About Education & Outreach
CIRES strives to learn about the earth and environment, including people’s relationship with the planet.
The Education and Outreach program at CIRES is the go-between that helps to make cutting-edge research accessible to students, teachers, and the public. CIRES (pronounced “series”) stands for the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. The scientific team at CIRES includes more than 500 scientists, who are studying ideas like what drives large wildfires, how to detect methane pollution, and the behavior of Arctic sea ice. Some of the big topics we work on are climate change, water resources, forest health, pollution, our dynamic oceans, the chemistry of the atmosphere, and the special environments in the Arctic and Antarctic. We study these topics on the ground, aboard ships, on skis, in the labs, and from space.
Because scientific understanding helps us take better care of the Earth, our researchers also tackle public policy, with the aim of guiding policymakers toward decisions that are based on the best available science.
The theme that ties us all together is a desire to understand the Earth better, and specifically, how we can work toward a sustainable future. This mission is up to all people, not just scientists. That’s why our job is to reach out to you and help you learn as much as you can about the incredible planet that we all share.
Our core value is that the whole world benefits from science, but only if that science is shared with the world. Join us, and see where science can take you.