About
EdEon is a STEM Learning Center that creates innovative experiences in formal and informal education for secondary and college students. Funded by the US Department of Education, NASA, and NSF. The EdEon team develops learning opportunities for in-person, hybrid and remote access, and trains educators. We also support public outreach through the creation of scientific illustrations and visualizations, with a focus on discoveries in astrophysics and heliophysics.
Our mission is to develop exciting formal and informal educational materials that inspire students in grades 5-14 to pursue STEM careers, to train teachers nation-wide in the classroom use of these materials, and to enhance science literacy for the general public, with a special focus on increasing the numbers of under-represented students in STEM.
If you are an SSU undergraduate or graduate student interested in working with us, please visit Handshake, where you can find specific student job information.
A 2018 Pew research study reports that 73% of U.S> adults believe the search for life and planets
that could support life should be important for NASA. Capitalizing on this interest, EdEon designs
facilitated and stand-alone online learning activities as part of the Astronomy from Home website. These
activities replicate scientific practices used to learn about the orbits and science of exoplanets.
Using images of the night sky that include known exoplanets, participants can analysis images online to
develop and understand light curves. Visit the website and learn more at afh.sonoma.edu.
EdEon’s Learning by Making (LbyM) program is an integrated 1-year high school curriculum aimed at
providing technology and science education to rural schools. Fifty-three percent of all schools in the U.S. are considered rural and do not have access to quality Computer, Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (CSTEM) educational offerings. Independent evaluations by WestEd have shown students in the
LbyM program outperform their control group peers by a full letter grade in science and a half grade in
mathematics. Learn more at lbym.sonoma.edu.
The Rising Data program is a project that developed flight related curriculum, intended to increase interest in University engineering programs and NASA-related career pathways. Rising Data provides hands-on flight project experience through one semester community college courses, in which students design and develop Arduino based payloads that are flown on rockets, drones or both.
Are you part of a rural school district with a high school of 400 or more students? We are looking for such schools to be a part of our Department of Education research study on the efficacy of our Learning by Making program.
Our Work In Astronomy
Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
NASA’s Fermi satellite was launched into low-Earth orbit on June 11, 2008, and continues to map the
entire gamma-ray sky every three hours. Extremely bright emission from the plane of the Milky Way galaxy
dominates the high-energy gamma-ray sky, formed when cosmic ray particles interact with our Galaxy’s
dust, gas and starlight. EdEon supports the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope project by creating sky maps
and other illustrations of scientific discoveries and by maintaining educational resources. Visit the website at fermi.sonoma.edu and download EdEon’s stained-glass style posters here.
Astronomy from Home
Our Work In The Classroom
Learning by Making
Rising Data
See more projects ->
Connect With Us
Are you implementing CSTEM activities with teens or undergraduates? We have resources for such programs and can help you choose the ones that would work best for you.
Are you an undergraduate student at Sonoma State University? We are always looking for students with a passion for computer science, engineering, physics, astrobiology, marketing, science education, and outreach.
If you are interested in these opportunities or would simply like to know more about EdEon, send us an email at edeon@sonoma.edu.