icp newsletter spring summer 1999 · 2004-04-30 · warming research update web highlight...

CoolingWarming

Research Update

Web Highlight

Partnerships

Teacher Education

Onward and Upward page 30

page 19

page 14

page 7

page 2

featuring. . .

The Institute on Climate and Planets is a

Research, Science Education, and Minority

Outreach Program at the NASA Goddard

Institute for Space Studies.

ICP NewsletterS P R I N G / S U M M E R 1 9 9 9

The ICP is funded by the NASA Office of Equal Opportunity Programs, Earth Science Office, and Education Division.

V o l u m e 2 I s s u e 2

A. Philip Randolph High School

Bronx High School ofScience

Career Magnet High School

City College of New York

DeWitt Clinton High School

Far Rockaway High School

George Washington High School

High School for Environmental Studies

Hunter College

LaGuardia CommunityCollege

MAST High School

Medgar Evers College

Mott Hall IntermediateSchool

New Preparatory Middle School

New Rochelle High School

Queensborough Community College

School of the Future

Southern ConnecticutState U.

Townsend Harris High School

York College

School ResearchNetwork

Thanks to the followingpeople for contributing to

the publication and distribution of this

newsletter:

Brian Cairns

Susane Colasanti

Patrick Cushing

James Hansen

Umit Kenis

Elaine Matthews

Ronald Miller

Eleni Palmos

Jennifer Phillips

Barbara Poseluzny

Ina Tegen

Jericco Tolentino

George Tselioudis

Leila Woolley

Acknowledgements

NASA GISS

NYC Public Schools

CUNY– AMP

Columbia University

NASA Education

NASA Equal Opportunity

NASA Earth Science

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA MU-SPIN CCNY-NRTS

Science Systems & Applications, Inc.

Collaborators

PA R T I C I PA N T S

ICP STAFF: PRODUCTION AND DESIGN BY

CAROLYN A. HARRIS, DIRECTOR CAROL RICHMAN

LATIKA KEEGAN, TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR ELECTRONIC IMAGING AND DESIGN

02 . . . . . . . . . Research Update: Spring 1999

07 . . . . . . . . . Web Highlight: New Design

10 . . . . . . . . . Earth Climate Education

14 . . . . . . . . . Partnerships: ICP Working Group

16 . . . . . . . . . Student and Faculty Profiles

18 . . . . . . . . . School Research Network: CCNY

19 . . . . . . . . . Teacher Education

22 . . . . . . . . . Outreach: ICP presents at NSTA ‘99 in Boston

25 . . . . . . . . . Outreach: Earth Day 1999

26 . . . . . . . . . Outreach: El Niño Investigation

28 . . . . . . . . . Summer Institute 1999: Outlook

30 . . . . . . . . . Onward and Upward: ICP Alumni Special Report

34 . . . . . . . . . Spring 1999 Conference

Please send feedback and comments to: i c p n e w s l e t t e r @ g i s s . n a s a . g o v.Institute on Climate and Planets, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025

Volume 2, Issue 2

Institute on Climate and PlanetsInThisIssue

CHANGE ( C)

THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO

2 ICP Newsletter • SPRING/SUMMER 1999

OCEANSRAYSA RODRIGUEZ and DOROTHY LOUIS

from Bronx High School of Science arecontinuing their summer ‘98 researchinvestigating the question “What isthe observed relation between ENSOand mid-latitude climate and is thissimulated by the GISS coupledocean/atmosphere model?” Underthe mentorship of GISS scientist RonMiller and ICP Bronx Science teacherMitch Fox, these students are study-ing climate forcing by ENSO and howit effects regions throughout theglobe.

Last summer, the ICP Oceans teamfound that the GCM was able toapproximate the deflection of stormtracks over North America by ENSO.However, modest errors in the mod-eled deflection caused errors in thepredicted temperature anomalies

over the US. Research productsinclude a GISS model ENSO index forcomparison to observations alongwith observed and modeled anom-alies of geopotential height, sea sur-face temperature and surfacetemperature during ENSO events.

The question guiding Dorothy andRaysa’s current research is whetherthere is a consistent response to ENSOfrom event to event. They believetheir research will allow people toassess the certainty of a forecast of theeffects of El Niño and prepare inregions particularly affected, like Cal-ifornia and Peru.

IMPACTSCYNTHIA GIANNETTI of George Wash-ington High School and CARYLE ANN

FRANCIS from School of the Futureare studying “How Does WaterStress Affect Crop Yields?” GISS sci-entist Jennifer Phillips and ICP fac-ulty member Leila Woolley fromHigh School for EnvironmentalStudies are advising on this projectthat aims to estimate the sensitivityof corn yield to temperature, precip-itation and water balance. The firstphase of their research is concernedwith the relationship between cli-mate variability and water balancein two New York State regional cli-mate divisions from 1972 to the pre-sent.

Caryle Ann and Cynthia will cal-culate an estimate of monthly poten-tial evapotranspiration, which willthen be used with monthly recordsof precipitation to calculate a sea-sonal water balance. Their analysisof precipitation, temperature andwater balance records will identify

Research Update

These students are continuing their climate researchone to two days per week during the school year underthe mentorship of GISS scientists and ICP faculty.Threenew schools were selected as ICP Partner Schools andwill receive a seed grant of $5000 each to support thedevelopment of a school-based ICP research and educa-tion program: Dewitt Clinton High School (Bronx), HighSchool for Environmental Studies (Manhattan), andNew Rochelle High School (New Rochelle).

ICP research projects are an outgrowth of priorityGISS research areas that contribute to the broad study

of climate variability. This year ICP teams are poolingthe collective knowledge gained in their individualresearch projects to understand the contributions ofvarious climate forcings, natural variability and globalclimate change to New York’s climate. Each project isresponding to unique science questions that aim toexplain how humans and natural phenomena influenceEarth’s energy, water, and biogeochemical cycles, andatmospheric and ocean circulation. By applying theunderstandings gained about these climate processesand climate change, research teams will offer explana-tions of predictions for future climate.

A complementary effort is also underway in the ICPto connect our research objectives with national andstate science standards. These standards call for stu-dents to develop problem-solving abilities they can applyin the workforce, understand science from an interdisci-plinary perspective so they can make informed decisionsas citizens, attain in-depth learning of science conceptsin order to appreciate Earth as a system of physical, bio-logical, chemical and social processes.

THIS SPRING FIFTEEN HIGH

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE

STUDENTS WERE

SELECTED AS ICP STUDENT

RESEARCH INTERNS AT NASA GISS.

SPRING 1999 ICP STUDENT RESEARCH INTERNSHIPS AND PARTNER SCHOOL AWARDS

periods of drought when crop waterstress may have limited crop yield.The second phase of their researchwill focus on crop yields for thesame period as phase one in order tostudy the sensitivity of yields withclimate variability and water bal-ance.

Their final research product is thedevelopment of a simple model of theimpacts of climate on corn yieldswhich the ICP Impacts team plans touse two estimate changes in cornyields under future climate changescenarios for New York State. Duringthe Summer Institute 1999, the teamwill use output from the GISS GCM todesign these scenarios, depicting bothpotential climate change and influ-ence of the North Atlantic Oscillationin New York State. Cynthia andCaryle Ann are excited about theirresearch and its possible contributionto farming and dairy industries in theregion where they live.

AEROSOLSQueens College student MARICELA

REYES and Bronx Science studentANDRE CASSELL are “Investigatingthe Spatial Distribution of Aerosolsin New York City by Holding anIntensive Observation Period(IOP).” Working with their GISSadvisors, Barbara Carlson and BrianCairns, and faculty advisors Bren-dan Curran from Townsend HarrisHigh School (Queens) and Robert

Gandolfo and Kevin Finnerty fromDeWitt Clinton High School (Bronx),they plan to field-test the 1998 sun-photometer design. The overall goalof the ICP Sunphotometer team is toobtain a better understanding of thenature and distribution of aerosolsleading to an improved determina-tion of aerosol radiative forcing onthe earth’s climate.

The students’ study of aerosol inNew York City will complement andcontribute to the GISS investigationof aerosol properties retrieved froma network of Multi-Filter RotatingShadowband Radiometers (MFRSR),measuring the intensity of sunlightin six channels or wavelengths. Lastyear, the Sunphotometer team con-ducted two IOPs with students fromall five New York City boroughs.The data collected suggested season-al variations in aerosol properties,analysis of the data also revealedthat measurements made at a givenschool were as variable as measure-ments made at different schools.This prompted students to modifythe hand-held circuits to decreasethe instrument noise and increaseinstrument reliability.

This year’s IOP focuses on assess-ing the reproducibility of the mea-surements by having more studentsat fewer schools make side-by-sidemeasurements for comparison.Schools participating in the one-week IOP are LaGuardia Communi-ty College (Queens), Medgar EversCollege (Brooklyn), Townsend Har-ris High School (Queens), Bronx Sci-ence and DeWitt Clinton High

School (Bronx). IOP participantswill log their data along with weath-er data (pressure, wind direction,wind speed, temperature andhumidity) obtained from school-based weather stations on the data-base accessed from the GISS website.

Andre and Maricela will produce alocal analysis of aerosol opticalthickness over each participatingschool site. In addition to testingtheir new sunphotometer design,this IOP will also include two hand-held sunphotometers developed foruse in the GLOBE program, an ini-tiative sponsored by Vice PresidentGore to engage students in climatemeasurements throughout theworld. The students will calibratethe GLOBE instruments using Lang-ley Regression and compare theGLOBE sunphotometer measure-ments to their own sunphotometermeasurements and the measure-ments made by the GISS MFRSR.

CLOUDS/STORMSFor her ICP Student ResearchInternship, A. Philip Randolph HighSchool student SHARIKA DE LA OZ

will study “Do Stronger StormsMean More Rain Clouds?” GeorgeTselioudis is her GISS science advi-

SPRING/SUMMER 1999 • ICP Newsletter 3

sor, and Robert Kruckeberg from A.Philip Randolph is her faculty advi-sor. The project is designed to con-tribute to the ICP Cloud team studyof Cloud Structure in Storm Lifecy-cles. This is a continuation of Shari-ka’s Summer Institute 1998 researchin which she related cloud proper-ties derived from satellite observa-tions to the dynamical properties ofstorms. During this school year sheplans to increase the number ofstorms she is analyzing in order toimprove our understanding of cloudformation in real world storms.

In addition, Sharika’s research is acomponent of GISS work on theproblem of how clouds affect cli-mate and whether the current globalwarming trend will increase the fre-quency of extreme climate eventssuch as droughts and floods. Herstudy focuses on storms in the mid-latitudes and the hypothesis thatthere is a strong correlation betweenstorm strength and the amount ofrain clouds. A new dimension of herresearch is comparison betweenstorm clouds observed by satellitesand cloud formation in GCMstorms, that she hopes will con-tribute to the GISS model improve-ment effort.

■ A. Philip Randolph students,ANDREW AUDRY and HEBERTHE DELY,are studying “How Will the Changein Temperatures at the Poles AffectStorms in the Mid-Latitudes”. Underthe mentorship of GISS scientistGeorge Tselioudis and their A. Philip

Randolph faculty advisor ChrisPetersen, Andrew and Heberthe’sresearch attempts to better predicthow changes in the Meridional Tem-perature Gradient (MTG) maychange the strength of storms in themid-latitudes. A measure of the dif-ference between Earth’s warm equa-torial and cooler polar regions, theMTG is an important factor con-tributing to energy balance. If thetemperature differences betweenthese regions decrease, less energywill be globally distributed and thiscould possibly lead to fewer orweaker storms.

Andrew and Heberthe will studythe relationship between sea levelpressure anomaly distributions andthe MTG, as well as analyze thestrength and number of storms.They focus on the period 1979 to1996, analyzing real world stormsunder different MTG conditions. TheICP Cloud team researches issuesconcerning how storm clouds maychange in a warmer climate andhopes to contribute to the GISS mod-eling of clouds in the GCM.

FORCINGS/CHAOSSONJAE WALLACE, a student at YorkCollege is investigating the question:How Well is the GISS GCM Represent-

ing Incident Short Wave Solar Radia-tion at the Surface in Germany? underthe mentorship of GISS scientist JimHansen and York College facultymember, Sam Borenstein. This pro-ject will contribute to the Forcingsand Chaos team study and assess-ment of the GISS GCM’s predictivecapabilities.

A comparison of incident shortwave solar observations at the sur-face in Germany with the model’soutput for the same variable anddimension will be done by creatingoverlaying graphical line-plots. Dr.Martin Wild, a scientist in Zurich,Switzerland, inspired this investi-gation.

In a similar study with other mod-els, Dr. Wild concluded that improp-er algorithmic computer coding iscausing GCMs from various institu-tions to over estimate the amount ofshort wave radiation at the surfaceby about 10 Watts per square meter.If the GISS GCM has a similar dis-crepancy in shortwave radiation hit-ting the surface, it would have adeleterious effect on the model’sability to accurately simulate cli-mate change and would need to beaddressed in further model devel-opment. The results of this researchwill serve to emphasize how wellmany atmospheric variables thatdepend upon solar influx, are beingexpressed in the GISS GCM.

