From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Fri Sep 26 2003 - 07:29:32 PDT
----- Original Message -----
From: cunews_at_cornell.edu
Sent: Friday, September 26, 2003 9:03 AM
To: CUNEWS-PHYSICAL_SCIENCE-L_at_cornell.edu; CUNEWS-SCIENCE-L_at_cornell.edu
Subject: Cornell News: Arecibo Observatory creates Hispanic educationprogram
Arecibo Observatory program takes aim at Hispanic audience by
promoting science and education in Puerto Rico
FOR RELEASE: Sept. 25, 2003
Contact: David Brand
Office: 607-255-3651
E-mail: deb27_at_cornell.edu
ARECIBO, P.R. -- The world's largest single-dish radio telescope at
Arecibo Observatory is focusing on a largely Spanish-speaking
audience by creating an OfÞce for the Public Understanding of Science
(OPUS). It will be headed by a native of Uruguay, Daniel Altschuler,
who is stepping down as director of the observatory, a post he has
held for the past 12 years.
"Being located in an environment populated by 4 million Hispanic U.S.
citizens places the Arecibo Observatory in a very special context,"
says Altschuler. The aim of OPUS, he says, is "to be a leader in the
efforts to improve the public understanding of science, in particular
in respect to the Hispanic community, which is underrepresented in
the Þelds of mathematics, science and engineering." OPUS will do this
through specific program proposals to the National Science
Foundation's (NSF) Office of Informal Education and other initiatives
Arecibo Observatory is part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere
Center, a national research center operated by Cornell University
under a cooperative agreement with the NSF.
The author of a recent popular book on astronomy, Children of the
Star (Cambridge University Press, 2002), Altschuler has long been an
advocate of education and public outreach, known as EPO, on Arecibo.
He was, for example, project leader for the construction in 1997 of
the Angel Ramos Foundation Visitor Center at the observatory. Since
then, more than 750,000 visitors, about one-third of school age, have
taken part in its educational program.
With the construction of an adjacent facility, the Learning Center,
completed in 2001, it became possible for the observatory to host
scientiÞc and technical workshops and to hold a series of residential
science-teacher workshops, which to date have attracted a total of
300 teachers from Puerto Rico public and private schools. This year
the NSF awarded a grant of nearly $600,000 to the Arecibo Observatory
and the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo to establish a
three-year program to provide Hispanic students on the island with
experience in conducting scientiÞc research. And every summer the
observatory hosts a 10-week student program for students and
teachers from Puerto Rico.
This is just a beginning, says Altschuler. "There has been a
frustrating lack of progress in the public's understanding of
science. Clearly, there is a need to review current efforts and to
seek new strategies to reach the general public. OPUS will strive to
Þnd ways to accomplish this."
Astronomy, he believes, is an ideal vehicle for an effective science
program. "Without doubt, it is of great popular appeal and one of the
few sciences (if not the only one) that have a great number of
amateur associations in most countries, with popular astronomy
magazines published in many of them. This is partly due to the fact
that astronomy can be pursued as a hobby with readily available
instrumentation, and a good deal of it is relatively easy to
understand. Because it is an ancient science, practiced in one form
or another by all societies, it is part of the cultural heritage of
many societies, independent of context and national boundaries. It is
not difÞcult to present many scientiÞc topics within an astronomical
framework, including the history of science and scientiÞc
methodology, while simultaneously addressing such pseudoscientiÞc
topics as astrology and alien visitations," he says.
Since 1979 Altschuler has been a professor of physics at the
University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras. From 1976 to 1978, he was
assistant professor in the Department of Natural Sciences at
Interamerican University of Puerto Rico at Aguadilla. He was a
visiting scientist at the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy,
Germany, from 1985 to 1987. He earned his bachelor's degree at Duke
University and his Ph.D. at Brandeis University.
Related World Wide Web sites: The following sites provide
additional information on this news release. Some might not be part
of the Cornell University community, and Cornell has no control over
their content or availability.
Arecibo Observatory: <http://www.naic.edu/>
-30-
The web version of this release may be found at
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Sept03/Arecibo.OPUS.deb.html
--
Cornell University News Service
Surge 3
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607-255-4206
cunews_at_cornell.edu
http://www.news.cornell.edu
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