Successful student and scientist partnerships require that there is a mutual benefit from the partnership. This means that the scientist needs to be able to see the advantage of having students work on his/her project, and the students and teachers need to see that the students contribute to the project and develop the skills in inquiry and the content knowledge in geoscience that are desired. In the Earth System Scientist Network (ESSN) project we are working with research scientists to develop their projects for the meaningful participation of high school students. The issues that we are addressing in each project in detail include 1) completely defining the research question that the students will be addressing, 2) developing a realistic logistical plan for the project, 3) identifying the data that the students and teachers will work with, 4) mapping out the scientific protocols that the students will follow, 5) determining the background and support materials needed to facilitate students successfully participating in the project, 6) identifying the requirements for participating schools, 7) identifying rewards and recognition for the students and teacher by the scientist, and 8) identifying issues in Earth system science, relevant to the scientists data, that the students and teachers could use as a guide to help develop student's investigative skills and content knowledge in the geosciences. These issues can serve to help train the students in the research protocols, and can be used to inspire them to ask their own questions of the data.

The importance of fully developing each of these aspects of the ESSN research projects, how they can differ between projects, and how the projects are being incorporated into a web site that is useful to teachers and students will be discussed.