Remote sensing of ice sheets for underrepresented and handicapped middle school students

The NSF Science and Technology Center for the Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) combines the expertise of researchers from 6 universities, several industries, and federal laboratories to study and conduct research to achieve a better understanding of the mass balance of the polar ice sheets. CReSIS is the only NSF Science and Technology Center dedicated to developing techniques and technologies for determining the contribution of ice sheets to sea level rise. CReSIS is led by the University of Kansas with Elizabeth City State University, University of Pennsylvania, The Byrd Polar Center at Ohio State University, Haskell Indian Nation and The University of Maine as partners. In addition to its strong research and science mission, CReSIS education and outreach efforts are designed to impact the entire educational pipeline. The purpose of the CReSIS Education Program is to prepare future generations of scientists and engineers who are capable of assuming responsibility for our future work. These future leaders in polar science and engineering should more closely mirror the diversity in our world. Because our primary goal is to train our own replacements, our first priority is the graduate students who are most likely to begin supporting CReSIS’ work in the nearterm. As a logical extension of that notion, our secondary focus is on generating a diverse pool of talented undergraduates to begin filling graduate student roles in Centeractivities. Thirdly, we must continue to provide opportunity, motivation, and focused supplemental content for K-12 students in order to create larger pools of STEM-capable and interested students at the college level. CReSIS engages directly with students in the classroom or through informal educational opportunities, letting them see firsthand what our researchers do and participate in projectbased investigations and authentic research. (CReSIS, 2006) This paper details the CReSIS middle school outreach strategy, the program organization, logistics, participant descriptions and outcomes.