winter education & public outreach report · education & public engagement coordinator...

WINTER Education & Public

Outreach Report

Alison RockwellNCAR/EOL Education & Public Outreach Coordinator

May 2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1 ...............................................................................................................

OUTREACH EVENTS 2 .......................................................................................................

WEB-BASED EDUCATION & OUTREACH 5 ...................................................................

PRINTED MATERIAL 8 ........................................................................................................

MEDIA COVERAGE 9 ..........................................................................................................

COLLABORATIONS 10 ........................................................................................................

STUDENT INVOLVEMENT 12 ............................................................................................

SUMMARY 13......................................................................................................................

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WINTER Education & Public Outreach Report | May 2015

INTRODUCTION

The Wintertime Investigation of Transport, Emissions, and Reactivity (WINTER)

education and public outreach efforts were lead by the Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) in

collaboration with the University of Washington and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration (NOAA) to develop and implement a multifaceted program of activities. EOL’s

Education & Public Engagement Coordinator developed a WINTER education and public

outreach (EPO) program that was vetted through the science team and implemented in

collaboration with participating organizations and universities.

The primary goal of the WINTER EPO program is to increase student’s awareness of the

field of atmospheric science by exposing them to field research methods and operations by

means of engaging presentations and online communications via social media. The secondary

goal is to increase public awareness of the atmospheric science research by leveraging WINTER

science objectives and societal benefits.

A variety of methods for disseminating and circulating information to targeted audiences

were used for the WINTER outreach efforts including school presentations that incorporated

discussions with project staff and Principal Investigators (PIs), a media event, development of a

public friendly project website, use of social media platforms, printed materials for enhanced

visibility of the project, and collaborations with partner agencies and universities. In addition to

EPO activities, a portion of the media communication efforts were arranged and facilitated by the

EOL EPO Coordinator, and carried out during her 14 days in the field from 7-21 February 2015.

Alison Rockwell | EOL Education and Outreach Coordinator ! of !1 18


OUTREACH EVENTS

Outreach events are an important aspect of any field campaign because they create an

environment where people can directly interact with project scientists, engineers, technicians,

project managers, and a host of others involved with the project; these personal interactions are

vital for connecting with the next generation of the global workforce. To foster connections with

both the academic community and the media several outreach and public engagement activities

were organized during the WINTER field campaign in cities in Virginia within a 100 mile radius

of the operations base including Hampton, Norfolk, and Richmond.

School Visits

Approximately 38 school and three museums were contacted three months in advance of

the project to schedule visits. The initial contacts resulted in 11 scheduled school visits and 21

presentations. However due to winter weather conditions in the region, several visits during the

second week were cancelled, and only one was able to be rescheduled. In the end the outreach

efforts engaged 1179 students and staff during 15

presentations at eight schools, three of which were K-12

and five were colleges or universities (Table 1). Project

PIs and other science staff assisted with several of the

college and university presentations (Figure 1).

Due to multiple winter storms in the area during

the weeks of 16-22 and 23-28 February, three days of

school visits were cancelled and in one case it was

rescheduled and canceled again due to another winter


Figure 1. Ben Lee of the University of Washington gives a presentation at the University of Richmond.


storm. A total of six presentations at three schools were cancelled despite best efforts to

reschedule, with the potential to engage about 335 students and staff (Table 2). If all of the

scheduled school visits took place as planned, eleven schools would have been visited reaching

over 1500 students over the span of 21 presentations.

Table 1 WINTER School Visits

School Date School # of Presentations

# of Students & Staff

Presenters

Kecoughtan High School

Monday, 09 February

K-12 2 750 Rockwell

University of Richmond Tuesday, 10 February

College/University 1 31 Lee, Stephens

& Rockwell

Rappahannock Community College

Wednesday, 11 February

College/University

1 42 Rockwell

Collegiate School Thursday, 12 February

K-12 7 265 Rockwell

Hampton High School Friday, 13 February

K-12 1 16 Rockwell

Old Dominion University

Friday, 13 February

College/University 1 32

Rockwell, Fibiger & McDuffy

Hampton University Wednesday, 18 February

College/University 1 13 Thornton &

Rockwell

Thomas Nelson Community College

Monday, 09 March

College/University 1 30 Thornton &

Fibiger

Totals 8 15 1179



Media Event

A media advisory was put out by both UCAR Communications and NASA

Communications regarding the Media Event held on Friday, 20 February 2015. Two news crews

showed up, one from the local Associated Press and the other from the local Daily Press. They

spent the hour interviewing project staff and taking video and images of the NSF/NCAR C-130

research aircraft.

