Education and Climate: Building a sustainable weather network by incorporating science teachers into current research activities in meteorology

The island of Puerto Rico has seen a lot of action in the scientific arena concerning interdisciplinary research on climate and climate change. Several research projects with both local and external funding are interested in studying the meteorology and climatology of Puerto Rico to achieve a better understanding of its tropical climate and its change. The topics of weather and climate have been identified as a common ground were research scientists, educators, alumni, teachers and students from Puerto Rico can share research activities with mutual benefit. An outreach initiative, named Education and Climate, is being developed by the Physical Sciences Department to provide a virtual learning environment for the education and research communities to share the administration of a research quality network of weather stations. A growing need of high quality meteorological data is evident and the implementation of sensor networks is seen as one of the most promising alternatives to provide it. The inclusion of schools in the network is sought to achieve scientific goals and educational needs. We propose a research in the classroom model to achieve a successful outreach program; which will be based on the collaboration of the academic and scientific community to foment that teacher and students participate in relevant research initiatives in their communities. We want to promote a link between research and education by fomenting projects centered on the contribution of the science teachers and their students to the current research in meteorology and climatology in Puerto Rico. It is common that research scientists focus on their scientific needs and minimize their efforts to include broad outreach components on their projects. Although there is a growing need for young scientists to get involved in solving real societal problems the number of students that aspire to engage in such endeavor is notoriously low, probably because the lack of stimulation and the opportunities to be involved in scientific projects. The topic of meteorology was identified as one of great potential to achieve Puerto Rican student involvement and participation because we are all subject to climate and weather and our every day life is frequently affected by it. This topic with high relevance to students should be used to increase participation and motivation to study the science behind them. The promotion of sustainable outreach projects in the academic community depends on the inclusion of multi party task teams to provide for expertise, maintenance and long term support. Our initiative will be outlined and the implementation strategies discussed.