ED23B-1274
Interdisciplinary watershed research with 5-11th graders
Coming soon
ED23B-1275
Watershed Restoration at Richmond, CA Field Site: Science Education Partnership
The University of California Berkeley owns a field research station in Richmond, California, a few miles from the central campus. Wetlands, and tidal marsh environments cover a significant part of the site. Metals, primarily mercury, but also arsenic and copper as well as PCBs, have been removed from the wetlands under order from the Regional Water Quality Control Board. The University contracted with a professional organization, The Watershed Project, to renew/restore the wetlands from which the metals and PCBs had been removed. This renewal/restoration project is being used in research and teaching in courses and independent study projects. The Watershed Project scientists, specialists in wetlands restoration, come to the Berkeley Campus to lecture in a Bay Area environmental issues class on wetlands values and on processes in restoration of wetlands. Some environmental science students take a field study course in which they go to the wetlands restoration site to learn "hands-on" restoration techniques from The Watershed Project specialists and to gain practical experience. Students write an analysis of their learning experience while under the supervision of The Watershed Project specialists to satisfy course requirements. Berkeley faculty and The Watershed Project scientists collaborate in planning the student learning and research experience in these wetlands. The close collaboration among faculty, The Watershed Project scientists and students has been a rewarding experience for all. This program has been in place for four years.
ED23B-1276
Tennessee Hollow Watershed in the Presidio: Science Education Partnership
Planning for restoration of the Tennessee Hollow watershed in the Presidio of San Francisco, an urban national park, has been used in teaching and research in environmental science courses at University of California Berkeley for several years. Scientists and staff with the Urban Watershed Project, The National Park Service, and the Presidio Trust have collaborated with UC Berkeley faculty and students in discussing the watershed restoration and the first steps in implementation of it. Scientists come to the Berkeley campus to talk to classes about the geology, hydrology, and features of the vegetation of the watershed as well as the many aspects of "daylighting" a creek buried in a culvert many tens of feet under soil and other forms of landfill. The many social and political issues involved in implementing restoration are also presented and discussed. Students are conducted through the watershed by Urban Watershed staff not only to view the several features of the watershed but also to obtain data for individual studies. Students have made water quality analyses of the creek waters. Students have worked collaboratively with Urban Watershed staff in developing studies of the watershed that will be of use in future education programs and also in developing features that may interest visitors to the national park.
ED23B-1277
Scientists and Middle School Students; Learning and Working Together
Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth students enrolled in the Dynamic Earth class come from all over the world to study earth systems. Investigating plate action, crustal formation, glaciers, currents, weathering and atmospheric interactions, students develop a strong ability to identify the forces that continually change the landscape and the interconnectedness of the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. As part of their regular course work, students work with a variety of cooperating scientists. US Geological Survey staff assists students in examining sand samples and exploring monitoring research on invasive foraminiferas in San Francisco Bay. Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and Mavericks Surf Ventures staff help students explore the off shore submarine formations of a storm swell at Half Moon Bay that develops into a world-class big wave. Students met a big wave surfer who described the ride and shared surf stories. A wave forecaster helped students use modeling software to create real-time forecasts. In the final project students assist faculty of University of Texas at Austin, Institute of Geophysics using cruise reports, project abstracts, and bathymetry images, in evaluating a series of submarine features in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Students develop proposals and present their ideas in a seminar format, attended by cooperating scientists. Students have an opportunity to work with current scientists and learn how classroom "stuff" is used. One student commented, "I felt like I could talk with them about what they were doing and actually understand what they were talking about." Another stated, "I didn't know you could learn so much from forams. I always thought paleontology was about dinosaurs." As a result of the class, students understand the relevance of their learning, scientists like working with kids, and educators get excited about science. To evaluate program outcomes, the staff holds regular meetings with scientists as students begin the sessions. Faculty and scientists work collaboratively to develop activities students will be engaged in and that relates to the scientists' work. Students and faculty complete evaluations. A report is generated at the close of the summer outlining plans for the next season, detailing successes, and areas of improvement. http://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/terror_rift/?PHPSESSID=def1b9
ED23B-1278
High school students as science researchers: Opportunities and challenges
Today's K-12 students will be the scientists and engineers who bring currently emerging technologies to fruition. Existing research endeavors will be continued and expanded upon in the future only if these students are adequately prepared. High school-university collaborations provide an effective means of recruiting and training the next generation of scientists and engineers. Here, we describe our successful high school-university collaboration in the context of other models. We have developed an authentic inquiry-oriented environmental chemistry research program involving high school students as researchers. The impetus behind the development of this project was twofold. First, participation in authentic research may give some of our students the experience and drive to enter technical studies after high school. One specific goal was to develop a program to recruit underrepresented minorities into university STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) programs. Second, inquiry-oriented lessons have been shown to be highly effective in developing scientific literacy among the general population of students. This collaboration involves the use of local resources and equipment available to most high schools and could serve as a model for developing high school- university partnerships.
