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Chapter 10. Education and OutreachThumbnail Sketches of Past and Current ProjectsBy 2001, the CIRES Outreach program had made progress on all of the goals outlined above. This progress, and a sampling of recent and current projects in addition to those mentioned above demonstrate the breadth of the activities. Classroom Visits, Events, and Campus Visits. CIRES Outreach has continued to support classroom presentations and community group campus visits as a service to the community and the University. The staff have made numerous classroom presentations, developed pedagogically and developmentally appropriate classroom kits for scientists to take into the classroom (Front Range geology, weather, and water quality), initiated a classroom module on polar environments, now part of the Science Discovery program, and arranged engaging field experiences for educationally- disadvantaged youth groups visiting campus. Earthworks. Earthworks was the first sponsored-research project of the CIRES Outreach Program, funded through NASA. Since then, Earthworks has also been supported by EPA, the CU Outreach Council, the graduate school, and CIRES. The Earthworks workshop helps new teachers create authentic Earth science research projects for their students. Participants work side-by-side with scientists and master teachers to design and conduct research projects. Through fieldwork, small-group discussions, and peer teaching, participants acquire the skills to implement student research in their own classrooms. During the four years ending in 2001, Earthworks served 67 teachers from nineteen states, seven of whom are teacher educators that work with whole school districts of teachers, and seven educators from outdoor learning centers. Most of the teachers work with student populations with diverse ethnicity, language and socioeconomic status. Earthworks is unique in the extent to which teachers experience open-ended inquiry as learners, and the strong relationships which develop between scientists and teachers. Examples of outcomes from these relationships and this experience of Earthworks are described below: My students couldn't believe a real scientist had contacted their teacher, and then an even more important scientist contacted me. They would say Shouldn't we be doing our project? Isn't that guy going to want our results? Education and Public Outreach Components on Research Proposals. Funding agencies, especially NASA and NSF, have required education and public outreach components on more and more research grant proposals. While in the past, this requirement has been adequately served by describing graduate student education or individual classroom visits as the related educational outcomes, the standards for these components have been on the rise. The importance of these components is also increasing: NSF has many outstanding science proposals. It is beginning to be the case that the difference between an excellent proposal and an excellent proposal that will be funded is the quality of the response to Criterion 2- the broader impacts of the research. During 2001-2002 the CIRES Outreach Program provided education outreach components for research grant proposals totaling $8.5 million, and has agreed to provide components for $250 million more. On some programs, the outreach component comprises 20 percent of the review weight, even if it accounts for only one to three percent of the budget. National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB). CIRES hosts the only regional NOSB competition in a land-locked state, and was one of the largest sites in the country in 2002, with nineteen teams from three states. This quiz-show style competition is more diverse than most such competitions, engaging schools which do not usually compete, and engaging more girls than most science competitions. This is due to the extent to which we recruit among under-resourced schools and the amount of travel, materials, and lodging support that we provide to the teams. The National Ocean Sciences Bowl is supported by the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education, and was hosted by CIRES during the first four years it existed. Visiting Research and Education Fellows (REF). CIRES hosts an annual visiting fellow appointment which includes both research and education. This appointment is conceived as a sabbatical opportunity for a faculty member from a primarily undergraduate institution, which may be used to take advantage of CIRES research strengths, bring new research knowledge back to the home institution, develop new educational projects, and strengthen ties with institutions serving diverse student populations. The first CIRES REF was Laurel Lacher, hydrologist for the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Arizona. As a CIRES Visiting Fellow, Lacher developed and pilot-tested a program designed to retain tribal members in natural resource management as a means of promoting tribal self-determination. The second REF was Ray Biersdorfer from Ohio State University at Youngstown. Biersdorfer's work was concerned with assessing the utility of creative projects on promoting scientific learning and engagement among student populations that are intimidated by science. His CIRES research connection was with Lang Farmer, doing soils research. Geology 2110. Physical Science in Earth Systems. CIRES Outreach teaches one of two courses designed for pre-service elementary teachers. Geology 2110 and the sister course, Life Science in Earth Systems were funded through NASA, and are the first of their kind at CU Boulder. This course uses an integrated hands-on laboratory and lecture format, field work, and inquiry-based pedagogy to model appropriate teaching methods in Earth science for prospective teachers. Research Mentor Partnerships. Research experiences can be extremely influential for high school students, undergraduates and teachers. CIRES Outreach finds mentors for high school students in the Boulder Valley School District, and for ethnically diverse undergraduates in the CU Graduate School SMART program and the NCAR Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research (SOARS) program. CIRES Outreach has also matched researcher and teachers for the NSF Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic program. St. Vrain Valley School District Systemic Partnership. CIRES Outreach has supported district systemic reform in the St. Vrain Valley School District since 1997. The program has provided scientific expertise in district development of content standards, provided professional development workshops in Earth science, and helped to integrate Earth and space science applications into physical science high school courses. In 2002, the outreach personnel were helping to define and link Earth and physical science learning objectives and develop suitable assessments in preparation for a new round of professional development. This kind of higher education involvement within districts can help ensure that science education models scientific processes and thinking, and is one of the most essential ways researchers can contribute. Typically, scientists are so immersed in their own science that they assume people will see the light. This experience [in Kansas anti-evolution stance] shows us scientists need to go outside their institutions and classrooms. Boulder Valley School District Sombrero Marsh Curriculum. The Boulder Valley School District, Boulder County Open Space and the Thorne Ecological Institute are working with CIRES to develop curriculum for a new outdoor learning center at the Sombrero Marsh. This unique saline marsh is undergoing restoration, and Lesley Smith is providing limnological and educational expertise in support of the project. The first teacher and student groups have pilot-tested the new curriculum, which will in- fluence the whole district as well as private schools and other groups which use the facility. The Convection Connection. Alex Weaver was featured in The Convection Connection, along with meteorologist Larry Green and physics professor Michael Dubson, in a series of after-school shorts on Channel 4 KCNC. Convection Connection explained many phenomena in the environment with dynamic demonstrations and fun experiments that include lava lamps, Silly Putty, a pyramid of cheerleaders, collapsing cans of boiling water, a hot air balloon and more. All of the demonstrations helped to explain the scientific concept of convection in order to show how and why convection is found in the atmosphere, ocean, Earth's mantle, and sun. Convection Connection posters and activity guides for the series were mailed to each fourth, fifth, and sixth grade class in the State, and students could enter a contest to win more materials for their classes. Next > Technology Transfer, Entrepreneurship, and Other Forms of Outreach
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