Introduction
Canadian astronomers, thanks to the contribution of the FGS/NIRISS instrument through the Canadian Space Agency and several government, university, and industry partners, benefit from approximately 5% of JWST observing time. The reaction from both the Canadian astronomical community and the Canadian public to our nation’s involvement in such a revolutionary mission has been fantastic. However, conducting outreach for the mission in Canada has presented some challenges, including catering to a public in two official languages, English and French, trying to make the most out of limited resources and people power, and getting the Canadian public acquainted with the local and homegrown scientists who are participating in JWST. These challenges have been tackled using a number of targeted initiatives.
Connecting the Canadian public with the people of Webb
One key emphasis in Canada’s outreach strategy for JWST has been to highlight the Canadian scientists that contributed to the development of the mission and observatory through features such as the Canadian Space Agency’s “People of Webb”.[1] With an avalanche of scientific results now coming in, many press releases have been created to showcase discoveries made by or with strong contributions from researchers at Canadian institutions. These are crafted to showcase the scientists behind the science, in particular when students or early-career researchers are involved. One fan favorite discovery has been the study of The Sparkler Galaxy,[2] which was performed by the CANUCS Science Team and led by two postdoctoral research fellows, Lamiya Mowla and Kartheik Iyer, at the University of Toronto. Showcasing our researchers has been especially crucial for Canada, as JWST is by far the largest space astronomy mission the nation has ever been involved in. It is an ongoing exercise to make sure that Canadians know that we are valued partners in the mission. It is one of our goals to show Canadian youth that one does not necessarily need to live in the United States or work directly for NASA to be involved in such breakthrough projects.
Finally, all researchers at Canadian institutions working on JWST data have access to a small, but dedicated, “Outreach Help Desk” which provides them with personalized presentation and media training and advice, help for press releases, visuals and slide decks, and ways to connect with local audiences such as science centers, youth groups, and amateur astronomy clubs. Given the limited resources of the JWST Outreach Team in Canada, it is imperative that we train as many of our astronomers in science communication as possible and leverage their enthusiasm to increase the reach of Webb across the country.
Putting Webb in the hands and minds of our youth
Many activities have been created and deployed across Canadian classrooms and youth centers to get children and students excited about JWST. In particular, we are working hard to allow children to imagine themselves as scientists at the helm of the telescope, leading their own inspiring observing programs. For younger children, the Université de Montréal and partners have hosted many drawing contests encouraging them to decide what they would like the telescope to observe next and to draw their idea in a hexagonal shape, representing a segment of JWST’s mirror. Through events such as the Montreal Planetarium’s AstroFest and the Eurêka! Festival, the province of Québec’s largest science festival, tens of thousands of families have partaken in this activity while interacting with and gaining inspiration from professional astronomers who have worked on and used the JWST. Thanks to a collaboration with educational platform “Exploring by the Seat of your Pants”,[3] two virtual editions of this contest were also launched across Canada and beyond, amassing nearly 1,000 individual submissions from several Canadian provinces, the United States, India, Ukraine, and Ghana.
Older students are instead invited to write mock telescope time proposals in teams to observe a chosen exoplanet target. This activity was created as part of a larger suite of educational resources called “Exoplanets in the Classroom”[4] by the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets and Discover the Universe. Students put themselves in the shoes of professional astronomers: select a target, provide a scientific justification for their proposed program, and determine when and where to point the telescope by using astronomy software such as Stellarium. They then present their proposals to the other groups and discuss the merits of each proposal, ranking them as a Time Allocation Committee would. The goal here is to demystify the work of astronomers and help students learn about real research while getting better acquainted with JWST and exoplanets.
Webb across languages
Educational and outreach initiatives in Canada have the added challenge of ideally being created in both of the country’s official languages: French and English. While there is an abundance of astronomy and Webb-specific educational resources in English thanks to the incredible efforts of NASA, STScI, ESA, and others, there is a notable dearth of them in French, especially for French Canadian audiences. Many of our efforts have thus focused on creating activities and resources in French showcasing researchers from the province of Québec. These include the aforementioned “Exoplanets in the Classroom” project, which was originally devised as a French suite of resources called “Des exoplanètes à l’école” and is currently being fully translated into English for use in the rest of Canada and beyond. As part of a series of short videos explaining different astronomy and exoplanet concepts in French called, “Les ExoBouchées”,[5] or “ExoBites”, a video on modern telescopes heavily featuring JWST was also created. Finally, moving beyond just French and English, we are collaborating with the International Astronomical Union’s Office of Astronomy Outreach and the STScI to translate many of STScI’s visuals and infographics into a plethora of other languages, including Arabic, Spanish, Mandarin, and more.
[1] https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/jobs/employee-and-partner-profiles/?search=Webb
[2] https://www.utoronto.ca/news/researchers-reveal-galaxy-sparkling-universe-s-oldest-star-clusters
[3] https://www.exploringbytheseat.com/jameswebb/
[4] https://www.decouvertedelunivers.ca/exoplanetes
[5] https://youtu.be/0sar5pND8P4