It was difficult to schedule the media event due to the dynamic nature of the project

operations. As it was, the night flight returned home earlier than expected, therefore project staff

had to wait around from 4:00 am until the start of the media event at 8:00 am. Winter snow and

ice conditions most likely kept other media from attending the event.

In all, there are eight unique media pieces about WINTER, and with wider distribution

due to the coverage by the Associated Press. See WINTER in the News webpage for the

complete set of articles (https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/winter-news).

Table 2 WINTER School Visits Cancelled Due to Weather

School ScheduledDate

School # of Presentations

Potential # of Students & Staff

Virginia Wesleyan College

Monday, 16 February & Wednesday, 25 February

College/University 1 ~35

Granby High School

Tuesday, 17 February K-12 1 ~65

York High School

Thursday, 19 February K-12 4 ~240

Totals 3 6 ~335


https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/winter-news


WEB-BASED EDUCATION & OUTREACH

The web-based education and outreach can be defined as an approach to teaching and

learning that utilizes Internet technologies to communicate and collaborate in an informal

educational context. This includes technology that supplements formal education venues such as

classroom settings with web-based components and learning environments where the educational

process is experienced online such as websites and social media platforms.

Outreach Website

The WINTER outreach website provides a comprehensive survey of the project including

science objectives, societal benefits of the research, research facilities, and the science team. The

outreach site consists of eleven informational pages including interview-style questions and

answers, videos, images, and educational modules that contribute to the greater understanding of

the project by students and the general public alike.

The text for the outreach page was reviewed and edited for scientific accuracy and

approved by the Principal Investigators (Figure 2).

Webpage design, development, and content was created

by the EOL Education and Outreach Coordinator.

Website traffic metrics from Google Analytics over

100 day period from the time the WINTER outreach

webpages went live on 15 January though 25 April 2015

were used to evaluate the website usage (Table 3). In all

there were 789 page views of the WINTER education and

outreach webpages. The top two pages were the Quick


Figure 2. WINTER EPO website.


Questions for WINTER PIs, also the landing page for the education and outreach webpages, with

317 views; and the WINTER Instrument Payload page with 229 views. In comparison to 100 day

period of page views of previous projects, these are typically the top two pages, and overall page

views were lower for this project. WINTER EPO webpages included the following:

Quick Questions for WINTER PIs :: https://www.eol.ucar.edu/winter/eo The WINTER Science Team page provides basic information about who is involved in the project from the PIs to the participating universities.

WINTER Science Team :: https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/winter-science-team This collection of information serves as a means for interested viewers to find out more

about the science team and background of the Principal Investigators.

WINTER Instrument Payload :: https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/winter-instrument-payload Provides a comprehensive and close up view of all of the instruments on board the

C-130. Where applicable, the instrument name on the webpage is linked to additional in-

depth information.

Follow the NSF/NCAR C-130 in Real Time :: https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/flight-tracking Viewers have commented that this is one of their favorite pages, though not reflected in

the number of page views. It allows viewers to download a KML file so they could watch the

NSF/NCAR C-130 research flights in real-time on Google Earth.

WINTER Educational Resources :: https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/winter-educational-resources The Educational Resources page is a compilation of downloadable and online resources

for teachers, students, and the general public. Links to materials by several groups including

UCAR’s Center for Science Education and MetEd, including videos and educational modules. A

one-minute video explaining what a missed approach is for research purposes, created by EOL at


https://www.eol.ucar.edu/winter/eo

https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/winter-science-team

https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/winter-instrument-payload

https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/flight-tracking

https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/winter-educational-resources


the start of WINTER is posted on this page, and will be repurposed for other projects that use

missed approaches.

WINTER in the News :: https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/winter-news WINTER received moderate attention from the media, in part due to severe weather in

the region and other high profile stories in the region taking precedence. The WINTER In the

News page is one-stop location to find links to the articles and other digital media.

Social Media

The EOL Facebook page has a strong following of 11,412 Likes as of 25 April 2015.

Field project related posted are shared on the EOL social media platform due to the large number

of current followers. Facebook members can selectively Like an organization’s page, which

establishes a connection between the viewer’s page and the organization’s page. When the

organization adds a new post, it is displayed on the viewer’s page for the viewer’s friends to then

see as well, gaining exposure to additional viewers, hence the networking aspect of social media.

