This proposal is to fund a project to develop the Alaska Lake Ice and Snow Observatory Network (ALISON), a science education and scientific research partnership between the University of Alaska Fairbanks and K-12 education community in Alaska. The PI has proposed a project that is a well conceived blending of science and science education in rural and urban classrooms throughout Alaska. Utilizing a planning grant from NSF, Dr. Jeffries created a network of classroom observatories in seven Alaska communities, four in rural regions serving primarily Alaska Native students. The results of the pilot network can be reviewed at the very comprehensive ALISON web site www.gi.alaska.edu/alison/. This proposal continues and expands the very innovative concept of research scientists partnering with science and math teachers and their students by facilitating the students themselves collect, analyze and interpret data that is used in the PI's continuing research project on ice, snow and water to determine variability and change of these variables over the course of one winter and multiple winters. In this way students and their teachers learn about the nature of scientific inquiry involving questions, simple investigation, data gathering, data analysis, explanation, and communication of investigations and explanations.
