Outreach

The goals of the outreach component of UNDEO 5 were to 1) demonstrate NSF investments in basic science and support for facilities like the DOWs, 2) engage with K-12 students to initiate or fuel interest in STEM, and 3) contribute to increasing public scientific literacy.

Table 3. Summary of K-12 outreach.

DOW-6 reached 735 K-12 students in the Lincoln Public School (LPS) system via six separate exhibitions at three elementary schools and two high schools (Table 3). DOW-6 was also exhibited to ~120 preschoolers at the UNL Children’s Center (Figure 2) and to ~70 undergraduate students in Weather and Climate (Figure 2). DOW-6 also figured prominently in an outreach event designed by the PI and associated with the Nebraska State Museum’s Investigate: Second Saturday Science Lab. This exhibition reached over 100 members of the general public, ~60 of whom had direct interaction with the DOW.

Figure 2. Outreach to preschoolers at the University of Nebraska Children’s Center (top) and to students in Weather and Climate (bottom).