Collaborative Research: LIGO-SEC Partnership-Strengthening Communities of Learners

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This award is a component of a collaborative effort to fund the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Science Education Center (SEC) Partnership. This project is a combined effort with multiple partners: LIGO Livingston, Southern University of Baton Rouge (SUBR), and San Francisco’s Exploratorium. These partners collaborate with Greater New Orleans-STEM (GNO-STEM), the University of Glasgow in Scotland, Scottish Schools Education Research Centre (SSERC), Fletcher Technical Community College (FTCC), and the Southern University Shreveport Louisiana (SUSLA) College Connect program. The project is focused on scientific outreach to the public, teacher training, and teacher education focused on LIGO activities in Louisiana. The partnership plans to engage under-represented undergraduates and K-12 students in STEEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Education, and Mathematics). Previous awards helped create the SEC building, with a classroom and a large exhibit hall, with exhibits developed by the Exploratorium and staffed by SUBR student docents and a (separately funded) professional staff. The multilayered partnership, a cutting-edge research facility, and a renowned informal science center created a model for future collaboration models. With the expansion of this partnership, the model is extended, and research on the effects of these extensive collaborations can provide information for future attempts at leveraging the resources of research laboratories for educational purposes. SUBR & SUSLA Connect STEEM undergraduates will be engaged as docents and role models in school and community outreach led by LIGO’s Science Education Center in consultation with the Exploratorium. Docents will facilitate field trips to LIGO, conduct activities at family math and science nights and public outreach events. Workshops through SUBR, GNO-STEM, and FTCC will be given to in-service and pre-service teachers to strengthen their conceptual understanding of and excitement for the physical sciences. These teachers will then be supported in field trips to LIGO to enhance their students’ STEM Identities. Select teachers will be trained to be leaders in their school communities, magnifying their training effect. Louisiana science teachers will attend Exploratorium’s Summer Institute, and Louisiana physics teachers will participate in an exchange with colleagues in Scotland. Ph.D. students in the SUBR SMED program will conduct detailed research on programs and activities performed by the LIGO-SEC Partnership. Inverness Research will conduct formative and summative assessments of the programs and provide recommendations for strengthening the project.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.