Ocean sciences faculty and educators in the University of Hawaii system and the Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence California (COSEE CA) propose a new collaboration to extend the COSEE CA courses Communicating Ocean Sciences (COS) and Communicating Ocean Sciences for Informal Audiences (COSIA) to the Central Pacific region. The new project, Pacific Ocean Literacy for Youth, Publics, Professionals and Scientists (POLYPPS), will be based in Hawaii. It will focus on training educators and scientists to effectively communicate ocean sciences to a multi-ethnic population within a range of cultural contexts. Lead by the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), POLYPPS is a collaboration with a broad set of partners, including universities, community colleges, research institutes, professional societies, aquariums, museums, community organizations, governmental agencies, and private companies. The partners advocate that education in the ocean sciences should involve teaching students to apply ocean literacy concepts and use inquiry-based leaning to improve not only their own lives but also their local, national, and global communities.
The primary objective of the POLYPPS collaboration with COSEE CA reflects the COSEE network's mission of integrating research and education in the ocean sciences. Intellectual Merit: POLYPPS will engage researchers, educators and a range of community partners in a network that builds ocean literacy for (1) Hawaii's youth (K-16 students) and public, including Hawaii's substantial, year-round transient tourist population; (2) professionals working in ocean-related businesses; and (3) scientists engaged in ocean research. We will adapt and implement the COSEE CA COS and COSIA courses for our island setting. Broader Impacts: The training for these courses and the teaching of them will create relationships to bridge formal and informal education, research, traditional cultural practices, and public activities. During the three-year period, POLYPPS will help educators employ contextual, place-based ways to engage students in STEM courses. POLYPPS' long-range goal is to build a collaborative network that connects ocean research and teaching with traditional knowledge to facilitate active engagement in stewardship and policy by all ocean users.
The main activities of POLYPPS will be: [1] Organize a training workshop in collaboration with COSEE CA staff that will train a cadre of professionals in Hawaii to teach the COS/COSIA courses; [2] Organize both COS/COSIA as either credit or non-credit courses throughout the University of Hawaii System for: (a) graduate science students participating in GK-12 programs and other graduate students with an interest in education and for community college students in ocean sciences who may consider a career in education; (b) pre-service and in-service K-12 educators; (c) informal educators in non-profit organizations, aquaria, museums, and government educational agencies; and (d) ocean-related businesses, hotels, and tour operators; and [3] Develop new course components that will integrate Hawaii resources, including unique traditional cultural practices and ocean policies, current research on ecosystems of particular relevance to local and regional communities and exemplary curriculum materials.
The primary goal of the POLYPPS was to engage researchers, educators and a range of community partners in a network that builds ocean literacy for Hawai`i’s youth (K-16 students) and public, including Hawai`i’s substantial, year-round transient tourist population; professionals working in ocean-related businesses; and scientists engaged in ocean research. POLYPPS accomplished this through: (1) Training workshops in collaboration with COSEE CA staff that trained a cadre of several dozen professionals in Hawai`i to teach Communicating Ocean Sciences (COS) courses. (2) Offering COS-like courses in the University of Hawai`i System for graduate science students, pre-service and in-service K-12 educators, and informal educators. (3) Developing new course components that will integrate Hawai`i resources, including unique traditional cultural practices and ocean policies, current research on ecosystems of particular relevance to local and regional communities and exemplary curriculum materials. Highlights of this program included three training workshops on Oahu, Maui and Hawaii Island for ocean science and education professionals interested in learning how to teach science communication skills to students and colleagues. The Communicating Ocean Sciences courses were also taught to graduate students at UH Manoa, undergraduate students at Maui College and Kapiolani Community College, and marine tour operators and informal education professionals in the Kona district of Hawaii Island. A wide variety of adaptations and new course components were created for Hawaii audiences. We partnered with a dynamic and respected group of traditional practitioners and a graduate student trained in Hawaiian Studies to advise efforts for respectfully and responsibly integrating aspects of traditional ecological knowledge with the existing course material. These included: 1) an overview of the similarities and differences between Western and Hawaiian worldviews as they relate to science, exploration, and explanation, 2) traditional knowledge experts as resources for knowledge and as staring points for discussion about science, education, and communication topics, 3) discussion on different knowledge systems, ways of knowing and teaching styles, and 4) a cultural field trip that incorporates Western science, Indigenous knowledge, and cultural practices. An unanticipated accomplishment of the POLYPPS program was participation in a NOAA resarch cruise to Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands (NWHI). While on the expedition, the COSEE team documented scientists at work both on ship and in the water and provided GoPro video cameras for scientists to wear when they dove on the reef. Other onboard activities included interviews, video production, an education blog and facebook page, three live radio shows, and correspondence with 10 Hawaii classrooms. After the cruise, educators visited these classrooms in person to talk about the cruise and show some of the photos and video of the scientific research and NWHI. Overall, we estimate that educational information about the research cruise reached thousands of people through online, traditional media, and in-person avenues.
