Program Contact:
Susan Foster, Deputy Director, UCAR Office of Education and Outreach – 303 497-2595

Program Website:
See below

Program Overview:
1. Windows to the Universe – This is an extensive web site visited by over 20 million students and teachers each year. The content spans the Earth and space sciences with constantly updated information about space weather, Earth’s weather, clouds, climate, global change, and modeling. Content is written at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels and translated into Spanish. Many standards-aligned classroom activities and other teacher resources may be accessed on the site. Staff at UCAR EO provide teacher professional development workshops on climate and global change at NSTA conferences and many other venues.

2. KidsCrossing – A website written for elementary to lower middle school grades with information about the water cycle, greenhouse effect, clouds and other things in the sky, and dangerous weather.

3. KidsCrossing in the Classroom – A collection of standards-aligned classroom activities to accompany the website.

4. NCAR Mesa Lab Visitor Center Climate Discovery Exhibit Teachers Guide - A downloadable PDF activity guide for middle and lower high school grades which can be used as pre-and post field trip activities or independent of the exhibit. The activities are groups under three topic areas:

1. The Sun-Earth Connection 
2. The Little Ice Age Case Study
3. Investigating Climate Present – Cycles of the Earth System

5. Planning a field trip to the NCAR Mesa Lab - The Office of Education and Outreach hosts over 15,000 visitors a year on scheduled tours of the Mesa Lab exhibits. School groups may choose themes and classroom modules to accompany their tour.

BVSD audience:
Thousands of BVSD students visit the Mesa Lab each year. We collaborate with Fiske and Science Discovery and Colorado MESA in the Science is Everywhere program which works with specific schools. For more information about this, contact Teri Eastburn (eastburn@ucar.edu) who coordinates the Public Visitor Program at the NCAR Mesa Lab.

History:
We partner with the BVSD rather than operate within the schools.

How do you advertise your program?:
We have a teacher e-newsletter. Word of mouth and tradition in this community play a large role in our contacts with teachers and parents. Super Science Saturday has a huge draw of many thousands of families with young children.

Is your program available upon request?:
All web-based information is available at no cost online. Teacher Professional Development workshops on climate change would need to be arranged and costs of the program covered by the school.

How do schools express interest? Who should they contact?:
Susan Foster, Deputy Director, UCAR Office of Education and Outreach – 303 497-2595

How much does your program cost schools? How is your program funded?:
All web-based information is available at no cost online. Teacher Professional Development workshops on climate change would need to be arranged and costs of the program covered by the school.

Standards met by your program?:
We align our classroom activities to national science content standards, since we are a national research lab.