ED23B-1279
Advancing Geospatial Technologies in Science and Social Science: A Case Study in Collaborative Education
The Advancing Geospatial Skills in Science and Social Sciences (AGSSS) program, funded by NSF, provides middle and high school teacher-partners with access to graduate student scientists for classroom collaboration and curriculum adaptation to incorporate and advance skills in spatial thinking. AGSSS Fellows aid in the delivery of geospatially-enhanced activities utilizing technology such as geographic information systems, remote sensing, and virtual globes. The partnership also provides advanced professional development for both participating teachers and fellows. The AGSSS program is mutually beneficial to all parties involved. This successful collaboration of scientists, teachers, and students results in greater understanding and enthusiasm for the use of spatial thinking strategies and geospatial technologies. In addition, the partnership produces measurable improvements in student efficacy and attitudes toward processes of spatial thinking. The teacher partner training and classroom resources provided by AGSSS will continue the integration of geospatial activities into the curriculum after the project concludes. Time and resources are the main costs in implementing this partnership. Graduate fellows invest considerable time and energy, outside of academic responsibilities, to develop materials for the classroom. Fellows are required to be available during K-12 school hours, which necessitates forethought in scheduling other graduate duties. However, the benefits far outweigh the costs. Graduate fellows gain experience in working in classrooms. In exchange, students gain exposure to working scientists and their research. This affords graduate fellows the opportunity to hone their communication skills, and specifically allows them to address the issue of translating technical information for a novice audience. Teacher-partners and students benefit by having scientific expertise readily available. In summation, these experiences result in changes in teacher/student perceptions of science and scientists. Evidence of the aforementioned changes are provided through external evaluation and results obtained from several assessment tools. The program also utilizes an internal evaluator to monitor participants thoughts and opinions on the previous years' collaboration. Additionally, graduate fellows maintain a reflective journal to provide insight into experiences occurring both in-class and among peers. Finally, student surveys administered prior to and concluding the academic year assess changes in student attitudes and self-perception of spatial thinking skills. http://agsss.tamu.edu/
ED23B-1280
Project WEST: Fostering Scientific Inquiry and Collaborations From K Through Gray
WEST (Water, the Environment, Science and Teaching) is a science education and outreach program at the University of Utah. WEST partners graduate students in the sciences with K-12 teachers to enhance inquiry- based science teaching in the Salt Lake City urban area. WEST has capitalized on the expertise of faculty and graduate students, scientists from state and federal agencies, local advocacy groups, and K-12 teachers to develop several placed-based scientific field projects for K-12 students. University members provide science content and ideas; state and federal researchers provide practical application and, often times, financial support; advocacy groups provide a tie to the community, and teachers provide a conduit for translating complex science concepts to students. These collaborations are built around a mutual interest in science education and anthropogenic influences on the quality and quantity of water resources critical to life in the arid West. Participants are relied upon to bring their unique perspective to each of the projects in order to meet a number of criteria: 1) projects should involve students in the entire scientific process from developing a hypothesis, making observations, data collection and analysis, 2) projects should be place-based and address interactions of water, the environment and society, and 3) projects should be directly tied to state education standards at appropriate grade levels. Examples of these projects include a water-quality study of Great Salt Lake where students participated in a research project on the lake. Students learned about navigation tools, collected and examined brine shrimp, and measured sulfide and chlorophyll concentrations as indicators of anthropogenic influences to Great Salt Lake. Hydrologists from the University of Utah and U.S. Geological Survey helped design this project and the Utah Dept. of Environmental Quality provided critical funds and supplies. In another project, students were involved in the restoration of a small wetland located in the city's Tracy Aviary. Students participated in documenting existing vegetation, researching healthy-state wetlands, writing reports, and presenting recommendations to a panel of experts from the Aviary and the Utah Dept. of Natural Resources. Students will be involved in the physical restoration process as a follow-up to this project. This year, WEST is designing a watershed water quality project to systematically test the quality of the rivers and streams that supply the Salt Lake City Metropolitan area. Students will utilize multi-parameter water-quality monitors to measure dissolved oxygen, specific conductance, water temperature, turbidity, and pH, and will collaborate with University of Utah scientists to develop a coherent picture of the state of the watershed. It is hoped that the interactions of the students with the scientists and their involvement in authentic research experiences will give context and meaning to the concepts learned and solidify an interest in science for society. http://www.earth.utah.edu/west
ED23B-1281
Strings and Things for Locating Earthquakes: an Educational Tool for Introductory Seismology
When one hears that an earthquake has occurred, one of the first questions is: where was it? For the general public, this question oftentimes determines the importance of another question: how big was it? Once learning the location and size, some might wonder how this information was obtained. We present here an interactive, three-dimensional analog computer that uses a map, strings, and a time-distance scale to find the location of an earthquake (lat, long and depth) based on seismic wave arrival times. We have also developed presentations and educational materials to communicate the ideas used for locating earthquakes to the general public and students in elementary, middle, and high school. Current outreach activities will be presented including education of student teachers at The University of Memphis, website development, and affiliation with Lake County High School in Tiptonville, TN. The device is suitable for both permanent mounting in a science museum or can be transported to outreach locations. The analog earthquake locator is utilized by both visitors and student teachers in the lecture room at the Center for Earthquake Research and Information at The University of Memphis and is taken to classrooms for education outreach.
