Project COOL: Chemical Oceanography Outside the Lab brings together geoscientists, undergraduate students and middle school youth. The program begins with professional development and curriculum design workshops for geoscientists who teach (e.g. professors, postdocs).
Then a course is offered to geosciences majors at both the undergraduate and graduate level through the Pipeline Project, a university sponsored program that provides service and educational opportunities to college students through partnerships with K-12 schools.
Finally, collegiate participants (faculty through undergraduates) opt into participating in an Out of School Time (OST) Program run through Seattle Parks and Recreation and the Seattle Public School District. Project COOL OST is offered at multiple Seattle area middle schools and engages underrepresented youth in authentic scientific research through collaboration with SoundCitizen (http://soundcitizen.org), a university-housed citizen science collective that fosters public involvement in geosciences research.
Project COOL is a collaboration of AOG, Phil Bell’s research group in Education, Andy SHouse and the Center for Math Education, and COSEE. The entire project is studied by education researchers and will be revised each year to improve practices.
You can read more about the Pipeline class here.