Middle School and is involved in the Telescopes in Education project. Thanks to TIE director Gil Clark, school children have access to the stars. Back at school, students can control this 24-inch telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory from personal computers. With teacher help, they work on their own time, design their own experiments and make online searches in real time. Now advanced learning related to math, science, engineering and technology is no longer limited by physical distance.
Students log over half a million accesses per day.
TIE has made this work possible for more than 250 sites, ranging from elementary schools to universities. Worldwide inter-site collaboration is emerging, with worldwide telescope access a goal. Budding science careers are flowing from the LT experience, reflecting the rapid advances in science and technology throughout the world and the need for young scientists. It also stimulates in students the capability, irrespective of vocation, of learning how to search for information, for example on the Web, a critical skill for future workforce members. The nation's and the world's future will be shaped by future generations linked by curiosity and the need for learning in an era in which education quality is a primary national debate.