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Education and Outreach
HAO operates a four-part visitor program, hosting post-doctoral fellows, graduate research fellows, summer undergraduate visitors, and short-to-long-term scientific visitors. This year HAO hosted a total of eight postdoctoral fellows, four supported through its own NSF base funding or supplemental grant funding, one jointly with the Scientific Computing Division (SCD), and three by NCAR's Advanced Study Program (ASP). HAO supported a total of six graduate research fellows, one jointly with the University of Rome. HAO's summer undergraduate student visitor program hosted five students for terms of two to three months, one supported by HAO's NSF base funding, two jointly with Evergreen College by supplemental grant funding, and two through the SOARS (Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science) program. Partial support was provided to 25 short-long-term scientific visitors from numerous separate home institutions worldwide.
A continuing educational outreach activity with a long tradition at HAO is the base funded production of educational materials distributed to K-12, undergraduate, and graduate school educators. HAO maintains three distinct slide sets in stock: The Sun: A pictorial introduction, Southwest archeoastronomy, and Coronal physics. The first two of these, other educational materials, and other more advanced lectures are available online through HAO's homepage http://www.hao.ucar.edu. Additionally, this year several HAO Scientists (including Holzer, Hagan, Solomon, and Wiltberger) teamed up with staff members (including Owens and Kiessling) from UCAR's Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET) to create a learning module focused on the Earth's aurora. Created for the undergraduate science students with physics and calculus experience, the material is presented using high-quality graphics, interactive visualizations, and hands-on applications. The module is divided into four sections: Mystery of the Aurora, Magnetosphere, Thermosphere/Ionosphere, and Aurora. In each of the last three sections, an overview is followed by a more detailed discussion supplemented with a number of in-depth topics. The module has been designed for multiple uses, including support material and tools for lecturing instructors, homework assignments, and independent study projects. It can be found at the website http://www.meted.ucar.edu/hao/aurora.
For the second year of a three-year grant cycle HAO scientists Richmond and Lu served as PI's on NASA-funded Education and Public Outreach (EPO) collaborations with scientists and educators from UCAR's Office of Education and Outreach (EO). A Teachers-in-Residence program led by Richmond engaged high school teachers Gayle Bintner and Chris Conery for four weeks this summer in drafting new classroom lessons and content about Earth's atmospheric structure and space weather. The teachers chose to adapt an undergraduate level Space Weather module developed in 2003 by HAO and the COMET program for use in high school physics, astronomy, and earth science classes, identifying which sections of the module could be used in their current form, which should be omitted, and which should be revised for their high school students. Their recommendations were discussed in meetings with HAO scientists Richmond and Maute and Dolores Knipp from the US Air Force Academy. Also participating were educators Kiessling from the COMET Program and Foster and Russell from EO. This work continues into 2005 with high school module development, testing. and revision, with the goal of installing the module on EO's Windows to the Universe web site (http://www.windows.ucar.edu) and disseminating it through presentations at local and national professional meetings reaching scientists and K-12 teachers. HAO scientist Metcalfe also contributed new content to the Windows to the Universe web outreach project with interactive materials on the "Fate of the Sun" and "Pulsating Stars".
Lu's grant enabled the prototyping of educational resources which scientists can use and adapt to their particular areas of interest when preparing K-12 classroom visits. These resources include:
- background information, tips, and guidelines for making successful presentations to elementary, middle, and high school students,
- hands-on inquiry activities designed to augment standards-based classroom learning about magnetism (Earth's magnetic fields) and technology (interpretation of images recorded by various solar-observing technologies), and
- a PowerPoint presentation on Sun-Earth connection science concepts.
They were developed by contracted teacher, Doug Haller, and reviewed by HAO scientists Rast, Gibson, Burkepile, and Wiltberger; University of Wisconsin scientist Susan Nossal; and EO educators Foster, Eastburn, and Barnes. Technology support was also provided by HAO's Starr and Mauriello. Inquiry activities were tested with middle school students visiting the Mesa Lab tour program and in two local schools. The focus in the final year will be on further classroom testing, revising, and formatting the resources for dissemination via website and short EO workshops.
Visits and talks were made by HAO scientists (Gablehouse, Lecinski, Lites, Maute) to local elementary, middle and high school students as well as local club (Girl Scout and Rotary) members on Solar physics, Atmospheric science and Solar/Terrestrial interactions. HAO scientist Solomon delivered guest lectures at the University of Colorado (CU), the Global Change teacher education workshop (NCAR), and the Space Weather Summer School (Boston University). HAO scientist Gibson presented at the math, science and technology career conference, Expanding Your Horizons, held at CU for middle school girls, their parents and teachers. She also participated in three separate Solar Week (http://www.solarweek.org) events to provide web based activities and real time scientific interaction to elementary school classrooms. HAO scientist Norton served as guest scientist on the National Public Radio Show "Pulse of the Planet" episode devoted to sunspots.