■ ROSA ANDUJAR and JOHANNA PINO

from High School for EnvironmentalStudies are ICP Student Research


Interns on a new Forcings andChaos team project: ”Global Warm-ing and the Urban Heating Effect.”Their GISS advisor is Jim Hansenand their faculty advisors are SamBorenstein, from York College, andUmit Kenis, a teacher at their school.Their research interest “whetherlocal climate change seen by the per-son in the street is the result ofurban heating, a real global climatechange, or just the climate is varyingnaturally”.

A person’s perception of climatechange is influenced by what he orshe experiences as the norm in aparticular geographic area. Rosaand Johanna will study severalcities that represent different USregions and geographic settings.The preliminary group of citiesselected includes: Boston (coastal),Denver (high altitude) and Phoenix(desert). Using data from the GISSCommon Sense Climate Index, theywill study the effect of urban heat-ing resulting from the developmentin large cities.

The Forcings and Chaos team willcompare weather station data ofurban temperatures with nearbysmaller rural locations. Their aim is tosee if the larger city depicts a differenttemperature trend than the smallerrural locations.

The analysis will also be comparedto global mean temperature trends.Rosa and Johanna’s project investi-gates the significance of several natur-al and human factors that influence

local climate, including a region’s lat-itude, population, geography, andurban development.

PARTNER SCHOOLAWARDS

■ An ICP Partner School Grant wasawarded to NEW ROCHELLE HIGH

SCHOOL in New Rochelle, New York.PATRICK CUSHING is the principalinvestigator of this school proposalcontributing to the Climate Impactsteam research on “The Effect of WaterStress on Crop Yields”. GISS scientistJennifer Phillips is the research advi-sor for this new school based initia-tive to enhance the relevance ofscience in the lives of high school stu-dents. The project also aims to pro-vide students with the opportunity todevelop skills for using technology ina meaningful way in the process ofdoing science.

Mr. Cushing is integrating theImpacts team research into two“Living Environment” classes thateach enrolls 25 students, by havingstudents conduct growth experi-ments with bean plants, beforedoing analysis on real crop yielddata. These classes are beingdesigned to help develop the skillsof students who have difficultyobtaining regents diplomas. Theyencourage projects like the ICP thatintegrate research experiences intostudents’ science learning, building

a bridge between what happens inthe science classroom and in the realworld.

Both Mr. Cushing and Dr. Phillipssupport the educational approachthat students gain a hands-on experi-ence concerning the science conceptsrelated to their research, prior toworking with Internet-accessed data.Toward this end, students will designand conduct experiments to deter-mine how the amount and frequencyof watering will effect the growth ofbean plants. These experiments willprovide some of the science founda-tion needed for students to contributeto Climate Impacts team study.

Student experience gained conduct-ing the growth experiments and theImpacts research project will begin togive them an understanding of theconcept of modeling physical process-es and thinking about the Earth as asystem. This aspect of Mr. Cushing’seducation strategy, as well as theemphasis on students participating inreal world inquiry-based cooperativelearning concerning the hydrologicalcycle, addresses key process and con-tent skills in New York State ScienceStandards.

■ DEWITT CLINTON HIGH SCHOOL hasreceived an ICP Partner School Grantaward of seed funding to establish aschool-based program to integrate theICP sunphotometer aerosol researchinto their science program.

The principal investigators are


KEVIN FINNERTY and ROBERT GANDOL-FO who are collaborating with GISSscientists Barbara Carlson and BrianCairns. Mr. Finnerty and Mr. Gan-dolfo are committed to this projectbecause students will have anopportunity to learn, reinforce, andsupplement science concepts thatare already part of the curriculumwhile improving their technologicalskills with computers and scientificinstruments through their participa-tion in a real science investigation.The school administration is sup-portive of this new initiative thataddresses topics and skills in theNew York Regents Earth Scienceand Physics.

This project offers students realworld applications to concepts suchas the electromagnetic spectrum, thebehavior of light, planetary motion,atmospheric composition, meteorol-ogy and climate. The educationalapproach is to begin with conceptsthat are familiar to the students andexpand their understanding viahands-on activities. The facultyplans to introduce the project with aseries of student activities using theICP GEEBITT spreadsheet-based cli-mate model.

Unlike most other ICP projects, stu-dents involved in the Sunphotometerproject build and test a scientificinstrument as well as collect and vali-date the data that they use in their

research projects. This gives the stu-dents ownership and builds confi-dence through seeing their designideas implemented and contributingto the protocols for data collection.This school has dedicated a room forthis research project that aims to havehigh school students study the role ofaerosol in local climate variability.

■ HIGH SCHOOL FOR ENVIRONMENTAL

STUDIES (HSES) received an ICP Part-ner School Grant to support school-based research and educationactivities lead by three faculty mem-bers on ICP research teams: LEILA

WOOLLEY (Climate Impacts), UMIT

KENIS (Forcings and Chaos) andSUSANE COLASANTI (Sunphotometer/Aerosols).

All projects are concerned withengaging students in studies thatimprove our understanding of cli-mate in the northeastern region of theUS where we live. Their investiga-tions deal with important factors(forcings) that can produce climatechange—water resources, atmospher-ic gases, urban heating and naturalvariability.

Impacts, and forcings/chaos re-search has been described previous ly.The Aerosol project aims to contributeto the sunphotometer study. Theresearch team will use emissions andweather data to study the relationship

between aerosol type and load withclimate change. In this first phase ofthe school-based implementation,HSES faculty decided to introduce theprogram as an after-school researchopportunity for 5–8 students. Like theDeWitt program, the HSES principalhas dedicated a room for the NASAresearch.

In addition to leading studentresearch, HSES faculty will preparelessons motivated by their researchthat contribute to a range of RegentsEarth Science topics. For example, thecontent areas they plan to impactinclude: The Water Cycle and Cli-mates, Earth Dimensions, SurfaceProcesses and Landscapes, LatentHeat and Atmospheric Energy andMeteorology.

The research skills emphasized inthe HSES project are engaging stu-dents in formulating originalhypotheses and problem statements,collecting and displaying data, ana-lyzing data, and communicatingresults. — CH

Contributors: Sam Borenstein,Brian Cairns,

Barbara Carlson, James Hansen, Ron Miller,

Jennifer Phillips, & George Tselioudis



The newly re-designed website for the GISS

Institute on Climateand Planets waslaunched in Februarythis year. The focus ofthe site is to take theprogram’s model andoffer opportunities viathe Internet to reachbeyond our existingnetwork.

This expands thegrowing ICP commu-nity of students,teachers, and scien-tists who engage inNASA research relat-ed to understandingearth’s climate, teach-ing earth system sci-ence, and sharingwhat we learn withthe public. ICP webprovides educatorsand students withresources for teachingand learning scienceand investigating cli-mate research problems via three maincategories: Education Strategies, Cli-mate Research, and Public Outreach.Descriptions of each section and ourfuture outlook follow.

EDUCATION STRATEGIES:Teaching Earth System Science

This section offers learning modules,(for example, an activity to study theEffect of the Sun’s Energy on the

Ocean and Atmosphere), educationaltools (such as GEEBITT, a spread-sheet-based model), and the ICPEarth Climate Teacher EducationCourse currently being developed.These education products aim to pre-pare students with basic skills andunderstandings needed to participatein climate research. Many of the prod-ucts are designed as examples foraddressing state and national sciencestandards to enhance current teachingpractices. Studying problems linked

to NASA’s Earth ScienceEnterprise, they aredesigned to comple-ment instruction by pro-viding a means toreinforce and assess sci-ence learning. Teachersand students involvedin school-based researchprojects are invited tomake use of these mate-rials and send theirevaluations to ICP.

The Education Strate-gies section will alsoserve as a repository forupcoming curriculum,resources for studentevaluation, and docu-mentation of ICP’s edu-cational approach andbenchmarks. An expect-ed outcome of thisyear’s Summer Instituteis to produce lessonsand assessments moti-vated by climateresearch problems andbased on the NY StateScience Standards. We

are aiming to prepare these materialsfor classroom field-testing in the falland gradually integrate them into theweb site.

CLIMATE RESEARCH:State of Our Understanding

The “state of our understanding” ofEarth’s climate is reported by sharingprogress on research done by our stu-dents and teachers in collaboration

ICPHighlight

W E B

New Design—Site Aligned with ICP Goals—ClimateResearch, Science Education, and Public Outreach

ht tp :// i c p . g i s s .n asa.gov/

ICP web home page.


with GISS scientists. The ClimateResearch section contains updates oncurrent ICP projects, research results,abstracts, and posters. Topical paperswritten by students and teachers during the intensive summer program provide knowledge-build-ing resources.

These materials are essential prepa-ration for ICP projects as they presentthe science questions and issues thateach team deals with in their research.Students and teachers looking to doclimate research at their school or col-lege campuses should begin by read-ing these topical papers.

We hope to facilitate student and fac-ulty research by providing users accessto a range of projects and products asmore topical papers and posters comeonline. A future goal is to provide thenext generation ICP projects in the formof mini research activities that studentsand teachers can carry out in their class-rooms, including evaluation andreporting materials. Ultimately, thisleads to online research guides withlinks to data and model, and a group ofstudent-written papers that enable stu-dents to cite each other’s research asthey add to the collection.

PUBLIC OUTREACH:Sharing the ICP Model

Sharing our research and educationactivities with the public is animportant responsibility for theGISS ICP community. The PublicOutreach section carries ICPNewsletter issues, materials fromthe ICP youth service initiative

Space Quest (a Saturday scienceprogram for elementary and juniorhigh school students), and updateson outreach activities such as localstaff development and special pro-grams for visitors. Sharing the ICPmodel provides resources toimprove public understanding ofclimate research and science.

THERE’S MORE…

Other sections of the websiteinclude a News & Events page thatreports on participation of ICP stu-dents, teachers, and staff in confer-ences, workshops, competitions,and other events. Also included arelinks to parts of the EducationStrategies, Climate Research, andPublic Outreach sections fordetailed papers, modules, or articleswhen relevant.

Since 1994, ICP has contributed toseveral project proposals that havebeen successful in receiving fund-ing. Brief explanations of these Col-laborations are provided, includingthe NASA MU-SPIN NetworkResource and Training Site at theCity College of New York (CCNY),the Solar Irradiance Research Net-work, and PAIR—NASA Partner-ship Awards at CCNY and MedgarEvers College.

The ICP Research and EducationSchool Network provides a list of par-ticipating and represented schoolscurrently in the program. The sectionentitled, About ICP, provides anoverview of the program, a list of cur-rent participants by research team,

links to schools, and a discussionforum used for planning purposes.For example, the Bulletin Board isbeing used in April-May to plan theschedule and activities for SummerInstitute 1999.

Additional Resources at the siteinclude a Science Glossary andICP’s PosterApplet, a downloadablepackage used for displaying scienceposters or papers online (see follow-ing page).

LOOKING AHEAD:Next Steps

Our long-term vision for ICP web isto continue providing meaningfulscience resources for the study andunderstanding of climate. Building acommunity via the web is not aneasy task, and what we have under-taken is a challenge for the limitedstaff and resources at ICP.

Lessons that enhance classroomlearning and research projects toapply one’s skills and knowledge areto be placed online as ICP continuesits quest for excellence and quality inscience education and studentresearch. This is done with the helpof the students, teachers, faculty,staff, and GISS scientists, who havecollaborated since the inception ofthe program in 1994, sharing in theresponsibility of providing ouryoung people with the highest qual-ity science, mathematics, and techni-cal education.

— LK

PosterApplet is a mini-


application for displaying

multi-section posters or

papers online.

Written in the Java programming lan-guage, PosterApplet is platform-inde-pendent: it is able run on UNIX,Windows, and Macintosh operatingsystems. This resource is freely down-loadable from the ICP web site at

h t t p : / / i c p . g i s s . n a s a . g o v /r e s o u r c e s / p o s t e r a p p l e t /

Through the use of “tabbed” sec-tions, PosterApplet provides an inter-face for displaying and viewingscience posters using a Java-enabledweb browser, a collection of docu-ments can be presented in a cohesiveand intuitive way for viewers toperuse. Students and teachers areencouraged to obtain and use theapplet to share their campus-basedresearch results by placing them ontheir school/college web sites.

This utility is currently being used onour web site to display ICP researchposters in a Science Poster Gallery

h t t p : / / i c p . g i s s . n a s a . g o v /r e s e a r c h / p o s t e r s /

Users can browse through results ofresearch done by teams of students, fac-ulty, and scientists at GISS. A view of aposter entitled, Assessing Potential Con-tributions to Downward Trend of Atmos-pheric Methane Concentrations, writtenby Harvey Augenbraun (teacher atMott Hall School), Teresa Smith (educa-tor at Jr. HS #8), and Elaine Matthews(GISS Scientist), at the conclusion of thesummer 1998 research program, is pre-sented above. About The AuthorJose Alburquerque, a studentresearcher on the ICP Clouds team,

developedPosterAp-plet for theInstitute onC l i m a t eand Plan-ets. A grad-uate of theHigh School of Graphic CommunicationArts, ranked 4th of a class of 150, hereceived his Regents Diploma in June1987. He is currently pursuing a Bach-elor of Science in Computer Science atthe City College of New York. Jose pro-

grams primarily in Java and C/C++ andhas written several applets for datavisualization during his three-year par-ticipation in ICP. A skilled programmer,he enjoys learning and experimentingwith new code and building softwarepackages. Keep a lookout for upcom-ing visualization tools in theResearch/Data section of ICP web.

