Also integral to the MARVELOUS project was the goal to conduct educational outreach events to historically under-represented (in the field of atmospheric science) K-12 students as well as the general public. Though it was initially proposed that there would be five K-12 outreach events organized and implemented during MARVELOUS, undergrads from both the AHS and STEM Ed programs participated in events occurring at eight local K-12 schools, one large regional library (the Great River Regional Library), the Science Museum of Minnesota, an SCSU campus-wide “Open House” for the AHS department, and the Northern Plains Winter Weather Workshop. With the exception of two outreach events, every event involved at least one undergraduate student enrolled in either the AHS or STEM-education programs. In all, 15 different undergraduate students participated in the education outreach events during the MARVELOUS project. A table of completed educational outreach event metrics appears in Table 2.

During MARVELOUS, outreach events consisted of primarily student-led “Show n’ Tells” of the DOW and PODs, demonstrations of POD deployments and tours of the DOW (replete with archived data loops from tornadoes and hurricanes, but also displaying data that was collected by the SCSU students during IOP I.) Students were also given the opportunity to speak with and present to many members of the public and K-12 population regarding their experiences in the field of atmospheric science research as well as science education. 

The social impact of the MARVELOUS project’s outreach was significant. During the four week project, 1031 K-12 students were impacted (primarily at the grades 2-8 level). At the non-K-12 school events, over 300 students and members of the general public were impacted.

Local media coverage and advertising

It was initially anticipated that one of the biggest challenges of the MARVELOUS project would be advertising the outreach events. However, there were ample opportunities for the word to be spread.

The SCSU University Chronicle featured an article, “Students get unique opportunity with DOW”, http://universitychron.com/students-get-unique-opportunity-dow/, which summarized the early phase of the MARVELOUS project. (The author of the article was a SCSU journalism major who participated in the field for IOP I.)

The Science Museum of Minnesota advertised the DOW exhibit/outreach event prominently on their website: https://www.smm.org/doppler

A local radio station for St. Cloud, WJON, featured a story on the educational outreach that was done during the early phase of the MARVELOUS project: http://wjon.com/doppler-on-wheelsstops-at-discovery-community-school-video/ (Additional advertising of subsequent outreach events was also done through WJON.)

Drs. Robert Weisman and Tony Hansen sent out specific campus-wide emails (via the scsuannounce email list) to encourage students and faculty of SCSU to come out and explore the DOW during the AHS “Open House” on 4 December.

The Great River Regional Library advertised an educational outreach event which took place on 19 November: https://griver.org/event/saint-cloud/doppler-on-wheels/2016-11-19/31503

UTVS, a local television station, featured two stories about the MARVELOUS project. (The reporter from UTVS was also enrolled in AHS 468, and these reports were designed to explain to the viewing audience the basics of the MARVELOUS project, as well as interview participating students.)

Overall, the Public Relations aspect of MARVELOUS turned out to be executed very well, and contributed to large attendance numbers at many of the outreach events.