Engaging the Public with Solar Eclipses Through Mini-Grants

通过小额赠款让公众参与日食

• 批准号: 2318745
• 负责人: Kevin Marvel
• 金额: $ 37.47万
• 依托单位: American Astronomical Society
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2318745&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Engaging; Public; Solar; Eclipses; Through

This project aims to serve the national interest by using upcoming solar eclipses to advance the public understanding of science. Two major solar eclipses are coming to North America: an annular solar eclipse on October 14, 2023, and a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. These events provide excellent opportunities for science education and outreach to students, teachers, and the general public. The investigators will operate a "mini-grants program" to support geographically broad efforts to engage people in the excitement of the eclipses and the science surrounding them. This effort will be based on a similar mini-grants program (supported by NSF Award DUE-1564535) that the investigators ran for the total solar eclipse in August 2017. The activities supported by those mini-grants reached approximately 29,000 members of the public.Using groundwork laid by the American Astronomical Society's (AAS) Solar Eclipse Task Force (SETF), the investigators will advertise the mini-grants program widely and invite short proposals from nonprofit organizations (primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, public libraries, community groups, etc.) to engage local communities in educational activities and citizen science associated with the eclipses. Proposals might include, for example, building Sun-Earth-Moon models to explain the geometry of the eclipse, constructing pinhole viewers or other safe observing equipment, hosting observing events, or providing professional development for teachers. A major priority will be projects that will reach a diverse array of individuals, especially individuals from groups historically underrepresented in STEM. The mini-grant proposals will be reviewed by a committee of experts (primarily from the SETF), and approximately 40 mini-grants (the majority under $5,000) will be awarded. The mini-grant recipients will be required to collect data on the participants in their projects and to participate in a systematic evaluation of the impact of the projects. An SETF member will be assigned to each mini-grant recipient to serve as a liaison, and the mini-grant recipients will participate in a forum following the eclipses to share the results of their projects.This award is co-funded by the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) in the Directorate for STEM Education (EDU), the Division of Astronomical Sciences (AST) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), and the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS) in the Directorate for Geosciences (GEO).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该项目旨在通过使用即将到来的太阳能日食来提高公众对科学的理解来满足国家利益。两次主要的太阳能日食即将到来：2023年10月14日的环形日食，以及2024年4月8日的日食。这些活动为科学教育和向学生，老师和公众提供了极好的机会。调查人员将开展一项“迷你奖励计划”，以支持地理上广泛的努力，以吸引人们兴奋的日食及其周围的科学。这项努力将基于类似的迷你奖励计划（由NSF奖励1564535奖），调查人员在2017年8月跑步了太阳日食。这些微型赠款所支持的活动达到了大约29,000名公共成员。来自非营利组织（小学，中学，大学，公共图书馆，社区群体等）的建议，使当地社区参与与日食相关的教育活动和公民科学。建议可能包括建立太阳 - 地月底模型来解释日食的几何形状，构建针孔观众或其他安全观察设备，托管观察事件或为教师提供专业发展。一个主要的优先事项将是，将吸引各种个人，尤其是来自STEM中人数不足的团体的个人，尤其是来自各个群体的个人。小型赠款提案将由专家委员会（主要来自SETF）进行审查，将授予大约40个小额贷款（大多数低于5,000美元）。小型收件人将被要求收集有关其项目参与者的数据，并参与对项目影响的系统评估。 SETF成员将被分配给每个小型收件人作为联络人，而小型赠款的接收者将在Eclipses之后参加一个论坛，以分享其项目的结果。该奖项由STEM Education（EDU）（EDU）的本科教育（EDU）的本科教育局（EDU），体育局（ASPI SCIE）（ASPI）（ASPIA）（ASPIA）（ASPAINATIC）（ASPAINTIC）（ASPAINTIC）（ASPAINTIC）（ASPAINTIC）（ASPAINTIC）（ASPAINTIC）（ASPAINTIC）（ASPAINTIC）（ASPAINTIAL）（ASP）。地球科学局（GEO）的大气和地理水平科学（AGS）。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被认为值得通过评估。