LodeStar Benefits:
LodeStar Objective:
LodeStar History:
LodeStar Laboratories:
LodeStar Tower:
LodeStar Pictures:

LODESTAR'S BENEFITS:

• Lodestar is a scientific initiative designed to place astronomy at the fingertips of the public and New Mexico's students. An initiative that aims to reach the broadest populance of the state, Lodestar consists of a consortium of agencies from a wide range of educational and scientific areas. This consortium, which will expand in the future, currently includes three educational institutions (UNM, New Mexico Insitute of Mining and Technology, and the Albuquerque Public Schools); and three national laboratories ( Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratories, and the U.S. Air Force Phillips Laboratory ). Working together these agencies have secured matching funds, principally from the state and the city, and have won a national competition to create a $30 million project beneficial to all New Mexicans. This project appeals to the generality of astronomy, and rewards and educates students statewide in the sciences, mathematics and engineering.

LodeStar provides many significant and unique features:

• A new hands-on science center in Albuquerque, a minority majority city in a nearly minority-majority state.

• A new public-access observatory site incorporating state-of-the-art, and a remotely-controllable 28-inch telecope for student use.

• A new astronomy center located in Socorro incoporating a 30-inch remotely-operable telescope for student use and a control room for operating and receiving data from all Lodestar instruments.

• An integrated electronic communication system based upon proven UNM instructional television technology and SNL'S robotics and command and control software, enabling distance learning, data transfer and remote operation of facilities.

• Participation of more than 88,000 elementary and secondary students drawn from Albuquerque Public Schools, the 26th largest school district in the nation.

• Participation in the statewide school system via electronic communication.

• An integral success tracking mechanism.

• Teacher training by two research universities, two national laboratories and a public school district.

• Cross-culture programs merging cutting edge astronomy with the centuries-old traditional astronomy of New Mexico's native people.

• Public access research facilities built by world leaders in innovative optical technologies.

• A highly leveraged, cost-effective investment with a long term future.

LODESTAR OBJECTIVE:

• LodeStar aims to educate and enchant. First, our state elementary, secondary, and post-secondary level students, with elementary schools student representing the primary target, will have the unique opportunity to learn about science throuh a variety of programs and educational sites. Second, the people of New Mexico become beneficiaries of both long-term educational initiatives and the programs and facilities at Enchanted Skies Park ( ESP ). Third, tourists to New Mexico will benefit from ESP as well, returning inkind tourist dollars which will help fund the overall operation. Additionally, the amateur astronomy community, in particular the Albuquerque Astronomical Society, will use LodeStar facilities support both educational and outreach efforts and for their own projects.

  TEACHER TRAINING

• Using astronomy as a launching pad, LodeStar will teach curricula in the natural sciences. It will support trained teachers with curriculum development, resource materials, supplementary in-class teaching via electronic communications and personal visits, and educational venues for field experiences. LodeStar will also provide a long term reward mechanism in the form of site visits and special programs, including programs tailored for individual students. Finally, it will provide professional advancement and summer research activities for teachers.

• All active teachers participate to some degree in ongoing professional training. LodeStar will train teachers in astronomy and other closely related natural sciences, especially physics. We will require that teachers in our program work toward mastery of scientific materials and techniques which they can present in their classroom. In particular, we will stress the use of student hands-on activities and demonstrations to better reinforce physics principles. This will include training teachers in observing techniques with the telescopes at Enchanted Skies Park and Cibola Site, so that they and their students can undertake observing projects of their own.

• At the national laboratories, LodeStar will work with existing programs to maximize their effectiveness and outreach. At New Mexico Tech, a course in astronomical observing will be added to the Master Science Teaching program. In-service teacher training at the University of New Mexico (UNM) will center on LodeStar hosted and staffed workshops. Two workshop will be held each year, lasting for two weeks and accommodating 20 teachers. Each participant will be required to have at least one night of dark sky experience at Enchanted Skies Park.

• Teachers successfully completing the workshop will be eligible to use LodeStar 30-inch and 28-inch telescopes for classroom instruction and research projects. Trained workshop instructors will come from LodeStar agencies.

  STUDENT AND PUBLIC PROGRAMMING

• A common Anasazi petroglyph depicts the hump-backed flute player, Kokopelli, a symbol of productivity. LodeStar will form a society of educators, the Kokopelli Society, dedicated to ensuring the project's long-term productivity. The society will consist of a pool of mentors derived from the consortium agencies, providing at least two volunteer mentors for one or more students at some stage in their educational careers.

• The LodeStar Science Center, to be located in Albuquerque, will principally target students in public school grades K-6, with the goal of ensuring that early experiences in science and mathematics are positive. LodeStar Science Center will routinely host visits by elementary school children. The children will be met by staff who will conduct tours that either introduce or substantiate the teacher's curriclum. The hands-on exhibits will be based in a large part on the San Franciso Exploratorium philosophy of maximum interaction, with participants learning by doing and experimentation, guided by a minimum of written, visual, audio instruction and explanations. Using astronomy as the hub discipline, exhibit areas will expand naturally out to exhibits in physics and other natural sciences, mathematics and technology. The fundamental topics will be threaded together by the subject of astronomy.

