Astro Comic

Introduction

“Galaxy Scouts: Space-ventures with Stella and Riley” is a comic series aimed at elementary and middle-school students. The comic follows two 10-year olds, Stella and Riley, and their adventures through space. The first two issues focus specifically on astronomy research, with subsequent issues focusing on other STEM areas of research.

The main idea behind the comic is to improve societal literacy of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) disciplines.

Studies have shown that introducing scientific concepts in an interesting, age-appropriate way is essential to spark students’ interest in science and promote long-term engagement with science. Elementary and middle school, when many young people identify their core interests and abilities, is a prime time to encourage youth interest in STEM areas. We want to demystify science and break down common stereotypes used in many layers of society by: (a) featuring innovators and scientists from diverse backgrounds, offering role models for all young people; and (b) emphasizing the importance and beauty of scientific discovery through a variety of ‘windows,’ such as solving problems, helping others, teamwork, being curious, and exploring the unknown.

The comic is funded by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Astronomy Department at the UW-Madison,

the UW Baldwin fund, and the National Science Foundation.

Comics and Acknowledgements

The first comic strip “The Secret of a Bok Globule” is available for download.

The story for the first comic strip was developed and initial sketches of characters done by a physicist-artist team Dr. Rebecca Thompson and Dave Ellis who are creators of Spectra. Robert Tetzner, Jan Lin, and Snezana Stanimirovic updated the script and Jan Lin provided illustrations.

– The second comic strip “What is Dark Matter?” is available for download.

The story for the second comic strip was developed by Robert Tetzner, Jan Lin, and Snezana Stanimirovic. All illustrations were done by Jan Lin.

Project Reports

First year report by Dr Rebecca Cors is available for download.

Acknowledgements

 The Galaxy Scouts team is grateful to the following people for their help and encouragement: Jim Lattis, Steve Anderson, Melissa Braaten and Danielle M. Nielsen, Karen Bjorkman, Michael Gladders, Sarbajit Banerjee, Bo Hammer and Yadong Yin.