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Photo credits: Mary Beltran and Laura
Cook 
Nearly fifty Pasco High School science students visited the LIGO
Hanford Observatory on January 27, 2005. A pea-soup fog provided the
backdrop as the group enthusiastically tackled a variety of interactive
activities and learned about the science of gravitational wave detection.
These students and their teacher Shelly Stahl are part of the Yakima
Valley/Tri-Cities MESA program (Mathematics, Engineering & Science
Achievement), and MESA staff member Laura Cook was one of several adults
who chaperoned the trip. LIGO Hanford Education and Outreach Coordinator
Dale Ingram facilitated the day's agenda, and the students heard from LIGO
staff members Betsy Bland and Corey Gray. The day unfolded as follows:
8:45
AM: Arrive and
welcome
8:55 - 10:00: Interactive
activities using LIGO exhibits
10:00 -
10:30: Discussion of activities
10:30 -
11:15: LIGO presentation, Betsy Bland
11:15 -
11:45: Box lunches
11:45 -
12:10: Walking tour of the site
12:10 -
12:50: The LIGO control room with Corey Gray (2
groups)
12:50 - 1:10: Wrap-up,
evaluation, departure |
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Students received a copy of the LIGO
Explorer to guide them through the standards-based exhibit activities.
Here are a few student comments about the trip: "I loved it here ... I'd
love to walk the whole arm length of 2.5 miles," "It was a pretty
interesting field trip. Your jobs are really interesting. I think there is
a possibility I'd like to work here," and "It was really cold outside to
be walking." LIGO Hanford hopes to become a frequent field trip
destination for area schools. One of only five gravitational-wave
interferometer sites worldwide (and one of the two largest), the
observatory gives students a peek under the hood at cutting-edge science
(although on the day of Pasco's visit the engine of science was a bit hard
to see!). Contact LIGO if you are interested in more information about field
trips. More resources for teachers can be found at LIGO's Teachers
Corner.
Students worked with the LIGO
Explorer exhibits and visited the control room
| Exploring colors of
shadows |
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| Using spectroscopes on the
lights |
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| Following Issac Newton's path with
the pendulum (we broke the string) |
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| Exploring orbits with the Gravity
Well |
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| Counting steps for the scaling
activity "Journey to the Stars" |
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| One of the early aluminum bar
gravitational wave detectors |
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| Telescope images, history of physics,
LIGO instrumentation |
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| In the control room with LIGO
operator Corey Gray |
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