Collaborative Research: LIGO Science Education Center Partnership - Broadening Participation

该奖项是通过巴吞鲁日地区基金会(BRAF)资助洛杉矶巴吞鲁日南方大学(SUBR)激光干涉仪引力波观测站(LIGO)科学教育中心伙伴关系、路易斯安那州利文斯顿LIGO引力波观测站(LIGO)基地和探索博物馆的合作努力的一部分。LIGO本身的管理机构是加州理工学院。该项目是LIGO科学教育中心伙伴关系的延续，重点是面向普通公众的科学宣传、教师培训和教师教育，重点是LIGO在路易斯安那州的活动。之前的一个奖项帮助创建了SEC大楼，有一个教室和一个大型展厅，展品由探索博物馆开发，工作人员是SUBR学生讲解员和一名专业工作人员(单独出资)。HBCU的多层次伙伴关系，一个尖端的研究机构和一个著名的非正式科学中心，为未来的伙伴关系创造了一个模式。随着这一合作伙伴关系的扩大，该模式得到了扩展，对这些广泛合作伙伴关系的影响的研究可以为未来利用研究实验室的资源用于教育目的提供信息。该项目将利用LIGO-SEC合作伙伴关系来扩大和培育科学、技术、工程、教育和数学(STEEM)渠道，该渠道利用代表不足的受众，并使他们参与到鼓励学生在STEEM领域推进他们的教育的技术。讲解员方案和教师方案将增加STEEM领域中未被充分代表的受众的参与。讲解员计划将培训60至80名未被充分代表的STEEM专业学生成为社区大使，并与LIGO科学教育中心的外联计划相结合，讲解员将与12,500至5,000名参与者互动。教师专业发展活动的目标是新奥尔良和巴吞鲁日的高需求地区。这些活动将使大约250名教师熟悉工程设计过程和基本的科学概念。这些教师将创建和建立互动的科学活动，用于课堂上与学生互动。研究生将在正式(学校)和非正式(LIGO-SEC)环境中进行关于使用探究和非正式科学方法的新研究。这些研究生的论文将对非正规科学教育的文献做出贡献。该项目是由正在进行的评估指导的。

This award is one component of a collaborative effort to fund the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Science Education Center Partnership between Southern University in Baton Rouge (SUBR), LA, the LIGO Livingston site in Livingston, La, through the Baton Rouge Area Foundation (BRAF), and the Exploratorium. The managing institution for LIGO itself is California Institute of Technology. The project is the continuation of the LIGO Science Education Center Partnership focused on scientific outreach to the general public, teacher training, and teacher education focused on LIGO activities in Louisiana. A previous award 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 of HBCUs, a cutting edge research facility and a renowned informal science center created a model for future partnerships. With the expansion of this partnership the model is extended, and research on the effects of these extensive partnerships can provide information for future attempts at leveraging the resources of research laboratories for educational purposes.This project will use the LIGO-SEC Partnership to amplify and nurture a Science, Technology, Engineering, Education and Mathematics (STEEM) pipeline that taps into under-represented audiences and engages them in techniques that encourage students to advance their education in STEEM fields. The docent program and the teacher programs will increase participation of under-represented audiences within the STEEM fields. The docent program will train between sixty and eighty under-represented STEEM majors to become community ambassadors in conjunction with LIGO Science Education Center's outreach program, and the docents will interact with between 12,500 and 5,000 participants. The teacher professional development activities target high-need areas in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The activities will develop around 250 teachers' familiarity with engineering design processes and underlying science concepts. These teachers will create and build interactive science activities to use in the classroom to engage with students. Graduate students will conduct new research in the use of inquiry and informal science methods within the formal (School) and informal (LIGO-SEC) environments. The graduate students' dissertations will contribute to the literature on Informal Science Education. The project is guided by an on-going evaluation.