We Are Stardust is a collaboration between Professor Annette Lee’s Native Skywatchers initiative and the UCSC team’s Starry, Starry Night (S2N) initiative. The S2N initiative is one of the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic; it leverages an adaptation whereby astronomers are now able to remotely control modern telescopes that are located on distant mountain tops without leaving the confines of home. Following the principles of Two-Eyed Seeing, the We Are Stardust collaborative initiative trains elementary, middle, and high school students to combine Indigenous knowledge about the night sky with Western knowledge about the same.

Timing: The Spring 2021 cohorts of We Are Stardust are wrapping up their projects. The Summer cohorts of students and educators have been finalized and they have just started their work. Ohana Kilo Hōkū students will be have the opportunity to participate in the fall.

Python and Research (PyaR) is a free online Python computer programming tutorial that is embedded within an astrophysics scientific journal article. The tutorial includes 6 hours of mentoring. Students from many levels (middle school, high school, college, university) and working professionals have participated in past PyaR offerings. Participants have the option of attending the mentoring sessions in real time or asynchronously at any time with the guidance of recordings of many past mentoring sessions. Here is the PyaR registration form.

Timing: The 2021B offering of PyaR will consist of two 3-hour sessions on June 8 and 9 from 9 AM –12 noon PDT while the 2021C offering will be conducted over three days: July 29–31 from 6–8 AM PDT. Registration and Schedules are here.