It’s shaping up to be an active year for Education in LTER. As you can see, we need full participation from everyone to get the most out of our planned activities.
The Annual Meeting of LTER Education Representatives will take place in conjunction with the All Scientists Meeting in Seattle, Washington. The Network Office will provide funding to education representatives to attend. Information on logistics will be sent to site PIs. Please contact Sonia Ortega (sortega@lternet.edu) with your ideas for workshops, and for the education representatives meeting agenda.
At the top of our agenda will be the Assessment of LTER Education Activities. As NSF decided not to proceed with the formal assessment at this time, we will work on developing ways to assess LTER education activities at our sites. This may include organizing a series of workshops to gather data and to develop tools and assessment instruments.
I recently submitted the LTER Education Strategic Plan to the Executive Committee for review. The plan will be included in the Coordinating Committee meeting agenda (May 6-8, Kellogg Biological Station) for further consideration. The Executive Committee will consider the Strategic Plan for Education in the development of overall Strategic Plan for the Network.
Several LTER education representatives are in the middle of preparing Proposals for consideration to NSF’s Education and Human Resources Directorates. Some of these proposals include cross-site participation.
I will be working closely with the Education Committee and with the Education Representatives to coordinate activities and to make this year very productive. Please keep in touch with the LTER education efforts via the website: http://lternet.edu/education/