Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Astron. Space Sci.

Sec. Stellar and Solar Physics

This article is part of the Research TopicHeliophysics Big Year: Education and Public Outreach ReportsView all 9 articles

Insights From and Future Directions for a Nationwide Science and Engineering Education Collaboration in Stratospheric Ballooning

Provisionally accepted
Beth A CovittBeth A Covitt1Angela C Des JardinsAngela C Des Jardins2*Erick P AgrimsonErick P Agrimson3Jason T AshJason T Ash4Sean C.C. BaileySean C.C. Bailey5Katelyn A BarberKatelyn A Barber6Mike J BastidasMike J Bastidas7Edgar A BeringEdgar A Bering7Matthew BernardsMatthew Bernards8Anthony ChoiAnthony Choi9Nicholas B ConklinNicholas B Conklin10Jacqueline K.Q. DoJacqueline K.Q. Do11Montana Etten-BohmMontana Etten-Bohm12William F FinneyWilliam F Finney13James A FlatenJames A Flaten14Jeffrey M FreedmanJeffrey M Freedman15Rachel H HumphreyRachel H Humphrey16Eric P KelseyEric P Kelsey17Hunmin KimHunmin Kim9Christopher L LeeChristopher L Lee18Wookwon LeeWookwon Lee10Jared W MarquisJared W Marquis12Justin MinderJustin Minder15Jani M PallisJani M Pallis19David J PawlowskiDavid J Pawlowski20CHONG QIUCHONG QIU21Joanna H RiversJoanna H Rivers22Jason A RuszkowskiJason A Ruszkowski7Jillian B SchmidtJillian B Schmidt23Thomas G SharpThomas G Sharp11Paul SlabochPaul Slaboch24Suzanne W SmithSuzanne W Smith5Darci S SnowdenDarci S Snowden25Alissa R SperlingAlissa R Sperling26
  • 1University of Montana, Missoula, United States
  • 2Montana State University, Bozeman, United States
  • 3St Catherine University Library, Saint Paul, United States
  • 4South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, United States
  • 5University of Kentucky, Lexington, United States
  • 6State University of New York at Oswego, Oswego, United States
  • 7University of Houston, Houston, United States
  • 8University of Idaho, Moscow, United States
  • 9Mercer University, Macon, United States
  • 10Gannon University, Erie, United States
  • 11Arizona State University, Tempe, United States
  • 12University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, United States
  • 13Central Wyoming College, Riverton, United States
  • 14University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Minneapolis, United States
  • 15University at Albany, Albany, United States
  • 16St Cloud State University, Saint Cloud, United States
  • 17Plymouth State University, Plymouth, United States
  • 18Franklin W Olin College of Engineering, Needham, United States
  • 19University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, United States
  • 20Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, United States
  • 21University of New Haven, West Haven, United States
  • 22Delgado Community College, New Orleans, United States
  • 23Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, United States
  • 24University of Hartford, West Hartford, United States
  • 25Central Washington University, Ellensburg, United States
  • 26Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, Philadelphia, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Select one of your emails

You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:

Notify me on publication

Please enter your email address:

If you already have an account, please login

You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here

The Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project (NEBP) engaged 53 teams of students from across the United States to fly experiments on high-altitude balloons for the 2023 annular and 2024 total solar eclipses. By many measures, NEBP was a successful project. However, the teams did encounter challenges. To better understand what could be improved for similar future projects, this study engaged project partners in examining strengths, challenges, and recommendations across four topics: project structure, education and research approach, broadening participation, and funding. Analysis of the topics was completed through written comments followed by remote focus group discussions. The project director and evaluator then synthesized the written and focus group comments to provide the results shared here. Key recommendations include the need for real-world interdisciplinarity, a leadership group that reflects team types, a robust communication platform used at all levels, a modular approach for participation levels and time lengths, and flexibility in funding choices.

Keywords: Higher STEM education1, solar eclipse2, Collaboration3, network4, ballooning5

Received: 03 Jul 2025; Accepted: 24 Nov 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Covitt, Des Jardins, Agrimson, Ash, Bailey, Barber, Bastidas, Bering, Bernards, Choi, Conklin, Do, Etten-Bohm, Finney, Flaten, Freedman, Humphrey, Kelsey, Kim, Lee, Lee, Marquis, Minder, Pallis, Pawlowski, QIU, Rivers, Ruszkowski, Schmidt, Sharp, Slaboch, Smith, Snowden and Sperling. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Angela C Des Jardins, angela.desjardins@montana.edu

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material