APL-UW - Educational Opportunities - Educational Outreach

APL-UW staff volunteer their time and expertise to provide learning opportunities to students and educators from across the Pacific Northwest. The Laboratory often works in concert with UW programs and initiatives; staff mentor students in sponsored programs and the Laboratory periodically hosts large groups of K-12 students.

Group Learning Opportunities

Student groups are treated to tours of individual laboratories where they may see a lithotripter that uses sound waves to disintegrate kidney stones, graphic demonstrations of wave motion, a "guided tour" from Earth to Jupiter's moon Europa, or hear how a software engineer who began her college career as a dancer became involved in neural net development.

Are you interested in visiting the Laboratory with a group of students or having an APL-UW scientist come to your group? Check out the engaging and educational presentations offered.

The Laboratory is a regular participant in Math Day, an annual event sponsored by the UW Mathematics Department that brings 1200 high school students to campus.

APL-UW hosts an open house each year during the Washington Weekend celebration.

A printable synopsis of APL-UW education outreach offerings is available. You can also search all UW educational outreach offerings.

One-to-One Mentorships

APL-UW staff mentor students participating in the following programs. Explore the links or contact Bob Odom for more information about how you can be involved in any one of them.

ALVA
Alliance for Learning and Vision for Underrepresented Americans is a partnership among the UW, research laboratories, and industry that brings prospective students to campus during the summer for intensive college preparation mathematics courses and paid research/work experience in the sciences and engineering.

BRIDGES⁴
Biomedical Research IDentification of Graduate Education Successful Student Support Services is a series of services and support mechanisms designed to attract, retain, and promote the success of minority students in the biomedical sciences.

GEAR UP
Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs brings 200 middle school students to the university campus during the summer to motivate them toward successful preparation for college entrance.

Sharing Science

Polar Science Weekend 2007. For the second consecutive year APL-UW's Polar Science Center teamed with the Pacific Science Center in Seattle to present four days of demonstrations, exhibits, and lectures. Over 10,000 visitors learned some "Cool Science."

SOund Recording For EDucation–SORFED. Lucas Lezamiz, a mechanical engineering graduate student at the UW, led two Seattle-area high school physics classes in studies of rainfall estimation derived from hydrophone data. More >>

The Life of Sea Ice. Students from the Art Institute of Seattle joined APL-UW polar scientists in Barrow, Alaska, to document experiments on the land-fast ice. AIS created a video, The Life of Sea, for APL-UW educational outreach.

Monitoring a Changing Arctic Environment. Many APL-UW arctic research programs are funded by the National Science Foundation. Explore NSF reports and multimedia presentations about two of them, the North Pole Environmental Observatory (NPEO) and the Study of Environmental Change in the Arctic (SEARCH).

Listening to Raindrops by Senior Oceanographer Jeffrey Nystuen was prepared for NASA's Earth Observatory project. It explains how rainfall over the ocean is measured using underwater microphones and recording devices, and how these data aid meteorologists, oceanographers, and climatologists.

Gail Grimes of Lake Stevens High School in Washington joined APL-UW's Rebecca Woodgate on a five-week cruise in the Arctic Ocean. They taught lessons on arctic oceanography and marine biology in Barrow, AK, before and after the cruise, and Grimes filed daily reports for the duration. More >>

The Sound: Puget Sound Multimedia CD-ROM was created by APL-UW scientists and design staff for K-12 students to explore the geology, biology, oceanography, and weather of Puget Sound and their effects on water quality, the economy, and recreation. The CD-ROM and companion Tutorial Guide are available through the Washington Sea Grant Program

e-mail: sgpubs@u.washington.edu