Many students are encouraged to shoot for the stars, but few get an opportunity quite like this.
Many students are encouraged to shoot for the stars, but few get an opportunity quite like this.
As part of the inaugural launch of the Maunakea Scholars program, four seniors at Waiakea High School were told Tuesday they have been awarded observing time on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope atop the mountain.
The new program, which organizers say isn’t replicated anywhere else, is meant to open up some of the world’s most advanced telescopes to Hawaii students and inspire the next generation of scientists.
Based on the excitement on the students’ faces, that probably won’t be a difficult task.
One student, Ramsey Goodale, placed his hands on his head in a show of astonishment.
“We made it!” he said after being handed his certificate.
Kylan Sakata said the selection of his group came as a surprise.
“It’s just really exciting,” he said.
“I think it’s just such a great opportunity, we had to try for it.”
The budding astronomers — Goodale, Sakata, Ana Bitter and Hannah Blue — were one of three groups of students at Waiakea who competed for the observing time, which could occur as early as the end of this month.
Another four students were selected earlier this month at Kapolei High School on Oahu.
Each group of students that competed for the selection had to submit a research proposal, and program organizers said they were impressed by the chosen subjects.
For their observing time, the winning Waiakea group chose to explore star formation in the “hosts of radio-quiet quasars.”
That’s hardly the work of amateurs, said Mary Beth Laychak, CFHT outreach program manager.
“You’re all astronomers today,” she said to the participants. “We were utterly blown away by the caliber of proposals.”
Doug Simons, CFHT director who spearheaded the new program, said the state Department of Education selected the schools. He said he hopes to expand it to other schools on Hawaii Island and throughout the state.
While speaking to the students at the school’s library, he described how observing Saturn from his backyard as a teenager in the 1970s proved to be a “watershed moment” for him.
He said he hopes this program will provide the spark for students to pursue a career in science.
“I had no idea I was looking into my future,” Simons said, while holding the eyepiece from that same telescope. “That’s why we’re here today.”
Whitney Aragaki, the student’s advanced placement environmental sciences teacher, said they each participated as part of a class project. She described the program as bridging lessons on sky and land in the classroom.
“They’ve grown up with the idea that these (telescopes) are these esoteric things on the mountain,” she said. “And, now to get a tangible view into what these observatories do, what these scientists do … it’s so important for them to basically now be a part of it.”
In addition to school credit, Laychak said the students will also get credit for the research, which will remain in their names.
The students from both schools will be given a Mauna Kea summit tour March 28. Observation time will occur as early as that night. Laychak said observations occur remotely from Waimea, and the plan is to put the students in the “captain’s chair” to see their observations at work.
Simons said calling the opportunity unique is an “incredible understatement.”
“No other high school students in the country will have that opportunity,” he said. “It’s that special.”
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.