Director Of Free Choice Learning
CurrentChanging the world one eyepiece at a time, my goal is to bring the awe and joy of astronomical discovery to anyone with an interest in learning more about space. I currently manage a variety of programs at the ASP that do just that. NASA Partner Eclipse Ambassadors pairs college students with eclipse enthusiasts to prepare communities off the central path of the 2024 eclipse. As PI on this project, I lead a fabulous team of educators and enthusiasts across the US. The NASA Night Sky Network is a nationwide program for amateur astronomers offering public engagement to their communities. I create interactive astronomy activities and research effective outreach practices in informal education settings. Big Astronomy: People, Places, and Discoveries is an NSF-funded collaborative project bringing the wonders of Chilean telescopes to planetarium visitors and finding a place for everyone in astronomy discoveries. As a Co-I, I created a Toolkit of virtual and hands-on activities for informal educators. As a Co-I on the Reaching for the Stars collaborative NASA grant, I helped create new Girl Scout Space Science badges, released in 2018 and 2019. The Confidence and Curiosity workshop brings the science of equitable engagement to informal educators, covering topics such as growth mindset, bias, and storytelling. Previous research projects include working with preschool children's understanding of astronomy and how to give museums tools to encourage their astronomy curiosity through the My Sky Tonight NSF research project.
