Supporting and Enhancing Formal Science Education at All Levels
SERE supports life-long learning and professional development in the sciences for a broad audience. Through a variety of collaborative research and visitor programs, SERE scientists interact with researchers worldwide. The Advanced Study Program (ASP) provides opportunities for graduate and postgraduate students, early career scientists and faculty through a range of on-going and one-time development and research opportunities. ASP also supports early career scientists both at NCAR and within the academic community through professional development, training, and scientific colloquia. The Institute for the Study of Society and the Environment (ISSE) conducts workshops and colloquia that include researchers, stakeholders and professionals on topics of societal importance, expanding public awareness, and understanding of climate change. The Center for Capacity Building (CCB), through its Climate Affairs activity, is providing educators and students with a framework for investigating and understanding the importance of climate change and climate variability. All SERE programs have on-going visitor and outreach programs, and provide opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to participate in research activities.
Cross-Laboratory, Multidisciplinary Research at NCAR
ASP postdoctoral fellow builds a Teflon reaction chamber in one of the Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories. The specialized equipment will provide opportunities to further understand nucleation, new particle formation, and growth of biogenic organic aerosols under atmospherically relevant conditions.
ASP is unlike most other NCAR divisions or institutes, because it contributes to all NCAR goals and strategic priorities. It serves as a catalyst for burgeoning research activities that span the boundaries of NCAR laboratories and divisions. As such, the ASP contributes to all five NCAR strategic goals and to multiple priorities within these goal areas.
The most important ASP component is the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, which has been a part of NCAR for forty-two years and has brought over 425 postdoctoral scientists to NCAR. The ASP appoints approximately 10 new postdoctoral scientists each year. During their two-year NCAR appointments, the fellows conduct research in collaboration with NCAR scientists throughout the Center. Many fellows hold joint appointments across divisions or laboratories. All fellows benefit from the opportunity to work with NCAR scientists, from exposure to the breadth of science at NCAR, and from the independence they are encouraged to develop. Many former fellows now occupy prominent positions at UCAR universities or at NCAR, and many of the present collaborations between NCAR and university scientists derive from associations that developed in the postdoctoral program. The institution benefits from these appointments through the research and investigation of new topics and directions in areas that that might not otherwise be addressed.
In FY07, the ASP appointed 12 fellows (from over 130 applications) in a diversity of disciplines spanning the various labs and divisions within the organization. In addition to the diversity of disciplines, the new fellows represent a diversity of population including gender and ethnicity. Also in FY2007, the ASP held monthly ‘socials' that often included an education or career development aspect such as a book discussion on early warning systems for climate weather and water with editor, Michael Glantz, and discussions on "Proposal Writing," and "Careers in Scientific Leadership." These socials not only brought members of ASP together, but also included any postdoctoral or graduate student within the larger organization who wished to attend. In FY2006, ASP helped form a new NCAR Fellows Association. The Association generally meets on a monthly basis in a social setting in order to provide friendship and support to other postdocs and graduate students at NCAR. The ASP aims to create a meaningful experience not only for ASP fellows, but for all fellows at NCAR. As part of this plan, NCAR/ASP became a sustaining member of the National Postdoctoral Association in 2006. In FY2008, ASP plans to continue the core elements of the program, including monthly seminars, bi-weekly research reviews, and monthly socials, along with the annual research planning sessions and on-going mentoring that postdoctoral fellows receive.
The postdoctoral program receives its funding from the National Science Foundation.
Providing University Students Access to the Resources of NCAR
Graduate student visitors conduct research in pursuit of their thesis in collaboration with NCAR scentific staff.
The SERE Laboratory's Advanced Study Program provides university graduate students and their advisors with access to NCAR resources through the Graduate Visitor Program (GVP). The program, now in its second year, was created in response to multiple requests from NCAR scientific staff for graduate student support. It was also developed in response to university community requests for access to NCAR resources and facilities that are not available at a university. ASP recognized the need to establish an NCAR program that would sponsor a significant number of meaningful visits and collaborations with graduate students and their advisors. The Graduate Visitor Program responds to that need.
The Graduate Visitor Program provides NCAR scientific staff with opportunities to bring graduate students to NCAR for three- to 12-month collaborative visits. These visits are undertaken with the endorsement and complementary support of the graduate students' thesis advisors. While residing at NCAR, the students conduct research in pursuit of their thesis requirements. The students receive support to cover their travel and living expenses in Boulder. Funding is also provided to allow the students' advisors to visit NCAR for a period of up to two weeks. The students' home institutions continue to pay the students' salary, benefit, and tuition expenses.
