This effort extends the activities of the Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence: Ocean Learning Communities (COSEE-OLC) located in Washington state. COSEE-OLC fosters the development of communities around ocean issues. It engages these communities, which include the general public and students of all levels, by organizing learning activities across a broad range of informal and formal settings. Throughout the proposed efforts we will work to increase participation of underrepresented persons in ocean research and education, especially through citizen science and associated science learning experiences.
We have developed a strong relationship with the Puget Sound region's Marine Volunteer Community (MVC) with whom we engage in ocean awareness and research activities. The MVC has a high amplification factor owing to its broad reach to families and schools visiting beaches up and down the coast and Puget Sound. Second, we will continue to study how and why people learn about the ocean in formal and informal situations in ways that are personally consequential, and we will promote the interdisciplinary Learning Sciences research perspective more generally. We will leverage both of these activities to develop tools and approaches that support scientifically and educationally rigorous citizen science efforts on a variety of ocean research topics.
We will engage diverse K-12 students, teachers and adult volunteers in citizen science research and associated learning experiences in partnership with ocean scientists. Learning scientists and informal education staff will design and study educational experiences and curricula to support meaningful learning about the ocean at the Seattle Aquarium, in classrooms, and out in the field. These efforts will include collaboration with programs and institutions already engaged in citizen science to help strengthen and extend the reach of such efforts. Resources and publications will be developed to promote these educational models more broadly.
As a partner in the Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence – Ocean Learning Communities (COSEE-OLC), Ocean Inquiry Project (OIP) supported the three-fold overarching mission of the Center: a) Foster community development around ocean issues and engage communities in efforts to bring the latest scientific information about the ocean to the general public; b) Study the act of learning in formal and informal situations, and bring a Learning Sciences lens to National COSEE efforts; and c) Develop tools to help scientists engage with the general public in informal venues, and establish science-focused Citizen Science efforts that combine the interests and activities of scientists with the power of a large marine volunteer workforce to help collect data. COSEE-OLC fostered collaborations between different ocean-based communities to form learning communities. By sharing current marine research and experiences, these learning communities facilitated citizens to become better stewards of the marine environment. Ocean Inquiry Project (www.oceaninquiry.org) provided ocean-research field experiences to audiences targeted by COSEE-OLC, which had the value-added benefit of providing forums for cross-communication and collaboration among the various communities that comprise the broader "Ocean Learning Community". These educational cruises gave students of all ages and backgrounds (including marine conservation volunteers, informal educators, and formal educators) access to the ocean environment of Puget Sound. The cruises were staffed by young volunteer oceanographers who honed their public communication skills by promoting ocean literacy and knowledge to mostly non-scientist audiences. These volunteer instructors, in turn, gained local knowledge of Puget Sound, new perspectives, questions to ponder, and potential connections to local groups interested in their science. During the three-year period of this grant, we conducted 18 cruises targeting the Ocean Learning Communities of COSEE-OLC. As with our prior collaboration with COSEE-OLC (2008-2010), we focused largely on the Marine Volunteer Community, consisting of mostly adults who spend time on beaches at low tide, in aquaria and/or marine science centers, interpreting for the general public. Ocean literacy and preservation principles are spread to the public largely through these volunteers; however, they often have no prior exposure to the process of science or ocean research. Reaching this community was particularly important because of its desire and common goal to share knowledge with the broader public, thereby extending the value and educational reach of each cruise to countless others. Evaluations of these participants showed learning and engagement with ocean science in a positive and lasting way. In addition to the COSEE-OLC groups, OIP engaged K-12, community college, and graduate-student groups. We regularly provided cruises for another NSF-funded program, UW’s Ocean and Coastal Interdisciplinary Science (OACIS) GK-12, which placed graduate students in K-12 classrooms to co-teach science classes. Through a family-foundation grant, we partnered with a local middle-school to evaluate how the on-water experience of OIP increased the effectiveness of a COSEE-OLC sponsored curriculum, "My Place in Puget Sound". We also collaborated with local organizations funded through the PNW NOAA Bay Watershed Education and Training grant program to provide Puget Sound marine science and research experiences for watershed focused teacher professional development workshops. Our own group of volunteer instructors comprised a unique Ocean Learning Community that we served through annual training cruises, as well as through their teaching-time on cruises by periodically rotating them out of their ‘comfort zone’ areas to get better acquainted teaching topics outside their expertise. These volunteer instructors were primarily students in UW’s Oceanography, Fisheries, and/or Marine and Environmental Affairs programs, both graduate and undergraduate. Evaluations show that participation made a lasting impact on nearly 100% of them, including their view of the value and importance of NSF’s Broader Impact requirement. Furthermore, many of them gained useful skills in teaching and outreach for their current activities and research, some as young NSF PIs. Evaluations of past instructors have determined significant long-term impact of OIP participation, as will be reported at the 2014 Ocean Sciences Meeting. We supported communication and collaboration among the members of the Ocean Learning Community by hosting and supporting workshops. We co-hosted several more workshops for Boat-based Educators in Puget Sound, a community that is responsible for a large amount of informal education regarding the local marine environment. We provided support for a number of COSEE-OLC’s seminars and events, including one on various means to better Broader Impacts, and a series of Lightning Talks for the broader ocean learning community. Hundreds of Ocean scientists, graduate students, and others attended these events and seminars.