The EOL Facebook account is linked to the EOL Twitter account so the Facebook posts are

Table 3 WINTER Website Google Analytic Metrics from 15 January - 25 April 2015

Webpage # of Page Views

Quick Questions for WINTER PIs 317

WINTER Science Team 89

WINTER Instrument Payload 229

Follow the NSF/NCAR C-130 in Real Time 13

WINTER Educational Resources 53

WINTER in the News 88

TOTALS 789


https://www.eol.ucar.edu/content/winter-news


automatically pushed to Twitter and tweeted out. This methods reaches a broader user bas of

people who more frequently use Facebook or Twitter as their main social media platform.

There are thirteen WINTER related posts on the EOL Facebook page (https://

www.facebook.com/ncareol), with the first post on 22

December 2014. The WINTER posts collectively reached

6,678 people on Facebook. The number of people reached

is defined by Facebook as “Post reach is the number of

people who have seen your post. Your post counts as

reaching someone when it's shown in News Feed. Figures

are for the first 28 days after a post was created and

include people viewing your post on desktop and mobile.”

(https://www.facebook.com/help/241332825914969). The

most Liked post was that of a picture by a project staff who sent it to EOL and was shared on the

EOL Facebook page, receiving 29 Likes (Figure 3).

PRINTED MATERIAL

Printed material serves an important role in outreach efforts because it provides

information that people are able to take away and read at their convenience. Often times this

material provides a link to the website where people can learn more about the project at their

own pace. Printed material also serves as a reminder to look into additional information once

internet access is more convenient.


Figure 3. WINTER Facebook post that received the most Likes.

https://www.facebook.com/ncareol

https://www.facebook.com/help/241332825914969


Informational Brochure

A 5.5” x 8.5” two-sided brochure was created to

hand out at schools and to the general public as an

informative overview of the WINTER project (Figure 4).

The front-side provides research objectives, and an

explanation of winter conditions that affect air pollution,

while the back-side provides a brief description of the

societal benefits and research operations. The brochure

was available at each school visit and the media event.

300 were printed, less than half were taken at events, the

remaining brochures were sent to WINTER PIs for use at

their home institutions.

Sticker

A sticker for WINTER was designed for public outreach, and were a great token to hand-

out at different events. The design of the WINTER logo was done by Beth Tully, a graphic

designer at the University of Washington, the printing of 250 stickers was completed by EOL

Education and Outreach Coordinator.

MEDIA COVERAGE

WINTER received modest coverage in the media in part due to the small scale of the

project, and during the time of the project there was other considerable regional news that

overshadowed the project’s relevancy. Though the media coverage for WINTER was kicked off

with an In Brief by UCAR Communications called Cold facts of air pollution. NOAA also put


What is WiNtER?WINTER is an atmospheric chemistry research investigation of the emissions and fates of pollutants that ultimately affect air quality and climate. WINTER’s efforts are funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and supported by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The project is led by Principal Investigators from the University of Washington, NOAA, University of Colorado, University of California, and Georgia Institute of Technology. The NSF/NCAR C-130 aircraft operations are based at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

What happENs to aiR pollutioN iN thE WiNtER?Summer is prime time for pollutants -- but what happens to air pollution in the winter? The main research objective of WINTER is to increase understanding of how pollution emissions are transformed by chemical reactions in the dark and cold of winter as they are transported throughout the region and beyond by the winds.

WiNtER WiNtERtimE iNvEstigatioN of tRaNspoRt, EmissioNs, aNd REactivity

Decreased sunlight results in much slower photochemical reactions (oxidation).

WINTER Objective 1: To increase understanding of the chemical processes that transform or remove pollutants during the short days and less intense sunlight of wintertime, and to assess the impact of such processes on the formation of secondary pollutants.

Cooler wintertime temperatures slow down the chemical reactions of gases in the atmosphere, and promote a larger role for liquid and solid particles in the winter pollution chemistry.

WINTER Objective 2: To assess how pollutant gases form and react with atmospheric solid and liquid particles during winter, and to better understand the geographical distribution of the particles.

Emission sources differ between winter and summer; winter has lower emissions from the biosphere and greater emissions from some urban sources.

WINTER Objective 3: To identify the quantities of wintertime emissions of key pollutants for urban areas, power plants, oil and gas fields, and agricultural areas.

