by William Balmer | Jul 28, 2023 | Career Navigation, Guides, Personal Experiences, Teaching
As graduate students in astronomy progress through their degree-granting programs, they evolve from students into teachers, mentees into collaborators, and occasionally from advisees into advisors. Taking on a younger student to advise them on a research project may seem difficult, stressful, or daunting, and that’s because it can be. But it can also be an incredibly enriching, exciting, and fun experience for you and your student. Advising students, to many, is one of the most rewarding aspects of doing research, but it’s one that many graduate students may not experience over the course of their Ph.D., in part because it can appear so intimidating.I won’t claim to be a great expert on the subject, but this summer I advised my first undergraduate researcher on a project, and my hope is that this Astrobite can serve as an encouragement to others who might be interested in taking on that kind of responsibility during their Ph.D.Your opportunity to advise a research student varies dramatically depending on your employing institution, research group, and funding situation. You might work in a large lab, where older graduate students are expected to supervise younger graduate students; you might be your advisor’s only student; you yourself might be funded through a teaching assistantship, a large grant, a fellowship, or a variety of these; your institution might have money set aside for PIs to take on undergraduate summer students. The point is, most student projects aside from undergraduate theses or unpaid internships require funding in order to compensate the researcher for their work, and often the source of this funding is beyond your capacity to influence.In my...
by Mark Dodici | Jul 14, 2023 | Daily Paper Summaries, Teaching
We feature Astrodigenous, an online collection of Indigenous Astronomy Knowledges from across Turtle Island.
by Briley Lewis | Jan 24, 2023 | Accessibility, Current Events, Personal Experiences, Teaching
How can you host a planetarium show for those who can’t see? Author Briley Lewis shares her experiences designing and offering a planetarium show featuring tactile astronomy and data sonifications!
by Astrobites | Dec 6, 2022 | Outreach, Teaching
In this next installment of our series focusing on outreach, we take a look at some University planetariums across the US doing stellar work!
by Astrobites | Nov 23, 2022 | Outreach, Teaching
Looking for new ways to do some outreach? Our outreach for astronomers series continues with info on Science Olympiad and UCLA’s Astronomy Live!
by Astrobites | Nov 16, 2022 | Guides, Outreach, Personal Experiences, Teaching
Are you an astronomer looking to do outreach? Today we’re highlighting two opportunities: Skype a Scientist, and University of Virginia’s Dark Skies Bright Kids!