HR: 09:50h
AN: ED31B-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Two Successful Outreach Programs at Storm Peak Laboratory: GRASP for Undergraduates and Partnership for 5th Grade Science Education
AU: * Hallar, A G
EM: ghallar@dri.edu
AF: Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512, United States
AU: * Hallar, A G
EM: ghallar@dri.edu
AF: DRI's Storm Peak Laboratory, P.O. Box 882530, Steamboat Springs, CO 80488, United States
AU: McCubbin, I B
EM: ian.mccubbin@dri.edu
AF: Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512, United States
AU: McCubbin, I B
EM: ian.mccubbin@dri.edu
AF: DRI's Storm Peak Laboratory, P.O. Box 882530, Steamboat Springs, CO 80488, United States
AU: Wright, J
EM: yampatika@springsips.com
AF: Yampatika, P.O. Box 773342, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477, United States
AB: The Desert Research Institute operates a high elevation facility, Storm Peak Laboratory (SPL), located on the Steamboat Springs Ski Resort at an elevation 10,500 ft. SPL provides an ideal location for long-term atmospheric research. The SPL mission statement is to ensure that the laboratory will continue to integrate climate research and education by advancing discovery and understanding within the field of pollution, aerosol and cloud interactions. During the last year, SPL has created two successful outreach programs reaching very different audiences. First, to engage students from local elementary schools, SPL established a 5th grade climate education program. This program is based on a partnership between SPL and Yampatika's&penvironmental educators. Yampatika is a non-profit outdoor environmental education organization. The program spans three days for each school and includes five elementary schools. During the first day, educators from Yampatika visit each classroom to introduce the concepts of climate and weather as well as teach students how to use scientific equipment. During the field program on the second day, students measure and record information about temperature, pressure, relative humidity, wind speed, and particle concentration while they travel to SPL via the gondola (in winter) or Suburban (in fall). Once at the laboratory, students tour the facility, discuss SPL research activities, and explore application of these activities to their curriculum. Following the field trip, Yampatika educators and SPL scientists will visit the school for a follow-up to help children explore concepts, answer questions, and evaluate students" learning. The second program, Geoscience Research at Storm Peak (GRASP), was designed to engage students from underrepresented groups and created a partnership between three Minority Serving Institutions and the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Undergraduate students from Tennessee State University, Howard University, Colorado State at Pueblo, and UNR will gather at SPL in the summer of 2008, via funding from the National Science Foundation. Throughout the year-long GRASP program, students encounter the scientific process - from creating a hypothesis, collecting and analyzing data, and presenting their results. Beginning in April, GRASP students will be presented with a short course in atmospheric science at their local institutions. The students will then begin formulating research questions for their time at SPL. In June, students will travel to SPL and work in small groups measuring cloud properties and trace gases with the guidance of an individual instructor. Data collected will be the basis for continuing student research projects. GRASP students and mentors will communicate regarding the progress of student research projects during the fall semester. All GRASP participants will meet at the campus of Howard University the following winter for a reunion workshop.
UR: http://www.stormpeak.dri.edu
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
DE: 0855 Diversity
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting