Mission The mission of the Coweeta LTER Schoolyard Program is to utilize the LTER programs and network to promote training, teaching, and learning about the value of long term ecological research and Earth’s ecosystems. Goals Provide direct learning experiences about long term ecological studies to middle school, high school, community college students, and their instructors. Promote student-scientist interactions that foster understanding of careers in science. Collect and share data that are relevant to the five core LTER research areas: primary production, population studies, movement of organic matter, movement of inorganic matter, and disturbance patterns. Provide opportunities for students to learn about local ecosystem structure and function. Evaluation Evaluation strategies for Coweeta Schoolyard LTER Program: Students and teachers complete a short answer survey at the end of the year’s activities. Participants are asked to reflect on topics they felt they learned, about their experience of science related careers they observed, and about their overall perception of the experience in relation to the value of it. The teachers’ survey includes program evaluation questions such as improvements that could be made, and also includes questions probing the use of the Schoolyard program in their teaching experience.