ED23B-1282
Exploring Student and Scientist Experiences in a Novice-Expert Partnership
The creation of student-scientist partnership (SSP) programs is one response to the call for greater attention to scientific literacy and science inquiry in schools (COSEPUP, 2006; NRC, 1996; NSTA, 2004). SSPs engage students in authentic scientific investigations as they work alongside scientist mentors engaged in research. The scholarly literature suggests outcomes and benefits to participants in terms of enhanced content learning, as well as gains related to motivation and self-efficacy (Abraham, 2002; Lawless and Rock, 1998; Ledley, Haddad, Lockwood, and Brooks, 2003; Markowitz, 2004; Means, 1998, p. 98; Richmond, 1998). Continuing development of and research into these programs is slow, however, in part because SSPs are resource-intensive (requiring access to scientists and laboratories) and difficult to scale up, creating a perception that they are limited in their application. To begin to reach the goal of scaling up, it is necessary to develop a deep understanding of how each aspect of SSPs contributes to student motivation and learning. To this end, this study provides an in-depth analysis of interviews with the student and scientist members of mentoring dyads that participated in NASA's Athena Student Interns Program associated with the Mars Exploration Rover missions. Crafting a picture of how these students and scientists experienced working closely in a science mentoring dyad contributes to the growing body of work focused on understanding the nature, benefits, and challenges of SSPs and provides potential lessons for SSP practitioners. Considering the participants' insights in the context of career and psychosocial mentoring highlights the complex nature of student-scientist relationships and points to the need to address and encourage both types of mentoring in SSPs in order to foster the most successful partnerships. Such knowledge takes an important step toward informing the development of programs that may introduce greater numbers of students to scientific careers and research, while providing similar benefits as those conferred through small-scale student-scientist collaborations.
ED23B-1283
To the Planets, Comets, and Beyond: A Vision of Sustained Collaboration
Our NASA-funded, E/PO partnership, the Student-Teacher Astronomy Resource (STAR) Program, has been successful in integrating current space science knowledge, scientific inquiry, and educational practices. With our focus on the recent NASA Stardust Mission, we engage teachers, students, and the general public in timely, research-based inquiry into space science. One such component of our program is "The Solar System: To the Planets, Comets, and Beyond," a new curricula that is accessible to, and comfortable for, primary educators, many of whom were previously uncomfortable teaching space science. This achievement is the result of ongoing collaboration between a formal primary educator (Grauer), the director of educational outreach for the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (Dixon), a cosmochemist (Humayun) and a graduate student (Gaboardi), both researchers in the geochemistry program within the NHMFL. Indicators of success in our outreach program include the following: 1- Increased public awareness of research as evidenced by local television, newspaper, and radio coverage, 2- Requests from individual teachers, schools, and school districts for workshops specific to our program, 3- Overwhelmingly positive formal and informal responses from teachers, students, and parents participating in our program, 4- Requests from high-school students for advice involving science fair projects, 5- High level of performance of Grauer's primary students in space science curricula developed as a result of collaboration, and 6- Integration of a space science component into the sustained outreach program provided by the NHMFL. We are currently collecting formal questionnaires from teachers who have participated in our 2007 workshops to explore the following further indicators of success: 1- teachers' use of our curricula, 2- teachers' comfort levels in teaching space science both before and after attending our workshop, and 3- teachers' evaluation of their own space science content knowledge before and after attending our workshop. Based on formal responses from the 2006 cohort, and informal responses from the 2007 cohort, we expect evaluations to be strongly positive. http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/education/teachers/resources/stars.html
ED23B-1284
Student Involvement in THEMIS Research and Real-Time Data Collection
