OVERALL GOAL:
To partner with K - 12 science teachers to incorporate activities and programs that encourage students to initiate and complete investigations using scientific methods, exploring research processes and collecting long-term data as well as with LTER associates to enhance LTER outreach and inreach materials.
 

L-T-E-RESEARCH GOAL:
Through inquiry-based science activities and programs, to provide opportunities for students to participate in the scientific process.

Objective A: to provide expertise and experiences for teachers and students that mentor development of viable questions and hypotheses, collection and analysis of data, drawing conclusions, presentation of each investigatory phase and constructive peer review.
Objective B: to base teacher/student/researcher mentoring on activities that integrate time-scale into student investigations.
Objective C: to help teachers take science activities out of the "artificial" classroom setting into "natural" setting of the schoolyard or nearby locales.
Palmer Objective A: to integrate outreach efforts with national, state and local standards for inquiry-based science.
Palmer Objective B: to partner with existing, effective national/local programs and teachers.
 

L-T-ECOLOGICAL-R GOAL:
Through inquiry-based science activities and programs, to highlight ecology as a critical component in understanding the interrelationships of earthwide systems.

Objective A: to provide scientific content through activities that broaden students’ view of science both temporally and spatially.
Objective B: to provide scientific content through activities that center upon ecological systems or  large-scale, periodic phenomena.
Palmer Objective A: to provide scientific content on data pertinent to, or issues addressed by,  polar research.
 

LONG-TERM-E-R GOAL:
Through inquiry-based science activities and programs, to let teachers and students conceptualize the nature and value of long-term scientific research.

Objective A: to provide expertise and experiences for teachers and students that explicate, by personalizing and localizing, the concepts of the "invisible present" and the "invisible place."
Objective B: to provide expertise and experiences for teachers and students that illustrate the importance of long-term research and data collection as pertinent to their daily lives or local  community.
Objective C: to base teacher/student/researcher mentoring on activities that emphasize students’ long-term collection of data.
Objective D: to introduce teachers and students to readily available, easily usable pre-existing data that is salient for their own investigations.
Palmer Objective A: to develop filters and visualizations that would facilitate teacher/student use of existing Palmer data.
 

LTER NETWORKING GOAL:
To develop, within-site (inreach) as well as cross-site and outside-site (outreach), integrated outreach materials and information management techniques.

Objective A: to develop data collection and information management systems that facilitate cross-site as well as teacher/student access.
Objective B: to consider and develop outreach prototypes for representing and analyzing information.
Objective C: to consider and develop prototypes for outreach activities designed for chosen grade levels: kindergarten-third grade; fourth grade through middle school; high school.
Objective D: to review, evaluate and adopt (where appropriate to each site) prototype activities developed by various LTER sites.
Palmer Objective A: to develop prototype outreach materials and activities (not elaborate curricula) based on cross-site weather data.