FY 1999 Education Highlights

Twenty-four students from the U.S. and Puerto Rico participated in the fourth summer of Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS™). These SOARS protègès worked with scientific mentors from seven NCAR divisions, Argonne National Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, the Universidad Nacional Autònoma de Mèxico, and the University of Colorado (Aerospace Engineering Sciences, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics).

SOARS student Theresa Johnson and ACD scientist Peter Harley study effects of temperature on aspen leaves at the Mountain Research Station west of Boulder

LEARN: Atmospheric Science Explorers, a four-year project that provides atmospheric science training for rural Colorado teachers completed its third year of funding with intensive training for 38 teachers at NCAR during June 1999. An additional 162 teachers and 915 students participated in in-district training in the rural areas during the 1998-99 academic year.

In 1999 over 12,800 visitors from the U. S. and abroad participated in formal tours and thousands more took self-guided tours of NCAR's Mesa Lab. The number of student visitors from preschool through graduate levels increased by more than 25% over the previous year, from 7,581 to 9,500.

Beverly Lynds (formerly with Unidata) was awarded the 1999 UCAR Outstanding Performance Award for Education for her contributions to science education, culminating in the creation of the Skymath teaching modules which have been adopted in many classrooms nationally and internationally. Skymath takes advantage of a student's natural interest in scientific discovery as a vehicle for fostering enthusiasm in mathematics.