The CERES S’COOL Project: Dynamic NASA Earth Science Education and Public Outreach for Formal and Informal Audiences.

The Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) Students’ Cloud Observations On-Line (S’COOL) Project began in 1997 as a collaboration between a Virginia Middle School teacher, and several NASA Langley Research Center scientists. The project’s aim is to involve classroom students in observing and reporting cloud parameters to assist in the validation of NASA’s CERES satellite instruments, thus connecting classroom science work to the outside world. In 2007, S’COOL added a Citizen Science component called ROVER. ROVER is geared toward informal observers not tied to one observation location. The S’COOL Project has been successful due to a combination of its flexibility of implementation, training and involvement opportunities, intuitive and free resources, and this authentic connection to an ongoing scientific activity.

Through S’COOL’s multiple participation avenues, all participants are invited to collect cloud data following S’COOL guidelines. Their cloud data is later matched with corresponding satellite data. Within a week of submitting their report, a participant will be sent a “match” email, if their observation aligns to a satellite overpass. This “match” shows their ground report next to the satellite data for comparison and analysis. All ground observations and satellite matches are archived in a S’COOL database, accessible to the public. This multi-step process enables an on-going, two-way interaction between students and NASA, which is much more engaging than more typical one-way outreach experiences.

To complement and enable the cloud observation component, the S’COOL website offers formal and informal education communities a wide variety of atmospheric science related learning resources. These educator created resources are supplemented with carefully crafted background information from the science team. Alignment of the project to the Next Generation Science Standards is underway now, and will highlight the many science process skills involved in S’COOL participation. The S’COOL team works to provide both formal and informal audiences with an authentic STEM experience for cloud observers of all ages.

This presentation will review best practices from 17 years of Earth Science Education and Public Outreach in reference to the S’COOL Project.