About RAIN - RAIN

RAIN is an Innovations in Development project funded by the National Science Foundation. This program is being spearheaded by Arizona State University, Arizona Science Center, The Arizona Tech Council, and the Lifelong Learning Group of COSI. The efforts will be focused on four rural regions of Arizona: Cochise county (southeastern Arizona), Graham and Greenlee counties (eastern Arizona), the Verde Valley of Yavapai county (central Arizona), and southern Navajo and Apache counties (White Mountains ofArizona).

Goals

Each region will develop a series of artifacts to help envision their region and plan their strategies. These include: regional Asset Map, regional Strategic Plan, regional Budget plan, and a regional Media plan.
Each regional council will help to develop and support the expansion of local Informal Science Education projects, experiences, events, competitions, etc.
Regions shall create professional development opportunities for community leaders and members – to stimulate dialogue, interest, and engagement of their community members.
Events should highlight real world experiences/applications, career opportunities, and impacts on local economies.
Once per year core members of the regional RIC teams will come together for an Annual RAIN Conference.
As a research grant RIC members and event goers will be asked to participate in surveys throughout the years of the grant.

Objectives

Encourage a change in the local identity in relation to the value of STEM learning and its impact on the economy.
Create a scope of work that engages community resources and expertise in engaging STEM activities
Build a research base on how to engage and empower rural communities to use STEM as the basis of change.
Creation of a statewide hub, for this grant—the Arizona Science Center. This hub will be used to leverage experts, resources, and best practices across the communities within the network. It is envisioned that this hub will provide sustainability over and beyond the grant.

Intellectual Merit

This project provides a unique opportunity to study, promote, and engage a broader audience in rural communities, including those in previously underserved areas, and provides much needed data on best practices for reaching this audience. This project represents seminal and foundational work in the area of rural ISE. Researchers from the Lifelong Learning Group of COS! and ASU will explore the following questions: 1) understanding how rural communities currently perceive, access, and engage in informal science learning, and the extent to which they identify themselves and their community in relation to science; and 2) the extent to which relevant, place-based networks can increase public awareness of local STEM assets, resources, and opportunities, and foster a STEM-related identity at the personal and community level.

Expectations

Encourage a change in the local identity in relation to the value of STEM learning and its impact on the economy.
Create a scope of work that engages community resources and expertise in engaging STEM activities.
Build a research base on how to engage and empower rural communities to use STEM as the basis of change.
Creation of a statewide hub, for this grant the Arizona Sciences Center. This hub will be used to leverage experts, resources, and best practices across the communities within the network. It is envisioned this hub will provide sustainability over and beyond the grant.