Education and Outreach

Director's Message

Highlights

Ongoing Programs: EO’s Public Visitor Program (PVP) and Exhibits Program offer ongoing resources and activities aimed to increase the scientific literacy of the nation. This is accomplished by interesting citizens of all ages in NCAR’s research about the atmosphere as part of the Earth system, the impacts of weather events and climate on their lives, and the application of scientific knowledge to decision making about careers, lifestyles, and public policies. NCAR scientists participate in these programs to demonstrate scientific principles underlying the atmospheric sciences and to advise EO on science content to be conveyed to the estimated 80,000 visitors a year who come to the NCAR Mesa Lab to enjoy such activities and the building’s science center and architecture. Thousands more access UCAR/NCAR EO Web-based and printed educational resources, which are ongoing and expanding components of our outreach to the public. Workshops provided to teachers from across the nation support and encourage the integration of NCAR’s science and the geosciences in general into K-12 curriculum and classroom pedagogy.

New Programs: EO has launched several new initiatives this year in an effort to bring NCAR’s mission to a broader audience. PVP has strengthened its curriculum for K-12 classrooms visiting the Mesa Lab, bringing more emphasis to inquiry activities for students, and aligning content more closely with National Science Education Content Standards. An audiotour to the Mesa Lab exhibits was unveiled in July (in English and Spanish), bringing information about NCAR’s mission to adults and children who are not able to participate in scheduled staff-led tours. A new teachers workshop was launched in June to enhance understanding about the role and methodology of modeling in the geosciences. And funding from NCAR is enabling EO to develop an education and outreach program about the High Altitude Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research (HIAPER). Spanish translation of web pages on Windows to the Universe and Web Weather for Kids has also been a priority initiative.

Community and Public Services

Public Visitor Program

The refurbishment and closure of the Mesa Lab and Public Visitor Program (PVP) offices between December and May dictated a unique new focus in early FY2003. With visits from the public suspended for the first half of the year, all three PVP staff members were able to concentrate on accomplishing significant projects related to PVP content development. Chief among them was development of content to enable visiting school groups to learn about the atmospheric sciences through an inquiry-based approach that incorporates the scientific method and also complements state and national standards. PVP has accomplished this with a series of multi-media-based modules that highlight nine different topics. These are meant to be compatible with other new content including collections of selected educational websites, other database repositories, and an expanding reservoir of new web, video, and graphics resources that are serving EO program needs as well as PVP’s.

PVP’s second major activity was the continuing development of the Staff Volunteer Project. Using a questionnaire designed to identify diverse opportunities for staff interested in becoming a part of UCAR’s growing outreach program, PVP staff followed up with an interview and then helped train these UCAR staff to participate in the activities and events, both onsite and offsite, in which the organization is increasingly involved. In FY2003, 21 UCAR staff signed on as volunteers on this project. This expanding database of staff resources will be used when staff volunteers are needed: for example, to help with UCAR and NCAR-wide activities, or when students would benefit by meeting and listening to these people talk about and show their work as part of a visit at NCAR, or when schools request staff presentations at school events.

Volunteer Jeff Weber of Unidata discusses meteorology with a student.

PVP’s third activity focused on development of an important new resource for Mesa Lab visitors, who come to visit every day of the year, sometimes when staff are not around to provide information. A grant last year from NSF’s Geoscience Education Program has enabled NCAR to create and install an audiotour for its visitors. The audiotour can now provide Mesa Lab visitors with comprehensive recorded explanations of the institution’s science, exhibits, and architecture, as well as other resources. The project ultimately resulted in two half-hour scripts, one for adults and one for young children; both are easily accessible in English or Spanish. During the development phase, input was sought from area professionals who work with people who have hearing or vision impairments, and final efforts on the scripts and use of the technology were crafted with their needs in mind. In its first three and a half months of use, 1000 people have chosen to tour the Mesa Lab’s science center while listening to an audiotour. During the summer months the ratio of children to adults utilizing the tour was 2:3. Since school has opened, that ratio is 1:6. Preliminary data indicates an average of 138 people were provided audiotour devices per week during summer, compared with 34 per week in the fall when visitorship tapered off. Based on this information PVP anticipates that the audiotour will be utilized by roughly 3,000 people in its first year, representing a 23% increase over the 13,000 visitors currently participating in staff-guided tours. To meet such a demand without the audiotour, PVP would need to offer 200 additional staff-guided tours (assuming 15 people per tour).

A young visitor explores microbursts with the help of the audiotour.

