STScI Annual Report 2002: A Living Mission

50 achievements
Goal 4: Stimulate education and
public outreach
We will improve our education and public outreach programs, extend them to NGST, and make them available
to the rest of astronomy, ensuring maximum benefit to the public from the research enterprise.
The Office of Public Outreach (OPO) shares Hubble Space Telescope’s breathtaking images and discoveries
with the public through diverse products and programs that inform and inspire. An OPO team of communication
professionals from a range of disciplines—including web, multimedia and database programming,
video production, graphics, illustration, curriculum development, and science writing—provides the practical
skills needed for developing products.
To help guide our program, the OPO External Advisory Group held their first meeting in July 2002 at
the Institute. The Group reviewed the OPO Strategic plan, a draft of our implementation plan, and provided
useful advice on our programs.
News & public information
The OPO News Program communicates the latest information about Hubble discoveries to the public via the
print, broadcast media, and Internet news sites. Besides reaching these traditional mass media outlets the
News Program provides Hubble images and intellectual content to textbooks, popular astronomy books,
educational documentaries, astronomy websites, and other OPO products. The News Program is recognized
as a leader in quality science communication and as a model for NASA space science missions, and other
research institutions.
In 2002, we produced four Space Science Updates (SSUs) and two special press conferences associated
with the Early Release Observations (ERO) from the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Near
Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). We prepared twenty additional press releases.
Major news topics covered included new measurements for the age of the universe, the rate of star
formation in the early universe, and the landmark discovery of black holes in globular clusters.
NASA’s 2002 science-news metric study found that Hubble led all other NASA science programs in
news coverage. Hubble SSUs and press conferences alone generated over 300 stories in major newspapers,
reaching an estimated 40 million people in the United States alone.
To better serve the needs of the news media, OPO re-tooled its NewsCenter website to provide
journalists, reporters, documentary producers, and the public even faster access to Hubble images and
findings. The NewsCenter incorporates a full glossary, conversion tables, and media contact details. The
site contains over 2,000 Hubble images and nearly 2.5 million words of text aimed at lay readers.
We helped extend Hubble images to sight-impaired people by working with the National Academy of
Sciences, the National Federation for the Blind, and DePaul University to publicize and disseminate a
unique book, Touch the Universe. This landmark project converted Hubble images to tactile relief maps
for use by school children and adults.
Formal education
The OPO Formal Education Program develops online and hard copy curriculum-support products for the
K-12 education community. A rigorous evaluation program and strict compliance with national educational
standards ensures the success of these products.
In 2002, we showcased the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) lesson plan at the NASA/Office of Space Science
Education Products Workshop. A NASA review panel selected the HDF package as an exemplary NASA
product for students in grades 6-8.
The Amazing Space website offerings grew with the addition of several education modules this year.
Amazing Space now reaches 212 U.S. school districts and 126 colleges, including the New York City public
schools and Princeton University.
Amazing Space materials were also packaged in a CD version, allowing us to reach U.S. classrooms
without Internet connections and to distribute Amazing Space at conferences and to school districts and
universities. To improve the quality of Amazing Space, we initiated an impact study to identify and under-