Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 1

PIERRE AUGER OBSERVATORY

Education

and

Outreach

Malargüe, November 15, 2006

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 2

Outline

• auger_outreach@fnal.gov• Public talk last night• Outreach position at Lamar Community College• Visitor center and visitor statistics• Auger web page• Monday’s outreach parallel session• Tomorrow’s parade – be there!

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 3

Reminder

For news and information related to the Auger Education/Outreach Task subscribe to the auger_outreach@fnal.gov mailing list

1. Send an e-mail message to listserv@fnal.gov2. Leave the subject line blank3. Type "SUBSCRIBE AUGER_OUTREACH FIRSTNAME LASTNAME" (without the quotation marks) in the body of your message

39 people on the list to date

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 4

Congratulations to Beatriz García and Cristina Raschia for special

mention for Best Educational Videoin the 2nd Scientific Cinema Festival

sponsored by the Secretary ofScience and Technology in

Argentina

Film title “Messengers from Space”aimed at students 6 – 11 years old

Los Andes article on web, 7 November 2006

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 5

Public talk last night

Hans Blümer gave an excellent talk in English last night

125 people in attendance, students studying EnglishMiddle school and secondary school age

Advertised locally by English teacher Mariela Milicevic

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 6

Lots of questions asked at the end

Examples

“Does the Observatory affect the environment?”

“Who is James Cronin?”

“Do cosmic rays affect the earth?”

“What happens when something goes wrong at the Observatory?”

“Why do YOU want to study cosmic rays?”

“Who put the money for the project?”

“Have you had any results yet?”

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 7

Teacher training workshop tonight

Rebeca López (Mexico) will present another of her hands-ontraining and discovery workshops for 15 Malargüe scienceteachers tonight

Time: 19:30Location: “Old” James Cronin SchoolTopic: Optics experiments using simple materials

Photos from previous workshops

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 8

Auger Outreach Coordinator/Instructor Positionat Lamar Community College

Lamar, Colorado

Position funded for one year by the Colorado Community College System

The search has converged !!

Search Committee: Anne-Marie Crampton (LCC Public Relations, chair),Dan Minor (LCC Dean), David Northrup (LCC Physics teacher), Chris Rundell (Land owner), Greg Snow (Auger outreach task leader)

Our top candidate, Bradley Thompson, has accepted the position and willstart in January 2007

Bradley Thompson:• Has a Masters Degree in Physics and grad student research experience in gamma ray astronomy• Has taught physics, math, computer science, web page design at international high schools in many countries for several years• Is personable, enthusiastic, excellent public speaker

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 9

Our Challenge

• Keep Brad’s “job jar” full and stay in touch with him• We envision weekly phone or video meetings with Brad, myself, Auger collaborators in Colorado, others

Some Initial Tasks

• Lots of reading and self-education on UHECR’s and Auger• Start to formulate northern site outreach plan and proposal• Position and signage for SD tank at LCC• Establish temporary Visitor Center at LCC and fill it, advertise it• Schedule a series of presentations at schools, civic groups• Auger North outreach web page and other web contributions• …

• Funds available for equipment, supplies, travel• You will meet Brad at the April collaboration meeting

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 10

MES AÑO 2001 AÑO 2002 AÑO 2003 AÑO 2004 AÑO 2005 AÑO 2006

ENERO 0 126 751 1350 1240 786

FEBRERO 0 255 577 657 655 632

MARZO 0 471 160 121 366 239

ABRIL 0 50 422 725 302 335

MAYO 0 96 266 294 180 360

JUNIO 0 147 112 257 246 137

JULIO 0 219 518 609 577 935

AGOSTO 0 70 267 123 923 402

SEPTIEMBRE 0 124 558 677 480 570

OCTUBRE 0 320 990 735 537 883

NOVIEMBRE 336 271 580 554 244 390

DICIEMBRE 0 193 117 342 113  

TOTAL 336 2342 5318 6444 5863 5669

TOTAL GENERAL DE VISITANTES 25972

Visitor Center StatisticsVisitor Center Statistics

Many thanks to Analía Cáceres We have surpassed 25Kvisitors !

