External Resources and Initiatives

The Prison Education Project is an initiative of the UA Department of English to teach in the local State prison system. 

Steward Lecturers: Ed Prather

The mission of the CSMA is to enhance the participation of underrepresented minorities in astronomy at all levels of experience.

Committee Member Representative: Carlos Vargas

The LightSound is a device that converts ambient light brightness to sound in real-time. It is designed for the blind and low-vision community as a way to make solar eclipses and astronomy more accessible and inclusive for all.

Steward Program Lead: Sóley Hyman

The Imagine Your STEM Future program is integrated into the school day in order to increase accessibility for student participants and takes place 3-4 days per week. The curriculum includes a combination of hands-on STEM activities, reflective group conversations on STEM academic and career pathways, the importance of diversity in science and engineering communities, and visits from inspiring STEM role models

Through implementing the engineering design process, students begin to build STEM skills such as designing, building, and prototyping, but more importantly for this program, learn communication and collaboration skills as they work in small groups.

Each element of the program has been chosen based on best practices for maximizing impact on girls' interest and persistence in STEM. While Imagine Your STEM Future is designed with the interests and experiences of girls in mind, it is open to students regardless of sex or gender.

Undergraduates can become formally involved in this program as a mentor. Please contact IYSF Program Coordinator Gaby Perez for information.

Steward Observatory contact: Becca Levy

The Bio/Diversity Project is a collaborative effort between WISE and Saguaro National Park aimed at increasing the diversity of voices included in discussion of environmental problems and the development of their solutions. By increasing access to innovative environmental science educational opportunities and training, mentoring, and work experience along the K-16+ educational pipeline, we aim to get students excited about environmental science and support them along their educational journeys and into the workforce.

Steward Observatory contact: Becca Levy

CosmicVarta is a platform for promoting Indian Astronomy research in a non-technical way. We encourage Indian Astronomers to write about their research in a way that is engaging as well as understandable to a wide audience. We help edit those writings and then publish it on our website. We also have resources on how to build a career in Astronomy, particularly aimed for students in Institutions where Astronomy is not a mainstream subject.

Steward Observatory contact: Himansh Rathore

The APS and the AAS have produced a second edition of the LGBT+ guide which first appeared in 2014. The guide contains sections relevant to many areas of Steward activities ranging from general departmental climate to hiring to class room climate to mentoring of grad students.

The Cal-Bridge program has the mission of creating opportunities for traditionally underrepresented groups to participate and advance in physics, astronomy, computer science, and computer engineering and to increase their numbers in PhD programs in those fields.