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GAVRT Project

The GAVRT Project (Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope) gives children a unique opportunity to command a 34-meter telescope via the Internet. Students involved in the project connect from their classrooms to the Operations Control Center at Lewis Center for Educational Research (LCER) in Apple Valley, California. They learn to command the telescope located at NASA's Deep Space Network Goldstone Complex in Goldstone, California. Students use computers to record radio waves and analyze data from across the universe. They select targets such as the sun or other stars, send requests to the radio telescope, and then download data.

Photo of student at GAVRT

Through this deep space project, students address questions of fundamental science, such as measuring the dynamic conditions of the radiation environment surrounding Jupiter, through which future explorations of the Jovian system must pass. Students use the GAVRT antenna to measure the radio emission from black holes out to the edge of the known universe. The students involved in the data collection are filling a unique role in astronomy and are making discoveries.

Student research has already been published in some of the world's prestigious scientific journals such as Nature. DoDDS Pacific middle school teachers will use the new DoDEA science standards to plan thematic/interdisciplinary units of study which utilize the GAVRT as a supplemental resource. The project provides an authentic context for teaching and learning. With direct access to a radio telescope, students can perform legitimate scientific inquiry in real time, analyze data, and use findings to solve difficult intellectual challenges.
 

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Last Updated: September 2, 2008
 
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