Guide to the Best Spanish Language Astronomy Education MaterialsDebuts at NOAO Web Site (Forwarded)

Public Affairs and Educational Outreach
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Tucson, Arizona

For More Information:

Douglas Isbell, Public Information Officer
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Phone: 520/318-8214
E-mail:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 5, 2004

RELEASE NO: NOAO 04-01

Guide to the Best Spanish Language Astronomy Education Materials Debuts
at NOAO Web Site

Where can you find the best advice on the most engaging
astronomy-related books and teaching materials in Spanish?

The staff of the educational outreach group at the National Optical
Astronomy Observatory often hears this question, given that NOAO is based
in Tucson, Arizona, a city with many Spanish-speaking residents located
only 100 kilometers from Mexico.

"We were surprised at how few resources were easily found when we did
some basic Web searching," says Dr. Stephen Pompea, manager of science
education at NOAO. "With assistance from the National Science Foundation,
we set out to remedy this situation."

NOAO received a small supplemental grant from the NSF astronomy division
in late summer 2002 to pursue a solution. The resulting NOAO Spanish
Language Astronomy Materials Education Center site on the Web has been
operational in a beta-test mode for several months, and it is being
formally unveiled this week in parallel with the 203rd meeting of the
American Astronomical Society.

The NOAO team is creating an expanding library of reviewed materials and
a Web-based catalog of generally available Spanish-language astronomy
materials for all grade levels. Published in both English and Spanish,
these evolving Web pages are meant to provide a user-friendly way to find
grade level-appropriate astronomy education materials.

Day-to-day work on the project has been done by Maria de los Angeles Pena
Guerrero and Jessie Aceituno, undergraduate astronomy majors at the
University of Arizona; Glenn Furnier, a science teacher at Tucson High
School; and NOAO Web Designer Mark Newhouse.

To date, the team has reviewed more than 200 Spanish language science
books, ranging from pre-school to college level textbooks. These
bilingual reviews are gradually being put on-line in a searchable
database. "Our main aim was to find first-rate astronomy materials in
Spanish, but along the way we found plenty of physics, chemistry, optics,
and earth science educational materials too," Pompea says.

"In the next stage of the project, we will work to make our favorite
books and best materials easily available through some on-line bookstores
so teachers can purchase the best resources efficiently," Pompea adds.
"We also plan to explore donations of hardcopy materials to local schools
and libraries, where they would be available for check-out."

The NOAO team also welcomes suggestions from other astronomy
organizations with experience in Spanish language outreach for materials
or publications to be reviewed.

For more information, see
http://www.astronomyinspanish.org
and
http://www.astronomiaenespanol.org

Some further details can be found via a poster at the NOAO exhibit booth
or by an interview with Dr. Pompea during the AAS meeting.

The National Optical Astronomy Observatory is operated by the Association
of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc., under a
cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.