The Pleiades Project
[Note: The Pleiades Project is no longer available. The information below is available for those who may wish to use it with their students or other groups.]

A Graduate Student Operated
Astronomy Outreach Project Targeting Young Women

The Pleiades Project is a project created and maintained by female graduate students in the Department of Physics at North Carolina State University who want to encourage young women to visualize themselves in careers in science. This service project is funded by a NASA IDEAS grant. The project includes

1. hands-on learning activities for Girl Scouts to help them earn science-related badges, and

2. training for Girl Scout leaders to aid them in carrying out hands-on science learning activities.

The program targets "outreach troops" from economically disadvantaged neighborhoods in the Wake County area. The Pleiades project is facilitated through the Physics Department at NC State and The Science House, in cooperation with the Pines of Carolina Council of the Girl Scouts of America.

Goals of the Project

1. to increase the awareness of young women in the Research Triangle area of astronomy as a lively, hands-on science and
   
   
2. to develop the teaching potential of science graduate students as explainers, teachers, and facilitators of science for the public.

Activities for Girl Scouts

We have developed four groups of activities. We will implement these activities according to the groups' interests, experience, and ages.

1. Learning to use a telescope to explore the heavens. The girls will learn about telescopes including: parts of the telescope, how a telescope works, how to use the telescope. The girls will use NCSU's eight inch reflectors to observe planets such as Jupiter and Saturn, binary stars, and galaxies. They will make scientific sketches and practice recording their observations.
   
   
2. Making and using a star and planet locator. Younger girls will make a star and planet locator out of construction paper to take home and learn how to use it to find which stars and constellations are visible any night of the year.
   
   Older girls will get a Edmund Scientific Star and Planet locator to take home. They will learn to locate stars, planets, deep sky objects, and the sun. In the process, we will talk about the myths of astrology and scientific flaws in sun-sign horoscopes. We will identify stars and constellations and recount the stories of the constellations from many cultures including traditional Greek and native American cultures.
   
   
3. Learning the calendar of the sky -- Graphic Ephemeris/ Sky and Telescopes' Skygazer's Almanac. Girls will receive a Skygazer's Almanac which details all the astronomical events of the year -- including eclipses, meteor showers, and visibility of the planets. They will learn about the length of the day and the night, the equinoxes and solstices, and how to plan an observation of of hard-to-catch astronomical events, as well as finding out what will be visible on any given night.
   
   
4. Exploring starlight with spectrum tubes and diffraction gratings. Using a hand-held diffraction grating, we explore all the information in the light that comes to us from stars. We look at the difference between continuum and emission spectrum and sketch emission from hydrogen, helium, neon, and mercury. We will make a map of familiar objects that emit in each wavelength.
   

Each activity session will conclude with a discussion of the future for women in the sciences, the stereotypes of scientists and of women in the sciences, and different science careers for women. The girls will be introduced to the specific interests of the graduate students (physics, astronomy, and math) coordinating the program.

Training for Adult Girl Scout Leaders

To increase the dissemination of this project we will also conduct two training sessions for Girl Scout leaders, to show them how to conduct similar learning activities in Astronomy for their own Scouts. These activities will not be telescope based, but will center on easy-to-find materials or materials provided in the learning kits associated with this project. These workshops will build on the "Hands-On Astronomy" teacher workshops which have been taught by The Science House for the last three years, partially funded by NASA through an SPEO grant. In the adult workshops, we will introduce the leaders to astronomy learning materials produced by NASA, many of which are available in the library in The Science House.

Girls and Science

There are some good references about encouraging young women to seek careers in science and mathematics. Some we have found interesting are:

Expect The Best From a Girl

Association for Women in Science

Women Nobel Prize Winners

Why did we start this project?

Our handout on how to do astronomy without a telescope

Our recommendations on girls and high school mathematics