An official website of the United States government
Scientific outreach to K12 education typically centers around the direct dissemination of scientific findings or by engaging students in citizen science data collection. Rather than viewing science outreach purely through the lens of knowledge transmission or through the lens of specific data collection practices, we present a view of science outreach as a bridge to bring K12 students into ecologists’ communities of practice. We exemplify this outreach model using the Luquillo Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Schoolyard program as an example. The schoolyard program brings middle-school and high-school students into the Luquillo LTER community of practice through authentic scientific inquiry with long-term ecological data. Long-term data provides an essential means for students to investigate large-scale, long-term phenomena and develop essential data science skills.
more »
« less
Scientific Communities of Practice: A K12 Outreach Model That Supports Authentic Scientific Inquiry Around Very Long-Term Studies
Scientific outreach to K12 education typically centers around the direct dissemination of scientific findings or by engaging students in citizen science data collection. Rather than viewing science outreach purely through the lens of knowledge transmission or through the lens of specific data collection practices, we present a view of science outreach as a bridge to bring K12 students into ecologists’ communities of practice. We exemplify this outreach model using the Luquillo Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Schoolyard program as an example. The schoolyard program brings middle-school and high-school students into the Luquillo LTER community of practice through authentic scientific inquiry with long-term ecological data.
more »
« less
- PAR ID:
- 10547027
- Publisher / Repository:
- Iris Publishers
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Online Journal of Ecology & Environment Sciences
- Volume:
- 2
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2993-8864
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract Collaboration between ecologists and learning scientists can give rise to powerful models for scientific outreach within ecology. This paper presents a process by which learning scientists and ecologists codesigned a science curriculum that invites students to join an ecological community of practice. In theJourney to El Yunquemiddle school science curriculum, students engage with simulation models generated from data gathered by Luquillo Long Term Ecological Research (LUQ LTER) scientists.Journey to El Yunquestudents can explore post‐hurricane population changes in yagrumo (Cecropia schreberiana), tabonuco (Dacryodes excelsa), coquís (Eleutherodactylus coquí), snails (Caracolus caracola), anoles (Anolis stratulusandA. gundlachi), veiled stinkhorn mushrooms (Dictyophora indusiata), and caterpillars (Historis odius). Ecology‐based revisions toJourney to El Yunquehave included adding models of the effects of repeated hurricanes on limiting factors, based in part on findings from a canopy trimming experiment. Revisions based on classroom testing include simplifying student‐facing model controls to allow students to focus on the essential model components. The ongoing collaboration that keeps theJourney to El Yunquecurriculum on the cutting edge of ecological and educational advances has been sustained for over two decades. We attribute the longevity of this work to (1) the long‐term nature of LUQ LTER, (2) a sustained interdisciplinary collaboration, and (3) our long‐term relationships with schools.more » « less
-
Ecosystem response to hurricane disturbance is complex and multi-faceted. The likelihood of increased frequency of severe hurricanes creates a need for the general public to understand how ecosystems respond to hurricanes. Yet, opportunities to study disturbances to complex systems are rare in U.S. K–12 schools. Educators and researchers in the Luquillo Long-Term Ecological Research program used the results of research on ecosystem response to hurricane disturbance in the Luquillo Experimental Forest as a foundation for the development of Journey to El Yunque, a web-based, middle-school curriculum unit. The program engages students in using models as evidence to develop explanations for how particular species respond to hurricane disturbance. Prior research in education has shown that engaging students in a particular role, like that of a scientist, could have detrimental effects on students’ abilities to transfer what is learned from one context to another. In this research, we sought to understand whether having students engage in authentic scientific practices could support transfer of knowledge to the abstract context of a standards-based assessment. Students were randomly assigned to engage in the program in the role of a scientist or in the role of a student learning about an ecosystem. The dependent variables included students’ comprehension of the background readings, their predictions of population changes, and their overall learning of ecology. The results indicate that taking on a scientist role during the learning activities had an indirect effect on general ecology knowledge by increasing the quality of students’ notetaking during background reading. The results also indicate that students struggled to use their knowledge to develop a robust explanation for how species respond to hurricane disturbance. Journey to El Yunque provides a framework for engaging students in authentic investigations of hurricane disturbance. Future research will examine how to improve the quality of students’ final explanations.more » « less
-
The Colorado SCience and ENgineering Inquiry Collaborative for Rural K12 Outreach (SCENIC Colorado) is investigating an educational infrastructure for supporting engineering and science learning and identity formation as part of an outreach program with rural Colorado high schools. This research takes the rural context into careful consideration. While rural places are often described by their deficits (Reagan et al., 2019), this study operationalizes place-based pedagogy and the theoretical framework of rural cultural wealth (Crumb et al., 2022) to conceptualize and engage rural places from an asset-based perspective. We believe rural places can be rich environments for engineering and science learning. Therefore, we aspire to support high school students with the development of soil or air quality inquiry projects that are relevant to their local rural communities. Situated within a larger study on the SCENIC outreach program and its impact on student participation in and identification with engineering and science, this paper focuses more narrowly on place-based engineering with students in the rural context. The research questions are: What aspects of the outreach program's educational infrastructure enable place-based science and engineering inquiry? What aspects of place—their locality's history and culture—inform rural students' selection of environmental monitoring topics to investigate? How does conducting place-based environmental monitoring projects contribute to rural students’ engineering and science identity development?more » « less
-
Scientific instruments have long been a vital part of science, paving pathways to remarkable scientific advancements. Such advancements have changed the world both socially and culturally, especially in the past few decades. Students can be introduced to this idea through the concepts of nature of science (NOS): scientific observations are often filtered through apparatus, inferences can be made through observations, and science is a socially and culturally embedded practice. The curriculum often fails to emphasize the role of instruments in scientific practices, even in teaching laboratories. This study uses semistructured interviews to investigate the cognitive (thoughts) and affective (feelings) domains of first-year university students as they relate to scientific instrumentation, including students’ ideas of instruments. First, the study probed how general chemistry students conceptualize scientific instruments in relation to the three NOS notions. Second, students’ practices related to experimental data evaluation were investigated as data collection is a large part of psychomotor learning in laboratory. Third, students’ affective states toward learning about instruments were queried. The interview results suggested that a majority of participants acknowledge some ideas of NOS, while a few students displayed an advanced understanding when discussing scientific instruments and also tended to have higher interest and motivation toward learning about instruments.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- The DOI is not currently available.
