NOTABLE NEW GRANT AWARDS (continued)
COLLEGE OF INFORMATION
Sarah Evans, Assistant Professor Department of Information Science
Grant Title: Raise Up Radio Grant Amount: $420K Agency: Institute of Museum and Library Services Co-PI: Lance Simpson, University of Alabama About the Grant: Raise Up Radio came about after Assistant Professor Sarah Evans in UNT’s College of Information Department of Information Science was speaking with a colleague in library youth services about how families used to listen to stories on the radio. “The coronavirus brought this mainstream attention to the fact that the rural areas still have a lot of people who don’t have broadband,’” Evans said. “Even if they do, there’s great inconsistency in service and prices. There are definitely important efforts to remediate that. However, it’s going to take several years, and kids are learning and growing right now.” Local radio stations are a vital lifeblood for rural communities, which led to the idea that they could broadcast STEM content produced by local libraries to families who may not be able to access internet at home. “It’s not just the library putting together another thing. It’s actually involving families and looking at what STEM issues are relevant to their local communities, because those can all be slightly different,” Evans said. “In some communities, they’re like, ‘We have a community garden,’ so maybe we’ll do some STEM stuff around gardening. In other communities, there are seniors who don’t understand how the internet works, so what are some things we could talk about on the radio to address that?” The radio broadcasts also would connect to activity kits that community members could check out from the library, creating further learning opportunities. The work focused on one library to start. Additionally, researchers are creating an online toolkit and network for librarians to use to share their ideas and experiences
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