Planning: Rural Community College Astronomy Research Consortium

Colorado Mountain College, Glenwood Springs CO

Investigators

Abstract

This project aims to serve the national interest by increasing equity and access to STEM education through the launch of a two-year college consortium in a rural region of the US. The consortium will center efforts on engaging two-year colleges students and faculty in collaborative astronomy research projects. This planning effort initially brings together key stakeholders from rural areas in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah and aims to expand to regional tribal colleges in the long-term. While undergraduate research in two-year colleges is a growing national initiative, small rural colleges often rely on unique strategies to support their students in authentic engagement with the STEM enterprise. Importantly, the nation's recent rural broadband initiative, remote online synchronous classes, and centralized internet accessed research facilities such as robotic telescopes, it is now possible to offer significant research opportunities in rural regions of the US. Ultimately, this project will leverage a collaborative model, expertise, and resources to broaden both interest and participation in STEM, particularly for students that attend two-year colleges. The overall goal of this project is to create a sustainable consortium of rural two-year colleges as a means to engage students from across the region in astronomy undergraduate research projects. The following activities will be carried out to achieve this goal: recruit rural two-year college partners to be part of the consortium, develop student research experience course materials, upgrade the Ball Observatory at the Colorado Mountain College for student remote access, and pilot the research experience at two institutions. Research projects center on precise measurements of close binary stars, using speckle astrometric techniques. The existing Small Telescope Astronomical Research Handbook will be thoroughly revised and expanded to include material on cooperative multi-institutional student team research projects. The Ball Observatory at the lead institution, Colorado Mountain College, will be updated to allow students in the four-state area to operate the telescope over the Internet. This planning proposal will result in a full proposal submitted to NSF, an established consortium of rural two-year colleges, and a model for engaging students across the region in astronomy research projects. The NSF IUSE: Innovation in Two-Year College STEM Education (ITYC) Program seeks to accelerate the impact of and advance knowledge about emerging and evidence-based practices in undergraduate STEM education at two-year colleges. 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.