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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radios (NWRs) can be used by education agencies before, during, and after an emergency. The information collected through the NWR may be used to determine which annexes (whether functional or threat- or hazard-specific) should be activated. Furthermore, NWRs may be used to receive information in the event of a power outage, a Wi-Fi outage, or an overloaded mobile phone network. They provide a reliable source of information that will be aligned with information received by local community partners and state-level partners who may support response. This fact sheet is intended for administrators, teachers, faculty, and staff at K-12 schools, school districts, and institutions of higher education (IHEs) to use to prepare to receive emergency notifications. It provides information on the NWR, including key features to look for when purchasing an NWR, where to station NWR receivers on the school campus, where to obtain more information specific to your area, and integration of NWR receivers when practicing the plan.

In January 2021, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Education Council released an updated Education Strategic Plan (ED615369). This guiding document outlines the five strategic plan goals and supporting objectives that help advance NOAA's mission through education: (1) Science-Informed Society; (2) Conservation and Stewardship; (3) Ready, Responsive, and Resilient; (4) Future Workforce; and (5) Organizational Excellence. In this report NOAA introduces an education program in Alaska that has been bringing in young students to learn about ocean creatures for five decades, a citizen science project that now engages over 20,000 volunteers around the country in gathering crucial weather data, and dozens of programs that changed directions mid-year in response to the pandemic. Highlighted is the NOAA Diversity and Professional Advancement Working Group and many of the other ongoing efforts to create more equitable and inclusive education programs. These efforts show the depth, breadth, and resiliency of the NOAA Education community.

The 2021-2040 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Education Strategic Plan is a reflection of the knowledge and dedication of the NOAA education community. Strategic planning provides guidance for NOAA Education and a framework for tracking and reporting progress. This plan builds on the foundation of the 2015-2035 NOAA Education Strategic Plan (ED571869). Input on the 2015 plan was gathered to identify areas that needed improvement. Activities were reviewed that occurred across the agency to identify core work and find commonalities. NOAA presents five education goals based on the mission, portfolio, and future needs. The five goals presented in this plan are the desired, long-term outcomes for society: (1) Science-Informed Society; (2) Conservation and Stewardship; (3) Ready, Responsive, and Resilient; (4) Future Workforce; and (5) Organizational Excellence.

This guiding document outlines five goals and supporting objectives that help advance National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA's) mission through education: (1) Science-Informed Society; (2) Conservation and Stewardship; (3) Safety and Preparedness; (4) Future Workforce; (5) Organizational Excellence. In this report, NOAA introduces the reader to students whose restoration project saved their shoreline from a hurricane, a meteorology class that learned the art of high-stakes weather forecasting, and an educator from South Dakota who brought his students to a NOAA lab in Mississippi so they could see the ocean for the first time. The stories shared in this report show how today's youth are emerging as the next generation of problem-solvers. Educators and partners empower students to take action and make changes in their schools and communities, whether convincing school administrators to rethink cafeteria waste or educating their communities about climate change. Across these different projects, the reader can see how students gather data, challenge norms, and take the initiative to address environmental problems that they see around them in the places and spaces they care about.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) commissioned TERC to complete a review of science education standards for all 50 states. The study analyzed K-12 Earth science standards to determine how well each state addresses key Earth-science content, concepts and skills. This report reveals that few states have thoroughly integrated climate, weather and oceans studies into their curriculum. Earth science integrates oceanography, meteorology, geology, biology, chemistry, physics and other disciplines to understand Earth's processes as an integrated system. In addition to practical applications in a variety of fields, Earth science also addresses environmental challenges such as climate change, hurricanes, and ocean issues. The study examined how state standards support integrating materials such as remotely sensed imaging, satellite photography, and data visualization tools into classroom education. Unfortunately, this study shows that Earth system science education in the U.S. is in need of significant improvement. The report shows a great variation in the states' Earth science education standards. This report is a call to action showing a pressing need for systematic reform. The recommendations listed in this report to revolutionize K-12 Earth science education are: (1) The concepts and approaches comprising the seven different review criteria should be viewed as an interrelated suite of perspectives, all supporting the core principles of quality Earth systems science education; (2) The ocean literacy principles and concepts could be enhanced by better incorporating a systems perspective; (3) Develop a comprehensive set of atmosphere, weather, and climate literacy principles and concepts, similar in format to the ocean literacy principles and concepts; (4) Directly participate in state science standards revision processes. (5) Ensure that Web-based access to data and analysis tools are usable by the K-12 education community; (6) Participate in the development of quality state and national science assessments; (7) Demonstrate that modern "revolutionary" Earth science perspectives and approaches to teaching result in deep student learning of science concepts and thinking skills; (8) Establish Earth system science as a science course widely viewed as being equally or more challenging as the classic high-school sciences of biology, chemistry, and physics; and (9) Tirelessly persist in promoting the revolution in Earth system science education with the understanding that improvements will occur incrementally. The following are appended: (1) Ocean Literacy Principles and Fundamental Concepts; and (2) Detailed Analysis of Ocean Literacy Concepts. (Contains 2 tables and 8 figures.)

