Research Theme: Integrating Activities
Boundary-crossing pursuits that convey CIRES' science mission to society.
Why this Research Theme?
CIRES engages in a wide range of integrating activities in research education, and outreach that encompass each of the Institute's research themes and contribute to the Institute's mission and those of our partners, NOAA, and the University of Colorado. CIRES is committed to science and environmental education, whether that occurs in the classroom, at science conferences, in town meetings, or in congressional hearings.
At CIRES, we believe sharing our knowledge will result in better natural resource and land management, better environmental quality, and a better quality of life for people and other living species.
How We're Doing this Research
CIRES provides environmental information to a variety of communities via programs in:
- K-14 Interdisciplinary education and outreach
- graduate and postgraduate education
- interdisciplinary research, and
- science and technology policy research
Objective
CIRES engages in a wide range of activities in research, education and outreach that integrate knowledge and activities from each of the other five themes. The focus is on K-16 education and outreach, undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate education, scientific assessments, and science and technology policy research. Through research, lectures, conferences, teacher training and public outreach, CIRES' Integrating Activities explore the twoway connections of CIRES research and its broader societal context.
Research
CIRES researchers collaborate across traditional disciplinary, institutional and programmatic boundaries in support of interdisciplinary assessments with significance for both research and policy. CIRES Western Water Assessment (WWA) is one of the institute's most significant efforts in Integrating Activities. The WWA project seeks to increase the relevance and value of scientific information in order to improve decision-making strategies. In this approach, research focuses on decision-making processes of individuals, groups, and organizations in the interior west that have responsibility for managing water resources, as well as those who use the water, and those responsible for its treatment and the protection of the aquatic environment. Collectively, this diverse set of individuals, groups and organizations represent the WWA "user community." Such scientific assessments bring together CIRES' expertise across a range of fields, including policy research and technology transfer, in collaboration with experts and end users who partner from outside the Institute.
Overview
CIRES engages in a wide range of integrating activities in research, education, and outreach that encompass each of the Institute's Research Themes and contribute to the overall miss ion of the Institute, NOAA, and the University of Colorado. The five categories below (which themselves overlap in important respects), K-12 Interdisciplinary Education Outreach, Graduate and Postgraduate Education, Scientific Assessments, Interdisciplinary Research, and Science and Technology Policy Research, represent CIRES long-standing commitment to work across conventional disciplinary boundaries and traditional institutional lines. The Institute's Integrating Activities result in the production of rigorous, cutting-edge science and technology, the sharing of such knowledge and techniques with students from kindergarten to postgraduate levels, and to developing the significance of scientific and technological discovery for a wide range of decision makers in public, private, and non-governmental settings. CIRES Integrating Activities are an important contributor to the success of the Institute.
K-12 Interdisciplinary Education Outreach
CIRES strongly supports and encourages education outreach. Programs exist for K-14 school districts, teachers and students, undergraduates at CU and elsewhere, and other community groups. Our goal is to support exemplary science education at all levels; encourage curiosity and understanding about our environment, and to bring our research to bear as a resource in service of societal needs, including education. CIRES has established a K-12 Interdisciplinary Education Outreach Program that combines rigorous science with innovative teaching practices. Ongoing projects include classroom and prospective teacher professional development, volunteer opportunities for scientists, education components for research projects, district systemic reform, research mentors for high school students and undergraduates, classroom presentations and more. Other projects include a digital resource for geoscience education project evaluation and developing new knowledge of how research scientists may best be engaged and supported in outreach activities. At the undergraduate level, CIRES faculty and researchers work within academic departments and programs to offer education and research opportunities. CIRES strongly supports and contributes to interdisciplinary research and education in environmental and Earth science across campus.
