On Dec. 27, 2006, we drove with our children and their families to a cabin we rented on the grounds of the "YMCA of the Rockies" in Estes Park, CO, for a few days of winter relaxation and recreation. On the night of the 27th a snowstorm dropped over half a meter of new snow, creating a beautiful winter wonderland. For the next couple of days the…

In June the U.S Climate Change Science Program, which is sponsored by 13 government agencies, released a report saying that extreme weather like heat waves, heavy downpours, and superpowered hurricanes would be more common in the future. The timing of the report--coming just as officials in Iowa were surveying the damage from the swollen Iowa…

The purpose of these modules is to provide an introduction to the world of probability and statistics to accelerated mathematics students at the high school level. The materials are centered on the fictional town of Happy Shores, a coastal community which is at risk for hurricanes. Actuaries at an insurance company figure out the risks and…

The already limited vocational prospects of low-income African Americans in New Orleans were further devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill added to the devastation, highlighting the continued vulnerability of New Orleanians seeking employment. As a result, opportunities persist for vocational practitioners…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the views of Scottish schoolchildren on active travel to school and their ideas about promotion strategies for school-based interventions. Design/methodology/approach: Focus group discussions were conducted with 66 students from four primary and three secondary schools. Findings: The most common…

Five years after hurricane Katrina, the City of New Orleans is now implementing a far-reaching plan for the systemic renovation and rebuilding of community programmes and infrastructure. A total of USD 3 billion has now been allocated to public building projects. With the student population down to nearly half of pre-storm totals, a recently…

There is paucity of research investigating opinions and attitudes of seniors 55 years of age and older in relation to housing accommodation and services sensitive to the needs of the senior population. We describe the results of a cross-sectional survey soliciting opinions and attitudes of seniors with respect to a variety of housing issues…

In the atmosphere or on the ground, snow provides students with unique opportunities to discover winter weather patterns. Traditionally, when students study weather, it is limited to the collection of data one would see on a weather report. However, the interdisciplinary Students Synthesizing Snow data in Natural Objective Ways (SSSNOW) project…

The purpose of this article is to investigate wind turbine production, the variability of that production, and the relationship between output and system-wide demand. A review of the literature reveals that a variety of measures (and methods) to explore the variability of wind power production exist. Attention then turns to the province of Ontario…

This multiple-case qualitative study was conducted to examine the perceptions of community members, students, and staff regarding school crisis management following a 2006 tornado and 2010 bus accident in a small rural school district in Missouri. Online surveys were collected from 66 participants, and 10 follow-up interviews were completed with…

One of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes in the history of the United States ripped through the southeast Missouri town of Joplin on May 22, 2011. As it traveled along a 13-mile path it claimed 161 lives and caused more than $151 million in damages. Ten schools were damaged or destroyed and Joplin High School was a total loss. Just 48…

The demand for pervasive access of location-related information (e.g., local traffic, restaurant locations, navigation maps, weather conditions, pollution index, etc.) fosters a tremendous application base of "Location Based Services (LBSs)". Without loss of generality, we model location-related information as "spatial objects" and the accesses…

In August 2005, the world witnessed one of the most destructive natural disasters on America's mainland. Hurricane Katrina, followed a month later by Hurricane Rita, brought more than broken levees, flooded streets and homes, and destroyed businesses. It caused changes in the dynamics and the demographic and cultural makeup of the region. One of…

Recently, a group of fourth graders joined "Pintail Partners"--a year-long collaborative research effort of scientists, students, classroom teachers, preservice teachers, museum educators, and university professors. Students and teachers followed satellite tracking data (marking the pintail duck's spring migration) and interacted with scientists…

The United States possesses the most capable research enterprise, the largest economy, and the most sophisticated societal infrastructure in the world, yet it remains notably vulnerable to catastrophic damage and loss of life from natural hazards. Among weather hazards, hurricanes account for over half of the total damage inflicted. Despite their…