Students of Ukiah School are participating in real-time data collection and data analysis as part of NASA's THEMIS mission. The students have used onsite and remote magnetometer data to conduct long range studies of the Earth's magnetic field decline, the progression of magnetic storms, and the effects of solar events on the magnetic field. The study is based on research done by the local science teacher for the University of California at Berkeley over the summer of 2007 in which THEMIS magnetometer data was used to calculate and compare magnetic B values and a calculate and evaluate 24 hour data in a K-index style plot for Ukiah, Or and Loysburg, PA over a span of four months. The middle and high school students have taken this data and their results and are continuing and expanding it by moving farther back in the archived data for evaluation and including outside data sources for additional comparison. One of the most significant aspects of this study and its results will be the involvement of the students and the level to which they are taking ownership of the process. In a school of only 50 students, grades kindergarten through 12th, an average of 15 students are working with the data, on the expanded research, or on other THEMIS related material each academic semester; over 50% of the high school population. Preliminary evaluations of academic attitudes toward science, math, and astronomy as well as academic performance in these areas show an increase across the board. http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/themis/flash.html
ED23B-1285
IT Tools for Teachers and Scientists, Created by Undergraduate Researchers
Interns in the Southern California Earthquake Center/Undergraduate Studies in Earthquake Information Technology (SCEC/UseIT) program conduct computer science research for the benefit of earthquake scientists and have created products in growing use within the SCEC education and research communities. SCEC/UseIT comprises some twenty undergraduates who combine their varied talents and academic backgrounds to achieve a Grand Challenge that is formulated around needs of SCEC scientists and educators and that reflects the value SCEC places on the integration of computer science and the geosciences. In meeting the challenge, students learn to work on multidisciplinary teams and to tackle complex problems with no guaranteed solutions. Meantime, their efforts bring fresh perspectives and insight to the professionals with whom they collaborate, and consistently produces innovative, useful tools for research and education. The 2007 Grand Challenge was to design and prototype serious games to communicate important earthquake science concepts. Interns broke themselves into four game teams, the Educational Game, the Training Game, the Mitigation Game and the Decision-Making Game, and created four diverse games with topics from elementary plate tectonics to earthquake risk mitigation, with intended players ranging from elementary students to city planners. The games were designed to be versatile, to accommodate variation in the knowledge base of the player; and extensible, to accommodate future additions. The games are played on a web browser or from within SCEC-VDO (Virtual Display of Objects). SCEC-VDO, also engineered by UseIT interns, is a 4D, interactive, visualization software that enables integration and exploration of datasets and models such as faults, earthquake hypocenters and ruptures, digital elevation models, satellite imagery, global isochrons, and earthquake prediction schemes. SCEC-VDO enables the user to create animated movies during a session, and is now part of a multi-media, general education curriculum at University of Southern California. Throughout this meeting, at the SCEC booth, UseIT interns will be demonstrating both the serious games and SCEC-VDO. SCEC/UseIT is a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates site.
ED23B-1286
Bringing Space Scientists, Teachers, and Students Together With The CINDI E/PO Program
We will report on the activities, challenges, and successes of the ongoing collaboration between the William B. Hanson Center for Space Sciences (CSS) and the Department of Science/Mathematics Education (SME) at the University of Texas at Dallas. At the core of our partnership is the Education and Public Outreach program for the Coupled Ion / Neutral Dynamics Investigation (CINDI) instrument. CINDI is a NASA-funded program on the Air Force's Communication / Navigation Outage Forecast Satellite (C/NOFS) which will be launched in summer 2008. The CSS faculty and research scientists and the SME faculty and students have created a dynamic program that brings scientists and K-12 teachers together. Our activities include middle and high school curriculum development, teachers workshops, graduate course work for teachers, creation of the popular "Cindi in Space" educational comic book, and bringing K-12 teachers and students to work and/or visit with the CINDI scientists. We will present the outcomes of this collaborative effort as well as our recent experience of having a physics teacher from a local high school as our Teacher in Residence at CSS in summer 2007.
