Schoolyards can serve as an extension of the science classroom and provide authentic research opportunities for students. Schoolyard science illustrates that science does not have to take place in a lab or an exotic location – it can take place wherever questions are asked and answers are sought. As extensions of the science classroom, schoolyards are also cost-effective as they are available on demand to students and teachers, and require no access fee or transportation costs.

The Luquillo LTER program (LUQ) provides research experiences to undergraduate students by immersing them in its active research environment. LUQ offers a variety of programs and opportunities to undergraduate students that allow them to gain research experience and technical skills in tropical ecology. Our goals are to (1) provide students with research experiences under the advice of established scientists and (2) supplement experiences with educational activities designed to equip students with the necessary tools to conduct scientific research.

Population growth has and will continue to put pressure on our water resources. Yet students are only exposed to rudimentary basics that lend themselves to engaging in indoor experimentation (e.g. water phase changes and the water cycle) and fact-based assessments. Consequently, the majority of citizens hold on to inaccurate conceptions of where water exists, how it moves, how it gets used, and how it relates to biodiversity and climate change. These more critical concepts, unfortunately, do not appear in state content standards or assessments.

We are in the process of developing a Calculus for the LIfe Sciences to serve biology majors at our institution. We have begun developing Excel labs and homework assignments in the biological contexts such as the lung, population modeling, and logistic growth. We are intersted in your feedback on these assessments in their draft stages. We also welcome any input about the course. What skills from calculus would help biology majors in their future academic endeavors?

This poster will present the draft assessments and provide space for feedback.

Humans make decisions daily that impact biodiversity, and it is essential that citizens understand the implications of these decisions. Yet, ecological systems are extremely complex, with many details still being discovered. Our challenge is to identify the underlying principles and concepts governing the distribution of organisms, and then communicate these details to students in a way that influences their citizenship decisions as participants in local and global communities. 

 SBC’s Schoolyard LTER (SLTER) program is organized around a theme of watershed ecology. This approach allows for an integrated program that includes K-12 students, K-12 teachers, undergraduate and graduate students.  In 2009 we focused on developing long-term connections with local, regional and state middle and junior high schools through a partnership with American Association of University Women (AAUW) - Tech Trek Program.

What skills and dispositions are needed by the high school graduate so that she or he can use knowledge and tools from environmental science to be effective decision makers and citizens? What are the pathways from elementary school through high school that might help develop this key facet of environmental science literacy? These questions are being addressed in the full richness of cultural relevance across our diverse nation in an NSF-supported project taking place at 4 LTER sites (SGS, KBS, SBC, BES) and a number of other sites in the US.

A Research Experience for High School Students program (REHS), modeled after the Research Experience for Undergraduates, was initiated at the Virginia Coast Reserve LTER in 2007 with supplemental funding to our SLTER Program.

The Chicago Region ULTRA-Ex will address a question fundamental to understanding the dynamic interactions between biodiversity conservation, ecosystem processes, and human well being in urban landscapes: In a complex urban/metropolitan system, what are the synergies and tradeoffs between conserving biodiversity and providing ecosystem services to people? The project focuses on the Green Infrastructure Vision of the Chicago Wilderness alliance, a conservation consortium of over 240 organizations.

The Baltimore Partnership for Environmental Science Literacy is a five year research project aimed at improving Baltimore area teacher and student knowledge in the environmental sciences. The Baltimore Partnership is part of the multi-site Culturally Relevant Ecology, Learning Progressions and Environmental Literacy, Math Science Partnership (MSP) project funded by the National Science Foundation. The project focuses on the critical education juncture of students in grades 6-12.