Climate Science Research for Educators and Students (CSRES):
Understanding Sun/Earth/Atmosphere Interactions

Rationale:
CSRES, a 3-year project funded through NASA's Global Climate Change Education initiative, is motivated by the observation that successful climate-related projects are conspicuously absent from high-level national student science competitions. We believe the fundamental reason for this situation is that the support infrastructures already in place for science areas prominent in national student competitions simply do not exist for climate science. This infrastructure must be built before NASA can achieve its goals of improving public understanding of climate and building a workforce that is prepared to conduct climate science during the 21st century. This infrastructure consists of four components: expert mentoring, accessible equipment, well-documented research ideas and protocols, and sustainable partnerships.

Innovations:
CSRES takes as its science and education focus the sun/Earth/atmosphere interactions responsible for maintaining Earth's radiative balance. This is a good choice for innovative approaches to climate science education because it is common knowledge that these interactions are poorly understood. CSRES uses a combination of NASA climate data and inexpensive monitoring instruments and experiment protocols that allow educators and their students to conduct many useful and interesting investigations that will provide the "data ownership" required to understand this complex but essential topic, and that can form the basis for high-level climate-related student research projects. These measurements include solar energy reaching Earth's surface, surface reflectivity, aerosol optical thickness, total column water vapor, surface thermal emissions, and sky photography.

Distinguishing features:
CSRES will present its program at Queens College CUNY through a series of professional development workshops for secondary school science teachers in New York City and other nearby school districts whose responsibilities include supporting the development of student science fair projects that will be highly competitive in local, regional, and national science competitions. Participation by NASA’s Aerospace Education Services Project (AESP) will significantly raise the profile of climate science among secondary school students around the country and will help CSRES become a sustainable project.

Anticipated outcomes:
Educators participating in CSRES will demonstrate an increased confidence in their own "hands-on" research capabilities and their ability to use NASA and other climate data in their classrooms. Students will be more likely to undertake climate-related science fair projects and more likely to consider pursuing careers in climate science. Mentors working during the project will form the nucleus of a sustainable support structure for promoting student climate science and better teaching of climate science in the classroom.

Management:
CSRES is managed by the Institute for Earth Science Research and Education under the direction of PI David Brooks, PhD. Co-Pi Peter Schmidt participates through a subcontract with Queens College CUNY. NASA's AESP program will support participation of four AESP educators. Other collaborators include the Iowa Academy of Science and an ongoing GCCE project at Drexel University.


For more information about CSRES, contact David Brooks at brooksdr@InstESRE.org.