ED23B-1287
Science Ethics in the High School Classroom: A Pilot Study Using Social Judgment Theory
Using a quantitative Social Judgment Analysis with content informed by traditional western ethical theory, we analyzed students' response patterns before and after our educational intervention. Working with an advanced placement environmental science class at Rocky Mountain High School, the goal of our analysis was not simply to understand whether students changed their ethical decisions, but rather to understand how and whether they changed the structure of *how* they think about ethical questions in an environmental context.
ED23B-1288
Creating Science Education Specialists and Scientific Literacy in Students through a Successful Partnership among Scientists, Science Teachers, and Education Researchers
The nature of science and the nature of learning are often assumed to have little practical relationship to each other. Scientists conduct research and science teachers teach. Rarely do the scientist and the science teacher have an opportunity to learn from each other. Here we describe results from a program funded by NSF, the Information Technology in Science (ITS) Center for Teaching and Learning. The ITS Center provided the support and structure necessary for successful long-term collaboration among scientists, science teachers, and education researchers that has resulted in the creation of new science education specialists. These specialists are not only among the science teachers, but also include avid recruits to science education from the scientists themselves. Science teachers returned to their classrooms armed with new knowledge of content, inquiry, and ideas for technology tools that could support and enhance students' scientific literacy. Teachers developed and implemented action research plans as a means of exploring educational outcomes of their use and understanding of new technologies and inquiry applied to the classroom. In other words, they tried something different in the class related to authentic inquiry and technology. They then assessed the students' to determine if there was an impact to the students in some way. Many of the scientists, on the other hand, report that they have modified their instructional practices for undergraduate courses based on their experiences with the teachers and the ITS Center. Some joined other collaborative projects pairing scientists and educators. And, many of the scientists continue on-going communication with the science teachers serving as mentors, collaborators, and as an "expert" source for the students to ask questions to. In order to convey the success of this partnership, we illustrate and discuss four interdependent components. First, costs and benefits to the science teacher are discussed through case studies, survey results, and descriptive categories. Costs and benefits to the scientist are discussed through the use of case studies, surveys, and observations. Third, student learning outcomes from a case study are presented. It is argued that the partnership created the opportunity for the integration of imaginative tools of science (specifically GIS in the case study) and authentic science inquiry. The last component is the discussion of the various tools of science utilized by the scientists for their research, taught to the science teachers by the scientists, and then taught to the students by the science teachers. At each step the technology was modified to fit the levels and applications of the specific science teacher, the grade level taught, and the content area taught. Examples of imaginative tools utilized include Geographic Information System (GIS), Global Positioning System (GPS), Google Earth, time-lapse photography, digital microscopy, and Excel. In summary, by examining this collaborative partnership through the lens of the scientists, the science teachers, and the science teachers' students it is evident that this partnership has created new science education specialists and can ultimately improve scientific literacy in K-12 students. Reference: NRC (2005). How Students Learn. The National Academies Press. Washington D.C.
ED23B-1289
The Lamont-Doherty Secondary School Field Research Program
Three years ago the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory instituted an educational outreach program with several New York City high schools. The schools all serve lower-income students (greater than 90 percent Title 1 eligible), and are focused on the STEM disciplines as potentially "leveling" areas, where motivated students can make up ground if properly supported. The program enlists high school teachers and several of their students to work alongside Lamont scientists on funded research programs that have a local (NYC/Hudson Valley) field and/or laboratory measurement component. The program runs full-time for 6 weeks in the summer and continues through laboratory visits and enhanced curriculum during the school year. Preliminary results are positive: teachers report that the program has deepened their curriculum; heightened their enthusiasm; and expanded their view of their students' potential. Nearly all of the participating students are college bound, and several are working their way through their freshmen year in college as laboratory technicians. In addition, the participating teachers and students have been able to collect large numbers of samples in the Hudson estuary, contributing concretely to funded research there. Lessons learned and best practices will be discussed for expanding such partnerships, with a focus on issues faced by partnerships between research scientists and public school science programs in urban areas.
