By Erin Granger
Great Falls College MSU News Service
GREAT FALLS – Mackenzie Dwoznik has always been fascinated by the night sky.
“Since I was 11 or 12, I would just stare up at the sky,” Dwoznik said. “It’s just so amazing to me to look up at the night sky and see the stars and know that not everything up there has been discovered.”
Dwoznik is currently attending Great Falls College MSU, completing her general education, math and science classes, but her ultimate goal is to work as a physicist, researching the unknown, undiscovered elements of space.
“I want to be someone who makes discoveries,” Dwoznik said.
Dwoznik is taking a step toward that goal thanks to a $900 grant from the Montana Space Grant Consortium’s Award for Research in Engineering and Science, or ARES, program. She won the competitive grant after submitting plans to build a telescope out of parts made by a 3D printer and a Raspberry Pi, a small, inexpensive computer.
“Part of our goal is to build a telescope that is easily accessible and affordable,” Dwoznik said.
A Raspberry Pi is about the size of a credit card and can be purchased for about $35 from Amazon.
Dwoznik isn’t the first person to build this type of telescope. The University of Sheffield in England came up with the design, calling it the PiKon telescope. They’ve made the plans for the telescope, which is based on Newtonian Reflecting Telescope, available for anyone to use.
“It’s an open source telescope,” Dwoznik said. “We’ll mostly be using it to look at the moon. I don’t know how far we’ll be able to look.”
The first phase of Dwoznik’s project will be to make a telescope following the available plans. In the second phase, she will find a way to improve upon the design and make changes to it.
“I’m excited to see what we end up tweaking and adjusting to make it our own,” she said.
Dwoznik will complete her telescope in March and present it at the MSGC Student Research Symposium in Bozeman in April.
“In all my years of teaching, I have never come across someone like Mackenzie,” said GFC MSU chemistry instructor Dr. Dan Casmier. “She has an innate curiosity and willingness to learn new things about science and the world around her.”
It was from Casmier that Dwoznik first learned about this type of telescope.
“Before I was even aware of the ARES grant, I came across an article about a group in the UK that had been funded on Indiegogo in which they constructed a telescope using 3D printed parts, a length of PVC pipe, and a Raspberry Pi with a camera sensor,” Casmier said. “I thought it might pique her interest, not only in astronomy, but also give her a project that would involve getting immersed in a whole variety of topics.”
Dwoznik and Casmier started discussing making their own telescope, using a 3D printer at the college.
Dr. Brenda Canine, instructional designer and NANSLO lab manager, suggested Dwoznik apply for the ARES grant, which will pay Dwoznik $10 an hour, up to $900, for the time she spends working on the project.
“The really cool thing about this grant is it pays for the student’s time,” Canine said. “It’s like a part-time job.”
That makes this a lot more doable for a student who, without the grant money, may have to spend their time working at a job, rather than working on a project.
To complete the project, Dwoznik will get to learn a wide range of new skills. She’ll have to learn some coding to program the Raspberry Pi. She’ll also learn about 3D printing and design, light optics and imaging.
“Everything that is part of STEM is in this one little project,” Dwoznik said.
And that’s the idea of the grant, Canine said.
“It’s really good hands-on, project-based learning,” she said.
“By getting herself involved with every aspect of the development and construction of the telescope, she will be gaining a greater understanding of not only physics and astronomy, but how different disciplines intersect and rely on each other to accomplish a greater goal,” Casmier added.
Surprisingly, up until November, Dwoznik had never before looked through a telescope.
Dwoznik, originally from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, first attended college at Boise State University. She completed her freshman year, and then took a few years off, unsure of what she wanted to study. She got married, and the Air Force brought her and her husband to Great Falls.
“I didn’t want to go back to school until I decided what I wanted to study,” Dwoznik said.
Dwoznik enrolled at GFC MSU this fall with plans to go on to medical school. However, Dwoznik couldn’t get her mind off of the night sky. She told Casmier about her interest in astrophysics.
“He just listened to me and encouraged me and kind of allowed me to realize my dream of studying astronomy,” Dwoznik said.
“When I mentioned that there was a local astronomy club in town, her eyes immediately widened with an intense interest,” Casmier said.
It was at that astronomy club meeting in November where she first had the chance to look through a telescope.
“That was it for me; I was hooked,” she said.
Dwoznik had been discouraged by people in the past in regards to pursuing a career in astronomy.
“I feel like this grant is a huge blessing and it’s God’s way of showing me this is the right path for me,” she said. “It just helped solidify that this is what I should be doing.”
Down the road, Dwoznik plans to earn her bachelor’s in physics with a minor in astronomy and then go on to get at least one Ph.D.
“I’d love to get a research position,” Dwoznik said. “My absolute dream is working for NASA. I have no idea if it’s possible or how long it will take me to get there.”
Her recent grant award is certainly a step in the right direction. The Montana Space Grant Consortium is part of NASA, a component of its National Space Grant College and Fellowship Program.
Dwoznik was shocked when she received an email earlier in December informing her she won the grant, and was particularly touched by one sentence in that email:
“This honor reflects your past achievements as well as your present and future commitment to NASA’s mission.”
To learn more about Great Falls College MSU and its affiliation with the Montana Space Grant Consortium, contact admissions at 406-268-3700 or visit gfcmsu.edu.
