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Student News
Physics II Class Goes “Behind The Scenes” at the Very Large Array
On April 16, the seven members of Sandia Prep’s Physics II class, teacher John Suding and calculus teacher Allen Arsenault were treated to an extensive, “behind the scenes” visit to the Very Large Array. Their hosts were Dr. Jon Romney, Manager, VLBA Spacecraft Navigation Project and father of Damian Romney, SPS class of 2007 and Dr. Mark McKinnon, EVLA Project Manager and father of SPS sophomore Caitlin. Members of the class visited the grounds, the control center and the manufacturing and repair facilities at the VLA site outside of Magdalena.
A very special privilege was being allowed to visit inside one of the data collection and processing rooms high up in one of the facility’s 28 gigantic radio telescopes. The telescopes are currently being renovated and updated, hence the new name EXPANDED Very Large Array, EVLA. This “expansion” is not in physical size — the telescopes can alread
y be arrayed across an area that is larger than the size of Washington, D.C. — but rather to an expansion of their operating hardware. While inside the data collection / processing room of the telescope, the students were given an introduction to its collection of one-of-a-kind, cutting edge technology that exists nowhere else on earth (or, as far as we know, anywhere else in the cosmos.) The amount of science that was on display and explained within the 15’ by 15’ collection room was far beyond what any high school science student, anywhere, could ever hope to see.
An especially satisfying observation made on the visit actually serves as a high compliment to the students of this class. While a few of the explanations being presented by Drs. Romney and McKinnon at the start of the tour where phrased in the form of analogies so that they could be better understood by high school seniors, shortly into the visit the use of analogies ceased, and from that point onward the explanations were straight-forward hard science (with the implicit message, “I’m pretty sure you guys will understand what is being said here.”)
We thank our hosts for a fabulous visit to one of our planet’s premier scientific installations.
– Physics II field trip participants
