explOration of Astronomy by Kentucky Students (OAKS)

一项名为OAKS（肯塔基州学生天文学探索）的新的天文学研究和教育伙伴关系将被开发出来，以改善肯塔基州联邦农村少数民族学生参与天体物理学研究的机会。合作伙伴是穆尔黑德州立大学和伯里亚大学等农村服务机构，以及北肯塔基大学和路易斯维尔大学的天体物理研究系。该项目将在肯塔基州开展实质性和可持续的合作伙伴关系，为肯塔基州的本科生提供个性化的指导、财务和学术支持，并为他们提供进一步研究的资源和机会，并在国家层面上与天文学界进行接触。这将有助于降低准入障碍，如资金、学术的隐性课程以及对基本研究工具的熟悉程度。专业天文学家分散在全州的小物理系，但在肯塔基地区天文学会（KAAS）中联合起来。在KAAS的框架下，教师们组织了关于特定天文主题和肯塔基地区会议的共享暑期在线课程。OAKS将在这些合作的基础上支持学生的早期研究，包括第一个项目，在专业会议上的第一次演讲和第一篇论文。肯塔基州的一些县是美国大陆最贫穷的县之一，有相当数量来自这些背景的学生在肯塔基州的一所州立学校上大学，通常是家里的第一个。这些学生是该计划的主要目标。该项目由美国国家科学基金会天文科学部和刺激竞争性研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A new research and education partnership in astronomy called OAKS (explOration of Astronomy by Kentucky Students) will be developed to improve access for rural minority students to opportunities in astrophysical research across the Kentucky Commonwealth. The partners are rural serving institutions such as Moorehead State and Berea University, and the astrophysics research departments of the Northern Kentucky University and the University of Louisville. The program will pilot a substantive and sustainable partnership spanning Kentucky to provide personalized mentoring, financial and academic support to KY undergraduates, plus the resources and opportunities to further their research and engage with the astronomical community on a national level. This will help to lower barriers to access such as finances, the hidden curriculum of academia, and familiarity with the basic tools of research.Professional astronomers are dispersed throughout the state in small physics departments but have banded together in the Kentucky Area Astronomical Society (KAAS). Under the KAAS umbrella, faculty have organized shared summer online classes on specific astronomical topics and the Kentucky Area Meeting. OAKS will build on these collaborations to support early student research, including a first project, a first presentation at a professional meeting and a first paper. Kentucky has some of the poorest counties in the continental United States and substantial numbers of students from these backgrounds are attending university at one of its state schools, often as the first in their family. Such students are the primary target of the program. This project is jointly funded by the NSF Division of Astronomical Sciences and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.