PA Space Grant Consortium Support to Higher Education Eclipse Ballooning Projects, Eclipse Events, and Eclipse Teacher Education Workshops

The PA Space Grant Consortium (PSGC) made a considerable effort to support higher education programs and community eclipse outreach activities during the 2024 eclipse. A large amount of funding went towards several affiliate and non affiliate institutions in  support of their  undergraduate research efforts during the eclipse, more specifically their participation in the National Eclipse Ballooning Project(NEBP). This project supported many students in STEM across the state and provided them with  once  lifetime hands-on research experience.

PSGC worked with Stephanie Klixbull of the Center of Science in the Schools at PSU to host 4 teacher workshops, 2 in the Erie area and 2 in the State College, to prepare community teachers with eclipse content and pedagogical knowledge to be able to communicate this once in a lifetime event to their students. The teachers in the workshop received a portion of the eclipse glasses that  were purchased through PSGC funding and distributed to the community and other organizations by PSU’s Eberly College of Science.  A large portion of the glasses were used to supply community eclipse viewing events  such as PSU Eberly College of Science’s SolarFest which was held  Spike’s Stadium in State College, and  to a community event at the PSU Behrend campus in Erie.

NEBP Teams Supported by PSGC:

• University of Pittsburgh
  • Mentor Leads – Dr. David Turnshek, Dr. Russel Clark
  • Student Leads – Keegan McCann (team lead), Andrew Snowdy (engineering lead)
• Gannon University
  • Mentor Leads – Dr. Wookwon Lee,  Dr. Nicholas Conklin
• Drexel University partnered with Springside Chestnut Hill Acadamy – Devil Dragon Balloon Team
  • Mentor Leads – Dr. Richard CainCross (Drexel), Dr. Ajmal Yousuff (Drexel), Alissa Sperling (SCHA)
  • Drexel Student Team Leader – Sophie Kujawski
• Pennsylvania State University partnered with Lincoln University
  • Mentor Leads – Dr. Jesse McTernan (PSU), Dr. Sven Bilen(PSU), Dr. Andrey Semichaevsky (Lincoln)
• St. Francis University
  • Mentor Leads – Br. Marius Strom, Dr. Rachel Wagner, Dr. Lanika Ruzhitskaya

PSGC is also supported Temple University in their undergraduate eclipse research project. Temple University received a mini grant from PA Space Grant to perform high altitude ballooning experiment similar to NEBP. Temple  also sent a student team from their university to the path of totality and conducted hands-on experiments and collected scientific data.

• Temple University
  • Mentor Lead – Dr. John Helferty

PSGC Solar Eclipse Impacts

National Eclipse Ballooning Project (NEBP)

The 6 different teams from higher education institutions across the state of Pennsylvania traveled to and launched atmospheric research balloons to both the October 2023 annular and the April 2024 Solar eclipse.  In total around x amount of students and y amount of faculty/members  participated in this historic ballooning research project.  The teams launched balloons all along the path of the total eclipse which included: Eagle Bay, NY, Concan TX, Fort Wayne, IN.

Eclipse Glasses

PSGC used funding to support PSU Eberly College of Science’s purchase and distribution of ~45,000 eclipse glasses to communities in Central PA. This created a large impact by letting many Pennsylvanians view the eclipse without the need to purchase eclipse glasses.
All credit for planning and distribution of the eclipse glasses goes to Dr. Chris Palma.

The following is the approximate distribution of glasses throughout the state:

• Public and Private Schools in PA:  State College Area, Bellefonte Area, Bald Eagle Area, Penns Valley Area, Clearfield Area, Moshannon Valley, Philipsburg-Osceola Area, Tyrone Area, Tinicum School, Central PA Institute, Sugar Valley Rural Charter School, Soaring Heights Schools, Calvary Christian Academy, Huntingdon Christian Academy, Saint Francis School, St. John’s Catholic School, Young Scholars  – this was a mix of providing enough for the entire district or providing smaller numbers to individual schools or teachers.  approximately 19,000 were given out to these groups.
• Approximately 9000 glasses were distributed to organizations and groups in the State College community such as the Schlow Library, State College Spikes, Discovery Space, State College YMCA.  4,000 more glasses were given away within the Penn State University Park community, Glasses were distributed to students in astronomy classes, the Arboretum educational staff, WPSU, Eberly Dean’s office for prospective students, and several student orgs and departments / colleges.
• On  the day of the eclipse, 10,000 pairs were brought to to Medlar Field for Solar Fest, 8400 people came to experience 95% totality at the event! Another 3,000 were brought to the Erie campus to be used at the Eclipse Event there.

All of  the extra pairs were donated  through  American Astronomical Society  approved channels so that communities in the path of future eclipses can also have a chance to enjoy the spectacle!

Teacher Workshops

PSGC collaborated with Stephanie Klixbull from the PSU’s Center for the Science in the Schools (CSATS) to plan and execute four teacher workshops to prepare local educators for the eclipse. Two of the workshops were held in State College, PA for teachers across the state and two more were held in Erie, PA to  specifically  train teachers that were in the path of totality. Dr. Chris Palma provided valuable insights to teachers about the eclipse and showing them how to best teach about this rare educational moment. All teachers were provided a traveling stipend, continuing education credits, and class packs of eclipse glasses for attending the one-day workshop.