Linking Watershed Research and GK-12 Education with an Ecosystem Context
The GK-12 project from the Ohio State University will engage STEM graduate fellows, along with collaborating faculty and resource professionals, and students and teachers (from grades 3-5, 6-8, 10-12) including those from Amish schools, in the research on watershed science. The project will build on existing interdisciplinary research on the Sugar Creek Watershed in North East Ohio. The project will recruit 8 STEM fellows each year. These fellows will work with 8 teachers each year. The intellectual merit includes the exploration of watershed science as a model system for incorporating multiple disciplines, such as environmental science and rural sociology, into a holistic, constructivist, systemic educational approach to create a cooperative learning opportunity involving university researchers and K-12 teachers and students. The broader impacts include providing the opportunity to fellows and teachers to join other project members for a research visit to Japan to analyze firefly habitat remediation as related to stream ecology.
was a part of an interdisciplinary project that teams researchers with the local farming community to study the headwater streams of the Sugar Creek Watershed in Ohio. The fellowship program extended this long-term project into the schools in the Sugar Creek watershed. The fellowship program emphasized place-based education. Most schools that participated in the program had a local headwater stream which served as an outdoor laboratory. Every year, eight Graduate Fellows worked with classroom teachers to incorporate their area of expertise into the on-going class curriculum with a goal to introduce a scientific approach with place-based, hands-on activities. This created learning opportunities that encouraged appreciation of biocomplexity and advocated good environmental stewardship in local communities. Graduate Fellows had a variety of research backgrounds including Forest Ecology, Soil Science, Agronomy, Molecular Biology, Entomology, Fluvial Geomorphology, Aquatic Ecology, and Sociology. This interdisciplinary atmosphere enhanced the Fellows’ innovative and successful leadership. In addition, the Fellows’ love of their subject matter and enthusiasm for scientific research stimulated interest and inspired their students to consider careers in the sciences and technology. The Sugar Creek watershed continues to be a focus of ongoing research at OSU. The fellowship program is one of several training grants that operate there. Over the last five years in which this fellowship has been in operation at OSU, the participating academic departments and programs have supported the efforts of this educational program. The initial NSF project provided funding for five years. Due to its success, additional funding was secured from the Graduate School and participating departments to continue the program at a funding rate of four graduate fellows for an additional three years. Highlights from seven years of the fellowship program: 1. GK-12 Graduate Fellows 33 OSU GK-12 Graduate Fellows have participated in this program and engaged with over 4,400 K-12 students from the Sugar Creek watershed and surrounding communities. Graduate Fellows published over 30 articles in peer-reviewed national and international science journals. After their participation to the fellowship program, numerous Graduate Fellows acquired career paths involving teaching, or science education/communication. Graduate Fellows also participated in the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center’s (OARDC’s) "Science of Agriculture" workshop every year. The aim of this workshop was to expose K-12 students to scientific research and give them an opportunity to experience an actual research facility. Over 1,000 public education and numerous home-schooled students from across North East Ohio, including the Sugar Creek watershed, have participated in this event each year. This event provided Graduate Fellows the opportunity to offer hands-on science learning activities focused on assessing water quality and macroinvertebrate identification. Graduate Fellows developed and led environmental science learning activities presented at the "Family Farm Field Day". This event was a day-long agricultural fair organized by the local Amish community that attracts several thousand participants. Various learning activities were offered by the Fellows including aquatic macroinvertebrate identification using field microscopes. The activities attracted a total of more than 2,000 K-12 level children who were mainly Amish, many of whom might have had limited exposure to formal science education. 2. Participating teachers and students The following are a few quotes from the participating science teachers "Graduate Fellows played a vital role in ‘bringing real science into the classroom’". "The Fellowship program has been a success and demonstrates a critically effective way to improve science instruction and student learning." "It was great to have someone to collaborate with, somebody who knows science to talk it out with. The ability to have ‘adult conversations; about science with the fellows was of value to the teachers." "With a place-based approach students could examine "their own backyards", and It progressed when fellows introduced technologies available on the internet such as GIS and Google map applications." "When the female fellow comes in, the girl students just light up. There is just a connection there." 3. Diverse audiences In an effort to expand the program’s outreach, the Fellows worked with The Wilderness Center (TWC), a nonprofit nature center located within the Sugar Creek area to create watershed science lessons for secondary school students that included hands-on, place-based activities. These lesson packages were created and packaged in a tote box to facilitate the easy use of the equipment and materials by TWC educators. The aim of this partnership is to increase accessibility of place-based watershed science curriculum to any secondary school students visiting the Wilderness Center, which extends the learning opportunities beyond the project period.
