HR: 1340h
AN: OS23A-1296    [Abstracts]
TI: LiMPETS: Scientists Contributions to Coastal Protection Program for Youth
AU: * Saltzman, J
EM: jsaltzman@farallones.org
AF: Farallones Marine Sanctuary, The Presidio, PO Box 29386, San Francisco, CA 94129 United States
AU: Osborn, D A
EM: daosborn@ucsc.edu
AF: University of California, Santa Cruz, Center for Ocean Health, 100 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 United States
AB: In the West Coast National Marine Sanctuaries' LiMPETS (Long-term Monitoring Experiential Training for Students), scientists have partnered with local sanctuaries to develop an educational and scientifically-based monitoring program. With different levels of commitment and interest, scientists have contributed to developing protocols that youth can successfully use to monitor coastal habitats. LiMPETS was developed to address the gap in marine science education for high school students. The team of sanctuary educators together with local scientists collaborate and compromise to develop scientifically accurate and meaningful monitoring projects. By crossing the border between scientists and educators, LiMPETS has become a rich program which provides to teachers professional development, monitoring equipment, an online database, and field support. In the Sandy Beach Monitoring Project, we called on an expert on the sand crab Emerita analoga to help us modify the protocols that she uses to monitor crabs regularly. This scientist brings inspiration to teachers at teacher workshops by explaining how the student monitoring compliments her research. The Rocky Intertidal Monitoring Project was developed by scientists at University of California at Santa Cruz with the intention of passing on this project to an informal learning center. After receiving California Sea Grant funding, the protocols used for over 30 years with undergraduates were modified for middle and high school students. With the help of teachers, classroom activities were developed to train students for fieldwork. The online database was envisioned by the scientists to house the historical data from undergraduate students while growing with new data collected middle and high school students. The support of scientists in this program has been crucial to develop a meaningful program for both youth and resource managers. The hours that a scientist contributes to this program may be minimal, a weeklong workshop or even a part-time job. The framework of resource protection agencies partnering with scientists can be replicated to monitor other natural habitats. Through LiMPETS, scientists are helping to develop scientifically literate youth who are engaged in environmental monitoring.
UR: http://limpets.noaa.gov
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 0830 Teacher training
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting