High School Science Teachers and Students Study Ultraviolet Radiation
in the Rockies
Does a high elevation lifestyle include greater UV exposure risk
The task involves understanding the exposure from ultraviolet (UV) radiation in high altitude environments, but the objective is to introduce a genuine spirit of scientific inquiry into the course work in middle school and high school classrooms. Twelve science teachers and students from Las Vegas, Nevada, will arrive at the Desert Research Institute's Storm Peak Laboratory above Steamboat Springs, Colo., at the end of July for three weeks of intensive field and laboratory work.
Under the guidance of Dr. Melanie Wetzel, a DRI atmospheric scientist based at the lab, the NSTEP group will experience the challenges of hands-on research and the excitement of developing new knowledge-and new questions-about their environment.
The project is part of DRI's Nevada Science Teachers Enhancement Program (NSTEP), now in its third year of bringing students and teachers to work with DRI scientists in their ongoing research projects. Dr. Paul Buck, a DRI archaeologist and director of NSTEP, says the participants in the past two years have returned to their classrooms with a new perspective on science, that it's something far different from learning theories, facts and figures from textbooks and lectures.
"We're also in a recruiting battle for the future scientists and technicians of America," Buck says. "We need to generate excitement for scientific discovery and inquiry at an earlier age so that more high school students will realize that a career in science as a real possibility.
NSTEP is one of several programs to enhance K-12 science instruction conducted by DRI, the environmental research campus of the University and Community College System of Nevada. Buck and his collegues train the NSTEP participants in research methods and field procedures for a spring semester before heading for the summer project sites.
The following fall semester, they supervise and encourage the students and teachers as they analyze their data and prepare research reports and presentations on their field work. The teams, from various schools around the state of Nevada, communicate and publish their work on the Internet using special websites set up for each project. The conclusion of the program is a competitive research poster presentation, involving combined teams of students and teachers, and an awards presentation.
NSTEP projects in previous years have taken students to study climate change in Death Valley, California, to an archaeological excavation of an Anasazi site in southwest Utah, to Lake Tahoe, Nevada to conduct a hydrologic study and to the Ruby Mountains in northeastern Nevada to examine the genetic variability of mountain zooplankton.
Earlier this summer, Buck led another group of teachers and students in an Anasazi site excavation on Mt. Trumbull within the new Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in Arizona.
This year in Colorado, Wetzel's team will arrive on the last day of July, and work through August 20. Her team will characterize the microclimatic variability of UV flux in the Steamboat Springs area, conducting both field measurements and computer-based analysis of satellite data. Field research will be conducted at various sites around Steamboat Springs, with major emphasis on use of the instrumentation and facilities available at DRI's Storm Peak Laboratory.