ScienceLIVE: Providing innovative connections between LTER research and the public

ScienceLIVE is a unique, web-based outreach tool used to connect active research, K-12 students, and the general public. The research conducted on the Niwot Ridge (NWT) LTER is delivered to the public in the form of educational resources such as interactive maps, lesson plans, real-time blogs, videos, webinars and social media. As a partnership between the Biological Sciences Initiative and the Museum of Natural History at the University of Colorado, this program allows students and public audiences to follow, interact with, and participate in the LTER research being conducted in their own communities.

NWT LTER is using ScienceLIVE to feature long-term alpine research, particularly those aspects of global change with critical downstream impacts on human communities, such as water supply and quality. The ScienceLIVE program introduces the NWT LTER’s research to a broad audience, including the under-served mountain communities most directly touched by alpine research activities and outcomes.

As a program in its infancy, thus far ScienceLIVE primarily focuses on a pilot project featuring scientists investigating the American pika (Ochotona princeps) at NWT LTER and in the surrounding Southern Rocky Mountain Region. The pika project provides an interactive map of study locations, researcher videos and written blogs from those study sites. Real data from the pika project can be investigated and used as part of the several K-12 lesson plans provided via the “Pikas in the Classroom” page. These resources are already being used by educators and members of the general public.

Future plans for expansion of the NWT LTER partnership with ScienceLIVE include features on amphibian, grasshopper, and glacier research occurring at and near Niwot Ridge. This flexible and updatable tool can enhance the outreach program of any research group, and is particularly useful for geographically extensive and long-term research programs.