Welcome to the NICE Community Discussion August 21, 3:00 P.M. (E.S.T.) Today’s Topic: Sustainability Beyond Funding Please help us control the amount of background sound and visual distractions by muting your telephone and video camera. Telecon participants are asked to press *6 or use a manual mute button on your telephone. We will begin shortly. NASA Innovations in Climate Education (NICE)

VOLUNTEER FOR THE SEPTEMBER COMMUNITY DISCUSSION Host a Flash Session: just 5 minutes on any topic! DISSEMINATION OF EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS The VSGC NICE team promotes the NICE website at national and regional meetings and local events. Let us know if you have developed educational materials that you would like disseminated as handouts at these events. Contact Mary or MUREP-NICE PI OPPORTUNITIES

Fall Community Discussions (per your MUREP-NICE PI survey suggestions) Third 2:15pm (ET) September 19, 2013 November 21,

HOW TO MAKE YOUR PROGRAM SUSTAINABLE? Critically important issue – should be one of a few key factors in initial funding decisions by agencies Will require some form of institutionalization – several ways to do this: o o Start your own non-profit o o Institutionalize with another non-profit with an aligned mission o o Move to a for-profit company To make something successful in a for profit environment, there has to be a market that will buy what you have for sale It is possible to have income in a non-profit environment – you just have to follow the tax laws Roberta Johnson

Comments Just about any form of sustainability requires some money from someone Finding a path to sustainability means finding a way to provide that funding as well as qualified people In most cases, organizations do not have $$ sitting around waiting for projects to appear for them to adopt (except venture capitalists) In my view, finding a way to “monetize” your project in some way (advertising, subscriptions, sales,…) helps make the pathway to sustainability easier Recommendations: o o Bring in partners from the beginning of a project that have an approach to sustainability in place o o Professional societies with aligned missions are well-suited to this type of a role because they (1) exist already, (2) are non-profit, (3) have a membership or group that they serve, with an installed volunteer cadre of people that care in leadership – hence the choices I have made to partner with the National Earth Science Teachers Association Roberta Johnson

What does institutionalization mean? Institutionalization is the active process of establishing your initiative - not merely continuing your program, but developing relationships, practices, and procedures that become a lasting part of the community. LEVEL OF INSTITUTIONALIZATION (LOIN) SCALES FOR HEALTH PROMOTION PROGRAMS Goodman, R. M., McLeroy, K.R., Steckler, A., Hoyle, R. H. “Development of Level of Institutionalization (LoIn) Scales for Health Promotion Programs.” Health Education Quarterly, Vol 20 (2), 1993, David Gosselin

Availability of Institutional Funding Programs initiated for philosophic or pragmatic money (Funding) reasons. Factors For Institutionalizati on Goals Defined Development of quality program Leadership (Respected) Tangible support of administration and academic departments Commitment of teaching staff Anticipation of potential conflicts Participation of Stakeholders David Gosselin

Our Institutionalization Journey Toyota Foundation-Funded Online Science for Educators Specialization Masters of Applied Science NICE-Funded Laboratory Earth Crses Climate Change Research/Service Learning 2+ Courses Climate Change CEUs Extension Educators Geospatial Course w/Brooklyn College NASA-Funded Laboratory Earth Earth Systems 3 Courses Other UNL Courses

Discussion Questions What challenges have you faced? What strategies have you tried with respect to institutionalization of your program? To what extent should the institution be held accountable for institutionalization process? David Gosselin

University of Washington Program on Climate Change Global Climate Change Education/Professor LuAnne Thompson Activities integrated into university outreach and education programs Graduate students working on communication capstone for transcriptable graduate certificate in climate science Sustaining workshops and content development through outreach within NSF grants satisfying NSF “broader impacts” High school science teachers implementing high school climate science course as dual-enrollment and bringing material into other science courses Question: How do we maintain ongoing engagement with teachers with the more piecemeal approach? LuAnne Thompson

American Meteorological Society Education Program Contributors: Jim Brey and Beth Mills 1.Following development and implementation of each DataStreme course (weather, ocean, climate) through federal funding, AMS developed an undergraduate-level version of the course to be licensed through AMS and offered at the local college level 2.Revenue from license fees and sales of the course textbook and Investigations Manual is intended to keep DataStreme going at a scaled back level through periods of reduced funding 3.As a professional society, AMS personalizes this “publisher” role by providing college faculty training programs (e.g., for MSIs), offering mentoring, and connecting educators with scientists in AMS fields AMS UNDERGRADUATE COURSES: Sustaining DataStreme training for K-12 teachers