Tony Smith
Tony Smith
Astronomy Educator - Online Programs
My position at ASP is Astronomy Educator - Online Programs. I support online workshops through the Learn@ASP platform, primarily the Eclipse Ambassador program. I grew up in Portland, Oregon and graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in General Science Pre-Education, originally thinking I’d become a middle school science teacher. One class on informal learning in my final term of college and an internship at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) set me down the path as an informal science educator I’ve been on for the past 10+ years. In that time I worked as a full time staff member at OMSI primarily on the Travelling Programs team doing assemblies and classroom lessons at schools around Portland, the rest of Oregon and SW Washington, and as far as Northern California and Nevada. We had a mobile planetarium which was my favorite tool to present with and was my first foray into astronomy education. When I moved to Seattle I first worked in a coffee shop which developed my identity as a coffee snob, but soon found my way into Pacific Science Center where I worked on the Portal to the Public team. I helped manage about 100 volunteer scientists in our Science Communication Fellowship program, train new cohorts of volunteers, and coordinate programs for them to interact with science center guests. When I moved to Honolulu I started working at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Hawai’i’s state cultural and natural history museum, first as Lead Planetarium Educator but then as Planetarium Manager. Being at the largest museum in Hawai’i with such a strong emphasis on Hawaiian culture, our planetarium programs incorporated Hawaiian cultural views of the sky, primarily how it is used for navigation across the Pacific. This grew my interest in multicultural astronomy and inspires me to help people understand that there are as many ways of interpreting the sky as there are cultures on Earth, and that people all over the world have been observing and using the stars, planets, moon, and sun since time immemorial. Life moved my family again, this time to Pullman, Washington where I now live working remotely for ASP. I present a few shows a month at the Washington State University Planetarium and volunteer at the Palouse Discovery Science Center when I can. I can often be found on my bike, in my running shoes or hiking boots, finding ways to be outside with my young children.