ED23B-1290
Young Engineers and Scientists (YES) - A Science Education Partnership
Young Engineers and Scientists (YES) is a community partnership between Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), and local high schools in San Antonio, Texas (USA). YES has been highly successful during the past 15 years and YES 2K7 continued this trend. The YES program provides talented high school juniors and seniors a bridge between classroom instruction and real world, research experiences in physical sciences (including space science and astronomy) and engineering. YES consists of two parts: 1) an intensive three-week summer workshop held at SwRI where students experience the research environment first-hand; develop skills and acquire tools for solving scientific problems, attend mini-courses and seminars on electronics, computers and the Internet, careers, science ethics, and other topics; and select individual research projects to be completed during the academic year; and 2) a collegial mentorship where students complete individual research projects under the guidance of their mentors during the academic year and earn honors credit. At the end of the school year, students publicly present and display their work, acknowledging their accomplishments and spreading career awareness to other students and teachers. YES 2K7 developed a website for the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) from the perspective of 20 high school students (yesserver.space.swri.edu). Over the past 15 years, all YES graduates have entered college, several have worked for SwRI, and three scientific publications have resulted. Student evaluations indicate the effectiveness of YES on their academic preparation and choice of college majors. Acknowledgements: We acknowledge funding and support from the NASA MMS Mission, SwRI, Northside Independent School District, and local charitable foundations. http://yesserver.space.swri.edu
ED23B-1291
Service Learning Course in Which Undergraduates and Middle School Students Investigate Levels of Pathogen Indicating Bacteria in Beach Sand
Service-learning is a pedagogy that combines academic rigor with activities that address human and community needs. Over the past three years, we have developed a service-learning course that involves UCLA students working with 6th graders in an economically disadvantaged neighborhood to address issues of environmental science and health. This past year UCLA students conducted a research project in collaboration with a middle school class to investigate levels of pathogen-indicating organisms in beach sand near the Santa Monica pier. All students were taught necessary methods in class by the UCLA professor, and then met at the field site. Fieldwork involved collection of water and sand samples from various locations, extraction of bacteria from sand by shaking with buffer and decanting, and addition of sample to growth media that allow quantification of two organisms, Escherichia coli and enterococci. These organisms are typically used to indicate fecal contamination of water. Methods were straightforward and were accomplished by the 6th graders with only modest supervision by the UCLA students. Results showed extremely high levels of pathogen indicating organisms in the vicinity of a diverted stormdrain, indicating a continuing problem with the diversion. Levels decreased with distance away from the stormdrain, indicating migration of the organisms from the site of the diversion. UCLA students then visited the sixth grade classroom to help the sixth graders create Powerpoint posters including statement of hypotheses, graphs of the results, pictures of the entire process, and conclusions. Middle school students then visited UCLA to tour the campus and present their posters at a poster session hosted by the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing at UCLA. Desired outcomes at the 6th grade level included: 1) increased interest in science; 2) greater knowledge of and interest in attending college; and 3) enhanced knowledge of and feeling of political empowerment concerning environmental health issues. Outcomes for the UCLA students included: 1) gains in learning through the action of teaching; 2) awareness of education justice issues in Los Angeles; and 3) enhanced feeling of personal commitment to community and political advocacy work.
ED23B-1292
Oceans of Opportunity: Partnerships to Increase Minority Student Involvement in the Marine Geosciences
The Oceans of Opportunity program to increase involvement of traditionally under-represented students in the marine geosciences is in its final phase of track 1 funding from NSF. The program employs a tiered approach to research, teaching and outreach activities to enhance the K-12 to graduate pipeline. Partner institutions include Savannah State University, an HBCU in coastal Georgia; Adelphi University serving a minority population from NYC; the Georgia State University Bio-Bus serving the metro-Atlanta area; and the Joint Oceanographic Institutions. The Oceans of Opportunity education pipeline includes 1) service learning activities implemented by SSU marine science majors in partner public schools with high minority enrollment; 2) outreach by the Georgia State University Bio-Bus to Savannah area schools; 3) expansion of the SSU geoscience curriculum; and 4) development of activities based on models of ODP cores for use in both outreach and college teaching. Service learning through SSU classes has permitted contact with a large number of K-12 students. More than 1000 predominantly African-American K-12 students completed hands-on lessons on plate tectonics and plankton contributors to marine sediments in the two years of this program under the guidance of HBCU science majors. Lessons on use of the marine sediment and fossil record as proxies in paleoclimatic studies using replicas of ODP cores were delivered to 600 students in the Savannah school system and about 2000 visitors to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. The marine geoscience lessons delivered at the high school level resulted in greater test score improvement when the topic had already been thoroughly introduced by the teacher. A survey of science attitudes of the high school students (n=419) indicates African-American high school students have low levels of enjoyment of and interest in the sciences. In addition, more female than male African-American students are enrolling in science courses and intend to become science majors. The geosciences fared worse than most other STEM fields with most college-bound students saying that they did not intend on taking a geoscience course in college. We established Research Training Groups (RTGs) including undergraduate and graduate students focusing on 1) Georgia shelf, estuarine and marsh dynamics, and 2) South African Pleistocene paleoceanography. Collaborative projects between SSU and Adelphi during the course of this program have engaged 12 students (75% minority) in research on shelf and salt marsh micropaleontology and sedimentation, diatoms in modern estuarine environments, and South African paleoclimate using ODP records. RTG students have also developed a marine sediment repository at SSU, participated in field excursions and research cruises, and presented their research at conferences.
