ELSOL: A citizen science project for college students

Abstract

ELSOL is a pilot project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The objective is to learn methods that increase the participation of minoritized individuals living in high poverty, from urban and rural areas, in STEM careers. The final goal is that these students do not stop their studies with only a two-year Associate of Science degree, and they want to continue studying in a university for at least another two or three years. This goal will be achieved by engagement through experiential learning in which students will take an introductory astrobiology/data science class that uses a Citizen Science (CS)-NASA radiotelescope. We describe the setup of the project in this proceeding, we share the main concepts learned from our students, and graphs obtained by the first generation. Likewise, we share some of our observations and recommendations to implement for the next semester that we teach the class.