Schoolyard LTER Supplement - Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research 
 Education Plan Development in Support of Schoolyard LTERs 
	   
Raymond C. Smith, PI and Karen S. Baker, Co-PI  - 12 March 99

1.0 Introduction

This proposal is a supplement to the original LTER Palmer proposal (Smith et
al., 1996) and, as with our 1998-99 LTER Schoolyard Supplement, incorporates
Antarctic marine science and emphasizes the value of long term research.
This supplement proposal requests funds to continue developing a Palmer LTER
schoolyard education plan by developing existing relationships and programs,
holding mini-workshops or meetings, and planning prototype programs.  
 
Each prototype project will interface with local schools and teachers to
develop schoolyard LTERs and to identify "kid-engaging" observations that
are relevant to local communities and sustainable within the school's
existing programs and policies.  Potential student links to our Southern
Hemisphere research include on-line LTER climate data, a schoolyard weather
station and Southern Ocean drifter tracking. Coordination with the LTER 
information management and Palmer data manager will emphasize the importance 
of long term data and information synthesis.  Student interactions with 
scientists through inquiry-based use of long-term data will bring the 
excitement of real-world science to the classroom.

2.0 Approach

The ultimate goal is to establish self-sustaining schoolyard LTERs that
include classroom presentations, field measurements, data handling and
inquiry-based analyses incorporating long-term data sets from other schools
and/or several LTER sites. Sustainable schoolyard LTERs require a high level
of understanding and cooperation among LTER PIs, local school authorities
and, especially, local teachers. Given ongoing standards implementation, 
lack of curriculum integration across grades and schools, the classroom 
constraints with respect to time and curriculum materials, the range of teacher 
interest and professional development, we plan to develop, with teachers 
and educators, approaches that can augment existing classroom curricula. 
This permits a practical "sustainability through compatibility" philosophy.

TO DRAW UPON ESTABLISHED CURRICULAR PROGRAMS which are currently
administration-approved and classroom-functional, we will explore
collaborative on-going programs that already exist among Santa Barbara
schools, the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum and the National Center
for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) as well as with San Diego
schools, the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the
University of California at San Diego and the San Diego Supercomputer Center.

A FOCUS ON WEB COMMUNICATIONS will enhance long-distance collaborations and
introduction of existing Antarctic online materials that compliment
presentation of Palmer LTER materials. Such web resources include the Palmer
LTER website, ongoing NSF (GLACIER, TEA) and NASA (Passport to Knowledge,
GLOBE) and ONR/DOE (National Oceanographic Partnership Program Year
of the Ocean) national programs, the existing NCEAS online 'Kids Do Ecology'
program supporting fifth grade student classrooms and the Birch Aquarium's
Teacher On Board with INDOEX.  Curriculum developments will be modular and 
online so that scientists and teachers can participate as science themes or 
funding opportunities develop (ie ice, GIS, modeling).

TO DRAW UPON TEACHER EXPERTISE we will identify teachers in schools
where Palmer LTER PIs are already involved as parents or mentors. A unique
resource for us is Besse Dawson, a Texas High School Science Department
chair and past participant in Palmer field work through NSF's Teachers
Experience Antarctica Program.  Dawson will help develop a meeting forum
to forge a working partnership and define an education plan.  Additional 
PI/teacher teams will be added to our partnership as important elements 
of future cross-site projects.  Partnerships with other sites will capitalize 
upon ongoing scientific collaborations by focusing on common themes such as 
weather and ice. Working with PIs and Data Managers at various sites, we 
will identify methods so that personnel from a long-term research site can 
present and facilitate schoolyard programs centered upon hands-on field 
experience as well as hands-on data handling. Further we will continue to 
work with both the LTER Network Office and with the LTER network of sites 
to co-ordinate methods and approaches.

A WORKING GROUP FORUM of participants will review existing programs and
discuss a comprehensive plan, an activities list, potential pilot programs
and available datasets. This working group will help in recruiting teachers
and program affiliates interested in classroom/teacher/scientist team 
development.  We will focus on the value of the mentor relationships between 
classroom students and teachers with informal educators and scientists, and 
explore having teachers intern with local scientists in order to develop 
units relevant to needs of both teacher and scientist.

3.0 Budget and Budget Justification

The time required to interface between an academic research arena and a
K-12 educational site is significant.  As a result a major portion of these
initial funds will be used to support an effective interface in terms of
both personnel and communications.  Appropriate part-time personnel and an
informal science educator with scientific writing/editing expertise will
coordinate with the Palmer LTER program and interface with institutions and
K-12 schools interested in including a unit on long-term research within
their curriculum.  University students can work with PIs and teachers to
make data base management and computer linkage a reality. An active, ongoing
REU program may be tapped for some outreach to schools.

An important fraction of the budget will pay for communications in the form
of travel as well as stipends for teachers, instructors and students. Travel 
to meetings such as the annual American Association for the Advancement of 
Science or the upcoming LTER all-science meeting 2000 will be arranged.  
University students will work with our information manager (Karen Baker) and 
with other education partners.  A portion of the budget will be used to provide 
materials and supplies required in support of local measurements and interfaces.