- Deren Guler
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/derenguler/
- CEO
- Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
- teknikio
- Sheryl Sotelo
- Teacher
- Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
- Chugach School District
Integrated IoT for Educators and Learners
NSF Awards: 1927115
2021 (see original presentation & discussion)
Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12
Rural Alaskan students live in some of the most vulnerable regions of the planet, areas that are highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change. The objectives of the Environmental Literacy through Alaskan Climate Stewards (ELACS) project provide rural, K-12 Alaskan students and teachers with opportunities that will help build an understanding of what is happening in their local environments, and increase overall scientific and climate literacy, and contribute to community resilience. In this video, we share the preliminary results of our ELACS project where 100 students in the Chugach school district were given Tekniverse wireless microcontrollers and used data from local weather stations, NOAA, and the Alaska Earthquake Center to create a network of projects. Students explored concepts of data analysis, visualization, coding, and remote collaboration using custom-built Tekniverse tools.
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Deren Guler
CEO
Hello and thank you for watching our video! We are especially interested in student projects dealing with real-world applications that use coding for enabling remote collaboration. If you are an educator or researcher interested in using the Internet of Things to connect students' electronics projects in real-time, we think you will find out solution and project very relevant. Tekniverse is highly customizable to different data sets, and we would love to find more partners to help us broaden our reach and applications! If you would like to collaborate with us to this end or if this type of project would be replicable in your setting, let us know!
We also are excited to discover other projects and platforms where students create something that can connect themselves to each other and also projects that can benefit their communities. We'd be happy to share more about our experience with you on your program, you can find additional Tekniverse Projects here.
Please find links below to explore the platform for free, note that you will need a Bluebird microcontroller to see sensor data.
https://tekniverse.teknikio.com/ Download on mac, iPhone or iPad Download for Android
If you want to purchase a Bluebird, you can use the code "STEM4ALL" for 15% off on our online store!
Mark Biberg
The students in Adak had a really good time with the Blue Bird technology, we lost our momentum because of spring break and testing, but still remember the spark that this activity provided. Deron and Sheryl were patient teachers and opened up this STEM portal for some of our reluctant leaners. We hope to re-engage with the Blue Bird technology soon and get it networked with our weather station. Thank you for a wonderful STEM blueprint. The gang in Adak.
Kirstin Milks
Sheryl Sotelo
Teacher
Hi Mark,
Thank you for watching, your comment, and your participation in this project. I am excited to see where your students go with this and we will have a refresher course in the fall. It will be fantastic to get the Bluebirds working with your weather station. Have a great rest of the year and a fun summer!
Kirstin Milks
Science Teacher
Hi ELACS team! I absolutely love the way that you've been able to put data collection and analysis into the hands and hearts of students. In my high school science classroom, I'm particularly interested in science opportunities where students also get a taste of computer science as well, as this project allows!
I'm curious about how you've scaffolded students to see connections between the simulations that students run using the Bluebird (like building their own earthquake simulator, and taking/analyzing data from it) and analyzing the larger data sets/live streams on earthquakes and weather. How do you help students see the same skills matter? What kind of final projects/products do students create using the larger data sets?
Sheryl Sotelo
Teacher
Hi Kirstin,
Thank you for watching our video. We are going to continue this project next school year, and keep working with the live data streams and the coding. We are hoping to make "an alert system" where the coding produce some audible or visual signal when a certain parameter is met. For example when the earthquake data shows a quake of a certain magnitude within a region that the students has set their program for, their Bluebird will produce a sound or a flashing LED light. A similar alert system can be set up for a weather condition such as a wind speed. The weather greatly impacts the students' lives in terms of supply planes, getting in and out of the village, so they realize that this data does matter since it is closely connected to them. I am hoping to introduce them to bigger data sets such as Ocean Observation systems (our students live in coastal villages) and see the trends both from long term data sets and compare that data to data they are collecting first hand. Final projects will include a sharing of their data and analysis to their communities and tribal councils. The coding projects will be highlighted in that sharing along with the links to get the local weather for the student weather station and of course the Alaska Earthquake Center which is all available to the public.