The United States possesses the most capable research enterprise, the largest economy, and the most sophisticated societal infrastructure in the world, yet it remains notably vulnerable to catastrophic damage and loss of life from natural hazards. Among weather hazards, hurricanes account for over half of the total damage inflicted. Despite their destructive power, certainty of future occurrence, and advances made during the past decade in meteorological understanding and prediction, still relatively little is known about the most important aspects of hurricanes from an integrative perspective, including their internal dynamics and interactions with the larger-scale atmosphere and ocean; methods for quantifying and conveying uncertainty and mitigating hurricane impacts; associated short and long term consequences on the natural and built environment; and the manner in which society responds before, during, and after landfall. In this document, the Board presents an agenda for action--a National Hurricane Research Initiative (NHRI)--that will provide urgently needed hurricane science and engineering research and education that engages relevant agencies across the Federal government; involves industry, academia, and other levels of government; establishes highly focused priorities; strengthens disciplinary research; creates multidisciplinary frameworks for studying the hurricane in an integrative fashion; and stimulates the efficient transfer of research outcomes to operational practice. The following are appended: (1) U.S. Hurricane and Earthquake Research Funding (2001-2006); (2) Proposed New Investments for the National Hurricane Research Initiative; and (3) National Hurricane Research Initiative Research Programs. (Includes 5 photos, a list of acronyms used, 55 endnotes, and a list of photo captions.)

Beginning with Western Kentucky University's (Bowling Green) fall 1999 semester, exercises required for the geography and meteorology course used computers for learning. This course enrolls about 250 students per year, most of whom choose it to fulfill a general education requirement. Of the 185 geography majors, it is required for those who choose the Meteorology-Climatology track. Prior to the use of computers, exercises required for the course were done using a locally written exercise manual. For the last few years, this manual has not existed and all the exercises are completed using computers with locally conceived, designed, written, and programmed exercises. Each exercise includes presentation of current and topical weather information, and real time meteorological data. An acquired program called, Test Pilot, performs the grading, record keeping, and immediate feedback to the students. All exercises are completed in the Meteorology Lab Room during scheduled times and under the supervision of Meteorology Lab instructors. The development/implementation of the computer exercises was fraught with problems. Time demands for this phase were unexpectedly and demandingly high. The subsequent years involved revisions, corrections, and reassessments. The exercises are now considered a normal and expected part of the course. This paper describes the course's evolution. It describes the learned techniques and procedures used in developing, implementing, and assessing this method of teaching meteorology. This application may be useful for those courses with enrollments too great for traditional laboratory exercises. The paper notes that these methods can be replicated for other physical geography courses. (Author/BT)

