Chelen Johnson
The goal of SHIPs (Searching Herschel Images for Protostars) is to find and identify stars in the earliest phases of formation in NGC 281, a.k.a. "the pac-man nebula". These stars will help us understand the history of the star formation process in that region.
Thanks for this amazing opportunity and it has been especially rewarding sharing the experience with my daughter!
I hope other teachers get to keep experiencing this program forever, because this is the single greatest professional development opportunity I have ever experienced, and I'm a junkie. I was a master teacher for a nationwide pre college and engineering program for 18 years. I've run non profits for 20 years. This is the best PD experience for teachers I've ever experienced, because it is authentic from beginning to end.
It was very special to be in the room when the announcement of planet Kepler 10b (an estimated 1.4 X the size of the Earth) was discovered. I turned to my student Inga and asked, "How does it feel to be one of the first people on planet Earth to know about this discovery?" She replied, "I never thought of it like that ... it's pretty cool."
