NCAR Educational Activities

FY 1997 Education Highlights

• LEARN: Atmospheric Science Explorers, a four-year project that provides atmospheric science training for rural Colorado teachers completed its first year of funding with intensitve training for 31 teachers at NCAR during June 1997. An additional 131 teachers participated in in-district training in the rural areas during the 1996-97 academic year.

• Seventeen students from the U. S. and Puerto Rico participated in the second summer of Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS). The SOARS students worked with scientific mentors from seven NCAR divisions.

• NSF Director Dr. Neal Lane met with LEARN and SOARS students during his visit to Colorado in March 1997. Below, LEARN students engage Dr. Lane in hands-on activities demonstrating concepts in the atmospheric sciences.

  (Photo by Carlye Calvin.)

• With funding from the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (Colorado), NCAR hosted Super Science Saturday, a community event at the Mesa Lab for educators, students, and parents. Over 800 people attended the event, which was staffed by volunteers from NCAR and UCAR.

  
  Pil-Jae Lee hunts for bugs on a set of plants furnished by the Butterfly Pavilion and Insect Center. (Photo by Carlye Calvin.)

• Two of the 40 projects entered in SCD's Colorado Computational Science Fair were sent to the national Adventures in Supercomputing Expo in Washington, DC; these took first place in the advanced math category and third place in the intermediate math category.

• During FY 1997, an estimated 50,000 visitors toured NCAR's Mesa Lab and new Walter Orr Roberts Weather Trail. Guided tours were provided to more than 11,600 of those visitors, including 7,067 students ranging from preschool through college level. This represents an increase of nearly 20% over the number of student visitors in FY 1996.

• Bob Henson (UCAR Communications) was awarded the 1997 UCAR Outstanding Performance Award for Education.

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