The Pulsar Science Collaboratory: Exploring Pulsars Through a Science Gateway

The Pulsar Science Collaboratory (PSC) is a research project engaging high school students, teachers, and undergraduates in searching for pulsars in data collected using radio telescopes. The goals are to stimulate student interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers; prepare teachers to implement authentic research with students by training them within a professional scientific community; promote student use of information technologies; and assist the research community through pulsar discoveries. The learning is facilitated through online training, in-person workshops and camps, discussion forums, participation in capstone events, conferences, and so on. The PSC is powered by HUBzero, a platform for building science gateways, and combines analytical tools, community management, course components, and collaborations in one ecosystem. The participants gain access to radio astronomy data after successful completion of training workshops and passing a certification test. PSC students make authentic research contributions to the scientific community, pulsar astrophysics, and radio astronomy.