BNZ LTER Education and Outreach

Elena Bautista Sparrow, Ph.D.

International Arctic Research Center, and School of Natural Resources and Agricultural SciencesUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks

LTER Outreach• K-12 Education• University Education• Outreach to

Communities• Outreach to Agencies• Outreach to the

General Public• Ties to other Long-

Term Research Programs

K-12 Education• Leveraged limited SLTER funding• Partnered with other science education programs

such as GLOBE, Partners in Science, Global Change Education Using Western Science and Native observations and the EPSCoR Alaska Rural Research Partnership

• Expanded SLTER activities to 8 schools in Fairbanks and 34 other schools outside Fairbanks

K-12 Education•Conduct Professional Development workshops for K-12 teachers, model best teaching practices, provide science content, educational materials and equipment•Developed Phenology protocols and learning activities that are part of the Earth As a System Chapter in the GLOBE Teacher’s Guide Published on the web (www.globe.gov) and on CD• K-12 students from 112 schools in 16 countries are using the phenology protocols and have entered their data on the GLOBE web site

Green-up

Green-down

Table 1 Budburst by genus• (Day of Year)• Anchorage• Year Betu Popu Salix Avg.• 2001 124 120 ---- 122• 2002 135 136 137 136• 2003 120 128 129 125• 2004 123 125 125 124• Avg. 125 127 130 127

• Fairbanks• Year Betu Popu Salix Avg.• 2001 135 137 138 137• 2002 134 135 136 135• 2003 125 118 118 120• 2004 122 125 125 124• Avg. 129 129 129 129

2005 Birch Budburst in Fairbanks Area

K-12 Education• LTER personnel help with science fairs or science symposium• LTER PIs and grad students work with K-12 students in classrooms, and on science fair or symposium projects•Students mentored by LTER scientists continue to compete at local, state and national science fairs, and win awards and scholarships•Research Summer Internships for high school students

Alaska’s Boreal Forests and Climate Change

Museum of the North/LTER Educational Traveling Kits

Kits: Introduction to Climate Change (Any science class) What is Change? Measuring Change Patterns of Change

Biogeochemical Cycles (Chemistry or Ecology) Trees of Alaska’s Boreal Forest (Biology or Ecology)

Lakes and Land Cover (Geography) Environmental Jobs and Job Skills (Any science class)

Who: Middle and high school students, rural emphasis

Why: Supplement existing materials for rural science teaching Educational materials based on actual research and collections

Address standards with Alaska-based content Use actual research to illustrate scientific process

Partnership: Nenana City School Chemistry Class (Chuck Hugny)

University Education

• BNZ research sites are used for UAF course field trips and lab exercises

• REU students as research assistants• IGERT program for graduate student

training that links ecological, economic, & cultural aspects of sustainability and resilience

Outreach to Communities• Alaska Boreal Forest Council -

information exchange• Alaska Native Science Commission-

help address concerns of native leaders re environmental changes, and their effects on subsistence and cultural activities

• Tanana Chiefs Conference

Outreach to Agencies• Work with state & federal agencies (AK

Div of Forestry, AK Div of Natural Resources, Alaska Fire Service, AK Dept of Fish & Game, National Park Services etc.

• Joint research programs, discussions of management issues, jointly organized seminars, training programs with agency staff

• Participation on Citizen’s Advisory Committee for Tanana Valley State Forest.

Outreach to General Public• Website: www.lter.uaf.edu• LTER Brochure• Interviews aired on radio and

television stations regarding growing national and international concerns about climate change

• Newspaper articles• Seminars for the general public

Ties to Other Long-Term Research Programs

• Arctic LTER at Toolik Lake• National Park Service to help design

their Long Term Monitoring (LTEM) Program in Alaska

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service research programs on Arctic Wildlife Refuge and Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Ecological consulting

• Ecological monitoring on military bases

Ties to Other Long-Term Research Programs

• National Phenology Network• NEON (National Earth Observatory

Network)• SEARCH (Study of Environmental

Arctic Change)

Cross-site Activities• LTER Executive Committee• LTER Education Executive Committee- developed

LTER ED strategic plan• LTER Education, Outreach and Training Committee • LTER Graduate Student Committee• LTER cross-site synthesis project – E.Kane• LTER ED cross-site proposal• LTER Children’s Book Series for primary students

Education & Outreach

• EOT working groups suggests that an appropriate goal for LTER Education and Outreach efforts is to promote environmental literacy in students, teachers, and the general public.

• We define environmental literacy as having two dimensions: understanding environmental content (as defined by the LTER community) and scientific practices.

Ecosystemfunctioning1/ 2 production,decomposition,nutrient cycling

Biotic structurerank-dominance curves,

life-history traits

Human behavior (society, policy,

economics)

Ecosystemservices

food, pest/disease control,erosion control, soil fertility

Long-term “press”e.g., N deposition, species

invasions, temperature

Short-term “pulse”e.g., fire, storms

Understanding Science Content

Observations

(experiences,data,

phenomena, systems and events in the

world)

Patterns in observations (generaliz-

ations, laws, graphs, tables,

formulas)

Models (hypotheses,

models, theories)

Reasoning from models and patterns (application): Using patterns and models to describe, explain, predict, design

Reasoning from evidence (inquiry): Finding patterns in observations and constructing explanations for those patterns

Understanding Science Practice

A Role for LTER

• Research communities with long histories of interdisciplinary work on environmental issues.

• A network linking those research communities to one another and to educational systems through both personal contact and information technologies.

• Place-based, long-term, spatially distributed data sets and resources for acquiring data.

Long-term ecological sites have 3 important assets that are essential to teaching for environmental literacy:

GOAL 1: Teaching and Learning

• Improve environmental literacy in K-16 and the general public.

• Create network-wide, multi-age communities of practice that involve scientists, local experts and the general public, present and future teachers, and students.

• Change perceptions about ecology, ecologists and other scientists and the way they work (e.g., collaboration).

GOAL 2: Research and evaluation on what we need to know to effectively

reach a diverse audience • Conduct cross-site comparisons of how people of

different ages, cultures, socio-economic status, etc. learn and understand key concepts of environmental literacy

• Implement long-term evaluation of materials, practice, etc. using multiple measures

• Move beyond recruitment of a diverse student body to retention of a diverse workforce in environmental science

GOAL 3: Impacting the broader education system

• Contributing current science research knowledge and practice to education policy discussions and decisions; including state/national standards

• Infuse multi-site research into widely distributed teaching resources (e.g., textbooks, simulations, on-line supporting materials)

• Integrate research and education in future faculty development programs

Key Features & Immediate Goals

• Recognizes that developing an understanding of coupled human-ecosystem interactions is an appropriate goal both for science and for education.

• Takes advantage of existing knowledge and strengths of LTER education programs and national initiatives

• Can expand beyond existing network• Begin with a large-scale study of environmental

literacy, including moving beyond just offering opportunities to participate to being more strategic in our efforts to seek out and include diverse perspectives.

Slope = -0.25 days per year

23-Apr

28-Apr

3-May

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28-May

1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998

Date of leaf-out in Fairbanks (Chena Ridge) 1974-1998

Data courtesy of J. Anderson