COAA
COAA S'COOL Student Summer Camp
2001
S'COOL Summer Camp
In cooperation with the Dept. of Meteorology at the University of Maryland and personnel from the NASA/Langley Research Center (LRC), NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and NOAA, COAA successfully presented an educational program entitled "COAA S'COOL Student Summer Camp, 2001" the week of July 9-13, 2001. It was quite an exciting and pleasant experience for many of the COAA members.
The S'COOL (Student Cloud Observations On-Line) program is a subprogram of the NASA Earth Observation System that encourages cloud observations at the time of satellite overpasses through on-line reports to NASA. The objective of this COAA Camp is to generate interest in middle and high school students through volunteers in the earth, oceanic and atmospheric science field. The participating campers included 2 teachers (custodians) from Taiwan and 25 students - 17 from the Taipei First Girl's (TFG) High School and 8 from the local area and other states.
Camp activities included a series of lectures on the fundamentals of earth, oceanic and atmospheric science along with visits to NASA/GSFC and the NOAA museum at the Silver Spring Meteorological Center. Lectures were designed to be concise and comprehensive with a theme for each day. For example, Wednesday was the "S'COOL Day" that highlighted activities presented by Dr. Lin Chambers, Dr. Eugenia Kalnay, and Mr. Doug Stoddard (the director of S'COOL and the resident teacher of S'COOL, respectively, from NASA/LRC). During the tour of the NOAA museum on Thursday, campers were interviewed by a reporter from the World Journal for an article in its next issue.
During the camp event, the campers from Taiwan were hosted by six local families associated with either the TFG Alumnae Association (TFGAA) or COAA. The host family arrangement provided great opportunities for "house Moms" to reminisce about the good old school days and "house Dads" to adopt a handful of "Goddaughters". During the closing review on Friday, Prof. Jin Wu, the COAA President inspired the campers by challenging them to "Be Curious Forever". In the end, each camper received a S'COOL Certificate for their participation and outstanding performances. Students from the TFG H.S. demonstrated their appreciation by donating a $400.00 check to COAA for future S'COOL activities, which was gratefully accepted by the COAA president Dr. Tony Liu.
In the closing ceremony on Friday, the COAA lecturers and campers were first treated by TECRO with an authentic buffet lunch and then entertained by TFGAA with a wonderful picnic at night at Dr. Michael Yeh's residence. We are very grateful for the generous hospitality from TECRO, TFGAA as well as Dr. and Mrs. Yeh. The great variety shows presented by the talented TFG youngsters during the picnic were unforgettable!
We sincerely believe that this camp event was a wonderful experience for each of us who participated. Passing knowledge and life’s experiences onto the bright young generation is a particularly exhilarating reward for the adult participants. Once again, the committee would like to take this opportunity to give our heartfelt gratitude to EVERYONE involved. Comments and suggestions for future camp activities are also welcome.
Special thanks to host families and COAA member Dr. Ruei-Fong Lin (also a member of TFGAA) for her remarkable coordination!
S-K Yang, C-H Sui, C-L Shie and D-L Zhang
The COAA S’COOL Committee
