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The environment, science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics fields (a collection of fields we call E-STEAM) continue to grow and remain economically and ecologically important. However, historically excluded groups remain underrepresented in science and technology professions, particularly in environmental and digital media fields. Consequently, building pathways for historically excluded students to enter economically viable and ecologically influential E-STEAM professions is critically important. These new pathways hold promise for increasing innovation within these fields and ensuring a multiplicity of representation as these fields are shaped and reshaped to attend to the plural interests of diverse communities. Consequently, this conceptual paper describes an eco-digital storytelling (EDS) approach to engaging historically excluded populations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This approach offers structured learning opportunities connected to learner interests and community needs with the aim of increasing E-STEAM identity and career interest of teens from groups historically excluded from E-STEAM fields. E-STEAM identity is a meaning one can attach to oneself or that can be ascribed externally by others as individuals interact and engage in E-STEAM fields in ways that foreground the environment. The EDS approach leverages community-based action, technology and digital media, and arts and storytelling as entry points for engaging learners. EDS is designed to increase teens’ content knowledge within multiple E-STEAM fields and to provide numerous technology-rich experiences in both application of geospatial technologies (i.e., GPS, interactive maps) and digital media creation (i.e., video, animation, ArcGIS StoryMaps) as a way to shape teens’ cultural learning pathways. Examples of rich digital media presentations developed to communicate the EDS approach and local environmental opportunities, challenges, and projects are provided that exemplify how both participation in and communication of environmental action can contribute to more promising and sustainable futures. 

Despite decades of policy that strives to reduce nutrient and sediment export from agricultural fields, surface water quality in intensively managed agricultural landscapes remains highly degraded. Recent analyses show that current conservation efforts are not sufficient to reverse widespread water degradation in Midwestern agricultural systems. Intensifying row crop agriculture and increasing climate pressure require a more integrated approach to water quality management that addresses diverse sources of nutrients and sediment and off-field mitigation actions. We used multiobjective optimization analysis and integrated three biophysical models to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of alternative portfolios of watershed management practices at achieving nitrate and suspended sediment reduction goals in an agricultural basin of the Upper Midwestern United States. Integrating watershed-scale models enabled the inclusion of near-channel management alongside more typical field management and thus directly the comparison of cost-effectiveness across portfolios. The optimization analysis revealed that fluvial wetlands (i.e., wide, slow-flowing, vegetated water bodies within the riverine corridor) are the single-most cost-effective management action to reduce both nitrate and sediment loads and will be essential for meeting moderate to aggressive water quality targets. Although highly cost-effective, wetland construction was costly compared to other practices, and it was not selected in portfolios at low investment levels. Wetland performance was sensitive to placement, emphasizing the importance of watershed scale planning to realize potential benefits of wetland restorations. We conclude that extensive interagency cooperation and coordination at a watershed scale is required to achieve substantial, economically viable improvements in water quality under intensive row crop agricultural production.

 

Introduced hosts are capable of introducing parasite species and altering the abundance of parasites that are already present in native hosts, but few studies have compared the tolerances of native and invasive hosts to introduced parasites or identified the traits of introduced hosts that make them supershedders of non‐native parasites.

Here, we compare the effects of a nematodeAplectana hamatospiculathat is native to Cuba but appears to be introduced to Florida on the native Floridian treefrog,Hyla femoralis, and on the Cuban treefrog (CTF),Osteopilus septentrionalis. We were particularly interested in CTFs because their introduction to Florida has led to reported declines of native treefrogs.

In the laboratory, infection withA. hamatospiculacaused a greater loss in body mass ofH. femoralisthan CTFs despiteH. femoralisshedding fewer total worms in their faeces than CTFs. Field collections of CTFs,H. femoralis, and another native Floridian treefrog,H.squirella(Squirrel treefrog) from Tampa, FL also showed that CTFs shed more larval worms in their faeces than both native frogs when controlling for body size. Hence, the non‐native CTF is a supershedder of this non‐native parasite that is spilling over to less tolerant native treefrogs.

Any conservation intervention to reduce the effects of CTFs on native treefrogs would benefit from knowing the traits that contribute to the invasive host being a supershedder of this parasite. Hence, we conducted necropsies on 330 CTFs to determine how host sex and body size affect the abundance ofA. hamatospicula, and two other common parasites in this species (acuariid nematodes and trematode metacercariae).

There was a significant linear increase inA. hamatospiculaand encysted acuariids with CTF body size, but there was no detectable relationship between host body size and the intensity of metacercariae. Female CTFs were bigger, lived longer and, on average, had moreA. hamatospiculathan male CTFs.

Synthesis and applications. These results of the study suggest that there is parasite spillover from the invasive Cuban treefrog (CTF) to native treefrogs in Florida. Additionally, at least some of the adverse effects of CTFs on native treefrogs could be caused by the introduction and amplification of this introduced parasite, and female and larger CTFs seem to be amplifying these infections more than males and smaller CTFs, respectively, suggesting that management could benefit from targeting these individuals.

 

Our research centered on developing the Conservation Science and Technology Identity (CSTI) instruments as an empirical way to measure STEM identities and the intersection of identity constructs such as competence, performance, recognition, and ways of seeing and being. The surveys were used in a large funded multi‐year project for teens and adults learning geospatial technologies and conservation science to use in intergenerational community conservation projects. We investigated whether an informal STEM learning program was developing new STEM identities or advancing well‐developed identities. The instruments’ content validity was determined through a vetting process from national STEM identity research experts. Reliability was estimated with Cronbach coefficient alpha. Mann‐Whitney and Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests were used to determine participants’ STEM identities and the workshop’s effect on specific identity constructs. We found teens and adults had historically similar STEM identities, with stronger conservation science than technology. Both science and technology competences, as well as technology ways of seeing and being, significantly increased, suggesting CSTI can be a valuable instrument in empirically assessing STEM identities.

 

Visions of science teaching and learning in the newest U.S. standards documents are dramatically different than those found in most classrooms. This research addresses these differences through closely examining one professional development (PD) project that connects teacher learning and teacher practice with student learning/achievement. This study examines the effects on eighth grade science teachers and their students in the context of a PD focused on the integration of information communication technologies and reformed science teaching practices. Findings from this investigation suggest that teachers who participated in PD for two years learned more about technology, improved their practice, and their students’ achievement was significantly higher compared to teachers who participated in one year of the PD or non‐participating peers. Science educators face multiple challenges as they attempt to deliver instruction in fundamentally different ways than what they experienced as learners. The delivery of this professional learning suggest that PD for science teachers should include educative learning experiences if understandings of reforms supported by research are to be realized.