ARISA Lab

Education and Project Management for Participatory Science

ARISA Lab plans, manages, and implements grant-funded participatory science initiatives that create opportunities for the public to learn about and contribute to science.

What We Do

We coordinate project teams, subject-matter experts, educators, community partners, and participants; manage grant requirements, budgets, schedules, deliverables, and reporting; and develop curricula, participant training, guides, and other educational resources. We also support participant recruitment and project implementation, coordinate data collection and analysis with scientific collaborators, and lead the documentation and archiving of project data and metadata.

Current and Past Work

Eclipse Soundscapes: Citizen Science Project (2021-2026)

The NASA-funded Eclipse Soundscapes: Citizen Science Project engaged people in learning about eclipses, making multisensory observations, and collecting environmental sound data during the 2023 annular and 2024 total solar eclipses. ARISA Lab led project implementation, education, participant training, accessibility, partner and stakeholder coordination, data collection, and the archiving of participant data and associated metadata. ARISA Lab also organized the data-analysis process and coordinated with scientific subject-matter experts and research collaborators at partner institutions. The project was supported through NASA cooperative agreement 80NSSC21M0008.

Project Archive

www.EclipseSoundscapes.org

Eclipse Soundscapes: Mobile Application (2017-2021)

Originally developed at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory as part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, the NASA-funded Eclipse Soundscapes Mobile App offered multisensory ways to experience and learn about solar eclipses through audio, text, images, touch, and bilingual content. In 2020, leadership and management of the app transitioned to ARISA Lab, founded by members of the original SAO project leadership team. The app was supported through NASA awards NNX16AL62A and 80NSSC21K1172.