In mid-June 2003, the Mesa Lab reopened to visitors, and PVP’s regular daily activities resumed. The new classroom content and multimedia resources were tested and refined with visiting groups of students throughout the summer and fall. More staff were recruited for the Volunteer Staff Program, and some of them joined PVP staff on outreach visits traveling to schools as far away as central Colorado mountain towns. Also in June, PVP staff once again provided daily coordination of NCAR’s second annual Undergraduate Leadership Workshop for promising students in the atmospheric sciences. Throughout the year, PVP’s staff educator took a lead role in structuring the work-study education component of ACD’s APOL grant program by bringing on board four high school teachers and students and helping them gain insight into ongoing, real-world science research by spending time working at NCAR. And once again, NCAR and NOAA co-hosted, with Colorado State University’s Colorado Climate Center, the Rocky Mountain Weather and Climate Workshop, the third such annual collaboration, which this year provided weather information to nearly 100 attendees who are part of CSU’s Community Collaborative Rain and Hail Study.

Exhibits

EO developed a five-year plan for the Mesa Lab Exhibits that included the assessment of content areas, age, and condition of present exhibits and recommendations for exhibit replacement, enhancement, and development. A scientific advisory group was formed to counsel the exhibits program as it develops and implements the plan. With support from NCAR’s strategic initiative fund, a number of the plan’s recommendations were accomplished this year. Special focus was placed on opening a new Climate Discovery exhibit in June describing the nature of the Sun-Earth connection, the distinction between climate and weather, a global view of climate in the news, the dynamic processes that moderate climate in the Earth system, and our planet’s climate history, and predictions for its future. The exhibit includes colorful wall panels, including graphics, artifacts, interactive games, and large video screens presenting Earth Bulletins from the American Museum of Natural History. The solar eclipsed panel dominating the south wall of the Mesa Lab lobby was transformed from black and white to color. All of these activities were the result of the Exhibit Program working closely with scientists and other EO staff to develop educational resources that leverage NCAR’s exhibits to promote deeper understanding of research about our sciences and its relevance to society for audiences of all ages.

Left: The new Climate Discovery exhibit. Right: Close up of panel discussing paleoclimates.

Super Science Saturday

EO provided informal educational programs this year for a variety of audiences. Some of these programs were funded in part by the Friends of UCAR and the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD) of the State of Colorado to promote science literacy in the Boulder County community. In October 2003, NCAR held its annual public science event, Super Science Saturday, a day-long event for participants of all ages featuring special science presentations, demonstrations, and workshops, including programs designed to facilitate participation in local science fairs. This year’s theme, “High Flying Science,” drew over 2,600 children and parents to the Mesa Lab to enjoy the educational festivities celebrating the Centennial of Flight, with children and volunteers attired in Halloween costumes, as is the tradition.

Two NCAR Science Wizards demonstrate why hydrogen is not used
in blimps and balloons.

Outreach to Professional Societies

EO managed the UCAR corporate booth as in previous years while also supporting NCAR in upgrading its new exhibit. These outreach venues provided a platform from which communication occurred about NCAR research programs and educational initiatives at the annual meetings of the AAAS, AGU, AMS, GSA, and NSTA. Literature and web sites developed by NCAR divisions were distributed to visitors to the corporate booth, referrals were made to NCAR programs, and scientists were invited to share expertise with visitors whenever they were able to take time out of meeting sessions.

HIAPER Education and Outreach Program

NSF’s High-Performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research, HIAPER, will revolutionize our understanding of critical regions of Earth’s atmosphere. By customizing a Gulfstream V aircraft, researchers will fly higher, faster, and farther than ever before. EO has drafted a five-year plan for education and outreach that will feature the science, mathematics, engineering and technology intrinsic in selecting, modifying, and deploying the HIAPER. NCAR is supporting the first step–the documentation of design challenges involved in cutting into the fuselage in order to install view ports and hard points necessary to carry scientific instruments. Geoffrey Haines-Stiles, producer of COSMOS, Live From…, and Passport to Knowledge Public Broadcasting programs has been contracted to develop High Definition Television recordings, including interviews with scientists and technicians who can speak to HIAPER’s anticipated contribution to science and the contributions of diverse individuals from a broad range of technology disciplines that are making HIAPER possible. Proposals are in development to fund the education and outreach activities, which will use television, the Internet, Resource Kits, collaboration with academia, industry, and non-profits, and regional events, to inform and excite young people about the science, technology, engineering, and math inherent in HIAPER. Targeted initiatives will seek to increase awareness of related careers, and the participation of underrepresented minorities in science, technology, and engineering.

