Outreach
en español
Innovation project for teachers:
TECNOMANÍA: el videotutorial como integrador de las TIC en el taller de Tecnología.
This project has two ambitious aims: to help students understand and use IT tools in the classroom,
and to increase their motivation towards the work in the technology lab.
Students will make a video-tutorial to show how it is executed a particular technology project.
The video will show and explain each step in the production process, from initial design to final
verification.
In the design phase of the project, the students will write a script for the video, indicating all
the materials and tools to be used, the actions to be recorded and the explanations to be provided
by the actors or the narrator.
Recordings will take place in the technology lab according to the script produced, and once the
project is finished the students will start post-production of the video and audio sequences (and
optionally also pictures, text or music) in the computers room to obtain the final videoclip.
The resulting video will be show in the classroom and (if deemed appropiate) uploaded to Youtube.
Talks and presentations for the general public:
Galaxias Infrarrojas Ultraluminosas: Fuego, Polvo y Humo.
The Universe is a violent and dynamic place, where galaxies collide with each other, stars burst into supernovae, and supermassive black holes absorb everything in their vicinity, launching jets of particles from their poles at almost the speed of light. All these phenomena can be found in a particular kind of galaxy: ultraluminous infrared galaxies. These galaxies are as bright as a trillion (10^12) suns, but most of their emission is in the infrared, so they weren't noticed until around 30 years ago. Nevertheless, currently we know that this short and violent phase is very important in the evolution of most galaxies.
Conference given at the CSIC head quarters in Madrid as part of the celebrations on the International Year of Astronomy IYA 2009.
Internet outreach projects:
Denebola is a colaborative project I share with two friends (also astronomers): Fran Montenegro and Jorge P. Prieto. We write about topics of science in general and Astronomy in particular, in a friendly and informal style and aimed at the general public.
I participate as editor in the spanish version of Wikipedia (username: Positronio). I write mostly about scientific topics, particularly those related with infrared astronomy and extragalactic astrophysics. I also help to review and translate existing articles.
Useful links:
Galaxy Zoo. A project born from the need to classify millions of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Students can help profesional scientists by classifying pictures of galaxies using a simple and fun web interface.
NASA en español. NASA's news portal for Space Sciences and Astronomy, now in spanish.
Liverpool Telescope. The largest robotic telescope in the world (2m diameter) is located in the observatory of Roque de los Muchachos, in the canary island of La Palma. It can be remotely controlled by students and amateur astronomers thanks to an agreement between IAC and the University of Liverpool.