Comments and questions onPosterApplet can be sent to the ICP

Webmaster, Latika Keegan, at l k e e g a n @ g i s s . n a s a . g o v

FeaturedProduct:ElectronicSciencePosterMaker

PosterApplet displaying a Methane project posterhttp://icp.giss.nasa.gov/research/posters/ch4atmtrend.html


THE NEW SCIENCE STANDARDS: IS THE DEBATE OVER CONTENT VERSUS PROCESS COMING TO AN END?

For centuries people have debat-ed the goals of education andthe priority placed on develop-

ing what students know, how theylearn and how they think. In ancientGreece two characters in Aristo-phanes’ comedy, The Clouds, pose theclassic positions for this debate overstudents learning content versusprocess. On one side of the debate is aconservative, elderly soldier whofavors traditional education wherediscipline and memorization are keyto learning content. On the other isSocrates, depicted as a crafty debaterwith little respect for authority whobelieves education should developskills to construct reasoned argu-ments and questions (Nussbaum, 1997p1).

As in most debates, one positionseeks to be declared the “winner,” cre-ating an environment where it isunlikely to provide students with thelogical balance among goals to devel-op what they know, how they learnand how they think. Yet, the currentwave of American education reformestablishing new state and nationalscience education standards raises thequestions: Is the debate over contentversus process coming to an end? Arewe entering an era where teacherswill be seeking new approaches thatbalance these learning goals?

The last ten years of U.S. educationreform focused attention on new math-ematics, science and technology stan-dards to prepare students withfundamental understandings of theworld while developing their abilitiesand technical skill to reason logicallyabout the world (Project 2061, 1990).These new reforms represent a shift inthinking about education goals awayfrom learning environments thatemphasize the basic skills to read, writeand do arithmetic and where analytical

skills are only ideals, not stated aims oflearning (Ravitch, 1995 p102). In orderto help students meet the new sciencestandards, providing them with a basiclevel of literacy will no longer be a suf-ficient education goal, distinct fromdeveloping their abilities to reason andmake inferences. Ensuring in-depthlearning of basic science content,beyond the lifetime of a multiple-choicetest, is now viewed as requiring oppor-tunities for students think criticallyabout the knowledge they acquire inthe contexts of problems that integratethemes in the nature of science inquiryand that relate other disciplines.

In New York State (NYS), the LeadScience Assistant Principal for Man-hattan, Barbara Poseluzny, recentlysaid the “State Education Department(SED) is now developing assessmentsand looking for model programs thatemulate NYS’ seven Mathematics,Science and Technology Standards(MST), based on national standards.The NASA GISS Institute on Climateand Planets (ICP) can contribute tothese MST Standards by sharing exist-ing lessons, courseware, data andweb products and student researchprojects, as well as the ones plannedfor development during the ICP Sum-mer Institute 1999.”

A driving idea behind the GISS ICPeducation model is to devise practicalways to use the interdisciplinarystudy of Earth’s climate as a contextfor developing students’ scienceinquiry skills. The foundation of theICP model is integrating students andeducators into the GISS science com-munity and creating contributingroles for them in NASA Earth ScienceEnterprise climate research projects.When asked about the potential long-term benefits of the ICP model, JimHansen, the Head of NASA GISSoffered the following response. “A

principal reason that NASA scientistsare choosing to work with educatorsis the realization that all citizens needto be familiar with scientific and tech-nical issues to participate effectivelyin both private and public decisionmaking. If nonscientists have somefamiliarity with the research process,it helps in assessing the public discus-sion of issues such as global warming,air pollution, or genetic modificationof plants and animals —the myriad oftechnical issues that will only increasein the future—issues that must ulti-mately be evaluated and acted on bythe public and their representatives.Students who have participated inresearch projects are more likely tohave some understanding of theresearch process and thus as citizensbe better able to assess the conflictingarguments of special interest groups.”

Dr. Hansen’s views, as well as thoseshared by ICP faculty, students, scien-tists and staff in this article, provideinsights into the benefits of ourresearch and education collaborationand the common themes in climateresearch related to the new MST Stan-dards. Faculty perspectives are alsoincluded on what is needed to suc-cessfully address these new standardsand potential classroom impact.

Common Themes. ICP faculty isattempting to apply the following com-mon themes drawn from their researchexperiences and related MST Standardsin science instruction and materials. 1)Climate is viewed as an unsolved puz-zle with opportunities for students toapply science, mathematics and tech-nology to real problems. 2) Influencedby humans and natural phenomena,climate problems provide a learningcontext where students can use evi-dence to explain physical, chemical andbiological processes and reason abouthow changing conditions affects vari-

Earth Climate Education

ability in the climate system. 3) Currentscientific understandings are used tomodel the Earth system and makefuture predictions. 4) Highly valuedskills are the ability to look at problemsfrom different perspectives (temporal,spatial), develop and test hypotheses,and explain relationships and patterns.5) The complexity of the climate systemand reliance on measurements andmodels make uncertainty, probabilityand predictability important concepts.6) Science is a dynamic process, so read-ing about the history of the develop-ment of scientific ideas andcommunicating research (orally and inwriting) are integral components ofresearch and science learning.

Science for All Americans, a nationalstandards initiative of the AmericanAssociation for the Advancement ofScience (AAAS) supports teachinggrounded in similar themes. Integrat-ed into instruction, these themes willexpose students to the nature of sci-ence inquiry and lead to moreindepth content understandings (Pro-ject 2061, 1990). Likewise, the NYSMST Standards, primarily based onthe AAAS’s Project 2061, advocatesgreater emphasis be given to scienceinquiry. Four out of the seven newstandards focus on developing stu-dents’ “science process skills” associ-ated with the nature of scienceinquiry. Standard Four, most closelyrelated to ICP student research, dealswith the content area for the PhysicalSetting/Earth Science Core Curriculum.It provides a set of learning guidelines(not a curriculum, per se) for incorpo-rating science process skills intostudying the Earth and our solar sys-tem.

In their reviews of Physical Setting,many ICP faculty say that the “majorunderstandings” (content) for studentsto learn are valid. The greater integra-

tion of science topics and process is animprovement over the current EarthScience curriculum for ICP teachers,like Susane Colasanti of High Schoolfor Environmental Studies, because ithas the potential to give students amore indepth understanding. Teacherswho give students experiences to rea-son about beliefs, justify claims, andcritically examine theories (includingtheir own) are connecting their class-room to the science community.

However, balancing student learn-ing of science content and cognitiveskills will require altering our concep-tions of curriculum. Several ICP facul-ty state that in order to meet thestandards more time should be givento labs and cooperative and problem-based learning. A new ICP teacherfrom New Rochelle High School,Ceasar Irby, raised the question,“With all the science content in thePhysical Setting, can a teacher reallyspend the time developing processskills” since “working on problemsthat emphasize them [process skills]takes a lot of class time?” Addressingthe new standards will require deci-sions to limit course content to what isessential for science literacy at theparticular level of instruction (Project2061, 1990). Umit Kenis and LeilaWoolley, Earth Science teachers atHigh School for Environmental Stud-ies, suggest an alternative is to delivera two-year Physical Setting course.

New Rochelle High School biologyteacher, Pat Cushing, is involving hisstudents in a GISS/ICP climateimpacts research project to study theinfluence of water stress on agricul-ture in New York. Students in his classconduct plant growth experiments,use the Internet to acquire precipita-tion and corn yield data, input andmanipulate data in spreadsheets, cal-culate and graph data correlations,

discuss and reason about the contri-bution of their findings to the researchproblem, and present their results. Hebelieves that climate research is an“ideal context to meet the new stan-dards,” yet his classroom experienceshows that many teachers will face acommon challenge “to offer this typeof learning environment to 34 stu-dents”. To achieve the kind of instruc-tion called for in the MST Standards,changes in class setting are alsorequired, such as smaller class sizesand longer class periods.

According to Mitch Fox, a Geo-science teacher at the Bronx HighSchool of Science, the goal of EarthScience education in New York hastraditionally been to develop studentskills in the scientific method(process) and understanding of arange of topics (content). What is dif-ferent about the current MST Stan-dards? The Preface to Physical Settingstates “It (the Standards) addressesthe content and process skills asapplied to the rigor and relevancy tobe assessed by the Regents examina-tion . . .” A new 3-hour Regents exam-ination will require students toanswer multiple choice questions orconstruct responses in order to assesstheir understanding of science con-cepts. The real change is two of thethree examination parts will nowfocus on students’ ability to apply thiscontent knowledge in conjunctionwith science inquiry skills (e.g.,hypothesize, predict, analyze, evalu-ate) to real world problems (New YorkSED, 1999). Education goals forinstruction and curriculum will havestated aims for both science contentand process in order for students topass the NYS Regents examination.

Robert Gandolfo, an ICP facultymember teaching physics at DeWittClinton High School, recognizes that


the content and format of the Regentsexamination drives what is taught inthe classroom. While he sees no realdifference in the Physical Setting con-tent, adding the new examination sec-tions on science process skills presentsa potentially significant change. With-out seeing the test questions, Mr. Gan-dolfo believes, “it is unclear howrigorous” the test portions dealing withscience process skills will be, “they canpotentially be very easy or difficult.”He and other ICP faculty would seeevaluating the standards document inconjunction with test questions as amore valuable exercise.

The performance based standardsadopted by NYS present ICP with anopportunity to address a stated needfor new assessments that give stu-dents opportunities to demonstratewhat they know and apply learningto a real situation. This summer ICPfaculty is aiming to produce test ques-tions to submit to the SED, usingGISS/ICP climate research problemsand related science data.

A final comment shared by ICP fac-ulty about the MST Standards dealtwith a perceived shortfall of qualifiedteachers to implement the PhysicalSetting. Recognizing the demand forteacher education, many ICP facultyand school administrators haveagreed to lead school-based TeacherInstitutes (short-courses) to helpteachers address the new MST Stan-dards, using ICP lessons, modules,courseware, web resources and otherproducts. This type of contribution isconsistent with two problem areasidentified in state-held hearingsreviewing the MST Standards to pro-vide models to attain Standard 1(lessons, research projects and assess-ments) and offer professional devel-opment based on these models.

Classroom Impact of MST Stan-dards. In terms of the actual class-room impact the MST Standards willhave, ICP faculty and scientists wereasked to determine the connectionsbetween their climate research and“key ideas” and “major understand-ings” defined in the Physical Set-ting/Earth Science Core Curriculum,as well as the standards addressing

science process. This feedback is thebasis for the following examples ofways ICP research projects engagestudents in the kind of science learn-ing defined in the standards.

NYS Standard 1: Analysis, Inquiryand Design — students will use math-ematical analysis, scientific inquiryand engineering design, as appropri-ate, to pose questions, seek answersand develop solutions.

ICP climate research projects inte-grate math into research tasks asopposed to giving students a set ofmath problems “to do”, offering them achance to realize the value of math andreinforce what they are learning. Forexample, students seek understand-ings of the natural phenomena of ElNiño by creating an index of sea sur-face temperature data. This helps themestimate the magnitude and scale of ElNiño effects, a key idea to use abstrac-tion and symbolic representation tocommunicate mathematically.

The Climate Impacts team studiesthe effects of water stress on New Yorkcorn yield where students design plantgrowth experiments and derive thecorrelation between potential evapo-transpiration levels and crop yields.This is leading them to develop expla-nations for the effects of water balanceon plant growth, thus addressing thekey idea that the central purpose of sci-ence inquiry is to develop explanationsof natural phenomena.

A research question for the Cloudsteam is “Do stronger storms meanmore rain clouds and will the currentglobal warming trend increase the fre-quency of intense storms?” By analyz-ing the frequency and intensity ofstorms and the relationship of cloudproperties to storm strength and thepercentage of rain clouds, studentstest proposed explanations involvingthe use of conventional techniquesand procedures.

An additional way ICP addressesscience inquiry process skills, “notexplicitly stated in the standards, is bydealing with the ideas of natural vari-ability and experimental and theoreti-cal uncertainty” (ICP faculty, SamBorenstein). Their omission in the cur-rent MST Standards document repre-

sents a gap between the nature of sci-entific inquiry and what studentslearn in the classroom.

NYS Standard 2: Information Sys-tems — students will access, generate,process and transfer informationusing appropriate technologies.

Students use a range of meteorologi-cal data in climate research, conductingInternet searches for data and down-loading data from places such as theNational Climatic Data Center andNASA. A team studying New York’spollen signature, and a second, usinghand-held sunphotometer instrumentsto obtain solar irradiance data for anaerosol study, collect urban climatemeasurements, input their data in data-bases and use a range of software pro-grams to prepare data products andpresentations. Another team devel-oped a Storm Tracks Atlas, providingon-line access to monthly, seasonal andannual data products and utilities tostudy storm statistics.

