Celebrating 12 Years of Journey Through the Universe (and Counting!)

March 22, 2016

During the week of March 7-11, 83 observatory professionals consisting of astronomers, engineers, astronomy educators, and other observatory staff brought their passion for science into hundreds of local Hawai'i Island classrooms as a part of Gemini Observatoryʻs flagship annual outreach program, Journey Through the Universe (aka Journey). Thanks to combined efforts, we were able to reach about 7980 students in both the Hilo-Waiākea district (7250 students) and Honoka‘a Schools (730 students with coordination by the Canada-France-Hawai‘i Telescope), and several hundred more in various community events, for a total reach of over 8550 students, families, and community members.

"STEM initiatives like the Journey program are crucial to developing studentsʻ knowledge and interest about the universe," said Brad Bennett, the Hawai‘i Department of Education (DOE) Hilo-Waiākea complex area superintendent. "We are proud of the partnership that has been established with our scientific community and look forward to working together in the future to see how we can leverage the current program into one that engages our students throughout the school year."

Now in its 12th year in local schools, Journey Through the Universe week is a robust collaboration with the Department of Education Hilo-Waiākea Complex, Hawai‘i Island business community, Maunakea Observatories and NASA.

A new addition to this yearʻs program was a "stellar tour" of Gemini Observatoryʻs StarLab portable planetarium to all area K-1 classrooms. In the planetarium, students explore the Solar System, constellations, and Hawaiian navigational star lines and legends. 1450 students visited the starlab from 49 classrooms.

To prepare the observatory staff for classroom visits, a Science Communications workshop was planned at the Imiloa astronomy Center, led by world-renowned science educator Dr. Dennis Schatz. The workshop focused on how to most effectively share science with students.

Other Journey events during the week included:

An opening ("Thank You") ceremony at the Hilo Yacht Club organized by the Hawai‘i Island Chamber of Commerce and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry;
Public talk and observations of the partial solar eclipse visible at sunset in Hawai‘i on March 8;
A talk from NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Instituteʻs (SSERVI) Brian Day;
A Career Panel of observatory professionals was held for three sessions at Waiākea High School;
Building Galileoscopes with the National Optical Astronomy Observatoryʻs (NOAO) Robert Sparks and Peter Michaud of Gemini Observatory.

"My vision for this program is to inspire local students to aim for the stars," said Janice Harvey from Geminiʻs Public Information and Outreach (PIO) department, who is also Journeyʻs programʻs coordinator. "This is a grassroots program that Iʻm very passionate about, because it gives Hawai‘i students the chance to explore STEM careers as a viable choice for their future."