Hampton University (HU) will partner with science educators and scientists from NASA (JPL, Goddard, LARC), IGES/ESSEA, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (UNL), the GIOVANNI/DICCE project, Fort Hays State University, the NASA EDGE program and two public school systems Portsmouth Public Schools in Virginia and East Baton Rouge Parish Schools in Louisiana, to engage teachers in a study of dust. The primary focus will be on the effects of African and China dust, providing a sustainable professional development (PD) model for advancing the teaching of global climate change concepts. Studies show that mineral particles transported over the ocean affect marine biochemistry by depositing iron in the ocean. This plays a role in neutralizing acid rain, affecting the life cycle of coral reefs and influencing sea surface temperatures that affect hurricane formation and intensity. In addition, changes in atmospheric dust aerosol loading, could cause a change in the radiation balance and consequentially, surface temperatures. The hands-on professional development model will assist teachers, specifically teachers of underserved students, in better understanding aerosol properties, their behavior, and their effects on local and potentially global climate. The project will also emphasize understanding the climatic effects of atmospheric mineral dust, building on the African dust aerosol studies that Dr. Kalashnikova is conducting at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL).

The proposed PD model, DUST, will incorporate components of three previous GCCE awardees GIOVANNI/DICCE, IGES/ESSEA, and University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Data and lessons from GIOVANNI and a problem-based learning module, Dust World, developed by IGES/ESSEA for GCCE will be incorporated into the proposed PD project. The HU PD model, DUST, will include scientists and science educators who will actively engage teachers in two 1-week workshops at HU, where they can connect to atmospheric and climate scientists as well as leading science educators. Teachers will be recruited from school systems serving high concentrations of underserved student populations. PPS in VA was selected because HU works closely with this local partner on other PD projects. East Baton Rouge Parish Schools in LA was chosen because HU recently hosted a PD workshop with their teachers as part of the CALIPSO mission outreach implemented by HU. The DUST PD will allow HU to build on these established partnerships.

Each of the two workshops will be followed by a series of yearlong electronic follow-up events led by HU and a podcast led by NASA EDGE. The podcast will allow teachers and their students to observe the effects of dust on global climate change. In addition HU will involve their teachers in a climate change online community developed and implemented on Facebook by UNL and HU. The proposed DUST PD model will build on the highly successful African Dust and CALIPSO educator workshops previously implemented by HU for NASA and extend the partners' currently funded GCCE projects. DUST will provide an exemplary professional development model that advances the understanding of how to effectively teach global climate change concepts, by using current research and satellite data, which recently indicates that dust may play an even greater role in global climate change than previously thought by scientists.