Making Natural Connections: An Authentic Field Research Collaboration, led by Washington University, is a comprehensive five-year project designed to engage underserved students in grades 11 and 12 in field-based exploration of the environment. Primary project partners include the Tyson Research Center (TRC) at Washington University and the Missouri Botanical Garden's Shaw Nature Reserve. The four deliverables are as follows: a field program at the Shaw Nature Reserve (SNR), an environmental biology research program, a research communication strategy, and a one-week training experience for science educators to promote dissemination of the program model. The Summer Institute for Field Training (SIFT) at the SNR targets rising eleventh graders with a one-year training program beginning in the summer. Students are introduced to basic ecological concepts, including aquatic biodiversity assessments, species interactions, mark and recapture population studies, population viability exercises, and predator/prey relationships. Other activities include participation in restoration activities and introduction to research skills including plant and animal identification, census techniques, and use of GPS and GIS. Students next participate in the Tyson Environmental Research Fellowship (TERF) in which they work closely with environmental biology faculty, post doctoral fellows, and undergraduate research fellows. Teen cohorts are engaged in research projects on such topics as invasive species impacts and eradication, biodiversity and rare species conservation, and the ecology of infectious diseases. The Research Communication plan includes the development of displays and community presentations to showcase the results of youth research. Finally, the National Dissemination Workshop is a one-week training session for informal science and outreach educators which provides the necessary materials and background to replicate the project design in other locales. The summative evaluation will address impacts on teenage participants (engagement, cognitive and emotional support, competence, career viability, experiential learning), public audiences (awareness of environmental issues, science skills, and knowledge, value, and research impacts), and professional audiences (implementation of teen program, program components). The strategic impact of this project results from the integration of teenage immersion experiences or cultural apprenticeships into research activities at a university-based facility.
