Forrestal lab in outreach effort

Seeking a greater presence in community through demonstration programs

By: Hilary Parker
   Two questions.
   Why do hurricanes turn in opposite directions in the northern and southern hemispheres, and how does one demonstrate this to people of all ages?
   The answer to both questions lies in — or rather on — a lazy Susan turntable that makes up one of the educational outreach demonstrations recently developed at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory on the Princeton University Forrestal Campus.
   "The purpose of this is so the lab can have a greater presence in the community," said GFDL Communications Officer Maria Setzer of the new, organized outreach effort at the lab. The demonstrations will "make science more accessible and understandable in schools, libraries and workshops," she said.
   The demonstrations now comprise multiple kits developed through the collaborative efforts of GFDL scientists, Hun School of Princeton science teacher Julie Shuler-Misra and John Witherspoon Middle School science teacher Steve Carson, a former GFDL researcher.
   Tied to National Science Education Standards, the activities in the kits cover seven areas of atmospheric and oceanic science, including hurricanes, the greenhouse effect and climate modeling.
   Now that the demonstrations have been created and materials collected, Ms. Setzer said, GFDL scientists will travel to classrooms in local schools to share their knowledge with students and teachers alike. In the future, schools will have the opportunity to benefit from the initiative remotely, as well, with an in-the-works Web site slated to include demonstration instructions and directions for teachers to construct their own kits.
   GFDL oceanographer and Princeton University lecturer Anand Gnanadesikan has a history of educational outreach and community involvement. The father of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North freshman, Gita, Mr. Gnanadesikan has helped to coach the Community Middle School Science Olympiad team for the past several years and has led teacher workshops in the West Windsor-Plainsboro district. These activities, in combination with his own experiences, led to his active involvement in the increased outreach efforts.
   "I never really saw visual demos of some of these fundamental processes until I was in graduate school," he said, noting that many of his own students with master’s degrees have yet to see a visual representation of high- and low-pressure systems or the jet stream.
   While students at different levels will undoubtedly gain different knowledge from the demonstrations, he said people of all ages will benefit.
   "For the younger students, the goal is to show them that the world doesn’t behave intuitively and science can help make sense of it," he said. The older students, meanwhile, will have the cognitive ability to understand the concepts in greater detail. The teachers will benefit as much as the students, if not more, he said, noting that many science teachers are called on to teach earth science concepts they themselves may not have studied or might not understand.
   "When you bring it into the classroom, it gives the teachers a sense of … reality to this physical concept that they’re teaching," he said.
   Take the lazy Susan, for instance. The demonstration, developed by Mr. Carson, provides a simple and observable explanation of the Coriolis effect — a by-product of the Earth’s rotation that causes winds to curve, rather than follow straight paths.
   By placing bottles of water with holes punched in the side to create a stream of water atop the turntable and spinning it, the students and teachers are able to observe how the effect of the rotation of the lazy Susan (the earth) on the movement of the water streams (the winds).
   As an accompaniment to the demonstration, Ms. Shuler-Misra assembled an educational packet for scientists to use in their outreach efforts, while Mr. Gnanadesikan linked the demonstration to work at the lab on hurricanes and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
   This demonstration, and others, will be shared at the National Science Teacher Association Eastern Area Conference Nov. 2 to 4 in Baltimore.
   Now that the materials are complete, Ms. Setzer said, GFDL scientists will be available to present them free of charge in the local schools. Interested educators and administrators are encouraged to contact Ms. Setzer at (609) 452-6643.