The HIAPER Gulfstream V aircraft undergoing modification

K-12 Education

Because climate, pollution, and the environment are part of the everyday awareness of young people, and computer modeling is frequently referenced in the news and K-12 educational resources, the atmospheric sciences offer an excellent opportunity to teach science in engaging, relevant ways. NCAR's K-12 education programs target both students and educators through a broad range of activities, resources, and services.

Teachers-in-Residence Programs

EO has made great strides this year to support NCAR in welcoming K-12 teachers into laboratories and mentorship relationships with scientists. The Analytic Photonics and Optoelectronics Lab (APOL), with support from the NSF Biocomplexity Program, funded the hiring two high school teachers and two students to work closely with scientists over the next three years during the summer months in developing state of the art optical instrumentation for highly sensitive, precision, trace gas measurements in order to better understand the Carbon cycle. These teachers will collaborate with scientists and EO staff to produce educational resources that will transfer information about this complex field to K-12 classrooms. A second NSF Biocomplexity grant proposal to ACD has enabled EO to engage a teacher to help scientists in bringing research about the Nitrogen cycle to schools. A BU-NCAR research grant with funding with NASA engaged a high school and community college educator to develop curriculum resources on space weather topics appropriate for seniors in high school and entry level undergraduates. In addition, two education and public outreach supplements to NASA research grants funded teachers to assist EO and HAO scientists in communicating the importance of research about Sun-Earth Connections to students. Through these grants, teachers have begun to develop standards-based background materials, inquiry activities, and web site content to enrich K-16 science curriculum, as well as presentation materials to support scientists who wish to make visits to schools. An NCAR Opportunity Fund grant to ESIG also focused a teacher and EO staff on developing an educational extension for the Little Ice Age section of the new Climate Discovery exhibit, which was unveiled in the Mesa Lab during June.

Professional Development Workshops for Educators

NCAR Geoscience Education Workshop: For a second year, NCAR’s strategic initiative funded the Global and Climate Change Geoscience Education Workshop on July 21 to August 1, 2003, enrolling 19 master science teachers in grades 6 though 12 from across the nation. Teachers explored computer software, web-based resources, and curriculum and inquiry activities about global and climate change and the geosciences. Participants are expected to disseminate what they have learned by conducting training workshops for colleagues during the following academic year.

Modeling in the Geosciences Workshop: For the first time, between June 16 and 27, EO presented a workshop on Modeling in the Geosciences (funded through the NASA Earth System Modeling Framework program). Teachers from across the nation came together with scientists, GIS and modeling experts, and EO staff to explore the context of modeling in the geosciences and the ways in which it is used. Scientists spoke to participants about how modeling helps them to understand and predict climate change, meteorology, the hydrosphere, the carbon cycle, population dynamics, Sun-Earth relationships, and space weather. Teachers utilized STELLA and ESRI software to build models and develop applications of these and other tools to enhance classroom practice and student achievement in science, technology, and mathematics. This workshop in Boulder will be extended in the coming months through the development of a virtual workshop and attendance at an additional workshop to be held in conjunction with the National Science Teacher Association workshop in March 2004.

Teachers in the first Modeling in the Geosciences workshop

Undergraduate Education

Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS®)

SOARS (http://www.ucar.edu/soars) was launched in 1995 to support the national goal of “a diverse, internationally competitive, and globally engaged workforce of scientists, engineers, and well-prepared citizens.” SOARS continues to strive to increase the number of students from historically underrepresented groups enrolled in graduate programs in the atmospheric and related sciences, with the goal of increasing ethnic diversity within the scientific community of the future. Since 1996, DOE-Global Change Education Program, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Education and Public Outreach (through NCAR HAO), NOAA Office of Global Programs, and the University of Colorado Cooperative Institute of Research in Environmental Sciences have joined NSF and UCAR as program sponsors.

Second-year SOARS® protégé, Amber Reynolds, and her science
research mentor, David Dowell (ASP), participating in the Bow Echo
and Mesoscale Convective Vortex Experiment (BAMEX), St. Louis, 2003.

Twenty-nine SOARS participants (protégés) from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico began the 2003 summer program. One had to withdraw from the program due to personal/family reasons. Sixteen protégés returned for their second, third, or fourth SOARS summer; 13 were new to SOARS. Each was paired with a science research and a scientific writing and communication mentor. All first-year protégés were also paired with a community mentor and a peer mentor. The 16 returning protégés served as peer mentors to one or more new protégés. Each protégé conducted an individual research project, prepared a written research report, and presented their research results at the August 11-13 SOARS Protégés’ Colloquium. At least 16 protégés will be presenting their summer research results at student or professional meetings during the 2003-2004 academic year. A listing of the summer 2003 protégés, mentors, and research topics is available online at http://www.ucar.edu/soars/research/researchtopics2003.html.