NYS Standard 6: Interconnectedness:Common Themes — students willunderstand the relationships and com-mon themes (systems thinking, models,magnitude and scale, equilibrium andstability, patterns of change, optimiza-tion) that connect mathematics, scienceand technology and apply the themesto these and other areas of learning.

The Oceans team studies patterns ofchange in Pacific Sea Surface Tempera-tures to understand the extent of theirregional and global influence on tem-perature, precipitation, and stormtracks. Students plan to use their resultsto see how well the GISS climate modelreproduces El Niño effects. Anotherteam, Forcings and Chaos, is research-ing the urban heat island effect, analyz-ing the sensitivity of the climate systemto changes in land surface and theimplications of human development onearth’s habitability.

On the local level, the ICP Aerosolsteam is looking at NYC emissionstrends in order to begin to develop ahypothesis about future warming orcooling. They also study the relation-ship among aerosol type, load, temper-ature, visibility and humidity, and themagnitude and scale of effects onurban climate. Another local study is



conducted by the Climate Impactsteam where students are learning theconcept of equilibrium by evaluatingwater balance conditions necessary forideal crop yield, as well as gaining anappreciation for optimization in dis-cussing crop yield applications to landuse, pollution, global warming andnatural resources.

NYS Standard 7: InterdisciplinaryProblem-Solving — students willapply the knowledge and thinkingskills of mathematics, science andtechnology to address real-life prob-lems and make informed decisions.

While climate problems are natural-ly interdisciplinary, a goal for ICP is togive students further opportunities toconnect scientific understandings andresearch results to decisions aboutreal-life problems. These types of con-nections vary among the student pro-jects since their investigations aredesigned as scientific studies. TheAerosols team is beginning to makethis connection in studying potentialrelationships with asthma, a serioushealth problem in NYC. However, allteams have the task to communicatetheir research results in meaningfulways to the public in science talks,papers and education materials.

NYS Standard 4: Physical Set-ting/Earth Science: Key Idea 2 —many phenomena that we observe onEarth involve interactions amongcomponents of air, water and land.

ICP projects deal with cycles in theclimate system — energy, water, andbiogeochemical. More specificallythan “interactions, among compo-nents of air, water and land,” ICPresearch involves learning about phe-nomena in terms of principles andlaws of physics and chemistry. Howheat is transported in atmosphere andocean and what creates weather pat-terns, regional climate and Earth’shabitability are all relevant “majorunderstandings.” Existing projectsintroduce students to a range of datasources — radar, satellite, and weath-er maps, as well as strengths and lim-itations of these data. For example,students using NY weather stationdata from a small area realize the lim-itations in trying to draw conclusions

about regional conditions.Physical Setting does not emphasize

atmospheric motion. “This (atmos-pheric motion) has important implica-tions for climate and Earth’shabitability because most emission tospace occurs from the mid-tropospheredue to the greenhouse effect, whereasmost solar energy is absorbed at thesurface” (GISS Scientist, Ron Miller).The importance of atmosphericdynamics is brought out in the Cloudsteam study where students analyzecloud properties (cloud top pressure,optical thickness) and weather vari-ables (e.g., sea level pressure) toexplain how clouds form, stormsdevelop and implications for a warmerclimate. In studying El Niño, studentsmust apply dynamics to learn howchanging wind and pressure patternsaffect long-term weather systems.Atmospheric interactions with the landsurface and atmosphere are equallyimportant to the Methane teamresearch dealing with the sources andsinks of this gas (natural and human).Methane (and other gases) changesstate between the land surface and dif-ferent levels in the atmosphere, influ-encing how gases absorb, reflect andscatter solar energy, contribute tounequal heating of Earth’s surface andatmosphere, and climate variability.

Conclusion. Richard Feynman, anoted theoretical physicist and innov-ative physics educator, once said“there isn’t any solution to this prob-lem of education other than to realizethat the best teaching can be doneonly when there is a direct individualrelationship between a student and agood teacher — a situation in whichthe student discusses the ideas, thinksabout the things, and talks about thethings. It is impossible to learn verymuch by simply sitting in a lecture, oreven by simply doing problems thatare assigned.” Feynman frames thepremise for the current challenge inAmerican education—“we have somany students to teach that we haveto find some substitute for the ideal.”(Feynman, 1963 pg. xxix)

Imbedded in this ideal that representsthe “Holy Grail” of science education isthe importance of science process and

content. New state and national educa-tion standards outline the learningenvironment we want to provide everystudent, as well as raise many questionsfor teachers and others who haveagreed to participate in educationreform. Can a science classroom delivertraditional instruction and basic scienceliteracy along with the ideals of Socrat-ic argument where students search forthe truth about problems in an objectiveway? Are there ways that teachers caninvolve students in science learningwhere their ideas are subject to changeas are their explanations about theworld? (Project 2061, 1990) If studentsface science problems in a broader con-text, will they be better able solve them?(Nussbaum, 1997)

These are questions that ICP facultyand scientists will deal with duringthe upcoming 1999 Summer Institute.The lessons and assessments that theyproduce over the summer willattempt to contribute to Feynman’s“substitute ideal” education and pro-vide teachers with examples foraddressing the New York State Sci-ence Standards. — CH

ReferencesDewey, John. Experience and Nature. Dover Publications.New York, 1958.

Feynman, Richard P. Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of PhysicsExplained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher. Helix Books. Read-ing, Massachusetts. 1995

Holt, John. How Children Learn, revised edition.Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Reading , MA, 1995.

New York State Education Department. PhysicalSetting/Earth Science Core Curriculum (Draft).The Univer-sity of the State of New York.Albany, NY, December1998.

Nussbaum, Martha C. Cultivating Humanity: A ClassicalDefense of Reform in Liberal Education. Harvard UniversityPress. Cambridge, MA, 1997.

Project 2061: Science for All Americans. American Associa-tion for the Advancement of Science. Oxford UniversityPress, 1990.

Ravitch, Diane. National Standards in American Education: ACitizens Guide. Brookings Institution.Washington, DC,1995.

Contributors:Harvey Augenbraun, Sam Borenstein, Katherine Chance,

Susane Colasanti, Patrick Cushing, Kevin Finnerty, Mitch

Fox, Robert Gandolfo,William Gononsky, James Hansen,

Ceasar Irby, Umit Kenis, Robert Kruckeberg, Ron Miller,

Barbara Poseluzny,Theresa Rogers, Leila Woolley.


On May 3rd, representativesfrom NASA GISS and CUNYcolleges involved in the ICP

gathered for the first meeting of theICP Partner Working Group. By orga-nizing this working group, we expectto clarify and evaluate the unique con-tributions of each partner to theresearch and education goals of ourcollaboration.

The initial task is to define eachpartner’s contributions to developand sustain an educational continu-um for students to excel in science,mathematics, and technology. Byleveraging the resources made possi-ble through NASA and NSF invest-ments in our institutions, we hope tosupport the a continuous pipeline forNew York City students and teachers,involving them in a research and edu-cation community that promotesachievement, retention, and advance-ment in science.

This continuum provides:• Student and faculty research;• Scientist-faculty collaboration on

education products and new coursesthat integrate climate research prob-lems and address science standards;

• Teacher professional developmentand preparation, and

• Academic/professional mentoring.In the future, working group objec-

tives will include creating a forum torefine approaches to institutionalizeresearch and education activities,apply “best practices,” formulate plansfor cost-sharing and dissemination ofeducation materials.

At the meeting, each partner present-ed a project overview, including ICP-related activities. This was followed by

a lunchtime working session to defineshared objectives, roles, and a timeline.The primary outcome was a draft out-line (presented below) of each partner’spotential. Over the next few months,this outline will be reviewed andrevised to produce an education modeland memorandum of understanding(MOU) endorsed by all our partners.The ICP project director and/or admin-istrator will make site visits to eachpartner to finalize the details of ourMOU.

DRAFT OUTLINE: POTEN-TIAL PARTNER CONTRIBU-TIONSThis model is being formulated withinput from ICP's existing partners(NASA GISS, CUNY-AMP, ColumbiaUniversity, and New York City PublicSchools). Expanded partnerships arecurrently being developed or areplanned for proposal within CUNYand Columbia University, as well asNew York Urban Systemic Initiativeand the New York State (NYS) Dept.of Education. This first conception ofthe partner contributions encompass-es seven levels.

LEVEL I: Teacher preparation cours-es for graduate students and profes-sional development courses forin-service teachers. The objectives ofthe courses will be to enhance scienceteaching and learning for studentsattending NYC public high schools,junior highs, and colleges. Theseenhancements provide instructionalstrategies, teaching materials, andlearning assessments that addressNYS and NYC science standards and

introduce practical science problemsinto core science education. Eachcourse will integrate and/or drawfrom the ICP Earth Climate TeacherEducation Course modules and willbe offered for credit. For example,MASTAP Summer Institute educationcourse, ICP School-based TeacherInstitutes.

LEVEL II: Teachers apply instruction-al strategies and materials from their

ICP Partners Form New Working Group to Leverage

NASA and NSF Investments: Building A Continuum to

Support Student Excellence in Science, Mathematics,

and Technology.

REPRESENTED AT THE WORK-ING GROUP MEETING ON MAY3

ICP-CUNY Cooperative Grants• NSF/CUNY New York City Alliance

for Minority Participation (NYCAMP)

• NASA NYC Network ResourceTraining Site—Minority UniversitySpace Interdisciplinary Network(MUSPIN)

• NASA Partnership Award for Inno-vative and Unique Research andEducation Projects (PAIR) atCCNY and MEC

• NASA Mathematics Science &Technology Awards for Teachers &Curriculum Enhancement Program(MASTAP)

ICP College Partners and GISSResearch/ Education Projects• CCNY-CUNY• Columbia University• GISS/ICP Earth Climate Teacher

Education Course (NYC PublicSchools)

• GISS/ICP Aerosol Projects• GISS/ICP Climate Impacts-Water

Resources Project• Hunter College-CUNY• LaGuardia Community College-

CUNY• Medgar Evers College-CUNY• York College-CUNY

Partnerships


teacher prep and profes-sional development intheir science courses.Students engage inproblem solvingwhich complementslearning with real con-nections to scienceresearch and process.Short- or long-termresearch projects areoffered, producing stu-dent work—important forlearning assessment.Research scientists and facultycollaborate with pre-college edu-cators to developeducational products,student research pro-jects, andnew/restructuredcourses motivated by NASA’s EarthScience Enterprise research and theNYS science standards. For example,instructional strategies and materialsfrom ICP web and Earth ClimateCourse, NYC AMP Course Restructur-ing, PAIR Course R&D.LEVEL III: Students local measure-ment network conducted at ICP part-ner schools contributing to localclimate studies. Partners meet to deter-mine and coordinate guiding researchquestions, protocols, analysis tech-niques, presentation guidelines, andteacher/student training. These mea-surement projects aim to develop stu-dents' fundamental research skills andscientific understandings about theirlocal environment and how it com-pares with global climate and otherregions. Potential projects: Sunpho-tometer, Polarimeter, Lidar projects,Pollen Signature Project, TEACH (air

monitoring) Project/health study,CCNY Mobile Environmental Lab,MUSPIN/Weather Station School Net-work, Climate Impacts-WaterResources Project, Medgar Evers Envi-ronmental Lab-air and water quality.LEVEL IV: Students/faculty provid-ed with funded research opportunities(summers and academic year) with fac-ulty and scientists at participating insti-tutions (GISS, CUNY, Columbia U).Scientists and college faculty mentorstudents and high school teachersresearching local, regional, and globalclimate. These studies make use ofmodels and observations to contributeto understanding Earth's atmosphereand oceans, and the impacts of climatechange. For example, ICP supports stu-dent interns and faculty fellows, NYCAMP recruits/supports faculty for tar-geted ICP research, Medgar Evers supports students/faculty for Environ-

mental Lab research team.LEVEL V: High schooland college researchinterns conduct a com-munity service scienceeducation program forelementary schools stu-dents and teachers, work-ing with a science

educator to prepare appro-priate instruction and

materials for involvingyounger students in hands-on

climate and weather studies.For example, ICP's Space Quest

Saturday program, Columbia Dou-ble Discovery Center,York College scienceeducation programs.LEVEL VI: Recruithigh school students

from our network to pursue under-graduate degrees in science at CUNYcolleges and Columbia University.For example, ICP disseminatesrecruitment materials andresearch/education opportunities,Columbia University and NYC AMPrecruit students, provide scholarshipsand academic mentoring.LEVEL VII: Recruit undergraduatestudents from CUNY colleges andColumbia University to pursue gradu-ate degrees in education and enter theteaching profession in New York Citypublic schools. For example, ICP dis-seminates recruitment materials andresearch/education opportunities,Columbia University and NYC AMPrecruit students, provide scholarshipsupport and academic mentoring.

