About Us
"Each one has the right to share in the knowledge and understanding which society provides." -- Albert Einstein, 1936Center of our solar system, giver of light and energy, our star, the Sun, sustains all life on Earth. From time immemorial, mankind has venerated the Sun, fascinated by the dazzling star that orders our world.
The Stanford Solar Center is dedicated to sharing the joy and excitement of solar science exploration. Acting as the education and public outreach arm of the Solar Observatories Group, and funded by NASA, the Solar Center provides resources, activities, and projects relating to the Sun for teachers, students, and the public.
Our award-winning Solar Center website, targeted at 4th-12th grade students and science teachers, provides inquiry-based activities and a broad range of information relating to the Sun. Solar art, folklore, music, literature, and archaeoastronomy complement our scientific information and offer intriguing multidisciplinary "hooks" into solar study.
A key project of the Center has been the distribution of space weather monitoring instruments throughout the world during the United Nation's International Heliophysical Year and also the UN's International Space Weather Initiative. See The Space Weather Monitor Program.
The Solar Center also enables educator workshops, science displays at public events, science demonstrations at local schools, curricula materials for teachers, as well as partnerships with science museums, observatories, and planetariums.
Our Goals
- Science is fun, exciting, and engaging. Science is exploration
and discovery. Every child was born a scientist.
We hope to keep that adventurous spirit alive.
- Science is based on observation, measurement,
computation, facts, and data. By involving the students in
how solar science is done, they will better understand
the nature of scientific exploration and be more able
to evaluate scientific discoveries and the role of science
in their world.
- Science is for everyone, not just a few elite.
We hope to empower the students, giving them
a sense of how solar science is done
by letting them be the scientist.
- Science is part of our everyday lives, from
the mechanics of basketball to choosing products we buy
to understanding the almost-magical technology pervading
modern life.
We need science to understand our choices in a modern
world and our position in this vast universe.
- Our special star, the Sun, can teach us much about the structure and makeup of our own world as well as the universe beyond. Through the SOLAR Center, we hope to provide a rich set of engaging activities and tools to encourage an understanding of, and active interest in, the complexities of the physical world and their impact on life and thought.
SOLAR Center Staff
- Deborah Scherrer
- Hao Tai
- Todd Hoeksema
Contact Information
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