Welcome to the Big Explosions and Strong Gravity website. This is an activity for teens age 11-13 that was specifically developed with Girl Scouts in mind. Please follow the links in the menu to the left to see pictures from the events or to read descriptions of the activities.
Please note that this site is currently under construction. Many changes will be made in the near future. Please check back for updates.
What is Big Explosions and Strong Gravity?
Big Explosions and Strong Gravity is an event where girls meet real scientists and join them for a day of exploration into supernovae and black holes. They do hands-on activities to learn about exciting ideas that will help them understand these fascinating phenomena. In the morning we explore elements in the universe and how light is broken up into all the colors of the rainbow, as well as how astronomers use this to tell what distant objects are made of. These activities provide the basis for our focus topics: black holes and supernovae, which we explore after a lunch filled with fun activities.
The history of the event
This event has now been run on four occasions (July 2004, June 2005, November 2006, and April 2008) in the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland council. For the first 3 years, the event was hosted by Johns Hopkins physics and astronomy department, and in the fourth year it was hosted at a Girl Scout facility called Camp Ilchester. Each time, approximately twenty physics and astronomy PhDs as well as several Girl Scout volunteers were involved in putting on these day-long events. This included astronomers from JHU, STScI, University of Maryland, CUA, and Goddard Space Flight Center.
The next step for us
While we will continue to hold this event in the Central Maryland council, we are in the process of expanding the program. In fall 2008 we will be joining with the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital to hold this event in the Washington DC area, and sometime in 2009 we plan to hold it with the Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay. We are also searching for partners in other areas to bring this program to new parts of the country. We are looking for 5 beta-testing locations where Girl Scout councils can partner with local scientists to help us pilot this event in 2009.
Beyond this event, what else can interested girls do?
For girls who want to pursue an interest in space science beyond these one-day events, we have started a girl-driven teen Girl Scout club called "ACE of Space". In the GSCM council, applications for this group open at the Big Event each fall and are generally due in October. We hope that some day this effort can also be expanded beyond the local council, but those plans are still far in the future.
Support
These activities are made possible through NASA Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) funding. The first two years were provided by Chandra X-ray Center E/PO grants (during Cycles 5&6, PI: Hornschemeier). Continued support has been provided by a NASA ROSES E/PO supplemental grant [ROSES EPO-07-768, supplementary ADP grants 06-ADP06-27 (Hornschemeier), 06-ADP06-0065 (Loewenstein) and 06-ADP06-36 (Strohmayer)]. The Constellation-X Project has also provided procurement funds in 2008.
