Call for education partners 2018

astroEDU
astroEDU
Jul 28, 2017 · 3 min read

Las Cumbres Observatory is pleased to announce that we are accepting applications for new education partners with projects to run between 1 December 2017–1 December 2018.

History of the LCO Education Program

Las Cumbres Observatory launched its education program in 2008, when we began partnering with groups specializing in astronomy education, under the direction of Dr. Edward Gomez.

LCO offers a unique resource for studying astronomy by providing observation time on our network of robotic telescopes that span the Northern and Southern hemispheres. You can follow a variable star as it changes, track an asteroid across the sky, or observe recently discovered supernovae.

Since 2008 we have developed many resources to support educational projects in astronomy.

Our education program currently has 7 education partners and has reached an estimated 15,000 students across the world. By working with our education partners many of our students have won state science fairs, published peer-reviewed papers, and even been awarded college/university scholarships.

Do you want to become an LCO education partner?

We are looking for people and groups with interesting, engaging, and innovative ideas for educational projects in astronomy. If you have a really good idea that you think is appropriate for LCO, we will be happy to discuss that possibility with you and even help you get your project started.

We are looking for:

  • Projects that make use of LCO’s unique capabilities, which include our global network of telescopes and scheduling software. Projects which involve monitoring of astronomical events or following up on recent astronomical discoveries are particularly suitable.
  • Medium-sized or large groups. If your audience size is less than ~20, please consider joining with another education partner.
  • Formal or informal education projects. Projects are not limited to ones directly related to school curriculum. Original research projects involving students and purely science communication projects are also of great interest.

We welcome applications from:

  • Organized programs working with students or teachers. Applications from individual teachers for projects which only involve their students will only be considered if they provide ways to scale up the project to include more teachers. LCO is able to help set up such projects, but it will be the responsibility of the project leader(s) to maintain the project.
  • Organized programs working with amateur astronomers.
  • Museums, planetaria, science centers offering organized programs to their visitors.
  • International groups offering organized programs. Such a program could serve a community anywhere on Earth (or even spanning different countries) and in any language.
  • People involved in astronomy education with interesting and innovative ideas, suited to LCO’s capabilities.

We provide:

  • Observation time on our telescopes. A total of 1000 hours of time on our 0.4m telescope network is available to be shared by all education partner project, annually (unused quota will not be automatically available for use in subsequent years).
  • There is no fee to becoming an education partner and for using LCO through this program. LCO will bear all of the costs of providing telescope time, including the associated support and infra-structure costs.
  • Mentoring in setting up your project, including any links with other partners, testing of LCO facilities, use of our Observing Portal and APIs, and discussion of educational content.
  • On-going support for your project coordinators during your project.

Education partners provide:

  • Individual user support. You will be the primary support contact for your users. LCO will assist with technical problems or bugs only through each partner’s point of contact.
  • Educational support materials. You will be responsible for creating all the support materials and education activity documents needed for your audience to participate in your project.
  • Progress reports for your project and information on the project participants.

For More Information on Applying, visit lco.global/news/call-for-education-partners-2018/

astroEDU

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astroEDU

Peer-reviewed Open-access Astronomy Education Activities Platform http://iau.org/astroedu

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