Greetings! We hope you enjoy watching our iMovie! After completing our project, one student described the work in the following way, “We went through the lessons by conversating and figuring out solutions from what we learned. For me, it felt very student-led.”

After you watch our iMovie, we are curious to know your thoughts about the following questions:

-    How do you support student-led conversations?

-    How do you integrate engineering practices in a science classroom?

Cool project! I really like that you included testimonials from your students, and I love the term "eco-solutioning." 

I enjoyed learning about your work. I'm wondering about this part of your description: "learning is used towards local environmental solutions such as increasing local populations." Does your project provide a specific framework such that other teachers could adapt it for their localities? And, what are you thinking about next given your findings? 

Hi Calli! Thanks for your question. Yes, we have developed a learning approach called "eco-solutioning" that guides students in extending their 3D science knowledge through the design of solutions to local environmental problems, such as how to manage local invasive species. We are developing a research paper that outlines the 5 steps of our learning approach that is modeled after the 5Es. The steps are Engage, Explore, Explain, Engineer, Inform. We'd love to send you a copy and get your thoughts once the paper is complete. Next, we are implementing the unit this summer and next fall and conducting research studies on student learning and teacher interaction. Thanks again for your questions!

Thanks, Nancy. I'd love to check out your paper once it's ready. I'm also looking forward to learning about the results you find in the coming year. 

Thank you for the work you are doing. This topic is close to my heart and I love how much voice you are giving the youth.

Perrin

Hi Nancy! It's great to learn about the exciting work you are doing. Love the butterfly. Your video is thought provoking. We share your interest in making science more accessible and understandable. See our work exploring the ways teachers use data while teaching for social justice in science--including helping students interpret scientific data. Enjoy, Marcia

Hi Nancy and team,

"Life right here and everywhere"-- Yes! I love this. I'm intrigued by the "right here and everywhere" tagline b/c it highlights the local/global connections, which is really quite lovely and powerful. I appreciated the prominence of students' voices in this summary of your work.

I'm wondering about how well this work translated during the pandemic shift. What is the nature of youths' connection to the natural world when the educational learning experience is virtual? Are there particular affordances of your virtual Gooru environment? I'd love to hear more about that platform.

I also wondered about your research questions. What are you most interested in learning? 

Thanks for sharing this great work!

Given the fantastic student testimonials in this video it seems like it really engaged students. Beyond a focus on  a relevant eco-situation problem, what components of the program do you think most contributed to the level of engagement you observed? 

Having students participate in science activities that are unique to their communities make  learning authentic and relevant.  In this project students develop a plan to educate themselves about their community. This is good, however, I am interested in knowing how the overall project will be evaluated.

Great project!  It is so important that students connect with their world, that is, the part of the world they inhabit — there's so  much going on everywhere.

   I am curious if the students include some reporting to, or informing, the community about their projects, so that their families and neighbors benefit from the students' new insights.

Thanks for your great question, Brian. Starting with our fall 2021 implementation, we hope and expect that students can end the unit by presenting guidelines for managing invasive species that they have learned in the unit to family members and local stakeholders, including city planners. In a previously-funded NSF project, students' presentation to families and city planners was the cumulative part of the unit and a very important motivational summary activity for the students and teachers, as well as the community organizers. We are happy to report on this piece of our work in the winter or spring once we have implemented the full unit. 

Love that violin music -- and the title of the video grabbed me too. And nice to bump into you, Nancy! love the kid testimonials -- put a smile on my face.

Great to see both of you here too! Thought one of you might also recognize the song as "Flight of the Bumblebee" since our kids are studying insects.. Best wishes to you both. Give me a holler if you're interested in skiing Utah powder!