This three-year GCCE experiential research and education program provides opportunities for undergraduates and K-12 teachers to work with remotely-sensed data, field data, and model-based analyses. The project relies on NASA-supported remote sensing assets and addresses NASA's goals of (1) improving the understanding of the structure and function of global terrestrial ecosystems, their interactions with the atmosphere and hydrosphere, and their role in the cycling of the major biogeochemical elements and water; and (2) exploration of how variability in terrestrial ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles respond to and affect global environmental change now and into the near future. This GCCE project will be integrated into a 25-year-old summer research program at Harvard University's Harvard Forest and provides substantial and sustainable leverage to federally-supported STEM education and research activities. The proposed activities will expand the intellectual scope and reach of the existing Harvard Forest Summer Research Program in Ecology by developing integrated research teams that will engage in cooperative research; enhance diversity in the STEM workforce through a formal partnership with a minority-serving, 1890 Land Grant institution; and enhance K-6 science curricula within the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework in Science and Technology/Engineering.

This GCCE project has four measurable outcomes that will determine its success: (1) Students will work with research mentors to validate and enhance regional-scale models for forest response to climatic change (taking advantage of the fact that Harvard Forest is a Core Validation Site for NASA's Earth Observing System); (2) Student-faculty research teams will produce multi-authored integrated presentations at national meetings or multi-authored peer-reviewed publications; (3) The ethnic diversity of the Harvard Forest Summer Research Program in Ecology will be increased, and students from groups that are historically underrepresented in science will be placed into graduate programs or employment; (4) Methods of inquiry that take advantage of NASA data will be incorporated into lessons on climate change that fit within the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework in Science and Technology / Engineering. All GCCE students and other students in the Harvard Forest Summer Research Program are mentored by faculty and senior scientists who together conduct ecological research at the Harvard Forest. This experiential research and education program includes not only research activities but also evening research seminars and weekly professional development workshops on topics such as: choosing and applying to graduate school; preparing scientific talks and papers; creative science writing, and careers in ecological and environmental science. By directly addressing GCCE Outcomes and Objectives, this program will generate greater intellectual capacity across K-16 education levels that will contribute to the development of a highly scientifically competent and diverse U.S. STEM workforce.