HR: 17:45h
AN: ED14A-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Plate Boundary Observatory Infrastructure and Data Products in Education and Outreach
AU: * Eriksson, S C
EM: eriksson@unavco.org
AF: UNAVCO, 6350 Nautilus Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 United States
AU: Barbour, K
EM: barbour@unavco.org
AF: UNAVCO, 6350 Nautilus Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 United States
AU: Lee, E
EM: elee@unavco.org
AF: UNAVCO, 6350 Nautilus Drive, Boulder, CO 80301 United States
AB: As one of three major components of NSF's EarthScope program, the Plate Boundary Observatory (PBO) encourages the integration of research and education. Informing various communities about the current work of PBO and the scientific discoveries related to the use of this instrumentation has contributed to the success of PBO during the first two years of the EarthScope project. UNAVCO(PBO), IRIS (USArray), and the EarthScope project office work together to integrate Education and Outreach (E&O) opportunities into a program that is greater than the sum of its parts and yet maintains the identity of each organization. Building and maintaining the PBO website, documenting and archiving activities of PBO, providing short courses for professional development of scientists using EarthScope data, and developing higher level data products with an appropriate educational framework are a few of the activities that provide both challenges and opportunities. The internet, particularly the World Wide Web, has become the primary tool for disseminating information to various audiences. The primary goals of the PBO website are to provide current information on the progress of GPS and Strainmeter facility construction; to provide access to different levels of data products; and to facilitate networking with and among scientists. Challenges for the PBO website include publishing current stories on installation projects while coordinating with field engineers on a regular basis; providing near to real time updates and maintaining quality assurance processes; and defining personnel requirements for a maintaining a dynamic website. Currently, archived photographs, web diaries, and numerous web highlights document PBO's success and provide a visual record of PBO's accomplishments and behind-the-scene activities over the last two years. The community charged PBO with increasing the number of scientists using its data. UNAVCO does this by providing short courses for professional development of young scientists and more established scientists broadening their research interests. In addition, collecting, manipulating, and aggregating real scientific data for classroom use is a current priority in science education. Educators want their students to use these data to draw conclusions following the logical processes characteristic of the scientific endeavor. Hence, PBO is a natural source of data for use in the classroom. Staff and community members are designing higher level data products for a variety of audiences in formal education (students and instructors in middle/high school, community colleges, undergraduate science majors and students in general science education, graduate students) and in informal education (museums, park information centers, science centers, and media. PBO is working on a chapter for the Earth Exploration Toolbox (http://serc.carleton.edu/eet/) for undergraduate general science education, and the Jules Verne Voyager will include a user-friendly interface and associated educational materials. Evaluation of the effectiveness of this entire program and of individual projects and products is a major undertaking. The multitude of tasks, integration of these tasks into a coherent program, and identification of resources for evaluation are both opportunities and challenges in helping build a program with measurable impact.
UR: http://pboweb.unavco.org
DE: 0800 EDUCATION
DE: 1200 GEODESY AND GRAVITY
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005