[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 117 (Thursday, June 18, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Page 34900]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-14730]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


Prize Purchases

AGENCY: Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce 
(DOC).

ACTION: Notice of prize purchase.

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SUMMARY: This notice sets forth the intention of the Communication and 
Education (CommEd) Division of CPO to purchase and distribute prizes (1 
t-shirt and 1 mug per month) to the monthly winners of the Climate 
Challenge--the social media game with a purpose.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This Social Media Game with a purpose was 
developed for several reasons:
    1. To help improve public climate literacy (which is a Climate.gov 
requirement).
    2. To engage Climate.gov's publics in a fun & challenging way, 
while also growing our readership (another req).
    3. To test the hypothesis that there is ``wisdom in the crowd'' by 
comparing the crowd's averaged best guesses to experts' best guesses as 
well as real-world observations.
    4. If we find evidence that there is indeed wisdom in the crowd, 
then that begs consideration of a next step: development of approaches 
for leveraging and focusing the crowd's wisdom in decision-making 
contexts for societal benefit.
    Climate Challenge allows players to guess future climate-related 
conditions, such as the annual Arctic Sea Ice minimum coverage or a 
monthly average global surface temperature. The game also allows 
players to compare their answers to the experts' and, when available, 
see how both predictions compare to real-world measurements. There will 
be one climate-related question per month, and whoever comes closest to 
guessing the actual values will be that month's winner. For an added 
twist, participants can also compete against their friends, colleagues, 
or family members.
    Climate Challenge also helps to build climate science literacy by 
encouraging players to explore online links to materials related to the 
topics addressed by each game question. Players who want to increase 
their chances of winning are encouraged to visit the links to gather 
information that may help them improve the accuracy of their guesses. 
NOAA's Climate.gov team will publish the real-world measurements once 
they become available, as well as short summaries of the methods that 
the experts used to make their guesses.
    Matters To Be Considered:
    Prizes will be distributed monthly. The prizes that will be given 
to each winner (one per month) are a black T-Shirt with the Climate 
Challenge Logo on the front and a mug consisting of the same logo as 
the t-shirt.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Herring, Division Chief, 
Communication and Education Division, CPO, NOAA, Rm. 12104, 1315 East-
West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910. (Phone: 301-734-1207, Fax: 
301-713-0517, Email: [email protected]). Please feel free to visit 
the Climate Challenge Web site using the following link: 
www.ecoresearch.net/climate-challenge.

    Dated: June 3, 2015.
Jason Donaldson,
Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer, Office of 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration.
[FR Doc. 2015-14730 Filed 6-17-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE P