A Model for Community Colleges: Engaging Students in Space Weather Research

Through a 2-year NSF EAGER (Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research) award, the Queensborough Community College (QCC) of the City University of New York (CUNY), a Hispanic and minority-serving institution has implemented a high-impact integrated research and education program in solar and atmospheric physics under the umbrella discipline of space weather. A year-long space weather curriculum was developed which consists of two parts: 1) during the academic year, students are enrolled in two course-based introductory research (CURE) courses where they are introduced to space weather research; and 2) summer internship program where students are placed at partner institutions for 10-weeks. Project partners include the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Community Coordinated Modeling Center, CUNY/City College of New York and the University of Colorado at Boulder. We will present the results of this 2-year NSF EAGER project, including successes and challenges.