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 11

336

2342

5863

5669

6444

5318

AÑO 2001 AÑO 2002 AÑO 2003 AÑO 2004 AÑO 2005 AÑO 2006

Visitor Center StatisticsVisitor Center Statistics

Total: 25,972 visitorsthrough 14 November 2006

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 12

BUENOS AIRES CATAMARCA CHACO CHUBUT

CORDOBA CORRIENTES ENTRE RIOS FORMOSA

J UJ UY LA PAMPA LA RIOJ A MENDOZA

MISIONES NEUQUÉN RIO NEGRO SALTA

SAN J UAN SAN LUIS SANTA CRUZ SANTA FÉ

SANTIAGO DEL E STERO TIERRA DEL FUEGO TUCUMÁN

Mendoza

Buenos Aires

Santa Fé

Visitors from ArgentinaVisitors from Argentina

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 13

ALEMANIA AUSTRALIA AUSTRIA BELGICA BOLIVIA

BRASIL CANADA CHILE COLOMBIA ESCOCIA

E.E.U.U ESLOVENIA ESPAÑA FRANCIA GRAN BRETAÑA

GUATEMALA HOLANDA HUNGRIA INGLATERRA IRLANDA

ISRAEL ITALIA J APÓN LIBANO MEXICO

NORUEGA PUERTO RICO PERU PARAGUAY REP. DOMINICANA

REP. CHECA SUDAFRICA SUIZA TAIWAN TAYLANDA

UCRANIA URUGUAY VENEZUELA VIETNAM

Visitors from different countries

Chile

AlemaniaUruguay

Brasil

USA

Canadá

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 14

Visitor Center Review

• We are in the process of revitalizing the Visitor Center experience

• Yesterday, review of VC presentations by Analía Cáceres chaired by Angela Olinto

• Review committee will submit report with suggestions for updating and improving presentations

• We are collecting a “wish-list” of new and improved displays for the Visitor Center – commercial cloud chamber, for example

• Please submit your ideas or contributions to auger_outreach@fnal.gov

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 15

Fermilab has contracted with Xeno Media (Kevin Munday et al.) to make improvements to public Auger web site. Hank Glass is Auger contact for this work.

– Xeno Media has done web sites for Fermilab’s main page (www.fnal.gov), Interactions.org, Symmetry magazine– They also did the interim improvements at the time of the November 2005 Celebration – Plan to include new cosmic ray simulations by group at

University of Chicago (Randy Landsberg et al.) – More ideas are welcome!– Time frame to make this happen is by end of year

– We will be asking for collaboration feedback on newelements

Improvements to the Auger home page underway

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 16

Draft design for new www.auger.org home page

Seenextslide

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 17

Release of Auger datato students, teachers, general public

• Kindly consider carefully the proposal by X. Bertou at tomorrow’s CB meeting

• Release of 1% of Auger data for educational purposes

• Strongly supported by the Education/Outreach task

• The customer base: a large audience of students and science teachers exists that can benefit from access to real Auger events if accompanied by user-friendly educational exercises

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 18

Outreach parallel session during this meeting

• We had a productive outreach planning and brainstorming session Monday afternoon

• 25 people in attendance

• We request to allot a parallel time slot for outreach discussions at each collaboration meeting

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 19

Ideas emerging in parallel sessionand subsequent discussions

• New Auger poster competition

• November 2007 2nd Science Fair in Assembly Building

• Extend outreach to ALL Malargüe Department schools (42 total primary through secondary schools)

• Distribute an “Auger Gazette” each month or quarter to schools, hotels, Office of Tourism, etc., with Observatory news

• Have brochures available/given out at the El Sosneado agriculture stop – many travelers see the tanks along the road and don’t know what they are

DiscussedTuesdaywithVerónicaBunsters

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 20

Cosmic Ray Observatory Project (CROP) in Nebraska

Incorporate the many worldwide high school cosmic ray effortsinto a “Greater Auger Observatory”

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 21

Auger collaborators participatingin Malargüe Day parade – a tradition !!

2000

2003

2004

2005

Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargüe, November 2006.Education and Outreach – G. Snow 22

Reminder: this year’s Malargüe Day Parade isTomorrow: Thursday, November 16, 2006

• Assemble at the clock at 12:30 sharp

• Look for Auger banner

• We are group number 80 in the parade order, behind all the schools and before the various clubs

• Our presence in this event is important and expected by the Municipality

• First time attendees – participation required