OUTREACH

Canadian Astronomical Society | Société Canadienne d’Astronomie

Since October 2023, Daniella has worked as the Westar Coordinator at the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA). In this role, Daniella manages and organizes CASCA’s new Westar Program, alongside the Westar Subcommittee: Terry Bridges, Robert Cockcroft, Frédérique Baron, and Christa Van Laerhoven.

Working collaboratively with this subcommittee to formulate budget outlines, EDI training guides, and other pertinent documents, Daniella is creating the framework of the new Westar Program. When the program goes live in early 2024, Daniella will also work to initiate communications between Canadian astronomers and representatives from under-served Canadian communities, and plan meetings and visits between them.

The Westar Program, a new, revamped version of the CASCA-Westar Lectureship, aims to connect astronomers and under-served Canadian communities, and to support reciprocal and long-term relationships between astronomer and community, where mutual sharing of astronomy knowledge is welcomed and encouraged. Check out the website for the Westar Program here (in progress).

Discover the Universe | À la découverte de l'univers

Since June 2023, Daniella works at Discover the Universe as an Educational Content Developer and Education Specialist. In this role, Daniella creates educational resources for the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, offering trainings to teachers, assisting in education-based projects, creating and monitoring social media communications, and more.

At Discover the Universe, Daniella has worked to create the content for the Eclipse 2024 webpage, including a yet to be posted tutorial of the Eclipse2024.org simulator. Daniella is also running several training sessions for teachers and educators on general eclipse information and safety and is working in collaboration with the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics on their eclipse project with the Toronto Public Library.

Moreover, Daniella regularly writes articles for the Discover the Universe blog, including the Snack-Sized Astronomy blog post series, and the Annular Solar Eclipse on October 14, 2023 blog post. Daniella also has been creating and scheduling Discover the Universe’s social media communications on Facebook since July 2023.

Discover the Universe is an astronomy training program offered by Canadian astronomers with the goals of helping Canadian teachers and educators to share astronomy with their groups and filling the astronomy gap in science education with resources that are tailored to help meet the curriculum requirements of each province and territory. All Discover the Universe resources are free and accessible online in both French and English. Check out the Discover the Universe website here.

Visions of Science

In the summer of 2023, Daniella co-supervised 4 high-school students through the Dunlap Institute’s collaboration with the Visions of Science (VoS) Launch program. Alongside the other supervisors, Katerina Benevides and Avery Brown, Daniella developed the level-appropriate research projects for the students and supported them along the way.

The two research projects and the students working on each were:
- Characterizing exoplanet habitability via physical properties with Awa Diomande and Ahmed Hussein.
- Characterizing galaxy type via the light they emit with Jordyn Bellamy and Bruno Santisteban.

Over the two months this collaboration ran, Daniella and the other supervisors held coding sessions, weekly check-ins, and office hours to support the students in their research. At the end of the summer, the students presented their work at the Visions of Science Visionary Expo on August 12, 2023. For each project, the students developed a poster presentation with the support of Daniella and the other supervisors. At the Visionary Expo, Jordyn and Bruno won the “People’s Choice Award” for the Launch program presentations.

In addition to supervising the VoS Launch program students in their research projects, Daniella was also on a panel for the VoS Empower program in July 2023, and was a judge at the 2023 Visionary Expo for the VoS Connect presentations.

Visions of Science is an organization that works to advance STEM equity and to disrupt the systemic exclusion that results in chronic underrepresentation of Black and other racialized groups in STEM education and careers, by engaging youth in year-round, robust STEM learning pathways. Check out the Visions of Science website here.

Daniella congratulating a Visions of Science student on their award at the Visionary Expo 2023.

Daniella and the other judges on stage with Bruno and Jordyn after winning their award at the Visionary Expo 2023.

Daniella and co-supervisors at the Visionary Expo 2023, with three of the students they supervised.

Left to right: Daniella, Ahmed, Katerina, Jordyn, Avery, Bruno.