Graduate and Postgraduate Education
CIRES has a long-standing commitment to disciplinary and interdisciplinary graduate education. CIRES sponsors graduate students in many departments on the University of Colorado Campus, including Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Geography, Geology, Geophysics, Engineering, Political Science, Economics, and Environmental Studies. CIRES also conducts a Visiting Fellows program that allows recent doctoral graduates from many disciplines to continue their education in a research position that may foster interdisciplinary training and exposure to scientific assessments and policy research. CIRES has established a particularly close relationship with the University of Colorado's new Graduate program in Environmental Studies, with CIRES faculty and scientists taking leading roles in the development and teaching of the program's core curriculum as well as through support of graduate fellowships and assistantships.
Scientific Assessments
CIRES researchers collaborate across traditional disciplinary, institutional and programmatic boundaries in support of interdisciplinary assessments with significance for both research and policy. For example, a team of CIRES researchers and their partners seek to understand, support and enhance the local decision-making process on the North Slope of Alaska in the face of climate variability on seasonal to decadal timescales, both natural and anthropogenically induced. The primary goal is to help stakeholders clarify and secure their common interest by exchanging information and knowledge concerning climate and environmental variability. Another team of CIRES researchers and collaborators is focused on the decision-making processes of the individuals, groups, and organizations in the Interior West that have responsibility for managing, using, treating, and protecting water resources. By understanding decision-making processes, the stresses, and the constraints of this community, researchers seek to assess vulnerability to climate variability and develop hydro-climate products that help achieve more informed decisions. Such scientific assessments bring together CIRES expertise across a range of fields, including policy research and technology transfer, in collaboration with experts and end users who partner from outside the Institute.
Interdisciplinary Research
Within each of CIRES Research Themes are commitments to rigorous, interdisciplinary research. For example, climate variability affects virtually all natural systems and human activities. Areas of direct climate impact include agriculture, water quantity and quality, ecosystems, air quality, and human health. Understanding climate variability and its impacts on environment and society requires a commitment to work across conventional disciplinary boundaries. Similarly, many of the research endeavors within CIRES and NOAA have a regional focus because they address a particular confluence of geography, demographics, weather and climatic regimes, and scientific challenge. A regional focus is necessarily interdisciplinary because such issues cross many scientific disciplines and require an integrated science approach based on improved observations, diagnosis, and modeling of regions subject to accumulating natural and anthropogenic stresses. A third example is the health of the biosphere, which can usefully be considered using the concept of "planetary metabolism," referring to the complex web of biochemical and ecological processes that occur within the biosphere, and the interaction of these processes with the lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere. Both natural and anthropogenic disturbances drive the structure and dynamics of natural systems, and a thorough understanding of these complex processes is essential for efforts to protect the biosphere from adverse effects due to pollution, destruction of natural landscapes, and alteration of climate. Such understanding depends upon successful integration of disciplinary and interdisciplinary research. Interdisciplinar y research can be found throughout the Institute and its Centers, which supports attainment of the goals of each of CIRES primary Research Themes.
Science and Technology Policy Research
The recent decade has see n growing interest among scientists in investigating research problems that requ ire the input of more than just a single traditional discipline. At the same tim e, decision makers in both public and private settings have asked the science an d technology communities to provide knowledge that is more directly usable in th eir decision-making. Science and technology policy research provides a mechanism to reconcile these two closely related - but not identical - trends. By linking integrative science with the needs of decision makers, science and technology p olicy research can serve a valuable role in helping the research community bette r focus its efforts on issues of importance to society, and in helping decision makers to effectively incorporate scientific and technological advances into the ir decision processes. CIRES supports a unique set of efforts at the interface o f science and decision making. These efforts focus on rigorous research on theme s such as science in support of policy development, policy development in suppor t of science, technology policy, and technology assessment. Science and technolo gy policy research draws on a rich tapestry of expertise and collaboration - suc h as found in the physical, biological, earth, and social sciences, as well as l aw, journalism, health sciences and the humanities - to further integrate discip linary and interdisciplinary research supported through CIRES Research themes, s cientific assessments, education and outreach with growing demands for science a nd technology to better serve decision making needs in the public, private and non-governmental sectors.
More Information
For more detailed information about geodynamics research at CIRES, contact Theme Leader Roger Pielke, Jr.
