This project is working to bring current ocean science research on marine environments and ecosystems into the GLOBE program and provide opportunities for GLOBE students to make comparisons between their local environments and extreme environments of the deep sea. Scientists and educators from the Ridge 2000 (R2K), InterRidge, and ChEss (Biogeography of Deep-Water Chemosynthetic Ecosystems) programs engaged in interdisciplinary studies of deep-sea systems are working in collaboration with the Center for Science and the Schools (CSATS) to support collaborations between marine scientists and elementary and secondary students. The foundation of this project is the "From Local to Extreme Environments" (FLEXE) program, in which students collect data in their local environment and compare it with equivalent data from partner schools and from an extreme environment, namely the deep sea. Hydrothermal vents and cold seeps are among the extreme environments being compared. Students, working either as a Tier 1 (stand-alone) or Tier 2 (paired with another school) effort, participate in three main activities: (1) protocol-driven fieldwork and analysis, and analysis of data from an extreme environment; (2) web-based interactions with scientists and students from partner schools; and (3) culminating activities that include reporting and peer review. New protocols to collect key environmental parameters (e.g., temperature, salinity), some of which can be adapted from existing GLOBE protocols, will be implemented each year. The FLEXE Forum provides an online data system for exploring Learning Activities developed for the project and for facilitating interactions between students and between students and scientists. Through this Forum, collaborating scientists submit scientific questions to the students for them to answer as they carry out their investigations, and provide feedback on the answers in a timely manner. As a culminating Wrap Up experience, students write template-based scientific reports that are peer-reviewed by other participating students. Teacher professional development resources, including Teacher's Guides, online training, and other web-based learning and assessment tools, are also being developed through this project. These combined activities are helping students to develop inquiry skills, learn about life in the marine environment and their local ecosystems, and gain new understanding of the fundamental integrated Earth system processes that control habitability in diverse settings.
Over a three-year period, the project engaged 3269 students and more than 100 teachers in weeks-long scientific investigations that connected schoolyard ecological research with research in one of the world’s most extreme environments: deep ocean hydrothermal vent zones. The effort was a collaboration between Ridge 2000, Penn State's Center for Science and the Schools (CSATS), and the GLOBE program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment). FLEXE supported web-mediated, research-focused interactions between U.S. middle and high school students and students from Australia, Costa Rica, England, Germany, and Thailand. In one randomized trial, U.S. students participating in scientific peer review had superior outcomes when they corresponded with students from other countries, compared to U.S. students who worked with other U.S. students. The initiative examined cognitive and attitudinal outcomes using a variety of metrics, including conventional test items, students' written correspondence, and the dynamics and results of student peer review. FLEXE also engaged an external evaluator, who interviewed participating teachers and provided formative feedback for the development and revision of project materials and activities. The project developed and evaluated an asychrononous online student-scientist forum to connect shipboard scientists with students in joint inquiries of schoolyard and marine systems. In contrast to typical "Ask a Scientist" forums, in the FLEXE Forum, the scientists asked the questions, sharing data with schoolchildren and soliciting their feedback on ecological questions. Through a second randomized trial, we documented the advantage of "personalized" scientist feedback in subsequent student writing, suggesting that interaction with practicing scientists can be motivating to students, even when the interaction is scientist-to-group. In a collaboration with another GLOBE ESSP (Earth Systems Science Project), FLEXE subsequently evaluated the efficacy of its student-scientist forum system in a non-oceanic context: a domestic educational project that connected watershed scientists with schoolchildren. From a third randomized trial in that context, analysis again documented better outcomes for students whose classes received personalized scientist feedback. The FLEXE project was driven by two strategic concerns, and was ultimately informed along both dimensions. First, it evaluated the feasibility of engaging students in authentic scientific practices, such as peer review. Second,it sought to develop strategies to effectively engage successful, busy scientists in scalable outreach projects. The results of our project may be helpful to other scientific initiatives that seek to engage schools in meaningful, substantive ways, and we have placed a number of project tools (data systems, website architecture, and server-side code) into the public domain to facilitate such efforts. Additionally, the FLEXE curriculum materials themselves are freely available for use by others and are available through the project's website (http://flexe.psu.edu) and the GLOBE Program (www.globe.gov/explore-science/field-campaigns/essp/flexe/).