— CH


DOROTHY LOUIS is a juniorat the Bronx High School ofScience in New York. Lastsummer, she joined the ICPOceans team led by Dr. RonMiller. As a student researcher,Dorothy’s project focused onthe validity of GISS’s Atmos-pheric General CirculationModel when compared toobserved data in an El Niñoand Southern Oscillation(ENSO) year. Her research thisacademic year is on the vari-ability of ENSO and the affectsof its response. Working atGISS has led her to becomemore interested in the researchaspect of a medical career.She hopes to attend college atColumbia, Cornell, Duke, orDartmouth to major in Anthro-pology or Genetics, eventuallyaiming to pursue a doctoraldegree. Last spring, Dorothypresented at her school’s Sci-ence Expo on “What is theGreatest El Niño?” She wasalso listed in Who’s Who InHigh School Students? Herhobbies include reading andlistening to different types ofmusic. She is also keen onjoining different clubs at herschool.

SONJAE WALLACE has been astudent researcher on the ICP Forc-ings and Chaos team since fall1997. A graduate of St. GeorgesHigh School in Jamaica, WestIndies, he is currently a junior atYork College majoring in Chemistry.Under the guidance of GISS direc-tor, Dr. James Hansen, his summerresearch focused on assessing theGISS General Circulation Model’sability to simulate observed winterand summer seasons from 1950 to1998. This April, he presented aposter titled “How Well Does theGISS GCM Represent IncidentSolar Radiation at the Surface?” atthe NYC Alliance for Minority Partic-ipation’s conference on The UrbanUniversity: Pathway to Careers inScience and Engineering for Minor-ity Scientists and Engineers, held atCity College. Sonjae says that hisexperience at GISS “has introducedme to the raw aspects anddemands of research which I mightface in the future. This exposurehas left me feeling more affirmed—better prepared—more confident,and less worried about my careerchoice.” At York, he was on theDean’s List and Honor Roll. Hewishes to achieve a doctoraldegree attending graduate schoolat Polytechnic University in Brook-lyn or at Rensselaer PolytechnicInstitute in Troy, New York. Hisextra-curricular interests includesoccer, reading, and electronic cir-cuit design.

LaVERNE DAVIS is a senior atMiddle College High School, atthe campus of Medgar EversCollege in Brooklyn, New York.During the spring ’99 semester,she has been a student internat the ICP via the NYC BOEExecutive Internship Program.She is assisting in programevaluation data analysis, underthe guidance of the ICP Direc-tor, Carolyn Harris. LaVernewill be attending Embry RiddleAeronautical University in Day-tona Beach, Florida beginningthis fall. She has been accept-ed into the Master’s program inApplied Experimental Psychol-ogy and awarded the EmbryRiddle Grant that covers 3/4tuition for the entire 6-year peri-od of study. Her career goal isto become a NASA Astronaut.Her extra-curricular activitiesinclude participation in the NYCAfro-Cultural Technological andScientific Olympics, in Busi-ness, Dance, and Science cat-egories (1996–98). This April,she participated in Earth Day,organized by Columbia EarthInstitute. LaVerne’s interestsrange from public speaking,reading, writing to singing,dancing, running, and swim-ming (she is a NYC lifeguard).


KATHERINE CHANCE is in hersecond year teaching Biology to9th and 10th grade students atGeorge Washington High Schoolin upper Manhattan. She complet-ed her Bachelor’s degree in Biolo-gy at Berea College in Berea,Kentucky in 1994. She is currentlya Peace Corps Fellow and justreceived her Master’s degree inSecondary Science Ed at Colum-bia Teachers College this May.

Since summer 1998, Kate hasbeen a faculty researcher on theICP Pollen team led by Drs. DorothyPeteet and Margaret Kneller, work-ing on linking pollen production withweather. She continues researchafter school with students, collectingand identifying pollen samples. As anew teacher, Kate provides insight-ful observations, “…it has been aninvaluable experience to meet andwork with more experienced teach-ers at the ICP. Working on this pro-ject has helped me to define myselfmore as a teacher…. To choose totravel through life with an open heartand mind is the path of the truelearner. Science is the same way—it is dynamic and is the unendingsearch for knowledge through trueexperience. Student research cantry to model this—and I saw some ofthis happening last summer atICP—with the writing and editing ofabstracts and presentations. I sawan evolution of ideas.”

JOHN DaPONTE is a professor ofComputer Science at Southern Con-necticut State University in NewHaven. In his 15th year, he is currentlyteaching Introduction to Programmingin C, and a Senior Project Seminar.John graduated college from SUNYStony Brook, obtained his Master’s atRochester Inst. of Technology, and hisPh.D. at the University of Connecticut.His collaboration with the ICP began in1996 via a NASA Faculty Fellow Awardby GSFC to work with GISS scientists,Bill Rossow and George Tselioudis.Last summer, John set up a campus-based ICP at SCSU involving a teacherand 7 students from Career MagnetHS. John has also developed indepen-dent studies based on his research onImage Processing and Pattern Recog-nition of Remote Sensed Images. He isproposing a new course that integratesscience, technology, and policy. InFebruary, John gave an invited presen-tation on Implementation and Compar-ison of the Backpropagation Algorithmin SAS to the Informs New York MetroChapter. His publications with GISSco-authors include: Parikh, JA,DaPonte, JS, and Tselioudis, G. Applica-tion of Evolutionary Techniques to Tem-poral Classification of Cloud SystemsUsing Satellite Imagery. Applicationsand Science of Computation Intelli-gence. Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 3390April 13–16, 1998.

SAMUEL R. BORENSTEIN is a profes-sor of Physics at York College, CUNY.Now in his 32nd year teaching, hiscourses include College Physics,Advanced Physics Lab, and Meteorolo-gy. He holds a B.E. in Physics fromMcGill University, Montreal, and a Ph.D.in High Energy Physics from the Imper-ial College of Science and Technology,University of London. Since 1994, Samhas been a researcher on the ICP Forc-ings and Chaos team led by Dr. JamesHansen. Last summer he conductedexperiments studying the 12-layer ver-sion of the GISS GCM, successivelyintroducing various forcings over a 50-year period, and comparing modelresults with observations. This year, heis focusing on absorbed solar radiationin selected regions.

His involvement at GISS has inspiredhim to develop courseware. He hasdesigned and taught a course in meteo-rology at York. In Sam’s words, “The thingI am, perhaps, most proud of, is thattogether with John Knox, I published apaper which corrects an error in every ele-mentary meteorology text book, as to thedescription of the approach to Geostroph-ic Equilibrium under the influence of thecoriolis force. (Knox, J.A., and S.R. Boren-stein. Unphysical Descriptions of theApproach to Geostrophic Equilibrium.Journal of Geoscience Education. 46 (2)March 1998).“ Sam has presented hiswork to the education community on sev-eral occasions, including a coursewareexhibit at the national Science TeachersAssociation National convention thisMarch. When not at work, he enjoyssports, opera, traveling, and reading.

18

The City College of New York (CCNY) School of Engineering has been anICP partner school since the program’s inception in 1994. One of the majorobjectives of the ICP is to develop research and education partnerships

with our partner schools, all of who are recognized for delivering science, math-ematics, engineering, and technology programs to large enrollments of minori-ty students. An important outcome of these partnerships is to buildcampus-based institutional capabilities to successfully compete for NASAresearch and education grants that involve their faculty and students in theAgency’s earth science research program.

CCNY is developing an effective model for a partner school. It is the onlyschool of engineering in the City University of New York system and has one ofthe largest enrollments of minority students in New York State. Three facultymembers in the School of Engineering are instrumental in developing the CCNYmodel, Drs. Shermane Austin (Computer Science), Reza Khanbilvardi (CivilEngineering) and Fred Moshary (Electrical Engineering).

Dr. Austin is the Principal Investigator for the CCNY Network Resource andTraining Site (NRTS) funded by the NASA Minority University Space Interdis-ciplinary Network project. Under Dr. Austin’s leadership this project has pro-vided the network infrastructure and technical training for ICP partner schools.More recently, she created a spin-off project component, the NYC Metro Weath-er Network (METNET), installing Davis Weather Stations in 20 schools through-out the city (including ICP partner schools) to establish a student researchprogram to monitor and study New York’s climate.

Drs. Khanbilvardi and Moshary are Principal Investigators of the NASA Part-nership Award for the Integration of Research into Mathematics, Science, Engi-neering, and Technology Undergraduate Education (PAIR), as well as NASA’sPartnership Awards for Innovative and Unique Education and Research Pro-jects. The aim of these projects is to expand research opportunities for under-graduate students and restructure SMET courses to integrate climate problems,data, and modeling. Focusing on two climate problems at the forefront ofNASA’s Earth Science Enterprise—atmospheric remote sensing and landuse/land cover impacts—a focal point for the education and research activitiesis a new Remote Sensing Lab with LIDAR facility. In addition, the CCNY PAIRwill provide a complementary air and water measurement component to thelocal student climate monitoring network initiated via the CCNY-NRTS MET-NET and the ICP Solar Irradiance Research Network (including hand-held sun-photometers and polarimeters) and pollen collection campaign. These fieldstudies are designed to improve our understanding of climate forcings, feed-backs, and impacts related to changes in Earth’s atmosphere, water, and soil.

CCNY’s PAIR is significantly expanding ICP research opportunities for minor-ity students in New York City through campus-based research at CCNY, as wellas other participant PAIR grant schools: Medgar Evers College, LaGuardia Com-munity College, and Hunter College. It also expands science course offeringsthat are motivated by real research problems and data.

City College of New YorkSchool Research Network ➠

OPTICAL REMOTE

SENSING COURSE

AT CCNY

One of the newly offered coursesthis spring at CCNY is Optical

Remote Sensing (EE 5568), jointlytaught by Dr. Moshary and GISSScientist Dr. Brian Cairns. Thisadvanced course covers remotesensing techniques and theory,requiring students to draw uponphysics and mathematical under-standings in real world applications.The course includes several labora-tory projects carried out collabora-tively by students who then submitindividual reports. For example, thissemester, students obtained infor-mation from the Internet to respondto the question : What are the tech-nical methods used to calculatecloud height? They used their webresearch as the basis for a class dis-cussion to evaluate the strengthsand limitation of the methods. Theproject component of the course isconducted in a computer laboratory.Most of the projects use MATLABsoftware to analyze NASA data (e.g.Nimbus IRIS data) for retrievals ofatmospheric properties (e.g. thermalstructure of the atmosphere). Stu-dent projects are organized aroundscience questions that engage themin analyses using the CCNY LIDAR,the GISS Sunphotometer, as well asother surface and ocean sensingdata. NASA data are used as exam-ples of different optical remote sens-ing techniques. These include datafor atmospheric, surface and vege-tation, and ocean color images.

ICP Newsletter • SPRING/SUMMER 1999


In January, these faculty fellows wereinvited to present at the Chancellor’sOffice Staff Development Conference‘Science as Inquiry’. In February, theBoard of Education invited them toconvene a workshop organized forNew York City Science Assistant Prin-cipals, and in April, the Science Coun-cil of New York City (SCONYC)requested that they conduct a sessionat the organization’s annual confer-ence—‘Science Education: BuildingBlocks for the Future.’

The workshops focused on lessonsfrom two of the Earth Climate Coursemodules “What Determines GlobalClimate?”and “What Determines

Local Climate?” Inboth sessions, theaim was to interpretthe New York State Sci-ence Standards rele-vant to the lessons presented and toactively engage educators in scienceproblem-solving that they may adaptin their classroom instruction.

Teachers participating in “WhatDetermines Global Climate?”com-pared atmospheric data from Venus,Earth and Mars, in a learning activitydesigned to develop understandingsabout how and why Earth’s climatediffers from nearby planets and anappreciation for the particular condi-

tions that make Earth Habitable.The presentation from the “What

Determines Local Climate?”moduleoffered teachers a way to introducestudents to the concepts of anomalyand variability through a climateinvestigation. Is the Earth’s temperatureincreasing over time? or Is there scientif-ic evidence that global warming is reallyhappening? are the questions guidingstudent learning. Students use dailytemperature from the GISS Common

TEACHEREducationICP Working with Teachers to Address the New York State Science Standards

Chris Petersen (at left) with workshop attendees, estimating aver-age planetary temperature from graphs.

ICP Faculty Fellows, Chris Petersen and Robert Krucke-

berg, teachers at A. Philip Randolph High School, con-

ducted three City-sponsored workshops this year to

introduce educators and Science Assistant Principals to

lessons under development for the ICP Earth Climate Teacher

Education Course.

Sense Climate Index found on theGISS web site ( h t t p : / / w w w . g i s s . n a s a .g o v / d a t a / u p d a t e / c s c i / ) to access temperature data toinvestigate these questions.

Teachers participating in the“What Determines Local Cli-mate?”session were first askedto brainstorm about ways tostudy the guiding questions andwhat might serve as evidence forclimate change. To developanalysis skills they worked withweather station data from select-ed US sites for the first 10 daysof the month, graphing the data,and making interpretations oftemperature for their location. Inthe next phase of the investiga-tion they began to look at anom-alies, calculating the mean, thevariations from the mean andthe standard deviation. Theiranalysis concluded with a dis-cussion about their findings andthe possible limitations of their10 days of data to respond to theguiding question. This is wherethe GISS Climate Index plays arole, providing additional, long-term data to begin a study ofmonthly, seasonal, annual, anddecadal trends. Teachers partici-pating in the workshop engagedin a lively discussion aboutmany possible student investiga-tions that could be derived atthis point in the module, includ-ing more critical consumers ofaccounts in the media aboutglobal warming.

