SARA Member on Morocco Science Tour

Stanford’s Deborah Scherrer (who is also a SARA member) was one of 10 NASA scientists who toured Morocco for 2 weeks, giving all day science workshop events to middle school Moroccan children. The tour was done under the auspices of the United Nations (International Space Weather Initiative) and authorized by the King of Morocco. Funding for the trip came from Grove of Hope, a non-profit formed by several NASA/JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) scientists. Organizer was Kamal Oudrhiri of JPL. Here is her report on that trip.

Tour participants included (left to right) Cherilynn Morrow (Georgia State), Mike Wilson (JPL), Monique Chyba (U of Hawaii), Deborah Scherrer (Stanford U.), Pat Reif (Rice U.), Ryan Smith (USC), Ian Riddel, Art Hammond (JPL), Rin Scherrer (U of Washington), Chris Miko (JPL), Tanya Silva (JPL), John Smith (JPL), and Linda Rodgers (JPL, not shown). Organizers were Kamal Oudrhiri and Marisa Cleghorn (not shown)

Our goal was to inspire, enthuse, and excite Moroccan middle school students about science and to give them a chance to meet and talk with real scientists. These students are keenly aware that Morocco’s role in the modern world is dependent upon their successes in science and technology. We hosted 6 events in 3 cities -- Casablanca, Rabat (the capital), and Tangier -- about 1200 kids per day for a total of 7000 students and 1000 teachers!
Each event provided 4 stations through which the students rotated. Stations included Discovery Dome planetariums, telescope viewing, robots, rockets, a space theatre, kinesthetic astronomy, and an assortment of other hands-on activities. Scherrer provided activities and materials relating to:

*Telescope viewing of the Sun in h-alpha and daylight moon viewing with a visible light scope
*A scale model of the solar system based on an 8’ balloon, including sunspots painted on by Stanford sunspot researcher Irina Kitiashvili
*Experiments with ultraviolet-light-sensitive (UV beads).
A sample of imagery follows. More photos and information available at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=135288&id=529861692&l=a596127a7f

Students view the Moon through an optical telescope...

...and Sun through an h-alpha telescope. The optical scope was used in the afternoons after the Sun set behind city buildings (and when it was too cloudy to see the Sun). High school volunteer translator helps with optical scope. Scherrer handled the h-alpha, with translation help from a local teacher.