Collaborative Research: LIGO-SEC Partnership Ripple Effects - Engaging Communities for Lifelong Learning Impacts

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. The project is focused on scientific outreach to the public, docent training, and teacher professional development, involving LIGO activities in Louisiana. The partnership plans to engage 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 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 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' involvement in STEM. 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. This partnership model connects a university, a research facility, and a leading informal science center. Efforts will enhance collaborations at the LIGO Hanford site in year one, with the aim of developing similar educational ecosystems. 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.