This program supports multiple scientific priorities described in the NCAR Strategic Plan; however, these priorities vary in accordance with the student visitors' backgrounds and research interests. On a broader level, by actively engaging a diverse group of graduate students, and by bringing them to the NCAR workplace, the program champions the following three priorities in support of cultivating a diverse and creative workforce:
- Enhancing science education at all levels;
- Engaging a broader and more diverse community; and
- Maintaining an innovative and creative workplace.
Inputs, Outputs and Outcomes for FY2007
ASP received 18 applications for Graduate Visitor Program visits between January 2007 and January 2008. Of those applications, 9 students were funded, and each of those included or will include at least one visit by their faculty advisor. The ASP office conducts the application and selection process for this program, working closely with the NCAR laboratories and divisions who host the students.
Several of the NCAR scientific staff members who hosted graduate visitors indicated that important new collaborations and work was completed during the students' visits. Almost all hosts agreed that the time spent at NCAR would contribute significantly to the student's thesis, and that most would be returning to their home institution to write and publish papers based on their work at NCAR. Several of the graduate student visitors and their advisors were very pleased with the program. They indicate that the visits have given them access to resources and facilities that they do not have at their home institutions.
Projected Inputs, Outputs, and Outcomes for future years
The program will continue at approximately the same level in FY08 as in FY07. The Graduate Visitor Program is still too new to measure or understand its full impacts. Yet, the ASP recognizes that students and their advisors are the bridge builders between NCAR and the university community. The ASP contends that the Graduate Visitor Program will seed significant and long-term collaborations. This program helps to extend NCAR capabilities by bringing students on-site to work on research of mutual interest and by providing NCAR scientific staff with the opportunities to participate in graduate student research and education. Through this program, NCAR increases its contribution to the education of the next generation of scientists, researchers, and faculty. In turn, the graduate students help invigorate NCAR and their home institutions. Finally, the Graduate Visitor Program provides opportunities to partner with universities and engage Ph.D. students from underrepresented groups in NCAR research activities. The ASP anticipates that the program will help diversify the future workforce at NCAR and in the geosciences professoriate and research communities.
The Graduate Visitor Program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and by all the Universities and Institutions who co-host their NCAR visits. In FY07 these institutions included: Embry Riddle University, Howard University, St. Louis University, Texas A&M, Texas Tech University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and University of Texas.
A Serious Game for Coastal Hazards and Sustainability
Logo of the Disaster Dynamics project 2003-2008
The Disaster Dynamics project was initated by Robert Harriss in 2003. Seth McGinnis and Eric Scharff developed an educational computer game about the interactions between human decisions and natural hazards in a fictional Gulf Coast barrier island community.
The game is targeted at undergraduates in hazard management or urban planning programs, but is suitable for any interested students or lay people at the high school level or above. Through role-based negotiation of the use of limited resources to deal with problems in the aftermath of extreme events affecting the town, players learn lessons about natural hazards, sustainability, complex systems, urban growth, and decision-making in the real world. This learning experience is widely praised by those who have undergone it.
In FY07, Seth McGinnis continued to maintain and update the game's website, developed new support materials, and worked with Lynette Laffea to refine the game for improved usability. Seth facilitated the game for various groups visiting NCAR during the year, including the Hubert M. Humphrey Fellowship recipients, as well as facilitating it for a class at the Denver University Graduate School of International Studies. He presented a poster of the game at the Weather Forecast Integration Workshop at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA in January of 2007, and will be presenting it to the National Science Teachers Association at their regional meeting in Denver in November 2008.
During FY08, Seth plans to continue to provide support for the game, promote it to educators to increase its use, improve and expand the support materials, and refine the functioning of the game where possible. This work is supported by the National Science Foundation.
Building Partnerships with University Faculty
The Faculty Fellowship Program gives university faculty an opportunity to take advantage of NCAR in a meaningful and productive way, while providing unique research opportunities for the accompanying graduate students. Above, an FFP participant, her two graduate students, and NCAR scientific staff collaborate on research in MMM.
The Faculty Fellowship (FFP) program was started in 2005 with the goal of funding medium-to long-term collaborative visits between the NCAR scientific staff and the university community. The program provides opportunities for university faculty to spend three to 12 months at NCAR, and for NCAR scientific staff to spend three to 12 months at a university. University faculty may also bring graduate students with them to NCAR. In FY07, the FFP provided support for travel costs, temporary living per diem, graduate student expenses, and some limited salary.
