Stephen Broderick
Taking pulsars to the people
Data from CSIRO telescopes is being brought into the classroom to help kids learn maths and science.
- 18 April 2011 | Updated 14 October 2011
In late 2010 Mr Stephen Broderick, a teacher at St Ursula's College in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, became the first winner of a teachers' scholarship for CSIRO's PULSE@Parkes education program.
In March 2011 he spent a week working with program staff in Sydney to start developing education modules that use CSIRO astronomical data.
Mr Broderick beat a strong field of applicants to win the program's first teachers' scholarship, which provides travel costs, accommodation and an award of A$3000.
'I'm passionate about astronomy and mathematics, and this program is the perfect opportunity to combine these two disciplines', Mr Broderick said.
'I'd like to engage students in scientific projects that will give them a positive attitude towards science and mathematics, and appreciation of how maths is applied in the real world.'
PULSE@Parkes allows students to directly control Parkes radio telescope over the Internet and use it to do real science. It is the only program of its kind in the world.
Almost 600 students have been through the program, which has been run from as far afield as Wales and the Netherlands.
An extension to the program will make it possible for anyone to analyse pulsar data on the web to calculate the ages and distances to pulsars, to view the Parkes telescope via webcam, and to see data collected in real time.
Mr Broderick won the scholarship largely because of his experience in using real scientific data in classroom programs, said PULSE@Parkes coordinator, Robert Hollow.
'PULSE@Parkes is laying the ground for similar outreach programs CSIRO will run with the new ASKAP (Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder) radio telescope CSIRO is building in Western Australia', Robert said.
'Ultimately we expect to create education programs for the giant international Square Kilometre Array telescope, which will start construction this decade.'
Read more about PULSE@Parkes [external link].
