A Grassroots Effort to Diversify Solar and Heliospheric Physics

使太阳和日光层物理学多样化的草根努力

• 批准号: 1203018
• 负责人: Jacob Heerikhuisen
• 金额: $ 4万
• 依托单位: University of Alabama in Huntsville
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-15 至 2014-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1203018&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Grassroots; Effort; Diversify; Solar; Heliospheric

This planning grant is being used to develop the Helio-PROTEGEE (Physics Research Opportunity Toward Equality using a Grassroots Education Experience) program, which is a grassroots effort to engage talented students from diverse backgrounds in hands-on research experiences in heliophysics topics, and to mentor students in heliophysics so that they may be successfully placed in NSF-REU summer research programs. The program is motivated by daunting statistics. African-Americans are under-represented in physics at all levels, and it is estimated that African-Americans make up only about 1% of the approximately 1200 solar, geospace and heliospheric physicists in the United States. One difficulty of recruiting minority students to heliophysics is simple geography. Fifty-four percent of African-American's live in the Southeast region of the United States and 77% of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are in the Southeast. The vast majority of heliophysicists, however, live and work outside of this region. The heliophysics research groups at University of Alabama-Huntsville and the Marshall Space Flight Center are notable exceptions. These institutions are situated within a four-hour drive of 21 HBCUs, offering an ideal resource for engaging diverse students in hands-on geoscience activities, facilitating recruitment of under-represented students into the field.Two key techniques that have been proven to successfully engage and retain African- American students in STEM disciplines are mentoring and inclusion in research programs. The ultimate goal of the Helio-PROTEGEE program is to expose a large number of under-represented students to research opportunities in heliophysics, to cultivate sustainable connections with faculty at the HBCU's, to develop mentor relationships with interested students, and to recruit students for existing and on-going heliophysics summer research programs, specifically NSF heliophysics research experience for undergraduate (REU) programs. The planning effort underway will define strategies for conducting meaningful outreach at 10 targeted universities in the southeastern US and engaging interested STEM majors in introductory heliophysics workshops. One goal of the planning effort is to develop mentoring relationships with a fraction of the students so as to help them find REU positions and provide them with additional background experiences in solar physics.

这一规划补助金被用于开发Helio-PROTEGEE（利用基层教育经验实现平等的物理学研究机会）计划，这是一项基层努力，旨在让来自不同背景的优秀学生参与太阳物理学主题的实践研究经验，并指导太阳物理学学生，以便他们可以成功地参加NSF-REU夏季研究计划。该计划的动机是令人生畏的统计数据。非裔美国人在各个层次的物理学中的代表性不足，据估计，非裔美国人仅占美国约1200名太阳能，地球空间和日光层物理学家的1%。招收少数民族学生学习太阳物理学的一个困难是简单的地理。54%的非裔美国人居住在美国东南部地区，77%的历史黑人学院和大学（HBCU）位于东南部。然而，绝大多数的日射气象学家都生活和工作在这一地区之外。阿拉巴马大学亨茨维尔分校和马歇尔太空飞行中心的太阳物理学研究小组是明显的例外。这些机构位于21 HBCU的四小时车程内，为吸引不同学生参与实践地球科学活动提供了理想的资源，促进了代表性不足的学生进入该领域的招聘。已被证明成功吸引和留住非裔美国学生的两个关键技术是指导和纳入研究计划。太阳能-PROTEGEE计划的最终目标是让大量代表性不足的学生接触太阳物理学研究机会，培养与HBCU教师的可持续联系，与感兴趣的学生建立导师关系，并为现有和正在进行的太阳物理学夏季研究计划招募学生，特别是NSF太阳物理学研究经验本科生（REU）计划。正在进行的规划工作将确定在美国东南部10所目标大学进行有意义的推广活动的战略，并让感兴趣的STEM专业的学生参加太阳物理学入门讲习班。规划工作的一个目标是与一小部分学生建立指导关系，以帮助他们找到REU职位，并为他们提供太阳物理学方面的额外背景经验。