3. Cultivating a Scientifically Engaged Citizenry

Priority 1: Engaging a Broader and More Diverse Community in the Atmospheric and Geosciences

EOL recognizes that the overall health of our institution lay in ensuring that those with aptitude and determination have opportunities in the atmospheric science and engineering disciplines, and that they are welcomed and nurtured, regardless of gender, ethnic background, nationality, or physical ability. EOL addresses this NCAR strategic priority in a number of ways, including our highly successful Student Engineering program, now in its eighth year, our hiring practices, our EOL Women's Professional Development Group and our Education and Outreach efforts that reach the general public.

Undergraduate Engineering Internships

The Summer Engineering internship program ended with presentations given by the four interns, seen here with their mentors around the redesigned Driftsonde gondola.  Back row: Roger Wakimoto, Assistant Director to NCAR for the EOL, Jack Fox, DFS Manager, Scott Spuler of the LIDAR Group, intern Oluleye Olorude, Mark Lord of EOL's Research Aviation Facility, Tom Brimeyer, Program Coordinator.  Middle row: Interns Andrew Leung and Jaqueline Hibbard.  Bottom Row: Intern Tim Allarid and Program Coordinator Gordon Farquaharson.

2007 has seen fantastic response to EOL’s call for applications to our Summer Undergraduate Engineering program, which focuses EOL’s outreach efforts on the engineering community in a manner analogous to what UCAR/NCAR currently does for young scientists.

EOL received resumes from mechanical, electrical and computer, aerospace, optical, environmental, chemical, and industrial engineering students.  A total of 99 applications were received, 15 from women.  Six students applied through the National Society of Black Engineers (NBSE).  The announcement was also posted with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.

Four interns were hired and worked with EOL engineers during the summer of 2007:  Tim Allarid, a mechanical engineering student, worked with the Design and Fabrication Services; Jacqueline Hibbard, an aerospace engineering student, worked at the Research Aviation Facility; Andrew Lueng, an electrical engineering student, assisted on upgrades to the ELDORA radar; and Oluleye Olorode, an electrical/optical engineering student, worked with the LIDAR group.  All interns gave presentations to the EOL Engineering Group as part of their internships.  Continuation of the undergraduate intern program will be a priority in FY08 and 09.

Expanding Your Horizons Workshop

EOL Scientist Kate Young launches a weather balloon for the Expanding Your Horizons workshop.  This event is organized by the Boulder Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and the University of Colorado at Boulder with the goal to encourage pre-teen and teenaged girls to study math and science, to increase awareness of the options available in non-traditional careers, and to meet women whose careers depend on math, science, engineering and technology.

EOL staff participated once again in the Expanding Your Horizons Conference at CU Boulder in February. The annual conference was held on February 24, 2007 in the CU engineering center, and was attended by close to 200 girls from schools along the Front Range. It is organized by the Boulder Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and the University of Colorado at Boulder with the goal to encourage pre-teen and teenaged girls to study math and science, to increase awareness of the options available in non-traditional careers, and to meet women whose careers depend on math, science, engineering and technology.

Diversity in EOL Hiring Process

EOL emphasizes the inclusion of diversity in its hiring practices and has instituted new internal practices in FY07 to ensure that a measurable and fair process is followed for every new hire.  We have established checks and balances to ensure proper advertisement of new positions in order to solicit the widest variety of applicants.  Hiring managers must complete a form outlining how and where the job was advertised, what effort was made to solicit applications from females and underrepresented minorities, and justification for final interview pool and hire.  EOL firmly believes these efforts to ensure diversity within its ranks will strengthen our organization as a whole.

EOL Women’s Professional Development Group

The EOL Women's group continues to bring together women at all levels in the laboratory - mechanics, technicians, administrators, scientists, data managers, managers, etc., to provide a forum in which women can share experiences and discuss lab topics of mutual interest.  Management is interested to foster this communication in order to work on making EOL a supportive place in which women professionals work.

Wonders of Science Saturday

EOL Scientist Junhong Wang teaches an aspiring scientist how to read the data collected from a weather balloon during the Wonder of Science Saturday event at the 29th Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado.

NCAR scientists also participated in the Wonder of Science Saturday, an event held at Boulder's 29th Street Mall, in September 2007. This event provided the public with an opportunity to learn about different scientific organizations in the area, and its primary focus was on science education of children and adults. EOL performed a series of radiosonde weather balloon launches that gave people a rare opportunity to learn first-hand about the technology used to capture atmospheric profiles of pressure, temperature, relative humidity, and wind, and view data collected in real-time.

Priority 2: Supporting and Enhancing Formal Science Education at all Levels

EOL attaches a high value to Education and Outreach and currently infuses all EOL programs, whether in the laboratory or field with an E&O component. EOL encourages a general interest in earth science, and particularly tries to foster advanced understanding in the science and process of atmospheric research measurements. EOL accepts its responsibility to encourage the growth of the next generation of observational engineers and scientists, and continually seeks new ways to do this. Our major event in 2007 that supports this priority was our first-ever NSF Facilities Users' Workshop.

NSF Facilities Users’ Workshop

Dr. Clifford Jacobs, head of the UCAR and Lower Atmospheric Facilities Oversight Section of the National Science Foundation's Division of Atmospheric Sciences, addresses participants in the first-ever NSF Facilities Users' Workshop, held in Boulder Colorado in September 2007.

EOL hosted the first NSF Facilities Users’ workshop was held the week of September 24-28, 2007 at NCAR. One of the major issues addressed this workshop was reaching out to new users by delineating the request process since the official request procedure can appear daunting to someone who has never requested an NSF observing facility.  The workshop also provided an opportunity for several hundred members of the NSF facilities’ research community to meet and provide us with valuable guidance on core activities such as project planning, data stewardship, software tools, in-field service, and new instrument developments. Representatives from funding agencies and potential partners in instrument development were also invited.

High School Laser Class

EOL received an Activity Grant from the Optical Society of America (OSA) to support an Education and Outreach activity at a high school in Arvada, Colorado.  Staff worked with a teacher of a laser class to get resources such as optics, and lasers and the class put together a laser show.  Students of this class got the opportunity to attend monthly meetings in order to get a feel for what’s going on in the world of optics, and what a professional environment is like.

Pilot High School Student Program

EOL values educational outreach at all levels and is currently conducting a small pilot program that exposes local high school students of high academic caliber to various EOL activities and specialized projects.  In FY07, EOL hired a Boulder High School senior, to work with engineers on data collected from the driftsonde during the T-AMMA campaign in Africa last year. Pending evaluation of this program EOL plans to continue with this educational outreach in FY 2008-2009.

Student Visits

EOL staff has continued to support formal science education in 2007, with six visits so far to local elementary, middle and high schools for weather lessons, balloon launches and tours of the Integrated Sounding System (ISS). Familiarizing young students with opportunities in atmospheric science will continue to be an activity EOL supports in FY08 and 09.

Priority 3: Maintaining an Innovative and Creative Workplace

EOL knows we cannot fulfill our scientific, engineering and service objectives without capable, intelligent, dedicated and effective personnel. We find a variety of ways to keep our staff challenged, including our pilot sabbatical program for scientific staff.

Instituting Sabbatical for Scientific Staff

EOL instituted an internal sabbatical for ladder-track scientific staff intended to increase their productivity through uninterrupted research or laboratory work, including research leading to publication, publication writing, instrument development, development of major science plans and participation as scientists in a field project. Staff could also include time to write e.g., one or more chapters of a thesis or dissertation, depending on circumstances.  At the present, there is a pilot process in place and in FY08 we will be reviewing how the program is working and will make adjustments to it as necessary.