Teachers beganwith an introductionto lessons that pre-cede the workshopto conduct a com-parative analysis ofatmospheric datafrom Earth, Venus,and Mars. Thelearning activitiesleading up to thelesson presentedhave students cre-ating concept mapsof the factors thatcontribute to thetemperature of ahabitable planet.This technique (concept mapping) isused to elicit student understandingwhile emphasizing system-level rela-tionships between concepts andideas (Novak and Gowen, 1983).Hands-on investigations are also inte-grated that introduce students to con-trolled lab experiments designed for

students to gain basic understandingof concepts such as temperature,heat, radiation, and atmosphericpressure. A theoretical calculation ofthe temperature of a body in spacebased on surface reflectivity and dis-tance from the sun is either calculatedby students or given to them as the

Standard 1: ANALYSIS AND INQUIRY1.3. The observations made while testing proposed explanation, when analyzedusing conventional and invented methods, provide new insights into phenomenon.Students use various means of representing and organizing observations (e.g., dia-grams, tables, charts, graphs, etc.) and insightfully interpret and organize data.

Standard 6: INTERCONNECTEDNESS AND COMMON THEMES6.3. Magnitude and Scale. The grouping of magnitude of size, time, frequency, andpressure or other units of measurement into a series of relative order provides a use-ful way to deal with the immense range and the changes in scale that affect the


Robert Kruckeberg (standing) in discussion with workshop attendees.

Workshop Session: What Determine

TEACHEREducationTEACHEREducationTEACHEREducation

N e w Yo r k S t a t e S t a n d a r d s A d d r e s s e d


following values of planetary tempera-ture: Earth: –20ºC, Mars: –60ºC,Venus: –29ºC.Then, using the WeatherLabs Inc.web site, students sample a day ofweather station data from around theworld to estimate the Earth’s surfacetemperature to be close to –15ºC.They must reconcile and build a con-sensus around theories that explainwhy the empirical evidence does notsupport the theoretical calculation.This is the point where the teacherswere actively engaged in the modulelesson presented at the workshop.Divided into teams of “planetary spe-cialists” to study each planet, threeteacher working groups are providedtemperature profiles. In addition, theMars and Earth specialists receiveprobe data that reveals surface densi-ty while the Venus team only getsatmospheric pressure data. Theymust interpret the data from thegraphs they are provided and esti-mate averages. Together, the teams

enter their findings in a matrix, makinginferences about the missing valuesand comparing temperature, pressureand density on the three planets todetermine what accounts for the largedifferences in planetary temperatures.Due to time constraints, some of theimportant concepts that were notaddressed include the limitations ofplanetary data and its impacts on thestudy findings. Probe data used in theexercise is taken at one location onthe planet and the students are askedto estimate averages for the entireplanet. Another idea deals with thesignificance of a difference if present.In the case of the lesson presented,students address this issue from thestandpoint of the habitability of theplanets investigated. Both these con-cepts relate to important expectationsfor students’ science learning embed-ded in national and state standards.This science inquiry, presented at theChancellor’s Staff Development Con-ference, is challenging for students

because they are asked to makeapproximations of data and inferencesabout relationships among data vari-ables. Yet, these goals for studentlearning are at the heart of new nation-al and state science standards. Inpart, addressing this challengerequires creativity to relate suchexpectations for student learning toappropriate and motivational problemcontexts in which they are used(Resnick, 1989).Throughout the ICP Earth ClimateCourse development process and inour presentation of these educationmaterials to teachers, we are remindedthat the use of data is not the motivatingfactor for students, rather it is the natureof the problem that engages them ininquiry and data analysis. Thus, ourapproach has evolved into one thatsupports “learning as problem-solving”where the problem is more than ameans to apply knowledge gained in aneducation activity and its organizationprovides a strategy for students learn-ing (Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1989).This approach has students developingunderstanding and knowledge about cli-mate problems by accomplishing veryconcrete or “novice” inquiry tasks (e.g.,where they collect data themselves,observe phenomenon firsthand, or usesimple conceptual models about a sys-tem they are observing) in the initialstages of a problem. More abstract“expert” tasks (e.g. using NASA dataand more complex models) are intro-duced in the later problem stages thatfollow.

es Global Climate?

behavior and design of systems.Students identify the largest and smallest values of a system when given informa-tion about its characteristics and behavior.

6.4. Patterns of Change. Identifying patterns of change is necessary for makingpredictions about future behavior and conditions.Students use mathematical models, such as graphs and equations; [and] searchfor multiple trends when analyzing data patterns, and identifying data that do notfit the trends

TEACHEREducationTEACHEREducationTEACHEREducation


On March 25th and 26th,

ICP faculty demonstrated web-

based educational courseware

and learning modules at the

National Science Teachers

Association 47th National Con-

vention in Boston,

Massachusetts.

The presentation entitled, UsingNASA Climate Research in Your Class-room to Address Science Standards, wasa featured computer demonstrationfor teachers visiting the NASA EarthScience exhibit area. Representing the

ICP and their schools at the conven-tion were Harvey Augenbraun, MitchFox and Sam Borenstein, from MottHall School, Bronx High School of Sci-ence, and York College, respectively.

The main focus of the presentationwas to introduce educators to lessonsand modules accessible on the ICP website. With radiation as theme, three com-puter demos provided educators withseveral strategies for using NASA dataand climate research to motivate learn-ing of science concepts.

Educational Courseware

h t t p : / / i c p . g i s s . n a s a . g o v /e d u c a t i o n / c o u r s e w a r e /

Sam Borenstein focused his demos oneducational courseware that he hasbeen developing at ICP for the pastfour years. The courseware introduce

students to the concept of modelingscience phenomena and experimenta-tion with simple models, a goaladdressed in national and state sci-ence standards. Designed as a class-room resource, the courseware aimsto develop student learning of scienceconcepts related to climate. Theseinteractive models give students aproblem-solving resource where theycan explore the systemic nature ofphysical processes such as the green-house effect, sea breezes, and cloudformation. They also include model-ing experiments to illuminate andreinforce learning of Newton’s andKepler’s Laws.

For example, the Introduction toMeteorology courseware provides amodel to study the science concepts ofideal gas laws, isothermal adiabaticexpansion, convection, and condensa-tion. The experiments involve a studyof the movement of air masses in theatmosphere and the formation ofclouds, and how these processes con-form to ideal gas laws. Studentsexplore relationships between pres-sure, atmospheric height, and temper-ature, lifting an air mass from theplanet’s surface to vary height levelsin the atmosphere.

Radiative Balance

h t t p : / / i c p . g i s s . n a s a . g o v /e d u c a t i o n / r a d f o r c e /

Mitch Fox presented a Radiative Bal-ance learning module that he devel-oped during the 1997 SummerInstitute in collaboration with GISS

ICP Presents at NSTA ’99 in BostonO U T R E A C H

Sam Borenstein (center) demonstrating courseware on the greenhouse effect and planetary habitability to convention attendees.


Scientist, Dr. Ron Miller. The modulehas been refined after classroomimplementation and student feed-back. The study explores the effect ofthe sun’s energy on the ocean andatmosphere, a critical understandinglinked to NASA’s climate research.An interactive classroom activity, itaddresses both science content andprocess skills called for in New YorkState Science Standards. For exam-ple, students learn that the earthreceives energy from the sun andreflects, absorbs, scatters, and emitsthis energy.

Using satellite data, studentsexplore this concept as they orga-nize, graph, analyze, and interpret(science process skills) solar energyabsorbed and emitted in particularregion of the world. Students alsodevelop hypotheses about regionaldifferences in energy absorbed and

emitted at the poles, in the tropicsand mid-latitudes.

Data collected from the EarthRadiation Budget Experiment(ERBE) offers students a means toinvestigate whether the Earth isreally in radiative balance. Whilestudying this problem, studentswork in teams to learn science back-ground about the energy budgetand understand how their data wascollected, its strengths and weak-nesses.

The student research teams sampleERBE monthly data for their regionof interest from the interactive webutility that allows them to producean image. The class collectively ana-lyzes their regional data and drawsconclusions about the transport ofenergy between the poles and trop-ics necessary to maintain planetaryenergy balance.

The Atmosphere, Green-house Effect, and Earth’sSurface Temperature

h t t p : / / i c p . g i s s . n a s a . g o v /e d u c a t i o n / a t m o s g r e e n . p d f

Harvey Augenbraun presented a sce-nario-based lesson, adapting a radia-tive model (designed by SamBorenstein) for the study of theGreenhouse Effect. Harvey intro-duced three experiments his studentsconduct in class to study this phe-nomenon. Scenario One: planet withno atmosphere, Scenario Two: planetwith an atmosphere without green-house gases, and Scenario Three: plan-et with an atmosphere andgreenhouse gases. Students comparethe results of these model experi-ments, noting initial surface temper-atures, units of energy absorbed andradiated, and resulting surface tem-peratures.

The second part of the lessoninvolves students in studying histori-cal greenhouse gas data from the Vos-tok Ice Core records (see graph, nextpage) The y-axis shows the time inthousands of years before the present.The top x-axis shows the concentra-tion of methane in parts per billion ina given volume (curve at left) and theconcentration of carbon dioxide inparts per million (curve at right). Thebottom x-axis shows variationsaround the mean temperature (curveat center).

Students complete a data table (seenext page) to derive the levels of car-bon dioxide and methane from thisdata set as inputs for a final paleocli-mate model experiment. By runningthe model with past greenhouse gas

Harvey Augenbraun (left) and Mitch Fox (right) present a Methane project lesson and a Radiative Balance web activity at NSTA.


levels, students explore the effect thataltering these concentrations has onEarth’s surface temperature.

Next, students look at greenhousegas data from the beginning of theIndustrial Revolution to 1990 in orderto develop their own explanationsabout the effect of natural and anthro-

pogenic activities on greenhouse gasconcentrations and their possibleeffects on earth’s surface temperature.This explanation is at the heart ofNASA’s climate research, and itaddresses two important New YorkState Science Standards. First, stu-dents are expected to be able to iden-

tify patterns of change in order tomake predictions about future behav-ior and condition. Second, they areexpected to understand interactionsbetween air, land and water onweather and climate, and the influ-ence on solar energy.

Educator Network

In addition to demonstrating educa-tional lessons and software, ICP facultyintroduced the newly designed ICPweb site to 40–45 secondary school andcollege educators. We have begunbuilding a nationwide network of edu-cators who are interested in field-test-ing our education products, providingfeedback, and integrating final versionsinto their science teaching. At the con-clusion of the NSTA convention, 27 sci-ence teachers signed up to participate inthis network. All of these teachers willreceive an information package to iden-tify their interest in specific ICP educa-tion products and to invite them to theSummer Institute ‘99 Final Conferencein August.

— CH & LK

The climaticrecord obtained

from the isotopiccomposition ofthe Vostok ice

core compared toatmospheric CO2and CH4 concen-trations obtainedfrom ice bubbles.Lorius, C. and H.Oeschger, Paleo-

perspectives:Reducing Uncer-tainties in GlobalChange?, Ambio:

A Journal of theHuman Environ-ment, 23(1), 30-

36, 1994.

CO2 CH4 Temperature

What is the maximum concentration of CO2 and CH4and temperature 140,000 years ago? (this is our initial value) pmv ppbv ºC

What is the minimum concentration of CO2 and CH4 and temperature 20,000 years ago? (this is our final value) pmv ppbv ºC

What was the change in CO2 and CH4 and temperature for this period? pmv ppbv ºC

Did they increase or decrease?

Calculate the percentage change for CO2 and CH4% Change = Change/Initial Value


First organized in the 1970 by SenatorGaylord Nelson with the help of sev-eral environmental activists, EarthDay is now celebrated in towns andcities around the globe in order topromote responsible stewardship ofour planet.

Located on the Columbia Universi-ty campus, with many researchershaving close ties to the University,GISS was invited to set up a booth atthis celebration to share their Earth-related research with the public. TheGISS booth coupled fun and sciencein order to try to betterrelate our science to thepublic. We providedpublic information on arange of NASA’s cli-mate research prioritiesand education pro-grams. Staff memberswho serve in all differ-ent functions at GISShelped “work thebooth” and were gener-ally made available tothe public. This includ-ed Dr. George Tselioud-is, an expert in cloudsand climate, Dr.Francesco Tubiello, whohas worked on the Bios-phere II project, gradu-

ate students Timothy Eichler and MaxKelley, and Emily Michaud, anadministrative officer at GISS.

ICP students, LaVerne Davis andCynthia Giannetti, were on hand todemonstrate newly developed class-room teaching modules available viathe GISS ICP web site. They show-cased student research and explainedICP’s mission in training theresearchers of tomorrow.

This year’s Earth Day at ColumbiaUniversity was truly a success withvisitors from all walks of life includ-

ing those involved in research them-selves, those hoping to get involved inresearch, or people who were justpassing by.

