Science Activation Grant in Idaho’s Dark Sky Reserve

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) —In 2017 Idaho led the nation by having the first ever gold-tier dark sky reserve. Since then, the members of the reserve had two goals: conserve the dark sky for future generations and educate the community about the resource we have here in our backyard.

One of the requirements of being a dark sky reserve is to actively work and promote the dark sky alliance through events like star parties, seminars, and various other programming that can be done at each group’s discretion.

“We have to do a report to IDA (International Dark-Sky Alliance) to tell what we’ve done throughout the year and how we’re achieving our dark sky status and maintaining that” Carol Cole, President of the Idaho Dark Sky Alliance, told KMVT in an interview.

The goal of educating the community and getting them interested in learning has been made easier with partnerships from around the state including one from Boise State University which expanded even more after a grant from NASA.

“We pitched this proposal to NASA back in 2021 to provide initially $1,000,000 of support, and then we got an expansion of our grant to a million and a half,” Dr. Brian Jackson, associate professor of physics at Boise State University said.

The grant in question falls under the Science Activation Program, and in the proposal put together by Dr. Brian Jackson the core of it was centered around the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve, and to help underserved communities.

“One of the key things I wanted to put in this grant was support for the community. What could we do for the folks in the reserve and throughout Idaho that they wanted? So, we worked very hard with the folks in the reserve, other stakeholders in the state to figure out what it is that we could do to support what was already happening to sort of help grow and cultivate interest in science and astronomy across the state” Dr. Jackson explained.

It was this mindset that was a determining factor in giving the grant to Boise State University.

“What Dr. Jackson and his team have been able to do is really take to heart one of our core values…And so what he’s done is he’s built a network there in the community that’s kind of a foundation by which he can let them know what they’re doing, when they’re doing seminars, when they’re doing their summer camps,” Kristen Erickson, Director of the Science Engagement & Partnerships of the NASA Science Mission Directorate, said when explaining what has made the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve STEM Network successful to them.

The Science Activation Grant money has paid for expanding educational resources around the state including: The Astronomers in Training Assisting the Community (ASTRO-TAC) team. A group of students who upon request will travel to a school, library, or host things like star parties.

“The Astro-TAC team has a wide variety of programs that we can offer, but what we really do is tailor them to what the community wants,” Dr. Jackson said.

That is just one part of what the grant money has paid for, as it has also paid for a yearly Astronomer-in-Residence who provides programming within the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve another program that was extended thanks to the grant.

“So, our inaugural astronomer-in-residence visited last Summer. She did an enormous amount of programming, this Summer we’re actually having two astronomers-in-residence,” Dr. Jackson said.

The programming comes in a variety of ways and is specific to each astronomer-in-residence.

“So, to give you some examples, we’ve done a wine and paint night,” Dr. Lindsay Demarchi, former astronomer-in-residence at the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve explained.

You can stay up to date for events from the astronomers by going to the Idaho Dark Sky Alliance website. If you want to learn more about Astronomy, then Dr. Jackson encourages you to attend the first Friday astronomy events at Boise State, but it is also streamed via Zoom.

If you want more hands-on science like dark sky monitoring, you can reach out to Carol Cole at the Idaho Dark Sky Alliance website as a small portion of the grant also helped establish relations between the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve and the University of California, Los Angles through the dark sky monitoring effort and Dr. Travis Longmore’s program.

“Kudos to Dr. Brian Jackson. He is a superstar in so many ways. I just couldn’t say enough about Brian and what he has done to grow this program,” Erickson said in response to how they viewed the programs success so far.

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