Learn more :: www.eol.ucar.edu/winter/eo

February - 15 March 2015

Figure 4. Front side of the WINTER brochure.


out a news release before the start of the project, and the

University of Washington released an article three weeks

into the project. In all there were eight articles written

about WINTER and can be found on the WINTER in the

News webpage

While in Hampton, EOL’s Education & Outreach

Coordinator facilitated a media event in coordination with

NASA Communications to allow media to access the

NASA Langley Research Center. The week prior to the

media event the region suffered from a winter storm,

effectively shutting down the region which resulted in few

than expected media, only two media outlets attended the event (Figure 5).

COLLABORATIONS

A key to the success of the WINTER outreach program was the ability to effectively

collaborate with groups both internal and external to UCAR. Collaborating with other groups and

agencies not only benefits the WINTER program by linking to relevant material on their sites,

but they could link back to and use the content on the many pages of informational content on

the WINTER outreach website.

UCAR Communications

The UCAR Communications Office is dedicated to providing news about NCAR field

research, and related educational and community engagement to the broader research

community, the NCAR and UCAR staff, the media, and the public.


Figure 5. Front page of the Daily Press showcasing the story on WINTER.


The initial WINTER In Brief, Cold facts about air pollution, published on 2 February

2015, primed the National media channels for follow up coverage. A few articles and blog posts

were a result of that initial news release. The UCAR Communications Office is an essential

driver in reaching out to many of the large-scale media channels, particularly in the urban

corridors of Virginia, Washington D.C., and New York City.

UCAR Center for Science Education & MetEd

The UCAR Center for Science Education and COMET MetEd’s overarching goals are to

make an impact on public understanding of atmospheric science concepts and processes through

alliances and partnerships to a national audience. The Center for Science Education focus is on

K-12 education, while MetEd’s provides comprehensive educational modules in support of

higher-education.

The WINTER Educational Resources webpage largely consists of links to educational

pieces that the Center for Science Education and the COMET MetEd team has developed. All of

the modules relate to the science of WINTER, which enhance the online educational efforts

while exposing the Center for Science Education and MetEd’s work to the general public and

driving traffic to their website.

NASA

Collaborating with NASA Communications at the Langley Research Center is easy and

proven to be very beneficial. As initial outreach steps were taken, it was quickly determined that

the EOL Education and Outreach Coordinator had previously worked with Mike Finneran,

NASA Public Affairs, during a project the summer before. This previous relationship made

planing and preparing the media event very efficient. A few other requests to have groups get on



base to visit the C-130 were also managed through Mike, though none materialized due to other

circumstances.

STUDENT INVOLVEMENT

Facilitated by several WINTER PIs and university professors, both undergraduate and

graduate students had the opportunity to be directly involved with research activities (Table 4).

In all, there was one undergraduate student, eight graduate students, and three postdoctoral

fellows involved with the project.

Table 4 WINTER Student Participation

Student Name Affiliation Academic Level Role in Project

Steven Blanco North Carolina A&T State University Undergraduate Experiential

Jamie Green North Carolina A&T State University Graduate SO2 and NH3 Instrument

Tamara Sparks University of California, Berkeley Graduate TDLIF operator

Carlena Ebben University of California, Berkeley Graduate TDLIF operator

Brett Palm University of Colorado, Boulder Graduate Instrument preparation

Erin McDuffie University of Colorado, Boulder/NOAA Graduate Instrument operation in

C-130

Viral Shah University of Washington Graduate Chemical forecasting

and flight planning

Jessica Haskins University of Washington Graduate Analysis of hindsight

model simulations

Felipe Lopez-Hilfiker University of Washington Graduate UW ToF-CIMS

preparation & operation in C-130

Dorothy Fibiger NOAA/NSF Postdoctoral Instrument operation in C-130

Jason Schroeder University of Colorado, Boulder Postdoctoral Instrument operation in

C-130

Ben Lee University of Washington Postdoctoral UW ToF-CIMS

preparation & operation in C-130



SUMMARY

Despite the winter weather conditions in the area, the school visits during WINTER are

the EPO highlight. With an emphasis on engaging colleges and university students, five of the

eight school visits were to higher education institutions, the remaining three were at K-12 school,

engaging a total of 1179 students and staff during 15 presentations. Website and social media

metrics demonstrate an significant online success with the materials provided. WINTER received

modest media coverage, with eight unique articles, including one from the Associated Press.

