Abstract
The National Eclipse Weather Experiment (NEWEx) was a citizen science project for atmospheric data collection from the partial solar eclipse of 20 March 20. Its role as a tool for schools outreach is discussed here, in seeking to bridge the gap between self-identification with the role of a scientist and engagement with science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects. (The science data generated have had other uses beyond this, explored elsewhere.) We describe the design of webforms for weather data collection, and the use of several external partners for the dissemination of the project nationwide. We estimate that up to 3500 pupils and teachers took part in this experiment, through the 127 schools postcodes identified in the data submission. Further analysis revealed that 43.3% of the schools were primary schools and 35.4% were secondary. In total, 96.3% of participants reported themselves as ‘captivated’ or ‘inspired’ by NEWEx. We also found that 60% of the schools that took part in the experiment lie within the highest quintiles of engagement with higher education, which emphasizes the need for the scientific community to be creative when using citizen science projects to target hard-to-reach audiences.This article is part of the themed issue ‘Atmospheric effects of solar eclipses stimulated by the 2015 UK eclipse’.
Highlights
On the morning of 20 March 2015, the Moon’s orbital path crossed in front of the Sun, casting a shadow over planet Earth
We have presented National Eclipse Weather Experiment (NEWEx) as a Citizen science (CS) tool for schools outreach, covering the issues of designing, facilitating and disseminating the collection of data through the use of online surveys or webforms
We have explored the demographics of schools taking part in the CS project, together with their feedback about the experience
Summary
On the morning of 20 March 2015, the Moon’s orbital path crossed in front of the Sun, casting a shadow over planet Earth. Further analysis of the 1999 eclipse using a high-resolution weather forecasting model [10] indicated the need for a denser network of observations to advance understanding of wind speed and cloud effects This led to the idea of using a CS approach to obtain meteorological parameters across the UK during the solar eclipse of 20 March 2015—NEWEx. In addition to the science motivation of acquiring a spatially widespread and dense dataset, NEWEx presented a unique opportunity to obtain measurements from a national CS project and the strong associated science outreach possibilities. In the first iteration of the webform, generated about a month before the eclipse, the user was asked to enter the time of observation to a resolution of 1 min and to fill in the temperature in degrees Celsius, rounded to the nearest 0.5◦C, wind speed in miles per hour and wind direction, the latter chosen from a drop-down list of compass points This first version was released internally among peers. Even though only 26% of the participants found out about NEWEx through media coverage (see §4 for further details), we reinforce the importance of the media as a vehicle for dissemination: from local radio interviews to influential national newspapers (www.theguardian.com/science/ solar-eclipse, www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3003941/Did-feel-eerie-wind-solar-eclip se-Onlookers-report-wind-dropping-birds-going-silent.html) and television, the unexpected ability of NEWEx to raise media interest highlighted the broad interest in the topic
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