This year, applicants were asked to submit proposals and budgets for 3- to 12-month visits that occurred between 1 September 2007 and 31 May 2009. ASP received 13 viable applications. The applications were reviewed by the UCAR University Relations Committee. Nine applicants were extended offers for visits. The FFP supported seven university faculty visitors and six student visitors during FY07. Two NCAR scientists received support for their long-term visits to two U.S. universities.
The FFP will initiate another competition during FY08 and anticipates granting eight to 10 appointments for FY09 visits. The call for new proposals in the fall of 2007 will cover visits initiated in FY08 and FY09.
The program gives university faculty an opportunity to take advantage of their National Center in a meaningful and productive way, while providing unique research opportunities for the accompanying graduate students. The ASP plans to continue this program at the same level in FY08, or higher, depending on available funding.
The Faculty Fellowship Program is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and by all the Universities and Institutions who co-host the fellows' NCAR visits, including Dartmouth University, Desert Research Institute, Stanford University, University of Chicago, University of North Carolina, and University of California, Davis.
ASP Summer Colloquia
The ASP Summer Colloquium was held 4-15 June 2007. Morning lectures were followed by afternoon tutorials. Above, students participate in a hands-on computer tutorial.
For several decades, the ASP has hosted at least one 2-week colloquium every summer on an emerging science topic of interest to the NCAR community. The colloquium is designed for graduate students in a new or rapidly developing area of research for which good course materials may not yet be available. In recent years, the colloquia have had both a lecture component and a hands-on tutorial component. NCAR Scientific staff members write proposals for colloquia topics, and in the event that their proposal is selected, organize the colloquium curriculum with logistical support provided by the ASP.
This year's Colloquium was entitled Regional Biogeochemistry: Needs and Methodologies and was held from 4-15 June 2007. The primary organizer was an ASP Postdoctoral Fellow.
Biogeochemical processes are intertwined and span a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, from the molecule to the globe and from nanoseconds to millennia. Methods to bridge these scales and to fill gaps in understanding at the regional-scale are rapidly developing, promulgated by the advancements in state-of-the-art observation technologies and networks, expanding computational and database capacities, and demand from government agencies interested in regional-level decision support. Yet, regional-scale understanding is limited by the complexity of terrestrial ecosystems and fundamental limits on atmospheric observation methods. A more complete understanding of regional biogeochemistry and hydrology is essential to evaluate our ability to upscale results of local ecological studies to larger scales.
The 2007 colloquium was attended by 50 graduate students and included 41 presenters. Generally lectures were held in the morning with hands on tutorials in the afternoon that focused on state of the art methods for studying regional-scale biogeochemical budgets and the mechanisms governing them.
The 2007 Summer Colloquium was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and by Pennsylvania State University.
Junior Faculty Forum on Future Scientific Directions
The ASP and Early Career Scientist Assembly (ECSA) host an annual forum on future scientific directions at NCAR. The objective of this forum is to bring together junior faculty and members of NCAR's ECSA to discuss selected topics in the geosciences. Above are the participants of the 2007 Junior Faculty Forum at NCAR, held 9-11 July 2007.
Beginning in 2003, the Advanced Study Program and the Early Career Scientist Assembly (ECSA) began hosting an annual forum at NCAR on future scientific directions. The objective of this forum is to bring together early career faculty and NCAR scientific staff to discuss selected topics in the Geosciences. This forum is open to non-tenured faculty at universities who are within five years of their first professorial academic appointment and to Level I and Level II NCAR scientific staff. In addition to promoting scientific discussion, an intended goal of the forum is to encourage development of professional relationships between members of the ECSA and UCAR institutions.
The Forum targets two to three specific topics of interest based on feedback from early career staff from NCAR and the university community. In FY2007, the topics included: 1) Geophysical and statistical challenges in detection/attribution of regional climate change; and 2) Coupling terrestrial and atmospheric water dynamics to improve predictability in a changing environment. A total of 27 participants from across the nation, as well as a few international participants, came to NCAR to meet with ECSA staff, and to discuss and to write papers on these topics.
Although it is too soon to determine if any collaborations will be forged, it is evident that participants from each topic have found potential collaborators, and it is likely that some of these will lead to meaningful interdisciplinary projects. Participants of the water dynamics group have submitted a manuscript to the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, and the participants of the regional climate change group plan to submit one soon. Proposal topics for the 2008 Junior Faculty Forum have already been solicited and should be determined by the end of 2007.
The Junior Faculty Forum on Future Scientific Directions is funded by the NSF.