University of Saint Michael's College

Daniella hosting a campus tour during Orientation Week 2021.

Daniella moderating the Professor panel during Academic Orientation during Orientation Week 2022.

At the University of Saint Michael's College (USMC), Daniella has participated in numerous leadership positions ranging from moderating panels with professors and alumni to organizing, planning and running events. Daniella has been part of the first-year Orientation-Week staff for the past 4 years. In 2019, 2020 and 2021, Daniella was an Orientation Leader, with responsabilities including: leading a group of 15-30 incoming students and orienting them to university life, promoting orientation events to the group of students online and in-person, running a social media page for the group, hosting campus tours, and helping the rest of the staff where necessary. At the end of Orientation-Week 2021, Daniella was awarded Leader of the Year. In 2022, Daniella was an Orientation Marshal. This role undertook more responsabilities, including planning, organizing and executing events, among other tasks. Specifically, Daniella helped to organize the Academic Orientation - a branch of the week-long event focused on the students' academics - by contacting professors to attend panels and socials, and moderating said events.

Beyond orientation, Daniella was a part of the St. Mike's Mentorship Program as a mentor and an Academic Representative in the 2021-2022 academic year. These roles put Daniella as a first point of contact for the mentees of the program. Specifically, Daniella was a mentor to 5 first and second year students, meeting individually and as a group 1-2 times monthly. As an Academic Representative for the Physical Sciences, Daniella aided all mentees with Program of Study specific questions.

Further, Daniella has been on several committees at USMC, all of which run through the student union. These committees include the Formal Event committee in spring 2020, the Mental Health & Accessibility committee in the 2021-2022 academic year, and currently the Electoral By-Laws Review committee in the 2022-2023 academic year. These committees have not only developed skills in group leadership and advocacy for the student body, but also positively contributed to the amelioration and atmosphere of the community at USMC. Daniella also volunteered as a moderator for the St. Mike's Grad Week 2021 alumni panel. In 2022, Daniella received a Leadership Award for Outstanding Exhibition of College Spirit and Pride. In 2023, Daniella received the Father Robert Madden CSB Leadership Award for graduating students, and was featured on the USMC Admissions Instagram page for their Alumni Spotlight series.

Astronomy Volunteer Work

iREx members watching the NIRPS first-light stream.

AstroEDU Conference 2023 tour group.

Daniella has participated in astronomy outreach within Astronomy & Astrophysics department at the University of Toronto (UofT) and beyond.

At UofT, through the Dunlap Institute, the Astronomy & Astrophysics Department, and other departments, Daniella:
- lead two demos at the UofT-run, community centered, monthly event AstroTours,
- co-hosted a workshop on the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics at the 2022 event UofT Talks Presents Interstellar Health: Medicine to New Heights,
- was a panellist on the Physics Research Panel for UofT's Second Year Learning Community program in November 2022,
- helped to run a gravitational lensing workshop in May 2023 for the Pursue STEM program,
- volunteered as a workshop assistant at the UofT hosted Astronomy Education Conference in 2023,
- ran a telescope demo at the Science Rendezvous event in the summer of 2023,
- developed the curriculum and ran a session of the Age of the Universe coding workshop for high school students,
- volunteered during the Astronomy on Tap event in November 2023, as well as created and monitored social media communications during the event,
- ran a demo at the Dunlap Institute booth for the Rexdale Community Hub STEM Club Back To School event in August 2023, and
- presented the Planetarium show for the Henderson Brewery’s launch of their Cygnus X-1 Ides beer in October 2023.

Externally, Daniella:
- was an undergraduate panellist at Astronomy and Youth, an event run by high-school students called Star Chasers, and
- presented astronomy based talks at Girls SySTEM and two elementary schools.

Daniella is currently creating demos, workshops, and other interactive activities with the Bentway Northern Lights Project for their event in January 2024.
Daniella has also recently been added the the University of Toronto's Astronomy Speakers Bureau.