Published: December 15, 2006
Mr. Blackwell's team are currently still awaiting final data products from the support scientists. They have completed reduction on one galaxy cluster of the three for which images were taken.
Mr. Blackwell has used the Spitzer project as a tool to teach to the points of multi-wavelength astronomy. The IR shows the dust and new star forming regions as well as those areas heated by young stars. His students are most interested in his experience as a teacher working with scientists. They are happy to see that scientists are "people too", with interesting and varied backgrounds. My students use the data in particular to study the specifics of IR astronomy on cosmological research. They are interested in the "age of things", the phenomena of red shift, and the idea that many things change over large amounts of time.
Mr. Blackwell has received funding for a summer secondary school conference in astronomy education. He will be using the Spitzer project and the TLRBSE project as major components of the meeting.