Since weather plays an important role in many ways in our everyday life, the study of meteorological phenomena by school children becomes of great importance in enhancing their scientific literacy. This necessity becomes even more important today, as these phenomena are connected to serious environmental problems such as climate change and air pollution. The reported research deals with the investigation of children's conceptions about the movement of air masses in the troposphere, as this movement constitutes an important factor in the generation of the meteorological phenomena and the dispersion of air pollutants. Thirteen children from 12 up to 18 years old were interviewed by using a semi-structured questionnaire. From the analysis of their answers, it was found that the children of all ages had difficulties in explaining the mechanisms of movement of air masses in troposphere. Moreover, it was found that they held many misconceptions concerning the role of science concepts such as density, pressure, temperature, heat, and forces in connection with the motion of air masses in the troposphere. Also, it was found that, in their explanations, they don't use knowledge taught in school, and the construction of their ideas about these issues was influenced by their sensations, the mass media, as well as utilitarian considerations. (Contains 13 references.) (Author/YDS)

The EuroMET (European Meteorological Education and Training) project was created to address the education and training needs of professional meteorologists and students in tertiary education throughout Europe and more widely. Two courses, each modular in format, have been developed for the World Wide Web. The courses have been evaluated at three key points during their development for their usability, scientific content, and perceived pedagogical worth. By performing the evaluation in this way, recommendations for improvement could be made to the developers, the improvements incorporated, and all modifications fully tested before the course was considered ready for use. The final versions of the courses are currently undergoing a summative evaluation as they are used in real teaching and training environments. This paper describes the evaluation methods used during the project and the results obtained thus far. A table presents data on improvement in test scores before and after users complete a module. (Author/DLS)

This study sought to determine the role that perceptions played in the adoption of an instructional innovation. According to current diffusion theories, an innovation is more likely to be adopted if potential adopters have favorable perceptions in regard to its complexity, compatibility, relative advantage, observability, and trialability. Three computer-based learning (CBL) modules represented the innovation in this study. These modules were developed for use in three weather forecasting agencies and were to be used as on-site training for forecasters. The research design involved the use of questionnaires and interviews to determine the perceptions of the potential adopters in regard to the CBL modules. A total of 29 potential adopters were interviewed for this study. Results showed that potential adopters consistently used three of the attributes listed above to discuss their perception of the innovation. The researchers concluded that compatibility, complexity, and relative advantage can be important considerations when introducing an innovation into instructional settings. The researchers also concluded that Rogers (1983) theory of perceived attributes can be a valuable tool for instructional developers working to increase the utilization of their products. (Contains 22 references.) (Author/JLB)

This paper describes how visual media technologies have been used to support research into the way technical diagrams are represented in people's minds. Two groups of subjects participated in this research, individuals with either a high or a low level of expertise in meteorology, specifically professional meteorologists and non-meteorologists. Two general types of visual media technologies--computers and video--were used to investigate the mental representation of diagrams. Two main types of data were collected by the computer and video methodologies: (1) process data, the actions subjects perform as they work through a task; and (2) product data, the outcomes (drawings) of copying, recalling, or completing a weather map. Examples of the way process and product data were handled during analysis are presented. The strength of video technology is that it provides for the capture of highly detailed visual data. However, it also presents problems with the time-consuming nature of transcribing the data into a form suitable for statistical analysis. In contrast, computer technology can directly monitor some aspects of a subject's performance and save the generated data in files that are suitable for statistical analysis, although it is not currently capable of directly providing (for reasonable cost and effort) the type of facilities for dealing with visual data that are available with video. Recent merging of the two technologies with the advent of digital video is opening up new possibilities for research. (Contains 15 references.) (AEF)

The purpose of this study was to determine if a combination of computer assisted instruction (CAI) with hands-on science activities would significantly enhance students' abilities in the cognitive and affective domains. The study consisted of three treatments. Treatment one (47 students) included a hands-on activities emphasis. A second treatment (46 students) included the hands-on activities in combination with the Weatherschool software program. The Weatherschool Meteorology program was selected because of its compatibility with the local science curriculum topics, appropriate grade school reading level, and its flexibility to be integrated within the curriculum. The third treatment (21 students) did not contain either hands-on activities nor CAI, but employed more text-based learning. Hands-on activities appeared to increase scores from pretest to posttest. Included in this paper are the introduction, the methodology, results, summary, and implications. (KR)

