This strategy project will engage 84 middle school teachers and 2,688 of their students from 6 New York City Title I middle schools in learning and using science, math and IT to research New York City urban ecosystems services of energy, water and biodiversity. Using inquiry, scientific method and project based learning students will acquire 21st century workforce readiness skills while being exposed to the urban jobs connected to the natural infrastructure on which the City depends. The project brings together several partners to achieve its goals and objectives: Columbia University; New York City?s Department of Education; Six Title 1 NYC middle schools; and representatives of the public and private sector. Teachers attend a 3 week TREES Summer Institute to train them in Community Ecology and ICT and a model of project based learning, Integrated Projects Week (IPW). Then teachers implement IPW during the academic year. Students will share their data, findings, and Showcase projects through social networks. Teachers will compile and assess practices and promulgate their professional development knowledge through a Learning Community Model. A focus on community ecology links to urban ecosystem goods and services: (1) Water; (2) Energy; and (3) Biodiversity
Technology, Research, Ecology and Exchange for Students, TREES has worked with 90 middle school teachers on how to develop integrated, hands-on inquiry-based, STEM and STEM ICT curriculum. TREES project participants are New York City educators from seven Title I and Title III public middle schools in the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn, who are partnered with Columbia University’s Earth Institute (EI), Office of Academic and Research Programs (OARP). The intellectual merit of TREES, along with the specifics of broader societal impacts, rest in effectively meeting the goals of TREES project, to: 1) support teachers in acquiring advanced content and skill knowledge in STEM and STEM ICT so that they can weave their new or enhanced knowledge into middle school core curriculum; and, 2) by doing so, engage with middle school children around the requisite skills and knowledge they need for high school, higher education and/or for 21st century STEM and STEM ICT careers. In the context of middle schools, the skills and content knowledge are those of critical thinking, numeracy and literacy skills, and scientific inquiry. The teachers who participated in TREES did so as interdisciplinary teams across the disciplines of science, math, technology, literacy, social studies, in some cases, art and music, as well as general and special education. Over the four years of TREES, five to seven schools participated. The largest of the schools has over 1200 students, the smallest has between 10-40 (this is a an alternative learning school for children) and the mid-range is approximately 500 students. Principals formed a TREES advisory group to offer consistent feedback to the Columbia investigators and project staff to maintain quality and effectiveness. Extensive evaluation was conducted each year. From our TREES goals we also developed the overarching objective of our work together that helped connect the cohorts across the four years: How can we make STEM and STEM ICT learning so meaningful for students that they become high achievers, remain in school and graduate from high school, go onto higher education and successfully prepare for STEM ICT job of their choice? The TREES teachers attended 120 Hours of lectures and experiential learning episodes with natural and physical science faculty and researchers, doctoral and masters level students, from the Earth Institute and from the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology. The learning occurred during the academic year in Saturday workshops and during a July intensive institute. Teachers could opt to obtain three points of graduate credit in human ecology and conservation biology applied to their masters degrees. All teachers received Professional Development (PD) credit required by the New York City and New York State Departments of Education. The TREES Program was designed so that the TREES teachers, themselves, received the opportunity to be students again, in and outside of the classroom. They went on fieldtrips and experienced short-term fieldwork in NYC ecosystems for the purpose of answering research questions, gathering and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, and presenting their findings through scientific posters and science gallery presentation and critique. In addition, TREES teachers established deeper connections to social and environmental issues and gained a better understanding of the importance of both the natural sciences and the social sciences in decision-making through case study and role-plays. One case, Marcellus Shale Hydraulic Fracturing: A Case Study of Natural Gas Drillling in New York State, was used over three years of TREES, while the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: A Case Study of BP's "Blowout" in the Gulf of Mexico, was analyzed by the first TREES cohort. Each cohort also engaged in the work of transfering their newly acquired knowledge, as a result of TREES, to their schools' core STEM, STEM ICT curriculum. In all instances, this core curriculum transfer was (is) aligned with New York State and Common Core Standards, Finally, TREES teachers designed and developed an approach to STEM and STEM ICT project based learning called the Integrated Projects Week, or IPW. Because IPW is for all students within the schools' community and all TREES schools have adopted this form of project based learning, more than 10,000 students have experienced IPW. At least once an academic year, and for some TREES teachers and their middle schools, twice a year, the entire student body engages fully in a week of project learning, inclusive of primary and secondary research, use of technology, production of deliverables, and presentation of their work in a celebratory activity called Showcase. All TREES schools have committed to continuing IPW for their STEM and STEM ICT learning for the foreseable future. Please see the website: www.trees.ei.columbia.edu Contact Dr. Anne Degnan for more information on TREES and the work of the Earth Institute, Columbia University with K-12 teachers and students in STEM, STEM ICT and sustainability science. She is available at ndegnan@ei.columbia.edu or by phone at 212-854-8310.
