Leah's points are right on the money with valid reasons why minorities are not
attracted to astronomy. Having spent 47 years as a continuing member of the
NASA JSC Astronomical Society, I have seen this group do continual school
outreach for years with star parties every month somewhere in the Houston area.
Yet new club members are not drawn from schools! They are primarily as a result
of local advertising and from the population of professionals at the Johnson
Space Center--adults mostly. The club waxes and wanes depending on the level of
entertainment provided by the monthly meetings. It seems the majority of people
who come to those meetings are not seriously active amateurs and just want to
listen to the speakers; working people claim they are too busy to be serious
about astronomy. This is most disconcerting since you would think it after
all of these school star parties, it would be the the school population that
would be attracted to the club. However, there is no direct path to the
astronomical society from the school environment for the JSCAS club.
I grew up in San Antonio TX and will be involved in the dedication of the
Carter House Observatory there in March (see attached plaque which I have had
made). When I was 12 years old I was part of a lower income group of students
attending the Witte Museum class on astronomy taught by a former poet laureate
of Texas, Aline B. Carter. It was through that exposure that I became
interested in astronomy and maintained it all of my life. Without it, I doubt
I ever would have become an amateur astronomer. So, appealing to young people
is the right way to go. Mrs. Carter, an engaging speaker, had a big house
located in the center of town; on top was a small observatory with a 4 inch
refractor. She invited kids up there to view the Moon and planets through the
scope and this hands on experience was what fueled my imagination (in concert
with the Museum classes) and that of other younger people, primarily minorities
as San Antonio had a large Hispanic population even then. From this
experience, young people were diverted to the San Antonio Astronomy Club which
was then the local version of PAS. I recall seeing a lot of kids at the club
meeting. I dont see that at the PAS meetings.
The path should be to draw in minority students and keep them (exposure and
maintenance)---not a trivial goal. If PAS is going to pursue this it should be
done so by a couple of dedicated individuals who will maintain/present metrics
to see if what is being done is effective (or not). The best reps from PAS
perhaps would be those who are educators or have an ongoing connection to a
school system with a high minority population and perhaps one where "science"
is being seriously taught as a subject. This is a project not to be taken
lightly. If not pursued seriously and in a meticulous way, it will fail.
Paul
Paul D. Maley email: pdmaley@xxxxxxxxx
From: Leah S <lphxaz@xxxxxxxxx>
To: pasmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2017 6:11 AM
Subject: [pasmembers] Re: Minority membership-
Sam wrote: "We are the Phoenix Astronomical Society, and yet our minority
membership is very minimal. It would be great if we could attract more minority
amateur astronomers. Any ideas are welcome."
actually - PAS does a lot of outreach and public events, including events that
are attended by the wider public, such as the DBG events and star parties at
public schools - i.e. not just our events at PVCC. and at all our events, we
are friendly and welcoming to people of all races and origins. I want to add,
btw, that we have a lot more public events than the other astronomy clubs in
the area.
but as Paul pointed out, the low representation of "minorities" is not just a
problem of PAS, i.e. it is apparently common in all astronomy clubs. so it's
not as if there are a lot of "minority amateur astronomers" out there that we
are failing to attract. the question isn't "why aren't the minority amateur
astronomers joining PAS" but: why aren't more "minority" people involved in
astronomy to begin with, and what can we as an astronomy club do about it?
I can think of several factors that affect this situation.
1. expense - it is quite possible that the smaller number of "minority"
amateur astronomers is influenced by the perceived expense of the hobby, and
the fact that in general this is a lower-income sector of the population. one
of the most frequent questions we get at the PAS "astronomy questions" link is:
"I/we/my kids are starting to become interested in astronomy, so we want to
know what kind of telescope to buy." the point here is that people assume that
if someone is interested in astronomy, the first thing they need to do is to go
out and buy a telescope. and of course that's not the case. as the "answer
person" for PAS "astronomy questions", my advice to people is always: don't
rush to buy a telescope. you can come to our star parties and get a guided
tour through *our* telescopes for free. instead - get a good guidebook like
"Nightwatch" (available at the public library) and get to know the night sky
with the naked eye and any binoculars that you have around the house.
