Because climate, pollution, and the environment are part of the everyday awareness of young people, the atmospheric sciences offer an unusual opportunity to teach science in engaging, relevant ways. UCAR's K-12 education programs target both students and educators.

PROGRAMS AT UCAR

About the Sun
A basic guide to all things solar, produced by the NCAR High Altitude Observatory

Climate & Global Change Geoscience Education Workshop
The goal of the workshop is to provide standards-relevant science content, training on easy to implement inquiry-based classroom activities, and a broad overview of the geosciences in the context of climate and global change to educator-leaders who are teaching sciences at the middle and high school levels.

Colorado Computational Science Fair
High-school competition sponsored by NCAR and Colorado State University

EXPLORE the Atmospheric Sciences
Newsletter of informal science education of UCAR and NCAR

Global Weather Services in 2025
A vision of future weather services

Greenie Environmental Stewardship Awards
Awards recognize special Earth Day projects in the areas of recycling, composting, environmental education, energy, conservation, sustainability, and air and water quality

Hurricane Strike!
A multimedia learning package created by COMET®, Hurricane Strike! is aimed primarily at middle school students. It integrates disaster safety and preparedness with science instruction, providing an engaging interactive learning environment. It also dovetails with science and safety content in the American Red Cross Masters of Disaster curriculum. If you have a T1/DSL line (or equivalent), you can access Hurricane Strike! directly from the web. If you have a slower connection, you should download the module to your hard drive and run it locally.

LEARN: Atmospheric Science Explorers
Enhancement program for science teachers

Learning about Science Easily and Readily Series (LASERS)
Lectures and brochures on atmospheric research topics
Children of the Tropics: El Nino and La Nina
Constant as the Sun? A Look at Solar Variability

Modeling in the Geosciences Workshop NEW!
Environmental concerns are becoming increasingly pressing and complex, requiring citizens to have much better understanding of Earth systems and processes, and the methods scientists use to unravel this complexity to develop an understanding of the underlying systems. Models are an important tool used by scientists to study and better understand complex systems. To increase teacher understanding of models and their utility in Earth System Science studies, NASA’s Earth System Enterprise is sponsoring the Modeling in the Geosciences Workshop (MGW) for middle and high school teachers that will explore Earth System Modeling concepts that are relevant for classroom use.

Roberts Forum
Illustrated talks on current research regarding the atmospheric and related sciences

Science Now
Newsletter for science teachers published by UCAR and SIRS, Inc., an educational publisher

Skymath
Mathematics curriculum using real-time weather data

Unidata
Sites Using Unidata Systems for K-12 and General Education Outreach

Web Weather for Kids
Hands-on activities for teaching atmospheric sciences

Windows to the Universe
A fun and different Web site about the Earth and Space sciences

PROGRAMS AT UCAR MEMBER AND AFFILIATE INSTITUTIONS

University of California, Irvine
UCI Science Education Programs Office

University of Colorado, Boulder

Florida State University
Direct Readout Services for the K-12 Community - Florida EXPLORES!

Harvard University
Technical Educational Resource Center Global Laboratory

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
NCSA Education Program
WW2010 Online Guides

University of Kansas
The Monarch Watch!
Explorer Science Curriculum

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Kids as Global Scientists
The Weather Underground
Blue-Skies

University of Minnesota
Web66: A K12 World Wide Web Project
Internet for Minnesota Schools

University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Environmental Education Nebraska

New York University
K-12 Mathematics and Molecules

North Carolina State University
The Science House
Science and Math Programs for K-12 Students

University of Oklahoma
K-12 Outreach, EARTHSTORM Project

Pennsylvania State University
Earth System Science Education

Rice University
Armadillo, the Texas Studies WWW server
Educational Space Simulations Project

San Francisco State University
K-12 Education Resources

Texas A&M University
Ocean World

University of Texas at Austin
College of Education

University of Virginia
Teacher Education Internet Server

University of Washington
K-12 Education Resources

University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Educational Outreach