"What are those THINGS?" is an educational activity being developed at West Virginia University and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory that seeks to give middle school students the opportunity to learn about the scientific process and gain scientific literacy through a positive, authentic experience doing astronomy. The goal is to increase the number of students who are interested in pursuing STEM careers. Students use archival multi-wavelength data and their own observations with the Skynet robotic telescopes (operated by UNC-Chapel Hill) to study a galaxy. This webpage serves as a repository for archival data and educational materials for this activity. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. AST-0807873 awarded to D.J. Pisano. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation

  • picture“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.” - Dr. Carl Sagan
  • pictureThe universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest. — Philip José Farmer
  • picture "Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another." - Plato