Chelen Johnson
Hertzsprung-Russel diagram for Active Galactic Nuclei (HR4AGN): Using space and ground based ultraviolet, optical, and infrared images to find a correlation between the color and luminosity of gas emission and dust emission around supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies.
It was delight to watch the students explain the poster – usually followed by shock as the person listening noticed they were middle and high school students! Here is to the next generation – they are amazing.
I've been in the classroom for 35 years, and almost all science education, certainly through the high school level, is fact based and has nothing to do with how science is really done. The opportunity to actually participate in research from square one, where there's a question and no one knows how to answer it, but we're going to figure it out, was just so enticing.
I have to tell you what an amazing experience this year has been. The BEST subject-area professional development experience I've had in 25 years BY FAR.
