Learn more about the Partner Institutions collaborating with CosmoQuest by helping build a community of citizen scientists.
Planetary Science Institute
The Planetary Science Institute studies the origin, characteristics and evolution of our solar system, including Earth, and the origin, characteristics, and evolution of the planetary systems of other stars, and conveys the resulting knowledge to the scientific community and the public at large. This knowledge is used to support and encourage both human and robotic exploration of space and to promote science education and science literacy, by providing the facilities, infrastructure, and institutional settings necessary for the scientists and staff to achieve these goals. PSI will provide professional development to formal and informal educators to help students engage with current NASA data. Additionally, PSI will lead an effort to increase the number of astronomy related science fair projects, locally in Arizona and across the nation.
You can learn more about each of our team members here.
McDonald Observatory
McDonald Observatory, a research unit of The University of Texas at Austin, is one of the world’s leading centers for astronomical research, teaching, and public education and outreach. This institution will, in coordination with NASA, train teachers from regional school districts to integrate citizen science projects and curricula into their classroom programs. They will provide residential master teacher workshops at McDonald Observatory, smaller workshops at the Texas state science teachers’ conference, and work to help in pilot testing new activities, lesson plans, and materials for Citizen Science projects. These master teachers will also go back and train more teachers at their institutions, broadening the reach of this program.
McREL International
McREL International is a non-profit, non-partisan education research and development organization that since 1966 has turned knowledge about what works in education into practical, effective guidance and training for K–12 teachers and education leaders across the U.S. and around the world.
McREL’s consultants will work with educators to integrate CosmoQuest activities into the classroom and help deepen their practice through a CosmoQuest professional learning community highlighting space and earth sciences. In addition, McREL’s research and evaluation team will conduct rigorous internal evaluation of CosmoQuest initiatives to ensure the project is reaching its goal of making impactful innovations.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is located in Edwardsville, Illinois, about 20 miles (32 km) northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. SIUE was established in 1957 as an extension of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Ward-Beecher Planetarium
The existence of the Ward Beecher Planetarium at Youngstown State University is due to the generosity of Youngstown industrialist and philanthropist Ward Beecher. In accordance with his wishes that the sciences benefit young people, the planetarium has always been free and open to the public. The planetarium will be developing full-dome video and 3D animation materials that will be distributed for free to planetaria across the globe. See more at Science on the Halfsphere.