Benefit the Community with the CIRES Education and Outreach Group

Susan Sullivan (1), Anne Gold (1), Susan Lynds (1), Amanda Morton (1), David Oonk (1), Lesley Smith (1), Jennifer Taylor (1)

Abstract
The CIRES Education and Outreach group engages CIRES and NOAA researchers to get geoscience out into the community. Projects benefit communities by providing research opportunities for students and educators, developing new research-based curriculum, initiating new dialogue and providing access to the scientific enterprise. We are available to help with proposals, provide training for scientists on outreach, and discuss any engagement and outreach questions. We always have needs for expert reviewers, volunteers, presenters, and partners. We often collaborate with researchers on broader impacts activities associated with a proposed project, which may make the difference in a competitive funding environment. These broader impacts projects benefit from the longer-term infrastructure developed through our own external funding. This poster details some current CIRES EO projects and describes the capabilities CIRES EO can bring to your project. These include: • opportunities for two-year and tribal college students and faculty • community building and user engagement through workshops, courses and webinars • evaluation and needs assessment support including use of surveys, webstatistics, focus groups and interviews; and • development of digital learning resources and collections. Example projects include development of new curriculum about Front Range Air Quality and about space weather, a conference for educators, a new online course on Western Water through Coursera, the Tribe’s Eye project for tribal college students, “Colorado’s Changing Energy Portfolio” workshop for community college faculty, evaluation of the Climate.gov climate information portal, and research opportunities for community college students. For more about CIRES EO projects and how to work with CIRES EO see http://cires.colorado.edu/education-outreach/ or contact Susan Sullivan at susan.sullivan@colorado.edu.