Further Academic Year Involvement
	Participants will engage in REALM activities developed at the Summer One Institute and implement use of their local weather station data during the second academic year. Project staff will make regular visits to classes to ensure that data are being collected and utilized to match the teachers' and students' interests and to qualitatively assess the impact of teacher and student participation in REALM. During the second semester of the second academic year (Spring 2003), teachers will begin to prepare for the Summer Two Institute mentorship opportunities. During the third academic year (following Summer Two Institute), teachers will begin to involve the students in their research. Accordingly, after the second summer institute, teachers will engage students in the research agendas they previously developed with their mentors. During the spring of the third academic year (Spring 2004), teachers will prepare for the publication and dissemination of their results as well as continue with their collaborative research. FSU will also provide $1,000 for each REALM site ($500 per year to be used for project expenses such a laboratory equipment, educational software, computer supplies, etc.). The PI and co-PIs will make frequent visits to participating REALM schools, including after school meetings and daytime instructional sessions; while the primary focus of REALM is to institutionalize the project in 1/4 of the Dade County schools through involvement of teachers, parents, and students in after school programs, the connection to the classroom through the use of real-time meteorological observation stations will be developed with participating and other earth science teachers at each REALM school. Curriculum units and planning models for the use of these data will be also applicable to any school collecting weather information, including the many in the existing AWS network around Miami. In addition, following Summer One (2002), each of the teachers will have been assigned a mentor at one of the NOAA facilities to work with. It is expected that teachers will work after school or on days off at the NOAA facility side-by-side with NOAA scientists, for an average commitment of 10 hours per moth during the academic year (100 hours total per REALM teacher). This work will involve the REALM teacher directly in operational and basic research projects at the NOAA facilities, and will provide opportunities for visits of NOAA scientists to the classrooms at each REALM school.
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