Lectures, Workshops, and Presentations

In addition to talks at conferences, as described in my CV, I have also given lectures and presentations at local libraries, schools, universities, and science centers. I also experience in developing and leading workshops for teachers at the high school and college level, such as my work with the American Modeling Teachers Association, or the Unistellar College Astronomy Network (UCAN).

Talk given at the Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, CA on a program I did with high school students to observe an exoplanet with Unistellar eVscopes. August 2023.

Talk to researchers and local teachers at the University of New Hampshire on the Unistellar citizen science network. July 2023.

Videos

The videos below were self-directed, written, and produced entirely by me.

The Quest for Another Earth was created when I was selected for a fellowship as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh. I used 3D modeling software to create most of this short documentary about exoplanets. In December 2016, it was showcased at the world's largest geophysical science conference, American Geophysical Union (AGU), in their AGU Cinema Program and GIFT (Geophysical Information for Teachers) workshop in San Francisco, CA. In August 2017, it was showcased as a finalist at the 2017 Goldschmidt Conference's Wild Orbit Film's People's Choice for Best Science Communication in Paris, France.

Using contacts from my previous experience working in the music industry, I was given permission to use the music of the internationally known rock band, Muse, in this short video highlighting the capture of the ISS transiting the Moon with a Unistellar eVscope.

The videos educational videos below were created while working as a Unistellar Education Associate and researcher with the SETI Institute.

Podcasts, External Blogs, & Press Releases

Podcasts

StarTalk
I was a guest on Neil deGrasse Tyson's StarTalk radio podcast spinoff show, StarTalk All-Stars. The episode, "Are You Smarter than an 8th Grader?" with Dr. FunkySpoon, hosted by Dr. David Grinspoon and co-host Chuck Nice, aired on Tuesday, February 7, 2017.

The Science Modeling Podcast
Episode 15 – Dan Peluso – Astronomy and Grades Don’t Matter?
Episode 38 – Dan Peluso – Astronomy, SETI, Music and Modeling

Will Work 4 Podcast
Name that Job: Astrophysics & Synth Pop with Daniel Peluso

External Blogs

American Astronomical Society (AAS)
On the AAS Education Committee Blog: Bringing Telescopes, Wonder, and Inquiry into Our Science Classrooms

SETI Institute
Written for the SETI Institute’s official blog on the Cosmic Diary: http://cosmicdiary.org/dpeluso/author/dpeluso/

Published on SETI Institute’s website:
High School Galaxy Explorers Team Search for Exoplanet Transit

Press Releases

Press release from the SETI Institute for my first-author paper confirming the discovery of two exoplanets around the star, TIC 139270665. In this press release, my work engaging young high school students for the collection of photometric data is highlighted.
High School Students Contribute to Exoplanet Discovery

Chabot Space & Science Center & The Galaxy Explorers Observe an Exoplanet!

Here, I highlight work detailed in the blog, High School Galaxy Explorers Team Search for Exoplanet Transit. In February 2023, I led a team of 16 high school students that were apart of the Chabot Space & Science Center’s Galaxy Explorer program in an overnight observation of the star TIC 139270665. These students used Unistellar eVscopes (pictured on the right) to attempt to capture the second transit of the exoplanet TIC 139270665 b. Our science team has since confirmed the discovery of this dense and warm sub-Saturn exoplanet 147 parsecs from Earth.

The discovery and confirmation research paper on this work is now in peer-review with the Astronomical Journal and these 16 high schools students will be co-authors for their contributed data! This work showcases some of the goals for my career—to show that we can further astrophysics research while also revolutionizing science education. Students can learn science by actively being involved in science, something I like to call AstroReMixEd (astrophysics research mixed with education).

Unistellar eVscopes in operation collecting data from TIC 139270665 from Galaxy Explorer high school student operators at Chabot Space & Science Center, Oakland, CA. February 2023.

Group photo of me and colleage, Dr. Ian Weaver, with the high school Galaxy Explorer students at Chabot Space & Science Center in Oakland, CA. February 2023.

Teaching & Workshops

Teaching
High School: Before beginning my PhD in astrophysics, I had completed a Master of Science Education and Single-Subject Teaching Credential in California in Physics and Geoscience. Then I taught high school physics for three years at low-income public charter schools in the Bay Area for a diverse student population. Currently, I am doing “field work” teaching an experimental astrophysics course to public school students in Vallejo, CA whilst giving them access to Unistellar eVscopes and running an action research study, which I plan to write a manuscript on next year (mid-to-late 2024).

My public high school astrophysics students modeling the orbit of a comet from Unistellar citizen science data that they performed photometry on! Fall 2023.

College: I begin teaching astronomy at Napa Valley Community College in January 2024.

Graduate-level: The American Modeling Teacher Association (AMTA) teacher workshop that I lead called “Astronomy Modeling with Exoplanets” has run for three years in a row. This workshop is also offered as a graduate-level course to teacher participates for an additional fee and extra assignments. More info on this is found in the MI ASTRO section of this site.

Workshops & Publically Available Education Materials
As the Assistant Director of the Unistellar College Astronomy Network (UCAN), I developed and ran workshops for US community college astronomy instructors on how to use Unistellar eVscopes, participate in citizen science, how to integrate them into their astronomy courses, and running “mini-Modeling Astronomy” activities that they could use with students as well. Many instructors use education materials I developed and activities I created. You can read more about the UCAN program and see some of the education materials I created on the SETI Institute’s Unistellar Education page that I developed.

Having teacher workshops is an extremely fruitful way of doing outreach. When you change, improve, and enrich how a teacher delivers learning in the classroom, you are effectively reaching hundreds or thousands of students over many possible years that this teacher is in the classroom.

For a small portion of my PhD research, I developed the Astronomy Modeling with Exoplanets workshop with AMTA. This January, we will have the third iteration of it. It is a distance learning workshop over Zoom and participants from all over the world have enrolled from high school to college level teachers. See MI Astro for more info.