Update on previous support: Environmental education and outreach activities are woven throughout the CAP LTER project. We reach out to the K-12 community in a program called Ecology Explorers that aims to: develop and implement a schoolyard ecology program where students collect data similar to CAP LTER data, enter results into our database, share data with other schools, and develop hypotheses and experiments to explain their findings; improve science literacy by exposing students and teachers to real research conducted by University-level scientists; enhance teachers’ capabilities to design lessons and activities that use scientific inquiry and encourage interest in science; provide access to and promote the use of CAP LTER-generated materials and information; and encourage collaboration between CAP LTER researchers and the K-12 community