Update on CMMAP Education and DiversityFrom Melissa BurtDate April 18, 2011 Hi Everyone, I just wanted to update on our Education and Diversity activities since our retreat in Berkeley. This email is a bit lengthy. K-12 The Little Shop of Physics holds an Open House each year, inviting members of the public to come for a day of hands-on science. We put out a wide selection of hands-on experiment stations, present a series of interactive science "shows", and invite local partners to present tables and rooms of activities as well. This year, the February event drew approximately 7,000 visitors, mostly K-12 students and their families. We were joined by several local partners. CMMAP staff and graduate students set up a variety of activities including making videos with a high speed camera and making "instant snow" under the heading "The Fast and the Frozen." UCAR Education and Outreach staff presented a set of activities. Channel 10, co-producers of the Everyday Science television program, staffed a "junior meteorologist" booth. We are getting ready for our annual Weather and Climate for Teachers Course. This year we have 40 teachers signed up coming from all over the state of Colorado, New York, and 16 teachers from Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Planning for the 2011 Colorado Global Climate Conference for High School Students has begun. This year, it will take place at CSU in the Lory Student Center on October 17, 2011 and Mike Nelson from KUSA will be the keynote speaker. The Save the Date Card will go out this week to over 400 schools. For a printable flyer and more information on CGCC, visit: www.cmmap.org/scienceEd/cgcc11/. In November we responded to a NSF solicitation called Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences. We proposed a multi-tier program of structured interventions in the educational and career pipeline to integrate strong existing programs with two goals: (1) to broaden participation in the geosciences by diverse populations in the Rocky Mountain West; and (2) to enhance the awareness in diverse communities of opportunities to address environmental changes through participation in geosciences careers. We are anxiously waiting the status of this project. In the next few weeks, we will be meeting with our UCAR team members to discuss content for the SEE-ME interactive resources. Hoping to implement some of these activities into our Teacher Course. Higher Education We've selected our summer undergraduate interns for the 2011 Internship. We have 12 students from all over the country working with CMMAP faculty and research scientists. To see who our 2011 interns are check out www.cmmap.org/scienceEd/internships.html. (We are missing pictures and information for 2 students from the Univ. of Puerto Rico). Planning has started for our 2011 Graduate Student Colloquium. The Graduate Student Colloquium is an opportunity for CMMAP graduate students across partner institutions to develop contacts and to learn together in a small group setting that is specifically designed to meet students needs. Graduate students sent me ideas on areas that they'd like to see covered this year. Potential topics for this years Colloquium include: history of CMMAP (where the idea came from), crash course on teaching, post doc and graduate school opportunities, open questions in climate research, etc. Have a great day! Melissa |