More information about Earth Daymay be obtained from the followingsites:

h t t p : / / w w w. e p a . g o v / e a r t h d a y /

http://www.erl.noaa.gov/EarthDay/

h t t p : / / w w w . e a r t h d a y . n e t /

For those who donot have easy accessto the Web, the Envi-ronmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) has aninformation desk onEarth Day that maybe accessed at (202)260-4955.

O U T R E A C H

EarthDay1999By Eleni Palmos

Eleni Palmos (seated at center) with Earth Day enthusi-

Cynthia Giannetti (atleft), Emily Michaud(center), and LaVerneDavis (right) at EarthDay ’99 celebrations atColumbia University’scampus.

NASA GISS staff, researchers, and

ICP students joined in the cele-

bration of Earth Day 1999 on

April 22nd—a daylong festival open to the

public, sponsored by the Earth Institute at

Columbia University.


On March 19th, twenty-fivestudents from a seventhgrade science class at the

Kinneret Day School in Bronx, NewYork, visited NASA GISS to partici-pate in an El Niño investigation ledby GISS/CCSR Senior Research Sci-entist Dr. Leonard Druyan and doc-toral student Timothy Eichler.

Professor Steven Greenbaum,Director of the Solid State NMR/EPRLaboratory at Hunter College, coordi-nated the visit on behalf of KinneretDay School. The class science teacher,Mrs. Rita Kahn, also accompanied thestudents. Mickey Krakowsky, theschool’s director for curriculum, said“the students came back full of enthu-siasm for what they saw—they wereable to appreciate how the food webis affected by climate phenomena andwere impressed by the instrumentsused to track sys-tems and tomake forecasts.”

During theinves t iga t ion ,students learnedabout El Niñoand the condi-tions associatedwith this phe-nomenon. Aftera brief introduc-tion to El Niño

and questions to think about (see pro-gram, following page), students sam-pled data images using a website ofthe National Oceanic and Atmospher-ic Administration. They applied thescience background they learned tostudy the variability of El Niño. Usingthe time series plot below of Sea Sur-face Temperatures from the Niño 3region index (see figure 1 below), theyattempted to discern the years whenstrong and weak El Niños occurred,whether we can infer if cycles (peri-odicities) exist, and brainstormedabout the significance of research toimprove El Niño forecasts.

This lesson, like other ICP educationproducts, aims to address state andnational science standards. One of themain focuses is to involve students ininquiry-based learning to developunderstandings of science concepts.

Students learned how ocean processesinteract with the atmosphere, introduc-ing the concept of convection and fac-tors that influence the global circulationof winds. The workshop aimed todevelop students’ inquiry skills by pro-viding a problem-solving activity: tobrainstorm about the processes andimpacts related to El Niño. Studentswere introduced to working with sci-ence data in order to search for patternsof regional and global physical process-es associated with El Niño. The con-cluding activity asked students to applytheir understanding of El Niño to inferconnections to real world problemssuch as extreme weather impacts onagriculture. — CHContributors: Leonard Druyan & Timothy Eich-

ler

O U T R E A C H

El Niño Investiga-tion: Kinneret Day

School Visit toNASA GISS

Students from Kinneret Day School participate in an El Niño workshop at GISS.

Figure 1: Niño 3 region index.

10:00 AM Welcome to NASA GISSCarolyn Harris, Director, Institute on Climate and Plan-ets

Presentation and group discussion: Tim Eichler, GISS ResearcherResearch question for Kinneret Day School students:How would you justify investing $5 million dollars toimprove El Niño forecasts?

Research Activity #1: Prepare a chart that summarizesthe group’s initial responses to the following questions? (20 minutes)What is El Niño?• In which geographic region is El Niño best detected?• What atmospheric and ocean conditions are associat-

ed with El Niño?• What are some of the social and economic impacts of

El Niño around the globe?

10:30 AM Research Activity #2: Using the web site listed below, teams of studentsenhance their knowledge about El Niño concerning thethree questions above. (25 minutes)http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/toga-tao/el-nino/home.html

Students report their findings to Dr. Druyan and Mr.Eichler. *Each team to add to the El Niño chart preparedat the beginning of the workshop. (15 minutes)

11:15 AM Research Activity #3: How does El Niño change in time? (30 minutes)Tim Eichler gave student teams several years of seasurface temperature data to analyze.

Additional Resource: Return to the El Niño web site toview the animation

Respond to the following questions (be prepared todefend all your answers):• Which years are El Niño years? • Which are the strongest and weakest El Niño years?• Is there a year(s) when a La Nina occurred?• Can you infer any cycles (periodicities) of El Niño?

11:45 AM Research Activity #4: Teams report on their data analysis to Dr. Druyan. Group discussion on justifications for investing in ElNiño prediction (30 minutes)

12:15 PM Concluding Remarks and Questions: Climate Models and PredictionDr. Leonard Druyan

Readings: El Niño (NOAA), El Niño Facts (NASA),Severe Weather Warning (New York Times)

Kinneret Day School Visit to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space StudiesThursday, March 19, 1999El Niño: Searching for Patterns, Processes, and Impacts

A C T I V I T I E S



On June 30th, Summer Institute1999 (SI99) officially begins,involving a total of 56 stu-

dents, teachers, and faculty, and 15GISS scientists working on climateresearch projects at GISS or in campus-based programs. This summer, most ofthe students who have participated inICP for 2–3 years are moving on to pro-fessional or other academic experi-ences. SI99 will provide youngerstudents with an opportunity toassume the leadership roles previouslyheld by these older students who men-tored them last summer. Just as the firstgeneration of ICP students, this nextgeneration has their own spirit andcharacter that is certain to shape the ICPenvironment and tradition.

Key Activities of the Summer Pro-gram

•Conducting team research projectsthat aim to improve our under-standing of Earth’s climate

•Writing workshops to develop sci-ence-writing skills and to prepare ascience paper and oral research pre-sentation

•Earth Climate Education Workshopsfor students to gain science back-ground and for faculty to pilot the cli-mate motivated and standards-basedlessons they are developing

•Faculty-Scientist lunchtime discus-sions to critique and revise lessonspresented in the Earth Climate Edu-cation Workshops

•Field investigationdesigned to learnabout New York’senvironment

•Science andSociety Seminar

•Final Confer-ence teamresearch pre-sentations inthe morningsession andteacher work-shops (usingSI99 lessonsdeveloped) in theafternoon session

Currently a webdialogue is underwayamong educators, stu-dents, and scientists toassist in planning thesummer program. This dia-logue is accessible on theICP web at:

h t t p : / / i c p . g i s s . n a s a . g o v /

ICP Earth Climate Course - Content for

4 Modules: Learning Science by Model-

ing Systems

THESUMMERINSTITUTE

CHANGE ( C)

THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO

How is Our Planet’s Climate Changing?

The planet’s temperature is the warmest in a centu-ry, yet 20,000 years ago the planet was in the

midst of an ice age.

What Determines a Planet’s Climate?

Earth is the only planet in the solar systemwith habitable climate

GLOBAL

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ES

EN

TC

HA

NG

E

GLOBAL

Earth Mars Venus

SPRING/SUMMER 1999 • ICP Newsletter

r e s o u r c e s / s i 9 9 /This tradition was started lastyear where a “strawman” for the

summer program is posted onthe web and Summer Insti-

tute participants have anopportunity to con-

tribute their commentsand suggestions. Thecollective input ofparticipants is usedto plan the finalsummer schedule.

Planned “Prod-uct” Outcomes

of the SI99

• S t u d e n tr e s e a r c hpapers, teamconference pre-sentations and ateam “PopularScience Article”• Lessons and

student assess-ments prepared

by faculty-scientistdevelopment teams

motivated by thestudy of Earth’s cli-

mate system and thataddresses the New York

State Science StandardsOne of the linkages

between the summer ICPresearch projects and the educa-

tion lessons being developed is the per-spective for studying climate changeover time and space. The figure in thecenter shows an approach developedby a team of faculty and scientists forusing Earth’s climate as the context todevelop educational materials and ateacher course. Lessons developed inthe four modules use our vested inter-est in the environment we live in as themotivation for science learning whileoffering opportunities for problem-solving that address common attributesof research problems and themes ofstate and national science standards.

This context provides a frameworkfor looking at a problem over varyinggeographic and time scales, identify-ing the magnitude and scale ofchanges, and appreciating the vari-ability of climate and the relationshipamong system processes. The ques-tion of what determines local andglobal climate and change also fitswell with problems (labs) that involvestudents in 1.) experimentation withphysical models/instruments for col-lecting data, 2.) complementary appli-cations with PC-based computermodels, and 3.) activities with dataused by the science community. Thisiteration between observations andmodels introduces the idea that thereis uncertainty and unpredictability inclimate problems, two concepts thatare not easily addressed in sciencelearning.

— CH

E 1999OUTLOOK

Surface temperature change for 1951-1997 (.36)

CoolingWarming

What Determines a Region’s Climate?

The Earth contains incredible diversity ofregional climates

How are Our Regional Climates Changing?

While most of the world is warming, some regionsare cooling, others experience more frequent cata-strophic storms, and still others are turning greener.

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ELOCAL

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29


Kwajo Abeyie

joined the ICP while he was a studentat A. Philip Randolph High Schooland upon graduation was the nation-al Physics Finalist in the ACT-SOcompetition. He is now a sophomoreat the State University of New York atStony Brook. His declared major isbiochemistry with an interest in pre-med. An elected Board Member of theMinorities in Medicine Club on cam-pus, he is also the organization’s rep-resentative to the Student NationalMedical Association. Most recently,Kwajo was awarded the HowardHughes Medical Institute Undergrad-uate Biological Sciences Summer Pro-gram Fellowship. Last summer, heparticipated in the Pittsburgh Univer-sity Pre-Medical Academic Enrich-ment Program and the SUNY Schoolof Optometry Enrichment Program.During the school year, he is anundergraduate research assistant inDr. Nicole Sampson’s lab in theChemistry Department, preparing tostudy the roles of active site amino

acid asparagine 485 in cholesteroloxidase catalysis. Kwajo has alsobecome the webmaster for the Bio-chemistry and Cell Biology Depart-ment. In his spare time, he playscompetitive squash. While he doesnot like to admit it, he has been chal-lenged this year to discover his limitswith respect to his extra-curricularactivities.✪ ADVICE to ICPers: Continue to exist and endure through-out all your obstacles and let a goodeducation be your foundation for alifetime.

Kirk Beckford

became an ICP researcher in 1996 asa York College student where hewill finish his bachelor’s degree inmathematics this fall. He recentlyjoined PaineWebber where he is aSenior Associate and interim Super-visor of the company’s Data Analy-sis/Associates in the DistributedSystems and Management Depart-ment.

Errol Brown

was a junior at the Bronx High School ofScience when he joined the ICP in 1994.At Bronx Science his ICP research gainedhim recognition as a Westinghouse Semi-Finalist and an American MeteorologicalSociety Scholarship to the University ofMiami where he is currently enrolled. Hisexpected graduate date is May 2000 witha degree in Marine Science. While atschool, he and some friends have starteda business that provides clients with arange of web services, including hosting,design, and animation. Errol says his ICPexperience is helpful in this new venture,as the company requires sharing of skillsand knowledge among the business teampartners. This is important as the partnerswho reside in different geographicregions—California, New York, Chile,Armenia, Miami, Virginia and Connecti-cut—must be able to conduct businessfrom their home base. Once Errol receiveshis undergraduate degree, his prospectsfor graduate school are the University ofMiami, Boston University, or Universityof Hawaii.

ONWARDANDUPWARD ICP ALUMNI SPECIAL REPORT

This special report focuses on our student alumni,

their academic, professional, community, and

personal pursuits. Several students agreed to

pass on words of wisdom, advice, and inspiration to the

next generation of student researchers. After hearing back

from them, there are many common threads to the lives of

these young people. Most cite critical thinking, communi-

cation (oral and written), and teamwork as the skills they

most use in life after ICP. Community and volunteer service

is a part of most of their lives. They all are continuing in

research, science, or engineering fields. There are too

many alumni to cover in this one issue, so we plan to con-

tinue this special report in our next newsletter.

Errol BrownKirk BeckfordKwajo Abeyie


ONWARDANDUPWARDONWARDANDUPWARDONWARDANDUPWARDONWARDANDUPWARD

Danielle Deane Jeantel DeGazon Donna Hope

Danielle Deane

came to the ICP as a rising senior atWilliams College. She based her seniorthesis on her climate impacts researchwith GISS scientist Jennifer Phillips asthesis advisor. Dr. Phillips andDanielle are currently working on ascience publication based on thiswork. Danielle is a Financial Analystwith Guy Carpenter & Company, theworld’s largest reinsurance intermedi-ary. In her busy schedule, she findstime for volunteer work at theTrinidad and Tobago Consulate inNew York City. Her other extra-curric-ular activities include being a BoardMember of the political action com-mittee Campaign Funds for YoungCandidates, Inc., and a marketingcommittee member of Pampeleh Pro-ductions to promote a Caribbean filmnetwork.✪ ADVICE to ICPers: Give this experience everythingyou’ve got because it will give back toyou many times over. The skills youdevelop or fine tune at the ICP, fromcritical thinking to teamwork, are foun-dations that will get you to whereveryou want to go personally and profes-sionally.

