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In addition to universities, K-12 educational institutions can be engaged using the topic of Earth system science. This is currently very fertile ground for partnership building for several reasons:
- The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) initiative requires new Earth science standards to be taught, even though there are insufficient numbers nationwide of trained Earth science educators at the middle and high school levels;
- In urban settings, collaboration between institutions of higher education and the K-12 public schools is often the only way to increase access to science resources and expertise;
- It has the potential to address the current national decline in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) university majors, particularly among minority students, which has been thoroughly documented (NRC, 2000).
Engaging a local middle or high school, or entire school district as a community partner with your university, not only increases the level of science content for K-12 classes, it has strong potential for building a base of future university students. The use of research projects for Earth science capacity building is often applied to developing countries; however, this mechanism may be effective in local school districts to facilitate and nurture future university students.
 Henderson, S., et al, 2006, An Early Introduction to Earth System Science through Elementary GLOBE, Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 54, p. 210-214
Schwerin, T.G., et al, 2006, Earth System Science Education Alliance: Online Professional Development for K-12 Teachers, Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 54, p. 215-222
Rice, J., Neureither, B., 2006, An Integrated Physical, Earth, and Life Science Course for Pre-Service K-8 Teachers, Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 54, p. 255-261
Clark, I.F., Carpenter, J.R., 2006, Development, Implementation and Evaluation of a Standards-Based Earth Systems Education Course for Middle School Teachers, Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 54, p. 272-282
Vierling, L., et al, 2006, Learning Mathematics and Earth System Science Via Satellite, Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 54, p. 262-271
Kastens, K.A., Turrin, M., 2006, To What Extent Should Human/Environment Interactions Be Included in Science Education?, Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 54, p. 422-436
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