The Solar Cycle 22 Project will (in 1989-91) take advantage of the upcoming peak of the sunspot cycle to give twenty-four elementary and middle school teachers first hand experience in studying solar activity and resultant earth effects. The project sponsored by the Broome- Delaware-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services and the Roberson-Kopernik Observatory will assist teachers in incorporating scientific investigation into the classroom. The core of the project will be a three-week Summer Teacher Institute which will culminate in curriculum development, with follow-up activities to include setting up solar mini-stations in schools so that students may collect sunspot data safely in the classroom. After the educational experience at the Observatory, the teachers will supervise data gathering at their home schools and disseminate their data through a communications network and series of sharing sessions. The project will stress the interdisciplinary nature of solar monitoring in that physical sciences, astronomy, earth sciences, and computer science will be involved.