Jeantel DeGazon

came to the ICP from A. Philip Ran-dolph in 1994. She continued to partic-ipate after she graduated and enteredWilliams College. Now a junior, shereceived a fellowship in the MellonMinority Undergraduate Program to

research various leadership roles ofblack American women after emanci-pation. She plans to continue as a Mel-lon researcher until graduation. Shesays her participation in the ICP waspreparation for her current researchenvironment.✪ ADVICE to ICPers: The most valuable perspectivegained in ICP was the desire andcommitment gained to continuallyask questions, always keeping inmind that all ICP participants—facul-ty, students and scientists—are partof the learning process.

Donna Hope

was a student at Spelman Collegewhen she entered the ICP. She hassince transferred to Rensselaer Poly-technic Institute (RPI) and is workingtowards a BS in Civil Engineeringwith an environmental concentration.The summer ‘99 job she has lined up iswith the Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) in Edison, NJ. She’ll bedoing macroinvertebrate samplingand aerial surveillance (from a heli-copter!) of the New York/New JerseyHarbor complex. During the semester,she continues her research with an RPIprofessor on the modeling of solutetransport in rivers and streams. Sheparticipated in the “Action for Earth”environmental leadership conferenceat Vassar College this March and is amember of EcoLogic, RPI’s environ-mental group. Donna loves to traveland spent her Spring Break in Cairo,Egypt.✪ ADVICE to ICPers:

Donna hopes the “ICP Impacts teamcontinues to be the best one!” Stu-dents should realize that they havequite a bit of resources available tothem through the ICP program. Seekthe knowledge from scientists, teach-ers, and mentors. ICP was a wonder-ful way for her to learn teamwork,computer skills, and develop the abili-ty to make a professional presenta-tion.

Anthony Luckett

entered the ICP as a sophomore at theBronx High School of Science and con-tinued into his second year at Dart-mouth College where he is majoringin engineering. He has a wide range ofacademic and social activities atschool. Currently, he is involved in adance group on campus calledSHEBA and is the newest member ofthe Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity wherehe is the programming chair.✪ ADVICE to ICPers: Embrace the experience and promiseyourself that you’ll do the same forthose next in line.

Karimi Mailutha

started in the 1995 ICP as a student atColumbia University. She is now agraduate about to graduate, with adegree in Biology. At Columbia, Kari-mi was a Resident Assistant in one ofthe college dorms and has been active-ly involved in an African Dancetroupe. She has made community ser-vice a part of her life, both through ICPand Columbia organizations, primari-


ly in education programs for elemen-tary school students. Karimi also con-tinued to gain research experiencesafter the ICP in medical-related studiesconducted at Columbia PresbyterianHospital and St. Luke’s Hospital. Kari-mi will attend Harvard Medical Col-lege but plans to defer for year to workin a community service project, hope-fully serving as an International Internwith the Presbyterian Church either inArgentina, Ghana, or the Philippines.✪ ADVICE to ICPers: ICP is not only an opportunity toengage in challenging research, butalso a wonderful time to foster friend-ships, learn about science, andexpand your analytical skills. In orderfor any entering student to get themost out of their ICP experience, ittakes continuous initiative, enthusi-asm, and dedication. To all young ICPstudents Karimi says, “enjoy the sum-mer at ICP, it’s a great program.”

Lisa Sarma

was a student at Columbia Universi-ty when she came to the ICP in 1996as a student researcher. She contin-ued to contribute to ICP’s SpaceQuest community service programfor city children. She has held posi-tions at school as the Activities Coor-dinator for University ResidenceHalls, as well as Coordinator of Vol-unteer Activities at the ColumbiaUniversity Double Discovery Center.After her experience at ICP, she spentthe next summers conducting seis-mology research at Lamont-DohertyEarth Observatory and California

Institute of Technology. She present-ed her research at the Southern Cali-fornia Earthquake Center AnnualConference and the EarthquakeEngineering Research Center AnnualMeeting. During her senior year, sheand two other Columbia studentswere finalists in the American Soci-ety of Civil Engineers/ParsonsBrinkerhoff Water Resources DesignCompetition. She recently graduatedwith a BS, majoring in Civil Engi-neering with a minor in Earth andEnvironmental Engineering. Thiscoming fall, Lisa will enter a Ph.D.program at Stanford University inEnvironmental Fluid Mechanics andHydrology Program within theDepartment of Civil and Environ-mental Engineering.✪ ADVICE to ICPers: One of the most important parts of theICP is the opportunity to play differentroles in the same setting. Studentsare asked to be teachers, students,and peers, and to learn to relate tothose in and out of the science arena.It is important to realize the processthat you are undergoing as a futurescientist — recognize your way ofthinking, rather than focusing onWHAT you are thinking about. You arebeing given a tremendous opportuni-ty…make the best of it and GOODLUCK!

David Vargas

started in the 1994 ICP as a student atQueensborough Community Collegeand then transferred to PolytechnicUniversity. During this time, the NSF

Alliance awarded him national recog-nition for Minority Participation Con-ference for his Storm Tracks research.After graduating with a degree inmechanical engineering, he joinedExxon Chemical Company in Hous-ton, Texas. His first assignment was asan engineering consultant on four ofthe company’s manufacturing units,one of which produced the raw mate-rial that goes into making soda bot-tles. More recently, he organized awork review and prioritization proce-dure for a plant shutdown, whichresulted in new company proceduresto be implemented in Chemical plantsworldwide.

In a few weeks, David is going tomake a presentation to the ExxonWorldwide Engineering Services man-ager. Dave said that all the ICP presen-tations and technical writing in the ICPhas been invaluable to him in his pro-fessional life. These skills are some ofthe most helpful skills that ICP studentscan develop. Shortly, David will beginwork on an exciting new project, as aRobber Plant Finishing Area ContactEngineer. This division is the largestproducer of synthetic rubber in theworld, with such clients as Goodyearand Firestone. David does find time forsuch extra-curricular activities, as beingchairman of the Exxon Hispanic Profes-sional Network. A leader in ICP’s SpaceQuest community service educationprogram, it is no surprise that Davecontinues this work in his role of chair-man of this organization. He and othermembers are mentoring students, rais-ing college scholarship funds, buildinghouses as part of Habitat for Humanity,


Anthony Luckett Karimi Mailutha Lisa Sarma


and providing professional develop-ment and mentoring to Hispanic pro-fessionals at Exxon.

Abdon Whitelocke

started in the ICP in 1994 as a student atQueensborough Community Collegeand continued through his junior yearat Polytechnic University where heearned a BS degree. His work experi-ences include IBM and Telcordia Tech-nologies, formerly known as Bellcore.While a full-time employee at Telcordiawhere he tests leading edge technolo-gies, Abdon is pursuing an MS degreein electrical engineering at ColumbiaUniversity. Despite his busy work andschool schedule, Abdon intends to con-tribute some time to a volunteer orga-nization in his community. He also hastime to “stop and smell the roses” bytraveling to other states and at least oneCaribbean country.✪ ADVICE to ICPers: I strongly implore you to be the bestat what you do, irrespective of itsnature. You have your fingertip onsome of the best scientists and lead-ers around, and I ask you to makeuse of every opportunity to learn fromthem. Throughout your involvementin the ICP you may visit places andmeet new people, mingle with them,learn about obstacles they encoun-tered and how they overcame them. Iknow everyone of you want to besuccessful, but to do so you mustconquer the art of communication—both oral and written. Please use thereports and talks you give in the ICPto prepare you with these skills.

Joshua Wilder

began his participation in the ICP in1994 as a student at the Bronx HighSchool of Science and continued intocollege at Polytechnic University. Inspring 2000, Josh will graduate with ajoint degree in electrical engineeringand computer science. He recentlyjoined PaineWebber where he is aJunior Administrator in the DistributedSystems and Management Depart-ment. The biggest project Josh workson deals with maintaining systemintegrity of the company’s new DataCenter. In addition, he troubleshootsproblems that occur in the Japan, Lon-don, and Mexico offices. Josh says hiswork at PaineWebber is important andstressful and in high demand, but in noway does it compare with [his] GISSexperience. He plans to work for awhile and then come back to GISS?! He plans on attending graduate schoolstudying Computer Science and Edu-cation. As for community involvement,Josh has been a long-time volunteer atthe Boys Harbor that provides a com-prehensive program of education andsocial services to urban youth. Thisyear, Josh was invited to join the Har-bor’s Advisory Board, which is com-prised of some of New York’s mostinfluential public and private sectorleaders.✪ ADVICE to ICPers: Challenge the environment and your-self! Teachers know that studentsregardless of ability or skill will performonly to the expectation of the environ-ment. Scientists are aware that by cre-ating a challenging environment the

community overall is enhanced andprogress is made. New students shouldchallenge themselves to learn as muchas they possibly can and redefine theexpectation of themselves and whatthey expect of the environment. Youtruly get out what you put in. Be creativeand explore. Albert Einstein once said,“knowledge is nothing without creativi-ty.” If you observe the most notableICPers: Corey, Errol, Sam, etc., itbecomes clear that working hard andseriously, while having fun and beingcreative are essential ingredients tosuccess in the ICP.

Current ICP Students

CYNTHIA GIANNETTI, a senior atGeorge Washington High School, willbe attending Penn State University orMount Saint Vincent College whereshe plans to major in Biology. She isthe recipient of the George Washing-ton High School Alumni CollegeScholarship for Academic Excellence.SHARIKA DE LA OZ, a senior at A.Philip Randolph High School, will beattending Columbia University.ROSA ANDUJAR, a senior at HighSchool for Environmental Studies plansto attend Wellesley College, possiblymajoring in mathematics. Once atschool she plans to apply for the Welles-ley-MIT Double Degree program andgraduate in five years with a BA fromWellesley and BS from MIT.CARYLE ANN FRANCIS, a senior atSchool of the Future, plans to attendeither SUNY at Stony Brook or Spel-man College.


David Vargas Abdon Whitelocke Joshua Wilder

Throughout the New York City metro-politan area, students, faculty, andscientists participating in the NASA

GISS Institute on Climate and Planets (ICP)are engaged in the broad study of Earth’sclimate. Their research captures manyviews of Planet Earth, encompassing global,regional, and local dimensions of scienceproblems that aim to improve our under-standing of the climate system - its variabili-ty, changes, and potential impact on ourlives. Time dimensions are equally importantto their research as they look to past cli-mates to understand the present-day cli-mate and apply current state of knowledgeabout the climate to predict the future.

The 1999 ICP Spring Conference focuseson the importance of studying climate fromvarious time and geographic scales, fromthe perspective of a scientific endeavor andits relevance to decision-makers. Looking atEarth from two dimensions of time andspace creates interesting and complex sci-entific problems that require researchers toexplore patterns of change, explain causesand effects, quantify significance, and esti-mate the probability for future change.

To tackle a range of climate problems deal-ing with Earth’s atmosphere and oceans,student and faculty researchers at NASAGISS and in the ICP School Network workwith satellite and ground-based observa-tions, climate models, and data collectedfrom New York student measurement cam-paigns. Their reliance on measurementsand models to study the climate introducesuncertainty in these science problems, pro-viding a flavor of how research works.

Dealing in uncertainties and probabilitiesmakes one of the greatest challenges climateresearchers face in communicating researchresults in ways that are useful to the publicand decision-makers. Students, faculty, andscientists presenting at this year’s ICP SpringConference are encouraged to address thischallenge and define the real connections thatexists between their climate research andissues that affect our everyday lives - globally,regionally, and locally.

United StatesNew York

NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Institute on Climate and PlanetsA partnership with NASA Equal Opportunity, Education, Earth Science, CUNY–AMP,

Columbia University, New York City Public Schools, MU–SPIN CCNY NRTS, and SSAI

A G E N D A

* Events take place in the 3rd floor conference room unless noted otherwise.

3:30pm Registration

3:45 Welcome: Carolyn Harris, Director, ICP

4:00–5:20 ICP NYC Climate Measurement Projects

Session Facilitator: Dr. Brian Cairns, NASA GISS

• School Weather Station Network: NYC’s Climate

• New York’s Pollen Signature

• Aerosol Measurement Campaigns:Sunphotometer/Polarimeter

5:30–6:30 Local, Regional, and Global Climate Studies Using Models and Observations

Breakout Session ASession Facilitator: Dr. Gavin Schmidt, NASA GISS

• ENSO Teleconnection Patterns

• Global Warming and the Urban Heat Island Effect

• Clouds, Storms, and Climate Change

• GCM Validation Study

Breakout Session B 7th Floor Conference RoomSession Facilitator: Dr. Jennifer Phillips, NASA GISS

• Climate Impacts: Effects of Water Stress on Crop Yields

• Global Methane Inventory

6:30 Reception

SPRING 1999 CONFERENCE: Local, Regional, and Global Climate Change

Monday, June 7 1999NASA GISS, 2880 Broadway at 112th Street, New York, NY 10025

icp newsletter spring summer 1999 · 2004-04-30 · warming research update web highlight...

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