(eventually the person might want to get their own telescope, but they don't
need to do it as a *first* step.)
but, even coming to our star parties might be a problem for low-income
families, who might not own a car, or for whom the expense of driving to PVCC
might be difficult. so this is something that we should also address.
2. level of enthusiasm - as you can see from the size of our club compared to
the size of the population of Phoenix, unfortunately not everyone is
enthusiastic about astronomy. (I see this in my own family - all of whom are
intelligent and educated, but they just aren't interested in astronomy! go
figure!)
if we want to encourage people to become interested in astronomy, I think our
efforts would be best focused on kids rather than grown-ups, for several
reasons -
a) the kids have more potential than grown-ups for becoming enthusiastic about
something,
b) the kids have more potential for the future - if we can get them interested
in astronomy, it can really influence their whole future - by getting them to
be interested in science, giving them motivation to succeed in school, getting
them to read more, etc.
c) the kids have more potential for getting their parents interested in
astronomy. (i.e. the parents might not bother on their own, but if their kid
wants to go to a star party - how can they refuse?)
d) the kids are more accessible - we can reach them via their teachers, by
offering to do more star parties in schools with a large "minority" population.
right now we do star parties for teachers who request it, but if we want to
reach more kids, we should reach out and contact the schools ourselves.
but then the question is how to *maintain* that enthusiasm. for a lot of
people, after they've participated in a star party once, it's "been there, done
that". so we might want to partner with the teachers to find ways to maintain
the enthusiasm, e.g. to find projects that the kids can do after the star
party, and to mentor kids who want to continue participating in astronomy.
this is an important point, so let me emphasize it - we are talking about two
facets. one is the exposure: doing a star party at a school will expose the
kids to the beauty of astronomy. still, for most of them it will be a one-time
event. however, there might be one or two kids in each school who would
welcome the opportunity to *continue* with astronomy - but we've already done
our star party and gone home. we need to be available to encourage and mentor
any kids who want to continue with the hobby. this is something that can
change a kid's life. he/she might not become a professional astronomer, but
this hobby can start a lifelong interest in science that will improve their
future career prospects.
Alex's idea of a lecture about minority scientists is a good idea, and it
might be well-attended, but I don't think it would have long lasting effects.
we need projects that kids can *continue* with, and we need to help them
continue.
just my 2 cents. :)
On 1/9/2017 5:12 AM, PAUL MALEY (Redacted sender pdmaley for DMARC) wrote:
All:
Minority membership was a topic I was going to suggest for the "Meeting of
the Minds" but had to cancel out at the last minute. Having been in IOTA for
more than 40 years we have struggled with this same concern. In that period of
time there have been no Hispanic and just one African American female members.
In fact, the astronomy clubs I have been a member of has had virtually nil to a
tiny number of minority members most of whom as I recall were temporary. As the
US population demographics continues to move in that direction I highly suggest
that the traditional Caucasian membership issue be seriously considered. This
has also included a small female demographic which should also be expanded but
the main issue is the lack of Hispanic, African American and Asian
constituency.
Having also worked at NASA for 4 decades starting with Apollo, I had no idea
about the minority women participation as was depicted in "Hidden Figures".
You can see that this long term problem extends itself throughout society and
it should be addressed. Only a concerted outreach will begin to work at
solving it.
Paul Paul D. Maley email: pdmaley@xxxxxxxxx
From: "dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: pasmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, January 8, 2017 8:14 PM
Subject: [pasmembers] 2 new astronomy movies
Dear PAS members, 2 weeks ago Mike, Paul Facuna, Vera, Frank and I saw the
movie "Passengers". It was a good Sci Fi flick. I saw it again recently in 3D
and it is even better. At Camelview Harkins tonight they had the movie prop of
the suspended animation chamber used in the actual movie, in the lobby.
Vera and I just saw the movie Hidden Figures. It was excellent, showing the
early successes and failures of NASA over 50 years ago. The story of how
minority women played an important part in the trajectory and reentry computing
was incredible and something that was new to me. We are the Phoenix
Astronomical Society, and yet our minority membership is very minimal. It would
be great if we could attract more minority amateur astronomers. Any ideas are
welcome. Have fun seeing the above 2 movies if you get a chance. Sam Insana PAS
President.
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