Public bodies hold a range of information and content ranging from demographic, economic and meteorological data to art works, historical documents and books. Given the availability of information and communication technologies (ICTs) public sector information can play an important role in producing innovative value-added services and goods. Furthermore, these technologies also provide a wider population better access to educational and cultural knowledge. Both commercial opportunities and the wider spread of information have positive economic and social benefits. Knowledge is a source of competitive advantage in the "information economy", for this reason it is economically important that there is wide diffusion of public information. Governments also have a basic commitment that citizens have to access national cultural heritage such as paintings, monuments and books; and this is also important for social inclusion. To contribute to better conditions for learning, the digitisation of cultural and educational resources is fundamental. New communication tools, such as interactive Web sites and games, often also reach groups of people with no previous interest, notably if they allow personal participation. OECD countries have recently initiated many programmes which use these tools for cultural and educational content. The main emphasis of policies has shifted to improving access to available resources, and preservation of content created digitally ("digitally-born") receives increasing attention. Public Sector information (PSI) constitutes the "raw material" for a variety of products and services in applications across a wide range of industries, and analysis has concluded that it is an important economic asset. This study gives an overview of the main areas of PSI and their commercial applications. Currently geographic and meteorological information have the greatest economic potential; and so far their use has had positive impacts on employment and growth. Specifically combining various types of PSI has led to the development of innovative products such as location-based services. Technological innovation including the development of mobile networks open up further markets for PSI-based services, and better data quality and e.g. increased interoperability open up cross-border services. Industry structure has also been affected by ICTs; often higher value added producers have taken the place of previous intermediary distributors in the production value chain. Further, the roles of public and private firms are changing and the growth of mobile services markets stimulates the development of PSI business re-use further. To develop competitive PSI markets, most OECD countries have attempted to ensure private service providers face the same conditions as public institutions, enabled private sector access to public data and clarified conditions under which these data can be used. For example portals have been developed that provide an overview of available PSI and conditions for use. Important questions are: which access regimes and re-use arrangements maximise the positive economic and other benefits of PSI, and which may for example develop commercial activities based on government-created content/data. In some OECD countries access regimes allow commercial re-users have cheap and readily available access to PSI. They then add value to the public data and re-sell it to firms and consumers. Some studies argue that such open access regimes improve competitive market conditions for PSI re-use, stimulate economic growth and create jobs. However there are also arguments that commercial re-users may have low-cost access to data which was costly to create for the government, and that taxpayers may pay twice for the PSI content (once for creation of government content, and the second time when purchasing the content from a commercial re-user, although provided re-use is non-exclusive, users can also go to the original source for the original information, presumably at lower cost, but without value-added services). On the other hand, in other OECD countries, there are access regimes where the public sector holds public sector information for its own use or employs cost-recovery strategies that allow only limited and potentially expensive access. In this scenario there are arguments that potential consumers of this data may have only restricted access to it, and that this approach is more costly to the consumer and for the taxpayer. Moreover, the potential economic gains from development of new commercial activities based on PSI reuse may be foregone. The economic and equity arguments surrounding commercial re-use of public sector information and content are complex and deserve considerably more analysis and policy attention. If public sector content is to be more widely available through ICTs, it is crucial that cultural institutions have adequate in-house capacities and sustainable financial resources for digitisation. In many countries the cultural sector has faced cuts in public funding, and efficient digitisation has been a challenge for small and regional institutions. While public resources will remain important, private-public partnerships and the development of e-learning markets provide alternatives to finance content digitisation. Public sector information can also be sold and monetized to develop self-sustaining revenue streams helping data creation and digitisation efforts. Networks and interactive communities are also important because they allow cost reductions along the lines of open software development. With respect to copyright many challenges for content preservation and diffusion arise. This study addresses challenges and related policy issues with respect to both PSI and public sector content. It is a first review of the area of public sector information and content and it is proposed that follow-up work be carried out in this area, particularly on the economic and distributional aspects of different access, cost, pricing and distribution models for public sector information and content. (A bibliography is included. Selected examples of digital education institutions/projects, recommendations for online cultural content, and related abbreviations are annexed. Contains 7 figures, 17 boxes and 6 tables.)