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Project Progress

After participating in the HI STAR summer program, middle and high school students continue to work on astronomy research projects with their astronomer mentors during the school year. They meet with their mentors to do any of the following:
1. Determine goal of their project.
2. Do telescope remote observing and select suitable fits file images.
3. Review image processing and light curve or other results.
4. Get advice on data interpretation and conclusion.
5. Seek help with poster for science fair entry and have mock judging.
HI STAR director does follow up with both students and mentors to ensure good communication among all stakeholders. Students are given suggested timelines to follow such as project completion in fall semester since school fairs begin in January. The director also begins recruiting interested students through workshops held on different islands and teacher/parent referrals. These students may even begin working with a mentor before participating in HI STAR program which ensure their acceptance. From the 2009 HI STAR program, 45% of the students, 5 girls and 2 boys, had projects recommended for the 2010 Hawaii Science & Engineering Fair as follows:
2010 Intel International & 2010 Hawaii Science and Engineering Fair
“Comparison of Similar Planetary Systems to WASP 2” – Travis Le, 10th grader
(Photo 1)
2010 Hawaii State Science Fair Projects
“A Comet in a Sea of Asteroids”, Kira Fox and Gina Hyun, 9th graders
(Photo 2)
“Discovering Asteroids” – Lina Hang, 10th grader
(Photo 3)
“Asteroid 25413 Itokawa” – Stephanie Spear, 7th grader
(Photo 4)
“Life on Mars” – Moriah Jenkins, 10th grader
“Does Temperature Affect the Strength of Magnets?” – Michael Huang, 10th grader For the last two projects, the students worked on science area they are more interested in. This is totally acceptable since the goal of HI STAR is to encourage student participants to major in STEM fields in college.