ED23B-1293
At-Risk and Bilingual Fifth-Grade Students' On-Task Behavior and Conceptual Understanding in Earth Science-Related Topics during Inquiry-, Technology-, and Game-Based Activities
The Graduate K-12 (GK12) program has been developed by NSF to support the national effort to advance scientific knowledge through educational partnerships. This paper highlights research conducted during the 2006-2007 school year with the Texas A&M University GK12 project. Two elementary schools with very high numbers of at risk students - those who are poor, speak English as their second language, and have a history of failing state-mandated tests were identified to be the field site for the GK12 project. In these two, high-minority (97% and 40% African American and Hispanic) schools, 80% and 56% of the children have been identified by the state as at risk; 94% and 52% are classified as economically disadvantaged; and 46% and 2% are limited English proficient, respectively. In the past year, 30% and 73% of fifth grade students in these schools passed the science portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test. Data collected during a three- week period where GK12 fellows taught the fifth graders Earth science-related topics is presented. During the implementation, students were engaged in technology-, inquiry-, and game-based activities. Students were divided into low-, medium-, and high-abilities in one school, and regular and bilingual groups in the other. Pre- post open-ended multiple choice tests indicated that all but the low performing students' conceptual understanding (CU) significantly (p < 0.05) improved during the IT activity. The low and high student groups' CU significantly improved during the inquiry activity, and the high and bilingual students' CU significantly improved for the game activities. Classroom observation assessments showed that there was a significant (p < 0.10) positive (0.347) correlation between on-task behavior and CU. Significant differences between student groups' CU and on-task behavior indicated that technology-based activities showed greatest differences between the low- ability learners and the other students, whereas, inquiry-based activities tended not to show such extremes. In the case of the bilingual and regular students however, technology-based instruction tended to increase their scores and decrease gaps with other groups. Using different pedagogical approaches (e.g., technology-, inquiry- and game-based methods) to teach Earth science is important to reach all elementary students. Earth science educators should not forget that there does not exist any one teaching and learning method that will be a ‘quick fix' for the masses. However, educational partnerships between universities and K-12 schools strengthen the efforts to increase scientific literacy among all students, including diverse and at risk populations.
ED23B-1294
Infusing interdisciplinary place-based watershed research into K-12 curricula and university collaborations
Central Washington University has started a five-year NSF-funded GK-12 project to bring the study of our local river – The Yakima – into 5-11th grade science classes. Faculty members from Geological Sciences have teamed with others from Biology, Chemistry, and Resource Management to develop the Yakima WATERS Project (Watershed Activities To Enhance Research in Schools). This interdisciplinary outreach project teams graduate students with local teachers to bring authentic watershed research into the curriculum. The interdisciplinary research themes are: Riparian Ecology and Biodiversity; Water Chemistry and Quality; Geomorphology and Climate Change; and Changes in Land and Water Use. The Yakima Watershed contains several communities that are traditionally underrepresented in science – Native American, Hispanic, and rural populations. One of the key outcomes we will assess is whether a place-based science study such as this is successful in improving minority students' science scores and whether graduate students from underrepresented groups can be attracted and retained in STEM graduate programs. The project is in its early stages, so results of K-12 student science achievement are not yet available. One unexpected, but positive preliminary result is the possibility of further interdisciplinary research that may stem from the close project-driven interactions between people of different STEM subjects. Faculty members, graduate students, and teachers often fail to interact with members of other departments, but through Project activities support networks are forming and ideas for further research are being developed.
ED23B-1295
Cascadia GeoSciences: Community-Based Earth Science Research Focused on Geologic Hazard Assessment and Environmental Restoration.
