Successful implementation of education standards in science and mathematics is vital to the long-term health of the scientific enterprise, especially in terms of cultivating a society that appreciates and supports scientific research. The American Geophysical Union (representing scientists in many disciplines, including meteorology and space physics) recognized this by creating a policy statement that formally endorses national science education standards. Even so, research scientists often harbor misconceptions about the education standards that cause them to miss the relevance and importance of their disciplines to education standards. This paper will address these misconceptions with a focus on space weather, but in a way that is also pertinent to meteorology.

If planet Earth did not have a magnetic field, tropospheric weather would be the same as “space weather”, and life as we know it on Earth’s surface would not be possible. The most fundamental aspect of space weather is the solar “wind” – an ongoing million mile per hour stream of charged particles (mostly electrons and protons) from the Sun. Solar storms (e.g. Coronal Mass Ejections) cause dramatic enhancements to the speed and density of solar wind particles. These “hurricanes” of space weather can pose serious hazards to orbiting satellites and astronauts, as well as to ground-based pipelines and power grids. Earth’s magnetic field re-directs these charged particles, causing auroral lights and providing a shield without which the solar wind would strip away Earth’s atmosphere.

Both meteorology and space weather are compelling contexts for addressing standards-based concepts in science and mathematics. The shared element that engages student and teacher interest is the potential for dramatic events that can bring wondrous beauty as well as serious hazards to life and property.

While there are no explicit science content standards that say our children should know about space weather, there are standards addressing energy transfer, fundamental concepts in electricity and magnetism, basic ideas about systems and cycles, and key aspects of the interplay between science and technology. There are also standards that call upon students and teachers to develop the basic abilities of inquiry into the world around them, and moreover to understand how scientists apply inquiry in real world investigations. Many of these ideas about relating scientific research to standards are transferable to the discipline of meteorology. This paper will also offer concrete examples of how topics in space weather can be used as especially engaging and effective learning contexts for teaching fundamental, standards-based concepts in middle and high school.