Lessons Learned

Not having an Open House during the project proved to be a good plan considering the

dynamic flight schedule, and it would have been very difficult to facilitate it on the NASA

Langley Research Center base. The media event was challenging enough and did not go as

planned, the flight came home earlier than planned (4:00 am) and the PIs and other staff who

said they would be available for the 8:00 am media event had to wait up until then. The idea was

to have the plane return from the research flight around 8:00 am so the media could take pictures

of the plane landing and being pulled into the hangar, and then interview staff. While there were

no complaints from the staff, it was not ideal. This demonstrates that more effort should be put

into hosting a public open house and media event just prior to the start of a project as to not

interfere with project operations.

Schools were initially contacted at the end of November 2014, ten weeks in advance of

the project in order to give them ample time to schedule visits appropriately. This approach

worked well and is recommended. The ten weekdays available for EPO activities were easily

filled given the lengthy lead time.



Focusing on colleges and university visits was a new approach during this project and

while successful it posed challenges. Five of the eight schools were colleges or universities, or

62% of the visits. Project PIs, scientists, or postdocs need to give the high-level talks at many of

these schools and it is difficult to definitively schedule staff during the dynamic nature of the

project, whereas the EPO Coordinator can give the talks to the K-12 students and can hold a

schedule independent of the project operations. It is important to continually engage more

colleges and universities during field projects, as it’s an effective way to increase student and

staff awareness of geoscience field research and available UCAR/NCAR internship and

fellowship opportunities. At each event handouts of all UCAR/NCAR opportunities were

available and distributed to students. As I met the department head at Hampton University he

indicated that he was working on becoming a UCAR member but it had stalled out. I have since

followed up with UCAR President’s Office and made sure that the two are connected and any

questions are addressed. Continued efforts in making visit to colleges and universities during

field projects needs to be explored to determine best practices.

Evaluation Methods

An Impact Rubric can be found in Table 5 with ratings shaded in grey by the EO

Coordinator (Davis & Scalice, 2013). This Impact Rubric is a new method to evaluate the impact

of EPO programs that was developed by a third party and is being piloted by EOL to evaluate

outreach efforts and assess areas for

improvement. The rating scale is as

follows: High/Excellent = 3.7–4.8;

Moderate/Could Improve = 2.4–3.6;


Project Quality Formula = NA + GO + D + I + 2(AO) 5

WINTER Project Quality = 3 + 3 + 4 + 3 + 2(3) = 3.8

5

Figure 6. Project scoring formula and category.


and Low/Developing = 1.2–2.3. The overall score that the WINTER education and outreach

efforts reached was 3.8 on a 5.0 scale, giving efforts a rating of High/Excellent (3.7-5.0) (Figure

6). Methods to achieve a score of Excellent (4) in each category are being discussed and

analyzed.



Table 5 Project Life Cycle Rating Rubric

Project Phase Fair (1) Good (2) Very Good (3) Excellent (4)

Needs Assessment (NA)

Prior experience;“Seems like a good idea”

Research on what works; Literature review on similar programs/products/populations/goals

Conversation with and/or direction from stakeholders; Experts review the idea/plan

Survey of or pilot with potential audience/users about the draft program

Goals and objectives (GO)

General direction; Understood by team; Agenda substituting for objectives

Explicit, written; For a target audience

Objectives are SMART; Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, Timelined

Logic model of inputs, outputs, and outcomes in place

Design of Project (D)

Series of activities; Uses what has worked before

Based on objectives; Connects to standards; includes contingency plan for emerging needs

Thematic; Has continuity; Participatory, personalized, responsive; Uses advanced organizers

Developmental; Embeds evaluation/reflection

Implementation (I)

Facilitators prepare to implement the design

Collect and use feedback during implementation

High fidelity to design OR implements contingency plans to meet objectives if needed

Participants able to monitor their own progress against objectives



Outcomes Assessment/Methods (OA)

Attendance: participants came, stayed and or/returned

Informal observation and/or conversation (team discussion after the activity)

Post measure (test and/or performance task) only; self-report, or participant retrospective

Pre/post test and/or performance task; External evaluator; Comparison group studies



REFERENCES CITED

Davis, H., & Scalice, D. (2013). Defining and Measuring Impact for Ourselves. Retrieved November 10, 2014 from http://www.techforlearning.org/Scalice-Davis-DefiningImpact-Final.pdf


http://www.techforlearning.org/Scalice-Davis-DefiningImpact-Final.pdf

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