Karen Knierman

Assistant Teaching Professor

School of Earth and Space Exploration

Knierman is an assistant teaching professor, astronomer and astrophysicist in the School of Earth and Space Exploration. Knierman’s passion for astronomy and physics education is not only evident in her ASU classrooms, but in her impact on the broader community. For more than a decade, Knierman has trained teachers to use the Starlab portable planetarium, enabling more than 500 teachers and 34,000 students across Arizona to have access to high quality Earth and space science materials. She works with ASU students to further develop and present Starlab modules across Arizona schools, particularly in rural, inner-city and tribal communities that do not otherwise have access to field trips. Dean Kenro Kusumi describes her as embodying “each of ASU’s nine Design Aspirations at every level.” Knierman hopes to use her time as a Charter Professor to build upon her work with Starlab to create a Digital Starlab in collaboration with faculty and students in Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, enabling teachers across the state to supplement standard Earth and space science lessons with dynamic multimedia content that can be engaged with virtually, thereby expanding its impact.

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