has grown rapidly over the last decade. It deals with the most extreme objects in our universe, e.g. black holes and other remnants of supernova explosion. Due to their ubiquity in popular science, they make for a good 'hook' to engage high-school students. However, gamma-ray astronomy and related fields like cosmic-ray astrophysics are not usually taught in a high-school setting, and many teachers may not be familiar with them. The ground-based gamma-ray astronomy group at Michigan Tech has started a program to remedy this.

Teachers will stay on the MTU campus in summer and work with local researchers to learn about the HAWC gamma-ray observatory and its current research goals and challenges. The program goal is a library of prepared activities/lesson plans, including data collected by the HAWC observatory, and a network of interested teachers. Their students will then be able to engage with current research topics and challenges in gamma-ray astronomy and related fields. We will present some of the results of the first phase (the teacher's experience, new lesson plans and activities developed over the first summer) and an outlook towards future plans for the program.