So making the data highly relevant to the students is how I am hoping to make these skills matter! Thank you again for your question!
Kirstin Milks
Katie O'Hara
This is such a great hands-on STEM learning activity! Did you face any challenges amidst the pandemic that you may not have otherwise when implementing this program?
Deren Guler
CEO
Thanks Katie! Due to the remote location of the villages, educators told us that they were not affected too much by the pandemic for this program in terms of student interaction, which we found interesting. I think the hardest part was that we were not able to have an in-person intro workshop with the educators. We only had zoom and troubleshooting videos, and they went above and beyond to understand how the systems works and help their students. When we asked this question in a post-program interview, one educator said her advice to others was to just keep trying! We hope to be able to visit and do so this fall!
Kirstin Milks
Rosio Bugarin Pedroso
Principal
Making science relevant to students is so important and this program seems to be doing just that. I am wondering how you have tracked increased science literacy among those who participate, students and teachers or plan to. I am also curious to know how you are measuring "increasing community resilience" in your project. Love this idea and wondering how you are addressing it.
Thank you.
Sheryl Sotelo
Teacher
Hi Rosio,
Thank you for watching our video and for your interest. We have used some Climate and Science Literacy Pre/Post Assessments and survey tools as well. We have also measured increasing community resilience by the implementation of students' projects that benefit the community. These projects have been well received by community members and have built confidence in the students.
Kirstin Milks
Sarah Haavind
Senior Research Project Manager
Congratulations ELACS team on such an inspiring project in an extremely rural setting! You offer a terrific window into your work by having your teachers tell the story. Thank you for that! I appreciate your note above that "The weather greatly impacts the students' lives in terms of supply planes, getting in and out of the village, so they realize that this data does matter since it is closely connected to them." ...and it makes me curious about the positive relationship you describe with the community, being "well received" overall. How were you able to foster that relationship? Even less rural settings can pose challenges of trust and welcoming for scientists and educators coming in to work with children on research projects such as this...I'm also thinking of their own, indigenous local knowledge base regarding weather, warning signs of earth quakes or other natural phenomena. Does your work provide any entry-points for that kind of exchange and conversation?
Kirstin Milks
Deren Guler
Sheryl Sotelo
Teacher
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for watching our video. Our teachers in these rural communities do a lot of the relationship building in their roles as educators. I have been traveling to the same villages for 7 years so that time working with the students has definitely resulted in more trust as I visit the communities each month. (With the exception of this past year and the pandemic). Students have come up with ways to integrate their cultural knowledge and the wealth of experience, wisdom, and traditional knowledge that their families have about their environment. One primary classroom made a dictionary of weather vocabulary in English and their Native Language. Students in another village are interviewing elders about climate change impacts and what changes they have noticed regarding the animals and plants over their lifetime. The communities are very close knit and supportive of their young people, so this has been a factor in our projects being well-received. If the students are interested and excited about their learning, then the community is interested as well. The teachers are very respectful of the communities' wishes and have established that rapport with parents and village elders as well as Tribal Councils. The students enjoy being able to do something that contributes to the benefit of the village, it is a gratifying cycle of action. I think regular, respectful communication is key and remembering you are a visitor in another culture.
Sarah Haavind
Kirstin Milks
Kirstin Milks
Science Teacher
Hi ELACS team! I'm circling back to thank you for this lovely video, and the lovely descriptions in the comments about how to collaborate with students, families, and elders in authentic ways that share power. Excited to see the future work of you and the students uncovers!
Melinda Higgins
Congratulations on an amazing program that truly incorporates integrated STEM and culturally-relevant pedagogy. It is so important to introduce students to climate education in a way that helps them understand more about the environment and how they can work to positively impact their Villages and towns.
As a project team member of Sheryl's through the 100Kin10 network, we have learned so much through her work in rural Alaska and hope to continue to implement the best practices from this program to hone our abilities to work with other Tribal communities on STEM initiatives.
Thank you all for the incredible work that you are doing!
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.