Since SOARS’ inception, seventeen protégés have completed their master's degrees; 12 are currently in the professional scientific workforce; five are enrolled in Ph.D. programs—three are Ph.D. candidates, one in computational and applied mathematics, and two in atmospheric science. By summer 2003, 59 protégés had completed bachelor's degrees in an atmospheric or related science; three completed associate's degrees and are now enrolled with a science major at a four-year research university. During the past eight years, more than 40 protégés presented papers and posters at regional, national, and international scientific conferences, with several having received awards. The summer research of at least eight protégés has resulted in coauthored papers published in peer-reviewed journals. A listing of the presentations is available online at http://www.ucar.edu/soars/pres.htm; an online list of publications is available at http://www.ucar.edu/soars/pubs.htm.

As of the fall of 2003, twenty-nine SOARS protégés are enrolled in graduate programs in an atmospheric or related science. Three are AMS graduate fellows; two are NSF graduate fellows. No SOARS protégé (including the 17 who left the program—five to pursue careers in other fields, 11 due to unsatisfactory performance, and one for personal reasons) has withdrawn from college or university without having completed an undergraduate degree with a major in an atmospheric or related science.

The 2003 SOARS protégés
First Row: Olusegun Goyea, Rei Ueyama, Rebecca Chan, Ernesto Muñoz, Casey Thornbrugh, Deanna Hence, D. Matthew Coleman, Dione Rossiter, Nichole Spence, Segayle Walford, Damian Mattis, Okason Morrison, Braxton Edwards, Amber Reynolds. Second Row: Atzel Drevón, Melissa Burt, Erik Noble, Christina Webb, Melanie Zauscher, Erick Adame, Roberto Cancel, Carlos Medina, Pauline Datulayta, Tanya Craft, Summer Sands, Kate Musgrave, Maribel Martinez, Tamara Singleton.

NCAR Undergraduate Leadership Workshop

For a second year, EO hosted the NCAR Undergraduate Leadership Workshop in June with the purpose of informing undergraduates in geoscience majors about the potential for exciting opportunities for graduate study, research, and careers in the atmospheric and related sciences. The five-day program established informal dialogue between students and research scientists as they explored laboratories, instrumentation, and computing facilities that support studies on weather, climate change, solar dynamics, the Sun-Earth system, and the impacts of severe weather and climate change on societies around the world. Scientists presenting this content provided personal anecdotes highlighting the importance of developing personal and professional leadership skills necessary to succeed in and support the atmospheric sciences in the coming decades. Students are expected to present what they have learned from this experience to peers in seminars and AMS chapter meetings during the coming academic year.

2003 Undergraduate Leadership Workshop participants

Web-based Resources

NCAR Education and Outreach Web Presence

A web site designer and a content specialist have designed and developed content for the first phase of the NCAR Education and Outreach web site. The content included in this first phase of development includes:

• Information about the history of NCAR and relationship to UCAR in a section called “What is NCAR?”
• Basic information about atmospheric science appropriate for a non-scientific audience in a section called “Weather and Climate Basics”
• In-depth information about science research underway throughout NCAR in a section called “Spotlight on Current Research”
• Clearinghouses of resources available from NCAR, UCAR, UOP, and other institutions for students (“Kids’ Crossing”), teachers (“Educators’ Bridge”), academics (“Baccalaureate and Beyond”), and atmospheric science enthusiasts (“Geoscience Explorers’ Outpost”).

Development of content for the second phase of the web site is underway with large sections of NCAR Kids’ Crossing in progress. Connections are being forged between NCAR Kids Crossing and Web Weather for Kids (http://www.ucar.edu/educ_outreach/webweather/) so that these two resources may eventually become united in content and appearance. Additionally, the team has created a detailed schedule for development over the next two years.

The Web Weather for Kids website.

Windows to the Universe

In addition, NCAR science was highlighted through content developed and implemented within the award winning Windows to the Universe website (http://www.windows.ucar.edu), which reaches over 400,000 users per month (over 4 million users per year) and is a prime educational resource for educators and students internationally. Major emphasis this year was placed on expanding the content on the Earth system, expanding content on space science missions and space technology, translation of the website into Spanish, developing systematic procedures for updating time-dependent site content, improving page layout, revising and making uniform the format for curriculum activities on the site, continuing development of metadata supporting digital libraries, and development of space weather content and resources supporting the Boston University Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling and the University of Michigan Center for Space Environment Modeling.