THE GSTAR PROGRAM: DEVELOPING AN ASTRONOMY LEARNING MODULE THROUGH RESEARCH IMMERSION

The Galaxy Science Through Astronomy Role-modeling (GSTAR) program is an EPO project supported by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and implemented by researchers at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the University of Virginia.  It uses original HST data to enable research immersion for five high school students at the Math, Engineering, and Science Academy (MESA) at Albemarle High School in central Virginia.  In the program, the students work with graduate student mentors at the University of Virginia in order to conduct original research on star formation in the local galaxy NGC 1097.  A secondary, but critical component is the immersion of an educator at MESA in the culture of astronomical research.  Based on the students' research results and the feedback they provide, the graduate mentors collaborate with the educator to develop a 2-3 hour astronomy learning module to be implemented first at MESA, and then shared with other educators. The module, including scientist-teacher planning and preparation, implementation, and evaluation will be documented via text and video tutorial, making adoption by other educators more easily accessible. We present highlights of the research collaboration, knowledge transfer from student feedback to module development, and module implementation. The module will be modified to target middle school students as well.  MESA students Catie Grebe, David Hatter, Doyeop Kim, Julianne Swope, and Brendan Ventura participated in this program.