21SPACEWX Involving a region in the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipse occurrences via the STEAM program and GLOBE.

The following solar eclipses—annular in October 2023 and total in April 2024—provide the ideal occasion to introduce astronomy to schoolchildren and the general public. The public has a special opportunity because of the eclipses. A total solar eclipse won't be visible in the area until 2050. Still, a partial eclipse will be seen in Alaska in 2039, giving many individuals a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see it. We present some results of our activities during the Annular eclipse and planning for both events.

An Annular Eclipse followed by a Total Eclipse will give the Mesoamerican Region a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to spark the public's and young schoolchildren's enthusiasm for science. As a result, we have planned several events for the area before, during, and after the eclipses.

As part of a regional observation campaign connected to GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment), we have also prepared for the Annular Eclipse monitoring of the Cosmic Ray incidence and the nucleation of low-level clouds, for which we will link original cosmic ray detectors with the Globe Observer data captured with the Globe Protocols during the eclipse.

This will encourage college students to pursue STEAM-related job choices, encourage schoolchildren to seek scientific careers and inspire teachers to become trained in GLOBE procedures and take part in citizen science programs. The STEAM Program supports part of the activities in both Countries and works to promote scientific awareness and to motivate students, particularly girls to pursue further STEAM-oriented Career paths.

With these factors in mind, we created a comprehensive schedule of events for the annular eclipse and replicated some of them for the total eclipse of 2024.

Events were planned for both the Annular Eclipse in October 2023 in Mexico City, Campeche, and Yucatán as well as the Total Eclipse in April 2024 in Mexico City, Mazatlán, and Durango.

• Monitoring the incidence of cosmic rays. We will use unique detectors created, constructed, and characterized at the International Elementary Particle Laboratory in León, Guanajuato by J. Félix to track the incidence of cosmic rays before, during, and after the eclipse.(Arnold, 2006; Bialy, 2020; Pierce, n.d.)
• Conference Concert The Physics of Music and Astronomy is based on Julián Félix's 2004 book La Física de la Música(Julián Félix, 2004). By staging a Concert Conference where accomplished musicians demonstrate the conceptual ideas put out by Julián Félix, innovating the presentation and promoting science interest with an innovative outreach activity that intersects Science and Art.
• GLOBE Eclipse observing workshops: We will hold several events with students to encourage the use of the GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment Program) Protocols (GLOBE, n.d.)and the Globe Observer App (Hayden et al., 2019)using indirect pinhole observation boxes and eclipse glasses and filters to raise awareness in the public and kids in schools.
• SPACE Week as well as Leon Lederman Seminars. (Félix, J; Aldana-Segura, 2021) The popular Seminar series, which has more than 1.3 million attendees worldwide, aims to encourage students to pursue careers in science. It has hosted over 100 seminars with more than 93 speakers from 63 different nations, including two Breakthrough Award winners (Juan Maldacena and Gabriela Gonzalez) and three Nobel Prize winners (Takkaki Kajita, Arthur McDonald, and Bill Phillips).

To broaden the impact of the initiatives, a strategic alliance was created with national and international institutions. It consists of the National Eclipse Committee in Mexico, the local committees in Campeche and Yucatan, the Instituto Politécnico Nacional de México, the Education Secretariat in Mexico, CAEN, the UNIVERSUM Museum at the Autonomous National University of Mexico, which is joined with the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Universidad Galileo, Programa STEAM, and the University of Guanajuato.

By establishing a huge cosmic ray monitoring campaign with students to study the origin of low-level clouds and their connection to cosmic rays, Cosmic Rays Monitoring will help to promote opportunities in Mexico and the Mesoamerican region.

The well-received Leon Lederman Seminar Series featured well-known astronomers and Astro photographers like Adriana O Campo, Marili Colon Robles, Luis Felipe Rodriguez Jorge, Mariana Corti, and others in March-April and focused on topics related to eclipses in September and October. The UNIVERSUM Museum hosted several events to spark students' enthusiasm, while the Benjamin Franklin Library at the American Center in México will host a hybrid event that connects all American Centers at US Embassies throughout the eclipse's route.

In Campeche, the Universidad de Artes de Yucatán UDAY and the iconic theater Francisco de Paula y Toro will serve as the backdrop for the Physics of Music performance conference.

More than 2,000 participants benefited from the activities in October, (from the registration record) and it is anticipated that over 2,000 participants will benefit from the eclipse in April, which will be connected to a conference held in Durango by the Instituto Politecnico Nacional de México and coincide with the XI Congress of the UNESCO Chair for Scientific Education and the GLOBE Teacher training in Mexico in April 2024.

This demonstrates the value of building cross-cultural relationships when fostering interest in and outreach to science. This event is made possible by the cooperation of various institutions and devoted scientists who volunteer their time to inspire young children to pursue STEM-related career pathways by utilizing the eclipses as the ideal justification to bring science closer to them.

*This abstract reports just the events confirmed and estimated participants based on registrations, writing as though the activities had already occurred. The final version will include the report on additional activities and reach.

Arnold, F. (2006). Atmospheric aerosol and cloud condensation nuclei formation: A possible influence of cosmic rays? Space Science Reviews, 125(1–4), 169–186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-006-9055-4

Félix, J; Aldana-Segura, M. (2021). Using Online Seminars as an Outreach Strategy to Promote Science. Bulletin of the American Physical Society.

Hayden, L., Taylor, J., & Colon Robles, M. (2019). GLOBE: Connecting to community of observers directly to NASA Satellites. IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.1109/MGRS.2019.2891930

Julián Félix. (2004). La Física de la Música. Editorial Ciudad Educativa.