Hello! Thank you for viewing our video, “Water Quality Across Grade Levels.” We are looking forward to having discussions about water quality, K-12 science, environmental sustainability, collaboration, accessibility, and citizen science. We hope our video inspires you, and we’re eager to receive your feedback and answer any questions.

Nice work! Did your educators interface with county water experts? (I'm assuming these are rural areas, where water expertise is run through extension and not urban watershed districts.) Was the topic of toxicology at all political in farming communities or was the topic welcomed? I'm a Master Water Steward in Minnesota (wonderful program, see: https://minnesotawaterstewards.org/). I also did my master's capstone in educational technology on the topic of urban watersheds. My project combined place based education with mobile learning and was run in Duluth on Lake Superior and the Twin Cities on the Mississippi River with middle school students in out of school time. So, I appreciate the importance of water education and your innovative work. Congrats!

I really enjoy this project! I love the opportunity to further your education while using the content to add to your school's curriculum. May I ask, what is the name of the Citizen/community Science project did the students connect with? 

This looks like such a great project! I look forward to hearing about all the great things that the teachers do in their classrooms after participating in this program. 

It's great to see other projects focusing on teacher development! We also have a summer training program for our teachers in computer science. What are some methods you use for engaging with and supporting teachers, both during summer trainings and throughout the school year, to maintain positive and productive relationships?

Thanks! Yes, this was such a great learning experience for my students and me!

The online citizen science platform we used was the  EarthEcho Water Challenge. 

https://www.earthecho.org/about

https://www.monitorwater.org/

If you have any more questions, please let us know. 

You guys are so right about nature-based science education!  It is the way to create awareness in students of the environment and give them a sense of responsibility and ownership towards the earth.  That won't happen if students spend all their time in front of some kind of screen. They have to interact with the environment to value it.  Great project, fantastic job, and keep up the good work! 

What a great program!  It is especially meaningful for rural areas, where sometimes communities depend on natural watersheds as water sources.

Citizen Science data contributions are a particularly good way to demonstrate the interconnectedness of the world through water.  Thanks for sharing your project!  It's made me return to ideas I once had about including a citizen science component in our Noyce summer internship (which also has a focus on water).

Also, I'm wondering if you've looked at incorporating any activities from Project WET. 

I think a Noyce summer internship with a citizen science component sounds like a great idea. Citizen science is not only sharing data with a larger body of scientists, it's also sending the message that we can make a difference; every little bit helps. 

I checked out Project WET. I love the watershed stewardship page. It's so important to break down complex scientific concepts and make information accessible. I'm definitely going to use this resource. Thanks for sharing!

I love citizen science. It's a way of sharing data with a larger body of scientists, as well as sending the message that we can make a difference; every little bit helps. 

I looked at the Project WET program. I love the watershed stewardship page. It's so important to break down complex scientific concepts and make information accessible. I'm definitely going to use this resource. Thanks for sharing!

I love the citizen science. I also appreciate how you are growing the capacity of the teachers and supporting students becoming scientists and stewards of their waterways.  I wonder how you will pull together the different focus from each year.  I assume that the teachers would have different students each year.

Very nice project. Engaging teachers in research is important in developing their understandings of the challenges and successes of evidenced-based scientific work (nature of science) that can be translated to their classroom teaching! I applaud your focus on sustainability and water quality. Have you been able to measure impact of this project on teacher and as applicable, their students' learning (e.g., development of reasoning, achievement) or affective variables such as interest, attitudes, and motivation? If so, what have you found so far? 

A very interesting project with a  mixture of research experiences for teachers, and then the impact on students' understanding of research through citizen science. I'm interested in the impact on teachers and students. It's not only nature based but culturally relevant as well. Is there a plan for advocacy around water quality?

Hi Ann,

Thank you for the encouragement and kind words! The water quality investigation was the first time my students were involved with hands-on nature-based learning. It was also their first time exploring the scientific method and using lab books. I didn't measure student affect, but this is a great idea! I'll be working with the same group of students next year, so I could get a survey started and measure attitudes toward science, etc. 

