The National Science Education Standards (NSES) emphasize that students should learn science through inquiry and should understand the concepts and processes that shape our natural world. One method of accomplishing these goals is to provide students and teachers with opportunities to participate in scientists' ongoing research. In the Atmospheric Aerosols, Collecting and Correlating Data project we will involve students in the ongoing research of Dr. David Brooks. In this project students will use a sun photometer to take daily measurements of atmospheric aerosols and send the data they collect to Dr. Brooks. They will then work with Dr. Brooks as they conduct their own research, exploring the relationship between aerosols and other local atmospheric variables such as humidity or the air quality index.

In this talk we will discuss: 1) the issues that need to be addressed to successfully implement a scientific research project with teachers and students; 2) the web site (http://essn.terc.edu) which presents overview information for interested teachers and students to evaluate the project as well as project resources that support the teachers and students participating in the project; and 3) our progress on our first steps to implement this project with teachers and students.