The education team has completed preliminary investigations for education program development resulting in an outline of program components and resources, teacher training and workshops, scientist visits to the classroom, focused field trips to resource and research sites (including some of our community partners), and an interactive Web site. These components have been selected after conducting informal teacher interviews and reviewing state science education standards. The full LTER Education team will meet to discuss how our community and institutional partners may be involved. During the summer, the LTER offers a teacher workshop to small group of elementary, middle school, and high school teachers during which they will help develop classroom approaches to research using LTER protocols. We envision a program that offers K-12 students, teachers, parents, and administrators opportunities to conduct long-term ecological research, using their schoolyards and backyards as research sites.