Each year in late July/early August we hold a professional development workshop for our teacher and astronomer partners at the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The agenda of each workshop consists of an address by a distinguished guest, modeling of example activities for use in the classroom, strategies for alignment with academic standards, and partner planning for the upcoming academic year. Our keynote speakers have included:
- Dr. Donald Thomas, retired NASA astronaut (2008) 2008 Workshop Agenda 2008 Workshop Agenda
- Dr. Frank Summers, Space Telescope Science Institute astrophysicist (2009) 2009 Workshop Agenda
- Dr. Mario Livio, noted author and Space Telescope Science Institute astrophysicist (2010) 2010 Workshop Agenda
- Dr. Max Mutchler, Space Telescope Science Institute planetary scientist and co-discoverer of Pluto’s moons Nix and Hydra (2011) 2011 Workshop Agenda
- Dr. Michelle Thaller, NASA Assistant Director for Science Communication (2012) 2012 Workshop Agenda
- Dr. Judith Lean, Naval Research Laboratory, member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Nobel Laureate (2013) 2013 Workshop Agenda
- Dr. John Mather, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, James Webb Space Telescope Project Scientist and Nobel Laureate (2014) 2014 Workshop Agenda
- Dr. Kimberly Ennico-Smith, NASA’s Ames Research Center, New Horizons Deputy Project Scientist (2015) 2015 Workshop Agenda
- Dr. Peter Shawhan, co-Principal Investigator, Laser Inteferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), UMD College Park (2016) 2016 Workshop Agenda
- Dr. Derrick Pitts, Chief Astronomer and Planetarium Director, The Franklin Institute (2017) 2017 Workshop Agenda
