STEM Education

Media feature Gov. Mills’ conference that highlighted UMaine eclipse projects

New England Cable News, WABI (Channel 5) WMTW (Channel 8 in Portland), Maine Public, News Center Maine and Spectrum News featured a press conference hosted by Gov. Janet Mills at the Versant Power Astronomy Center to discuss how to safely enjoy the 2024 total solar eclipse. During the press conference, Mills highlighted eclipse-related projects from […]

Read more

A photo of a total solar eclipse

UMaine projects expanding nationwide access to 2024 total solar eclipse

Jules Vázquez’s eyes were glued to a four-foot-tall, high-tech telescope being assembled in front of her at the Versant Power Astronomy Center. The telescope has an 80-millimeter lens and is equipped with a specialized camera and small computer. Astronomy center Director Shawn Laatsch was teaching Jules, a high school student at Baxter Academy for Technology […]

Read more

WABI interviews President Ferrini-Mundy on leadership and careers in STEM

WABI (Channel 5) featured University of Maine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy in an interview about being a woman leader. Growing up, Ferrini-Mundy aspired to be a high school math teacher. After accomplishing that goal, she then went on to earn her master’s degree, and later a Ph.D. Her advice for other women: “Don’t always over-think everything. […]

Read more

Eos highlights Laatsch’s team preparing for total solar eclipse

Eos highlighted Shawn Laatsch, director of the Versant Power Astronomy Center at the University of Maine, participating in the total solar eclipse by helping coordinate the Citizen Continental America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) 2024 project. The effort, which builds on a similar project conducted around the 2017 total solar eclipse, is looking to place roughly 35 […]

Read more

What to expect for April 8 solar eclipse viewed from Orono

Solar eclipse viewers watching the cosmic spectacle on April 8 from the University of Maine campus and surrounding town of Orono can expect to see the moon cover 98.9% of the sun, leaving a glowing sliver in the sky.  Orono is not located along the path of totality for the eclipse, in which the corona, […]

Read more

Two faculty presenting at Maine Science Festival event featured by WFVX

WFVX (FOX 22 in Bangor) reported on the Maine Science Festival Discovery on Tap event, organized by the Maine Discovery Museum, which featured Justin Brown, laboratory research manager of VEMI Lab at UMaine, and assistant professor of spatial informatics Nimesha Ranasinghe. Brown presented on the technological power of haptics and touch. “We have touch receptors […]

Read more

Media highlight eclipse viewing via UMaine high altitude balloon

Maine Public, WVII (FOX 22/ABC 7 in Bangor), the Portland Press Herald, Spectrum News, WMTW (Channel 8 in Portland), WABI TV (Channel 5 in Bangor) and featured a project by the University of Maine High Altitude Ballooning Group to launch a balloon during the total solar eclipse on April 8 to gather data and livestream […]

Read more

Media interview Laatsch about eclipse research

The Bangor Daily News, The County and News Center Maine interviewed Shawn Laatsch, director of the University of Maine Versant Power Astronomy Center, regarding the upcoming solar eclipse on April 8. Laatsch, his students and citizen scientists that he trained will capture photographs of the eclipse as part of a research project called the Citizen […]

Read more