Hello, hello again! This is your weekly update on all things going on at CosmoQuest.

Motivations Survey

The scope of CosmoQuest is not just astronomical research. We love to learn how you learn and interact with the science as well. You may be prompted to take a brief survey about your attitudes towards citizen science, CosmoQuest, and astronomy. This survey is absolutely optional, but the results will help us to understand what makes citizen science projects tick and how we can improve them in the future. As a thank you for participating, users who have completed the survey will receive a link to special CosmoQuest video content not available to the public and a preview to our new homepage. We thank you in advance for your feedback and for helping us to further citizen science research! If you want to take the survey right now, click over to <a href=”http://cosmoquest.org/Survey”>to the survey right now.</a>

Educators in St. Louis Metro Area

Happen to live in our hometown? We’re putting on a professional development workshop for educators interested in using TerraLuna, our comparative geology unit to go with Moon Mappers, in the classroom. The workshop runs from June 17-21 and has options for continuing education or graduate credit through Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. For an application or more information, please email Georgia Bracey: gbracey [at] siue [dot] edu or see our blog post at the Educator Zone.

24 Hour Hangout-a-thon

It’s getting closer… Ever want to see what happens when you give two astrophysicists lots of coffee and see what they’ll do over a 24 hour period? Pamela Gay and Nicole Gugliucci are doing a 24-hour LIVE broadcast using Google Hangouts on June 15-16. This event will be a fundraiser for CosmoQuest to keep our project going (and our programmers fed) so get ready to do some PayPal clicking to show your support. More information to come, so RSVP to the Google Event for updates.

Upcoming Events (in the REAL World)

Where will we be next? Our calendar is a good place to find such information. In the coming few weeks, here is where you can find us out and about in the real world:

• May 15-17 – St Louis, MO – NSTA STEM Forum and Expo – Are you a science educator planning on attending the STEM Expo in St. Louis? CosmoQuest will be there along with our collaborators from the SIUE STEM Center. We have side-by-side booths at the Expo on Wednesday night’s preview and all day Thursday and Friday. More information about the conference can be found on NSTA’s website, and let us know you’ll be there on our MeetUp page.
• May 24-27 – Baltimore, MD – Balticon – This sci-fi/fantasy convention is chock full of writers and podcasters, plus our own Pamela Gay will be presenting and debuting our comic/activity book, Free Wifi on Mars. Find out more at Balticon.org.
• June 2-6 – Indianapolis, IN – AAS Summer Meeting – Nicole Gugliucci will be presenting results of our CosmoQuest citizen science motivations survey at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Indianapolis in June. Social MeetUp details coming soon!

Upcoming Hangouts

We strive to bring you entertaining and educational programming several days a week using Google Hangouts and YouTube. You can watch live and join in the comments or view the archived versions on YouTube. This week’s programming includes:

• Friday, May 17 @ 12pm PDT – Weekly Space Hangout – Fraser Cain is out of town, but Nicole Gugliucci, and a team of astronomers, space journalists, and science aficionados bring you this week’s top stories in space and astronomy.
• Sunday, May 19 @ 9:00pm PDT – Virtual Star Party – In partnership with Universe Today, we bring you a weekly tour of the wonders of the night sky thanks to a team of astronomers willing to share their telescope views with you. As always, this event is weather dependent and subject to a time change depending on conditions.
• Monday, May 20 @ 12pm PDT – Astronomy Cast – Fraser Cain and Pamela Gay record episode 302 of Astronomy Cast live on Google Hangouts and, afterwards, take your questions about space and astronomy.
• Wednesday, May 22 @ 4pm PDT – Learning Space – Next week, we’re talking about “astro-tourism” with Rick Feinberg, Press Officer and Education & Outreach Coordinator at American Astronomical Society.

365 Days of Astronomy Rolls on at a New Site

CosmoQuest is now hosting the 365 Days of Astronomy, a legacy project of the International Year of Astronomy. Listen to submitted content, submit your own podcast, or catch up on the audio-only version of our weekly Hangouts. This past weeks shows include:

• Thursday, May 9 – Planetary Society: Talk about Bennu
  
• Friday, May 10 – Weekly Space Hangout for 3 May 2013
  
• Saturday, May 11 – Dark Skies and Energy Education by Rob Sparks, NOAO
  
• Sunday, May 12 – 25 Years of Supernova 1987A with Pamela Gay and Alex Filippenko
  
• Monday, May 13 – Astronomy Cast: Ep 296 – Space Stations Part 2, Mir
  
• Tuesday, May 14 – MyMoon: Music, Science, and Space
• Wednesday, May 15 – Learning Space: Dawn science on Vesta

Thanks, and we’ll see you next week!