Introduction to research through ham radio

 

Context

Audience

This project is designed for first-year college students. It would be appropriate for anyone interested in learning the basics of scientific research/writing. It is geared towards individual(s) with an interest in space physics or ham radio, although it provides valuable skills to anyone just starting in research. 

Skills

This project is designed for individual(s) with basic coding skills. Python 3 is used in this project. Understanding of space physics and/or ham radio is useful, but definitely not needed.

Activity Time

This project may be folded into an existing course, or could be covered as a stand-alone project. I would budget about 6 to 7 weeks of class time for this project. 

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

By the end of the project, the students should

  • Have a better understanding of space physics 
  • Understand tools that researchers employ - this project uses Python to analyze ham radio data and satellite data 
  • Having a working knowledge of manipulating the JupyterLab notebooks to form conclusions about the data.
  • Write finding up in a scientific paper and give an oral talk on their findings. 

Description and Teaching Method

  • Step 1: Students were tasked to find a scientific paper in the filed of space physics. Working with a partner, they read the article and gave a presentation on the article. It was required to be a peer-reviewed article. The skills learned from this step included finding scientific research articles, distinguishing between news articles and peer-reviewed publications as well as provided an introduction to the field of space physics
  • Step 2: We discussed what ham radio is. As many students are not licensed operators, we had them listen to KiwiSDRs. They were to identify the call signs of at least 5 different contacts. We spent about 20 minutes in class working on this. If this is a class activity, please note that each station has a limited number of listeners (only 4 per station). This was not a problem as there are many stations out there. The skills learned in this step is to better understand what ham radio is, as well as, actually hear what contacts sound like. 
  • Step 3: (Optional - but beneficial) Have a qualified expert in the field give a presentation on space physics discussing solar flares, radio black-outs, the ionosphere, and different measurement techniques space physics use to understand the atmosphere. The skills learned here is additional background. If no speaker is available, there are multiple YouTube videos that can be shown. Approximate time would be 1 hour. 
  • Step 4: Complete the JupyterLab plotting worksheet. This is included on the webpage. This walks students through the basics of plotting in python. The skills learned from here are a review of python skills and understanding the nuisances of plotting in python. 
  • Step 5: We provided the students with processed JupyterLab notebooks.  The templates included a summary plot of GOES-15 data. Here students could identify and label solar flares from the time spans of: May 2013, April 2014 or May 2015. Once a solar flare was identified, they would be given the corresponding JupyterLab notebook that had the amateur radio data to analyze (note the amateur radio data was obtained from WSRPNet and RBN). The goal was to see how a solar flare led to a radio blackout. The students would change the dates in the JupyterLab notebook to focus in on their chosen flare. These plots were the building blocks of the scientific paper they were to write. The skills learned here included analyzing and drawing conclusions from data. If this activity is used with advanced coders, I would suggest to start with the raw data.
  • Step 6:The students use the Overleaf template to write their findings. They need to properly cite any references used. They also gave an oral talk on their findings. 

Teaching Notes and Tips

This was incorporated into a 100 level physics and engineering course (fall 2021). The project was introduced at the start of the semester and scattered throughout. In the future, I would block off about 6-weeks to complete this project. 

While this project is heavily based in space physics, I do think the topic can be changed while keeping the same structure. I would budget for about 2 to 3 weeks of prep time to introduce a new topic. 

Assessment

I assessed the students on their paper and presentation. The students were allowed to work independently or as a team. 

Acknowledgements

Special thank you to Dr. Nathaniel Frissell and Prof. Nicholas Truncale who taught additional sections in the fall of 2021 with me. 

Attachments

Overleaf Research Paper Template

GOES- 15 satellite summary JupyterLab notebook

May 2013, April 2014, and May 2015 amateur radio data with corresponding Excel spread-sheets

HamSCI PowerPoint template for a research presentation