Third, tourists to New Mexico will benefit from ESP as well, returning inkind tourist dollars which will help fund the overall operation. Additionally, the amateur astronomy community, in particular the Albuquerque Astronomical Society, will use LodeStar facilities support both educational and outreach efforts and for their own projects. It will support trained teachers with curriculum development, resource materials, supplementary in-class teaching via electronic communications and personal visits, and educational venues for field experiences. LodeStar will also provide a long term reward mechanism in the form of site visits and special programs, including programs tailored for individual students. Finally, it will provide professional advancement and summer research activities for teachers.
All active teachers participate to some degree in ongoing professional training.
LodeStar will train teachers in astronomy and other closely related natural sciences, especially physics. We will require that teachers in our program work toward mastery of scientific materials and techniques which they can present in their classroom. In particular, we will stress the use of student hands-on activities and demonstrations to better reinforce physics principles. This will include training teachers in observing techniques with the telescopes at Enchanted Skies Park and Cibola Site, so that they and their students can undertake observing projects of their own. At the national laboratories, LodeStar will work with existing programs to maximize their effectiveness and outreach.