MESO is a “science center on wheels” to engage and excite students, teachers, and local residents with hands-on educational and research activities focused on earth and space sciences, renewable energy, and scientific instrumentation.
MESO, the Mobile Earth + Space Observatory, is an environmental and space science laboratory outfitted with hands-on educational and research instrumentation supporting activities focused on weather, climate, astronomy and renewable energy. The goal for this ‘science center on wheels’ is to engage the public in scientific inquiry and allow them to engage with authentic science first-hand, experience what it means to be a scientist, and have a realistic exposure of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) pathway.
MESO deploys to schools and communities for a day or a week at a time. Participants explore the process of science, and in-depth scientific concepts. Scientists-educators engage people directly with scientific tools such as solar and celestial telescopes, spectroscopy, infrared cameras, augmented reality sand table, gravity wells, and much more! Programs and activities are inquiry based with an emphasis on getting participants hands on scientific equipment!
Interested in purchasing a Mobile Observatory for your institution? Check out this flyer!
Our vision is to engage and excite students, teachers, researchers, and the public in science and technology through the exploration and understanding of our environment and Universe.
Our mission is to engage participants in scientific inquiry and allow them to experience first hand what it is to be a scientist, to use scientific instruments and to make observations of our world.
"We loved having MESO at Miller and
will try to get MESO back next year!
The in-class programs were jam-packed with information, and I can
tell that not only are the instructors incredibly knowledgeable
about the content, but they are incredibly passionate about what
they're teaching. It's that passion that's contagious and gets
students excited about the lessons. The afterschool programs and
the star party were amazing as well. I got GREAT feedback about how
fun the star party was (even from too-cool-for-school 8th graders).
The three facilitators were AMAZING people to work with,
collaborate with and nerd out with. Thank you :)”
- Colorado Science Teacher
"Our school experienced an environmental education program on the
Importance of Water with MESO. One of the things I appreciated was the
professionalism, passion and expertise of the staff. They were
flexible in their thinking in terms of programming and
scheduling and considered the unique needs of our community. Their
passion and scientific expertise also played a large role in the
success of the program. The level of
expertise and sophisticated equipment they had access to is not readily available in
our community. This program allowed our students to engage in
learning experiences they would not have
otherwise had the opportunity to participate in. Because of this,
starting next year, students
in all grade levels will be conducting scientific data collection
and analyzing authentic scientific
data!"
- Colorado Assistant Principal