HR: 14:10h
AN: ED23A-03    [Abstracts]
TI: The Windows to the Universe Project: A Facility for Inter-American Geoscience Education and Outreach
AU: * Johnson, R M
EM: rmjohnsn@ucar.edu
AF: UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 United States
AU: LaGrave, M
EM:
AF: UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 United States
AU: Araujo-Pradere, E
EM:
AF: CIRES-Univ. of Colorado, NOAA-Space Environment Center, 325 Broadway R/SEC, Boulder, CO 80305 United States
AU: Russell, R
EM:
AF: UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 United States
AU: Gardiner, L
EM:
AF: UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 United States
AU: Bergman, J
EM:
AF: UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 United States
AU: Genyuk, J
EM:
AF: UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 United States
AU: Henderson, S
EM:
AF: UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 United States
AU: DiMarco, M
EM:
AF: UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 United States
AU: Metcalfe, T
EM:
AF: High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000 United States
AB: Windows to the Universe (http://www.windows.ucar.edu) is a popular and comprehensive Earth and space science education web site that uses an interdisciplinary approach to engage our global audience. The entire Windows to the Universe site (roughly 7,000 pages) is being translated into Spanish, with support from the National Science Foundation. Large portions have already been "published" to the web and have been in use since October 2003. Web site statistics indicate that use of the Spanish portion of the site has quickly ramped up to ~20% of total site traffic. Approximately 150,000 users per month have accessed the Spanish-language segments of the site over the past academic year, in addition to the visitors to the English version of the website. The largest fraction of non-US users of the Spanish website come from Mexico, with growing use from countries from Central and South America and Spain. A total of 6.7 million users from around the world accessed the educational resources on this comprehensive website in 2004. An exciting new web-based development interface utilizing templates and an image database allows scientists from around the world to collaborate with the Windows to the Universe team, becoming remote developers on the website. This approach has proven to work effectively for scientists eager to efficiently get their science research results out to the public, taking advantage of their specialized expertise and yet not requiring them to become specialists in informal or formal K-12 education.
UR: http://www.windows.ucar.edu/spanish
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0815 Informal education
DE: 6605 Education
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly