Boulder Valley school news briefs
Mar 1st
BVSD elementary and middle school students from throughout the district will compete again this year in Iron Chef style competitions to win money for their schools and a spot on the 2013-2014 school food menu.
Teams must create a dish that is not only delicious but also meets the USDA guidelines, is healthy, and stays at or under the $1.20/plate price allocation. We know from previous years that some great food will be presented to our judges!
This year, along with managers from BVSD Food Services, local food celebrities will also be joining to help judge, featuring guest judges from Whole Foods, The Kitchen’s Hugo Matheson, Bradford Heap of Salt, and Arugula’s Alec Schuler.
BVSD Elementary School Iron Chef Competition
4-6 p.m. Thursday, March 7
Arapahoe Ridge High School
(6600 Arapahoe Road, Boulder)
BVSD Middle School Iron Chef Competition
4-6 p.m. Thursday, March 14
Casey Middle School
(2410 13th St., Boulder)
Ryan Elementary School library receives prestigious recognition
Ryan Elementary library one of few to be honored in Colorado
BVSD’s Ryan Elementary School, located in Lafayette, has been selected as a Colorado Department of Education’s Highly Effective School Library Program School.
The prestigious Highly Effective Status is given to only a few schools in Colorado each year. It is awarded based on improving student achievement through quality instruction using Colorado’s Academic Standards and 21st Century Learner Skills. The CDE stated in a letter that Ryan Elementary School’s library program will be used as a model to other school libraries in the state.
Ryan Elementary, represented by Principal Tobey Bassoff and Teacher Librarian Erika Arias, will be honored during the Colorado State Board of Education meeting in either April or May, depending on legislative agendas on those days. On the day of recognition, the Board Chair and Commissioner Hammond will award Ryan Elementary with a banner and a certificate. The event will be open to CDE personnel, public and media.
Ryan Elementary will retain Highly Effective Status until 2015 contingent upon sustained library personnel.
Scholarship Funds Available for Multicultural Students
Boulder County, Colo – Boulder County Community Action Programs (CAP) has scholarship monies to award to low-income students. Scholarships range from $500-$1,000 each and are made possible through proceeds from CAP’s Annual Multicultural Awards Banquet.
Applicants must meet the following criteria:
- Minimum one year residency in Boulder County
- Currently attending university, community college or technical school as a full-time undergraduate or graduate student
- Low to moderate-income level.
Preference is given to students actively involved in a student organization or the community. This is not a scholarship for students who will be graduating from high school this spring/summer
This is a one-time scholarship; prior CAP multicultural scholarship recipients are not eligible to apply again.
Applications are available by visiting: www.BoulderCountyCAP.org .
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Application deadline is April 12, 2013. We encourage students of color to apply. E-mail applications and any questions to Sheila Goetz at: sgoetz@bouldercounty.org.
Volcanic aerosols, not pollutants, tamped down recent Earth warming, says CU study
Mar 1st
The study results essentially exonerate Asia, including India and China, two countries that are estimated to have increased their industrial sulfur dioxide emissions by about 60 percent from 2000 to 2010 through coal burning, said lead study author Ryan Neely, who led the research as part of his CU-Boulder doctoral thesis. Small amounts of sulfur dioxide emissions from Earth’s surface eventually rise 12 to 20 miles into the stratospheric aerosol layer of the atmosphere, where chemical reactions create sulfuric acid and water particles that reflect sunlight back to space, cooling the planet.
Neely said previous observations suggest that increases in stratospheric aerosols since 2000 have counterbalanced as much as 25 percent of the warming scientists blame on human greenhouse gas emissions. “This new study indicates it is emissions from small to moderate volcanoes that have been slowing the warming of the planet,” said Neely, a researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, a joint venture of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A paper on the subject was published online in Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union. Co-authors include Professors Brian Toon and Jeffrey Thayer from CU-Boulder; Susan Solomon, a former NOAA scientist now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Jean Paul Vernier from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.; Catherine Alvarez, Karen Rosenlof and John Daniel from NOAA; and Jason English, Michael Mills and Charles Bardeen from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.
The new project was undertaken in part to resolve conflicting results of two recent studies on the origins of the sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere, including a 2009 study led by the late David Hoffman of NOAA indicating aerosol increases in the stratosphere may have come from rising emissions of sulfur dioxide from India and China. In contrast, a 2011 study led by Vernier — who also provided essential observation data for the new GRL study — showed moderate volcanic eruptions play a role in increasing particulates in the stratosphere, Neely said.
The new GRL study also builds on a 2011 study led by Solomon showing stratospheric aerosols offset about a quarter of the greenhouse effect warming on Earth during the past decade, said Neely, also a postdoctoral fellow in NCAR’s Advanced Study Program.
The new study relies on long-term measurements of changes in the stratospheric aerosol layer’s “optical depth,” which is a measure of transparency, said Neely. Since 2000, the optical depth in the stratospheric aerosol layer has increased by about 4 to 7 percent, meaning it is slightly more opaque now than in previous years.
“The biggest implication here is that scientists need to pay more attention to small and moderate volcanic eruptions when trying to understand changes in Earth’s climate,” said Toon of CU-Boulder’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. “But overall these eruptions are not going to counter the greenhouse effect. Emissions of volcanic gases go up and down, helping to cool or heat the planet, while greenhouse gas emissions from human activity just continue to go up.”
The key to the new results was the combined use of two sophisticated computer models, including the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model, or WACCM, Version 3, developed by NCAR and which is widely used around the world by scientists to study the atmosphere. The team coupled WACCM with a second model, the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmosphere, or CARMA, which allows researchers to calculate properties of specific aerosols and which has been under development by a team led by Toon for the past several decades.
Neely said the team used the Janus supercomputer on campus to conduct seven computer “runs,” each simulating 10 years of atmospheric activity tied to both coal-burning activities in Asia and to emissions by volcanoes around the world. Each run took about a week of computer time using 192 processors, allowing the team to separate coal-burning pollution in Asia from aerosol contributions from moderate, global volcanic eruptions. The project would have taken a single computer processor roughly 25 years to complete, said Neely.
The scientists said 10-year climate data sets like the one gathered for the new study are not long enough to determine climate change trends. “This paper addresses a question of immediate relevance to our understanding of the human impact on climate,” said Neely. “It should interest those examining the sources of decadal climate variability, the global impact of local pollution and the role of volcanoes.”
While small and moderate volcanoes mask some of the human-caused warming of the planet, larger volcanoes can have a much bigger effect, said Toon. When Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in 1991, it emitted millions of tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere that cooled the Earth slightly for the next several years.
The research for the new study was funded in part through a NOAA/ ESRL-CIRES Graduate Fellowship to Neely. The National Science Foundation and NASA also provided funding for the research project. The Janus supercomputer is supported by NSF and CU-Boulder and is a joint effort of CU-Boulder, CU Denver and NCAR.
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Buffs Fall Short, Lose 4-3 At Wyoming
Feb 28th
“Hats off to Wyoming, they played a great match,” said CU head coach Nicole Kenneally. “They’re one of the top returning teams in our region. We had some great performances in our lineup today, but unfortunately, we couldn’t put ourselves in contention in some of them. If we are to continue to have success, we are going to have to have everybody fully engaged, with all nine positions, digging, diving and scoring in every match. We’ve come a long way, but there’s still room to grow. I expect our players to rise to the occasion and to rise to the challenge and to continue to dig deeper. We’ve done a great job so far this year, and we look forward to our matches coming up.”
The Buffaloes fall to 5-4 in dual play, holding a 3-1 series lead over the Cowgirls. All of the Buffs’ losses this spring have been tight 4-3 decisions. Wyoming improves to 5-3 this spring.
Colorado fought down to the last matches in both doubles and singles, but couldn’t claim the overall victory. The No. 1 and 2 doubles teams came just shy of extending their winning streaks and earning the first point of the match. Julyette Steur and Erin Sanders fell in a tiebreaker, while Carla Manzi Tenorio and Winde Janssens were handed their first defeat in nine tries in close 8-6 loss (their smallest margin in either victory or defeat this season).
Three Buffs found success in individual play, in what coach Kenneally said were stellar performances for the top of the lineup. All of the victorious Buffs have dropped three or fewer matches this spring, and each have at least 11 wins this season.
“If you look at Wyoming’s top performers’ records and rankings, their No. 1 is top four or five in our region,” Kenneally said. “I think it was the best win of Julyette’s career.”
Steur extended a three-match winning streak and improved her overall season record to 12-6 with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Veronica Popovici. All of Steur’s victories this spring have been in straight sets.
Janssens and Manzi Tenorio both fought back after dropping the first set. The two have now fought off first set deficits a team-high five times each.
Janssens has won five matches in a row, and seven of eight this spring. After dropping the first set, she came back with a vengeance, dropping just four games in the remainder of the match, including battling through a game that saw an amazing 16 deuces.
Manzi Tenorio had what Kenneally described as a marathon (something she would like the rest of the lineup to find success in as well) of a match. Manzi Tenorio eased through the second 6-1 and won the third set tiebreaker (though her 7-4 win was a breeze compared to her 16-14 victory on Monday).
The Buffs return to Boulder for a three-match home-stand. They end the week against No. 73 Princeton at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 2. CU begins Pac-12 Conference play against Arizona at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 8 and continues against Arizona State at 10 a.m. on Sunday, March 10. Stay tuned to CUBuffs.com for location updates.
Wyoming 4, Colorado 3
UW (5-3), CU (5-4)
Thursday, Feb. 28 UW Indoor Tennis Complex
Laramie, Wyo.
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