Community-Based Rain and Hail Studies - Practical Geoscience Education for All Ages

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9907671PielkeRain is the simple outcome of complex atmospheric processes, the most universally apparent portion of the hydrologic cycle, and the lifeblood of agriculture. Hail is a less common but more dramatic form of precipitation that can damage property and crops and, on occasional, injure animals and humans. In 1998 a project was initiated in Colorado using interested students grades 4-12 along with adults and senior citizens to observe and record the detailed local rain and hail patterns associated with summer precipitation. This project was very successful in getting kids involved with scientists and community leaders in simple but very important and practical local research examining small-scale variations in rain and hail and their consequences. This project will build on the successes of the highly regarded 1998 demonstration. The enthusiasm of students and teachers, and the universal weather curiosity of adults and senior citizens, will be tapped to help create community-based rain and hail observation networks. Volunteers, teachers, student leaders, community business partners, local scientists, and interested government officials will work together, using internet communications and other helpful tools, to generate maps showing very detailed local patterns in rain and hail associated with each passing storm. These maps, and what goes into making them, become the scientific information source for classroom education, applied research, business and utility applications, media distribution and community interest and support. This project is called the Collaborative Community Rain and Hail Study (CoCo RaHS). A variety of tools will be developed so that communities across the country can set up their own local projects. Tools and materials will include a promotional training video, a leadership handbook detailing steps in setting up a project, high quality but simple low-cost instruments for measuring rain and hail, computer software for handling data, and a CoCo RaHS website. Educational materials and lesson plans for teachers will be written to take advantage of this unique participatory science education project and help achieve several of the educational standards that are now a foundation for science education. Strategies for encouraging community participation and support will be developed to help connect local scientists and practitioners with classroom teaching opportunities, to provide student opportunities to work with scientists in research discovery, and to demonstrate the direct and immediate local impacts derived from observed rain and hail patterns. One scientific application of national importance will be emphasized. Doppler radar has been used increasingly in recent years to remotely estimate rainfall rates, locate areas of flash flooding, determine where hail is occurring and locate other severe weather events. This technology is extremely useful, but is still prone to error and uncertainty. Through collaboration with radar scientists with the National Science Foundation-supported CSU-CHILL National Radar Facility, new algorithms for remotely distinguishing rain from hail will be tested and rainfall estimation procedures will be evaluated from the perspective of polarimeteric radar (CSU-CHILL) and conventional Doppler radar (NEXRAD). This project will demonstrate that science does not need to be incomprehensibly complex to be significant. It will show that community members of all ages can make scientific contributions that help their community and also support national research efforts. This project will help propel a new generation of application-minded young scientists.