Outreach

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Chelsea Sharon pointing at an image of a galaxy in a darkened planetarium.

Giving a planetarium show at the WJ McCallion Planetarium at McMaster University.

Educating the public about new results in astronomy is one of the funnest parts about being a scientist! In my outreach activities, I incorporate the same active learning techniques that mirror the scientific method used in my teaching. In this  way the audience not only begins to understand the content, but learns to appreciate the process of scientific research. I am particularly passionate about outreach to kids from groups historically underrepresented in science so that they can learn about careers in astronomy, physics, and science more broadly.

Small lego orrery with light bulb as a faux star

An orrery made with Legos used to simulate exoplanet transits as part of the Expanding Your Horizons day camp.

I have developed and participated in a number of of public outreach activities, and was competitively selected by the American Astronomical Society to be trained in outreach best practices as an Astronomy Ambassador. For example, I designed an Expanding Your Horizons workshop for middle school girls on detecting exoplanets; in this workshop, students made their own “mini-Keplers” using littleBits snap together electronic components which they used to observe a mock orbiting planetary system (made from Lego Mindstorms), and then analyzed their light curves using Excel to calculate various parameters of the “planets”.

Yale-NUS has recently acquired a portable planetarium! Reach out to Prof. Sharon for more information!

Events

Panorama of people watching the eclipse on the central Yale-NUS campus.

People watching the 2019 annular eclipse at Yale-NUS.

  • Speaker, Saga Conversation on the US Astronomy Decadal Survey, Yale-NUS, November 2021.
  • Organizer, Eclipse viewing for the Yale-NUS community, Yale-NUS, December 2019.
  • Speaker, Singapore Science Social, Yale-NUS, November 2019.
  • Interview, Up All Nigh with Rhod Sharp, BBC 5 Radio, June 2019.
  • Speaker, Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places debut, Science Centre Singapore, September 2018.
  • Planetarium Show Host/Designer, W. J. McCallion Planetarium at McMaster University, 2017.
  • Volunteer for Girls in Science day camp for grade 10 girls, April 2017, 2018.
  • Volunteer for 4-H Focus for Teens Astronomy Camp, July 2014, 2015, 2016.
  • Workshop Leader/Designer for Expanding Your Horizons science day camp for middle school girls, April 2015, 2016.
  • Invited Speaker, Rutgers Friends of Astronomy, October 2015.
  • Speaker, Career Connections elementary school class, March 2015.
  • Volunteer for Museum in the Dark youth outreach event, October 2013, 2014.
  • Speaker for Cornell’s Friends of Astronomy event, August 2014.
  • Speaker and assistant organizer for public viewings of the new Cosmos series with expert commentary, Spring 2014.
  • Volunteer for a public demonstration Showtime! at the Ithaca Science Center, April 2014.
  • Speaker for Nerd Nite Ithaca, October 2013.
  • Assistant during special events for private groups observing with the Robert A. Schommer Astronomical Observatory at Rutgers, Summer 2009-Spring 2013.
  • Co-organizer for Rutgerscience Saturday: Astronomy, a 4-H youth program, April 2012.
  • Volunteer judge at the North Jersey Regional Science Fair, March 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012.