The goals of this GK-12 project are to 1) strengthen MSU.s institutional support for training experiences in a K-12 context in order to enhance the communication and leadership skills of graduate and undergraduate scientists; and 2) enhance science education in rural K-12 settings by infusing locally relevant, current environmental science research about the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem into K-12 classrooms. The Fellow-Teacher partnerships enhanced by a number of focused team activities, joint professional development activities and Teacher collaboration in the Fellow's summer field work. GK-12 Teachers and Fellows collaborate during the school year to develop a lasting product that links the GK-12 Fellow's research and expertise with a science issue of local or regional concern (e.g., water quality, wildlife,climate change).
The intellectual merit of this proposal rests on the potential to develop a model of GK-12 engagement with rural school districts in a state where 42% of the 159,998 K-12 students attend schools in communities where the population is more than 2500. There are two broad impacts of project. First, by bringing to the K-12 classroom scientific research on topics that ultimately relate to the management of a large, diverse and complex ecosystem, the project works towards creating an environmentally literate citizenry who have the capacity to make science-based decisions about contentious resource management issues. Second, by establishing an MSU standard of exposing the best and brightest graduate researchers to the K-12 community, increasing the capacity for future partnerships between academic scientists and K-12 educators while increasing the communication skills of the next generation of scientific researchers. The evaluation will provide strong formative feedback and also determine the extent to which the work succeeds in achieving its desired goals. A key step for the evaluation is the development of a theory of change based on the assumptions underlying the programs activities through dialogs with major stakeholders.