Cascadia GeoSciences (CG) is a new non-profit membership governed corporation whose main objectives are to conduct and promote interdisciplinary community based earth science research. The primary focus of CG is on geologic hazard assessment and environmental restoration in the Western U.S. The primary geographic region of interest is Humboldt Bay, NW California, within the southern Cascadia subduction zone (SCSZ). This region is the on-land portion of the accretionary prism to the SCSZ, a unique and exciting setting with numerous hazards in an active, dynamic geologic environment. Humboldt Bay is also a region rich in history. Timber harvesting has been occurring in California's coastal forestlands for approximately 150 years. Timber products transported with ships and railroads from Mendocino and Humboldt Counties helped rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Historic land-use of this type now commonly requires the services of geologists, engineers, and biologists to restore road networks as well as provide safe fish passage. While Humboldt Bay is a focus of some of our individual research goals, we welcome regional scientists to utilize CG to support its mission while achieving their goals. An important function of CG is to provide student opportunities in field research. One of the primary charitable contributions of the organization is a student grant competition. Funds for the student grant will come from member fees and contributions, as well as a percent of all grants awarded to CG. A panel will review and select the student research proposal annually. In addition to supporting student research financially, professional members of CG will donate their time as mentors to the student researchers, promoting a student mentor program. The Humboldt Bay region is well suited to support annual student research. Thorough research like this will help unravel some of the mysteries of regional earthquake-induced land-level changes, as well as possible fault segmentation in the SCSZ. CG will also provide educational materials and resources to the public regarding environmental restoration and earthquake hazards. All research conducted through CG will be published to a publicly accessible digital archive. Education and outreach activities include the student grant program, a digital public archive (maps, reports, geospatial data, guidebooks, MS theses, etc), web-based resources, bi-monthly publications, and annual reports. We invite all types of earth scientists to help support student field research and join us in promoting collaboration, communication, and cooperation with Cascadia GeoSciences.
ED23B-1296
Using Soil Incubation Experiments to Enhance Urban Elementary School Student Understanding of Carbon Cycling
Soil incubations provide a simple and low-cost way to introduce inquiry into the elementary school curriculum. As part of the University of Minnesota's NSF-funded GK-12 program, we used a replicated soil experiment to enhance a unit on global warming and carbon cycling for a 4th grade enrichment group at an urban elementary school. After completing several global warming related, inquiry based activities, the students designed an experiment to test their hypothesis that increasing temperature increases soil respiration. Students used soil from the playground placed at different temperatures within the school (computer server room, classroom, and refrigerator) to carry out their experiment. With the help of GK-12 graduate fellows, students used an infrared gas analyzer to quantify the production of carbon dioxide by the soil within mason jars. The students analyzed their data and discussed the relevance of their findings to previous lessons on global climate change. We will discuss the incubation experiment in the context of our collaboration between scientists and elementary school classrooms, inquiry based science education, and our 4th grade unit on global climate change.
ED23B-1297
Improving Science and IT Literacy by Providing Urban-Based Environmental Science Research Opportunities
A U.C. Berkeley-based outreach program known as Environmental Science Information Technology Activities has been in operation over the past four years. The primary aim of the program is to provide opportunities for grades 9 and 10 students in diverse East San Francisco Bay Area communities to develop deeper understandings of the nature and conduct of science, which will increase their capacity to enroll and perform successfully in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses in the future. Design of the program has been informed by recent research that indicates a close relationship between educational activities that promote the perception of STEM as being relevant and the ability to foster development of deeper conceptual understandings among teens. Accordingly, ESITA includes an important student-led environmental science research project component, which provides participants with opportunities to engage in research investigations that are directly linked to relevant, real-world environmental problems and issues facing their communities. Analysis of evidence gleaned from questionnaires, interviews with participants and specific assessment/evaluation instruments indicates that ESITA program activities, including after-school meetings, summer and school year research projects, and conference preparations and presentations has provided students with high-quality inquiry science experiences that increased their knowledge of STEM and IT concepts, as well as their understanding of the nature of the scientific enterprise. In addition, the program has achieved a high degree of success in that it has: enhanced participants' intellectual self-confidence with regard to STEM; developed deeper appreciation of how scientific research can contribute to the maintenance of healthy local environments; developed a greater interest in participating in STEM-related courses of study and after school programs; and improved attitudes toward STEM. Overall, evaluation results support the notion that providing opportunities for students to develop personal connections with particular issues discussed, and real-world STEM experiences that make STEM more relevant and interesting can help to bring about changes in attitude, which is a key component in improving STEM learning and understanding particularly among urban youth.
ED23B-1298
Encouraging Summer Students in Science by Involving them with EPO: Case Studies
You have a bevy of high school and undergraduate students showing up soon for a summer "research experience." You know they are not going to become facile with the IDL or Matlab tools they need to analyze your data. What are you going to do with them to stimulate their interest and encourage them to continue in science? We chose to involve our summer studnets in our education and outreach projets, training them in inquiry-based methods, hands-on activities, and collaborative learning, along with providing opportunities for them to acquire knowledge of solar science. Our presentation will highlight, in their own words, projects our students undertook, their trials, tribulations, and learning experiences.