LODESTAR HISTORY:

• In New Mexico astronomy has been part of the history of our area and our forbearers for millennia. A thousand years ago, the Chacoan cultures were superb observers of the sky and built the most precise astronomical measurment instrument in North America to predict times and seasons. Today astronomy is a significant factor in the agenda and economy of our state.

LODESTAR LABORATORIES:

• Both Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories and Phillips Laboratory have agreed to join the project and aid in the establishment of LodeStar. All three agencies look to LodeStar to bring interestsd students to their existing educational and outreach programs, and will coordinate programs.

• The national laboratories in New Mexico, and probably nationwide, have many programs for education and teacher training. A significant problem with respect to these programs is their lack of connection. Thus, a student might participate in the Sandia Sciad visiting scientist program for elementary sudents, but, though capable, might never hear of the Mancos programs, an after-school science programs for middle school students. That same student might benefit from participation in the Los Alamos SEED program, a summer science program for the economically disadvantaged, or during high school, form participation in the Phillips Laboratory High School Apprenticeship Program. A primary goal of LodeStar is to coordinate and consolidate effort amongest existing national laboratory programs, providing a mechanism by which interested, qualified students can utilized these programs to forge a career based upon solid education.

• Another goal of LodeStar is to stimulate the interest of students to participate in the programs of national laboratories. Additionally, the national laboratory participants in LodeStar have commited to designing and constructing both hands-on activities and passive explanatory displays which will circulate among the three LodeStar sites as well as school and colleges state-wide.

LODESTAR TOWERS:

• The project will incorporate three sites. The first will be integrated with and support the Science Center being developed in Albuquerque. This hands-on science center will represent all the natural sciences with astronomy as the unifying theme. The science center will provide easy access for all schools in Albuquerque and the surrounding area. It will, as well, provide the locale from which trips originate to our dark skies site, Enchanted Skies Park ( ESP ).

• LodeStar's Albuquerque site will provide the preliminary education that will make a dark sky experience more meaningful. High bandwith communications links will provide real-time access to data and telescopes at the remote site. The communications center at Albuquerque will be used to produced astronomically oriented materials and programs for distribution state and nation-wide. A subset of materials will be used by teachers in schools and professional working in the education and outreach programs of the national laboratories. The organizational and administrative functions of LodeStar will be localized at this center.

• Our second ( Summit ) site, ESP, will be the first park dedicated to looking up. Located on mesa top near Grants, a reception center at the mesa's base will welcome students, organized at LodeStar's Albuquerque location will also cycle through this center, with emphasis on special events and the park itself. A main component of the center will be Native American astronomy and its fascinating links to archaeoastronomy.

• The summit site will feature two distinct areas, both accessible to the public, one emphasizing education and outreach, the other research. A technical center will provide a lecture hall, workshops, a communication room, storage, and a warm room for nighttime visitors. A short distance from the tech center will be the visitor viewing area, with pier-mounted telescope ranging from 8- to 14- inch primary mirror diameters. An outdoor amphitheater and fire pit for outdoor programs will be nearby. A 28-inch telescope can be used either for direct viewing, local observing with a chargecouple device ( CCD ) camera, or in a totally automated manner from any of the three sites. For scheduled observing, this telescope can be operated from any school in the state. All participants in our teacher training workshop will have at least one night of experience at this site, both to acquaint them with the resource, but more importantly, to get them to recognize the clear, dark night sky a natural resource of the state.

• Of course, the real purposes of this site are to get people out under a dark sky to experience for themselves the beauty of the night, and to involve them in research so that they understand what is being attempted, how instruments operate, and what research really is. In addition, with our national laboratory partners, this segement of the site will be a showcase for state-of-the-art technologies, many of which are developed in New Mexico.

• LodeStar's third site is located in Soccoro at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology ( NM Tech ). This site completes a triangle with the other two sites. It is also called the Cibola site and will also have displays and activites that originate in Albuquerque. Our Cibola site will provide direct access to LodeStar activities for a significant fraction of New Mexico.

• The principal functions of the Enchanted Skies Park will be duplicated here. Visitors will be able to operate a 30-inch telescope atop 3200 meter high South Baldy Mountain. The ESP telescope will be controllable from the Cibola site, and data from other research telescope will be transmitted their in real time. There will also be a lecture hall for educational and outreach functions. A major portion of LodeStar's teacher training will take place here as well.

Group photo of LodeStar workers of New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology



LodeStar workers from left to right:

• Howard Beckley - student
• Barry Winters - student
• Bruce Nemetz - student
• Dave Westpfahl - faculty
• Dale Neimeier - student
• Paul Coleman - faculty

_______________________________________________________________________

TOWER

Regular maintenance of a 60ft tower at Horace Mesa near Grants New Mexico.

TOWER 2

A 60ft tower being erected by hand at a remote site on Horace Mesa near Grants New Mexico.

top of page

We would appreciate receiving your comments

dwestpfa@kestrel.nmt.edu