November 28, 2000

Students The Cornerstone Of WKU Starbase Program

Bowling Green, Ky. - A refurbished telescope at the Bell Astrophysical Observatory gives Western Kentucky University astronomers not only a vision of the universe's most distant objects but a vision of Kentucky's educational future.

"What we need to do is interest students and educate students in science and technology," Dr. Charles McGruder, head of Western's Department of Physics and Astronomy, said at a dedication ceremony Monday at the observatory.

The 24-inch telescope, refurbished through $2 million in federal funding over two years secured by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, is a key part of a program called STARBASE (Students Training for Achievement in Research Based on Analytical Space-Science Experiences).

McConnell commended Western for "looking beyond the horizon" in seeking the funds for STARBASE and the telescope project.

"What we want to in STARBASE is to attract, to inspire and to train capable high school students toward careers in science, technology and education," Dr. McGruder said. "We're going to involve motivated high school students and college students in original research. They're going to become part of the team."

During Monday night's ceremony, four seniors from Franklin-Simpson High School and their teacher demonstrated the remote-operation capabilities of the refurbished telescope. From a computer in the Thompson Complex Central Wing, the students operated the telescope located 12 miles from campus in southwestern Warren County.

"Western Kentucky University is honored to be a major part of this worldwide network designed to assist in bringing science into our high schools in a significant way," Western President Gary Ransdell said in thanking McConnell for his role in helping secure the federal funding. "We are very serious about our scientific inquiry at Western. And because of your help we are able to make considerable progress at secondary and postsecondary level."

The STARBASE network will include remote, robotic telescopes at Western's observatory and at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. The program includes astronomers at Georgia State, Tennessee State and South Carolina State universities, the Planetary Science Institute in California and the University of California at Berkeley.

The two major projects involving the telescope will be the study of active galactic nuclei, which are powered by super blackholes, and the search for extrasolar planets, which revolve around other stars.

Students from Western and high schools across Kentucky will be actively involved in STARBASE. They will make observations, acquire data, analyze data and report their findings.

"We believe the future of science rests with young people, our young students," Dr. McGruder said. "We are going to involve students so intimately in research that actually students themselves will make the discoveries."

Last summer, two high school students participating in an astronomy workshop discovered an eclipsing binary, or two stars that orbit one another.
The cornerstone of STARBASE will be a network of precollege teachers and students, Dr. McGruder said. To help launch that network, Western will offer a weeklong workshop for Bowling Green area teachers next summer.

For information about the workshops, contact the Department of Physics and Astronomy at (270) 745-4357.