The Pacific Crest Trail is a National Scenic Trail that runs from Mexico to Canada. Use of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) has increased in the past 20 years. It is important to understand how an increase in use can impact the environment and sustainable practices, land management practices, and the hiker experience. Participants included 15 land…

Communities in Kenya's rural areas, especially pastoralists in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs), are amongst those most affected by climate change. ASAL areas are characterised by economic marginalisation with high poverty levels, significant gender disparities and vulnerability to climate disasters caused by extreme weather events. Communities in…

Risky play is defined as thrilling and challenging forms of play that have the potential for physical injury and has been linked to development and health benefits for children in the early years. These benefits include risk-assessment skills, increased physical activity and well-being, and promoting social competencies and resilience. Currently,…

Students completing an introductory physical geography course used an interactive geovisualizations (iGEO) lab exercise centered around lightning in northern Arizona to investigate atmospheric processes. This iGEO looks and plays like a conventional videogame where the student controls an avatar in a 3D environment. This iGEO was inspired by…

Described here is a well established opensource geophysics project to monitor atmospheric infrasound 24/7. It employs a modern digital, I[superscript 2]C enabled differential pressure sensor--unlike the older analog devices more commonly used. Python software automatically uploads plots whilst data is stored in standard ".mseed" format…

A video is taken of a road-sign mirage from the passenger seat in a car traveling at constant speed on a highway. The video spans the duration of seeing the mirage of the sign, viewing the vanishing of the mirage as the car approaches, and passing the road sign. The mirage angle, defined as the angle with respect to the horizontal at the moment…

The Fluid Earth (FE) is an interactive data visualization initially developed for learning about Earth's atmosphere in informal educational settings. In this study, we tested FE in middle school classes to assess student engagement in a formal educational setting. Using a quasi-experimental design, students were assigned to interact with the data…

Background: Previous research has shown two-way associations between rental tenure, poorer housing quality, and health outcomes, but little research has looked at relative housing contributions to health outcomes. Aims: We investigated whether tenure and/or dwelling condition were associated with housing-sensitive hospitalizations and whether any…

This work describes the construction of a small-scale radio telescope using open source hardware technologies which can be used as a tool in the training of engineers and physicists, as well as in the dissemination of important technologies for space weather monitoring studies, security of radio communication networks and maintenance of essential…

The main purpose of this study is to develop teaching strategies for "Model-Based Co-construction" to promote students' understanding of a scientific model of seasonal change. In particular, the research method is cognitive conflict strategies and teacher feedback in interaction with the students a reexamined in the context of…

At an Extension youth agricultural science center, our team developed and pilot tested a five-lesson weather and climate science curriculum for middle school-aged youths. As part of the endeavor, we conducted an item analysis of the five worksheets used across the lessons and determined relationships between worksheet scores and pretest/posttest…

This qualitative study examines first-year teacher candidates early field experience designing and implementing maker workshops for an afterschool program. The maker workshops were offered as part of a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) enrichment club at a local elementary school. The participants engaged in 50 hr of…

This article provides an overview of the instructional activity implemented to introduce the authors' first-grade students to the concept of measuring, collecting, and recording temperature data as part of a unit on weather. The activities introduced involved approximately one week of instructional time. However, the application of the skill…

Objective: To develop and validate a scale measuring health beliefs about UV in cloudy climates that may impact UV exposure behaviors. Participants: Students at a large university in Oregon completed pilot (N = 115) and final (N = 335) scales online March-July, 2016. Five participants underwent cognitive interviews. Methods: Expert feedback,…

General education science courses strive to promote scientific literacy and the development of scientific process skills. However, research shows that many general education courses are still designed to stress content mastery. In this study, the number of topics in five semester-long introductory atmospheric science courses was reduced to…