If you have more questions or ideas, please let us know!

My class has worked with Ms. Bartnick.  She is very knowledgeable in science and we are glad she is part of our school district.

Thanks Ms. Collins! It was great working with you last year on our science unit and this year doing the solar energy carbon footprint.

Great work.

Do you have videos that we can share with students for hands-on STM?

This sounds like such a great project and positive experience for the teachers and students. I'm curious if you all have been able to document any growth in students' positive attitudes toward environmental stewardship (or similar) as a result of working with local data related to nearby water sources.

Hi Jonathon. Thanks for watching our video. I've gathered data in the past on students' attitudes toward science, but I didn't do that with this project. I think I'm going to do a survey at the end of this school. I'm fortunate to have the same students for science next year, so I'll be able to collect some more data. Thanks for the great idea. 

It was great to see how this was adapted across grade levels to encourage students of all ages to make connections to the environment and engage in nature based learning!

Thanks for watching our video Liz! During our summer research, our group adapted the investigation even further. We had one teacher who did a simpler version for 3rd grade special education students and another teacher who did investigations with high school ag students.

Great video summarizing your project. Thanks for helping publicize all the great work you are doing to help teach the next generation the most important thing to keep our planet healthy and our ecosystems functioning.

This is such an incredible project and a great hands-on learning experience for these students. Congrats to all of the educators involved! We were honored to have you all present at our Annual Conference this year and truly hope you will continue to stay involved with EEAI to inspire other educators in Illinois. Congrats!

thank you Abbie for the words of encouragement

This has been a great experience for my students and me. we will definitely stay involved in EEAI in the future.

This is a great program.  I love the citizen science aspect of your project showing students how they can use science to solve real world problems.

I love how your project was scalable up and down grade levels and that the themes are related to the concept of environmental sustainability. First what made you decide on the umbrella of environmental sustainability and second, what have been some past, and what will be some future themes?

Hi Kwame. Our program, SIU River Region Sustainability, focuses on environmental sustainability. The program’s content elements follow a progression through the topics of leadership and general sustainability concepts: toxicology and waste management, biodiversity, climate change, and energy (https://noyce.siu.edu/prog-over/). The research we will be involved with this summer will be biodiversity and future themes are climate change and energy. Thanks for watching our video and the questions. 

I really loved your video, especially the radish seeds sprouting and growing! Five years seems like a lot of time for teachers to be participating in the Noyce scholars master teacher program. What is keeping them motivated? And are you still adding new cohorts?

Thanks! Lindsay did such a fantastic job with the video. The Noyce program itself is what keeps me motivated! I'm so grateful for all the learning experiences and then taking that back to my 5th-grade students. The cohort I'm in focuses on environmental sustainability, which is something that I'm super passionate about. Also, I look forward to our Summer Research Immersion! As far as new cohorts go, I'm not sure. I hope this answers your questions and thanks for watching our video.

Our master teacher's fellowship is spread out and we only take one class per term. This allows us to go deeper into each topic without getting overwhelmed as we teach to the fullest. I agree with my friends that the motivation comes from the encouragement ftom our great cohort and the assignments to include what we learn into our lessons, thereby becoming better educators. 

Hi John, Thanks for watching our video featuring education and engineering college students making robots with 5th graders. I left a response for you with this year's Audience Choice winner for a COVID companion robot (worth posting here too - I'm so impressed with Ariana and her robot parrot!). Your team's work is really exciting. It's wonderful to see you were able to continue to pull this off during COVID. We've been searching for engineering projects that represent what's happening in industry and are meaningful for the kids - while still being feasible. You seem to have landed a perfect such activity, but for science. Did you find that the elementary kids were excited by the topic? Have you already designed your activities for the coming years' themes? I'd love to hear what you have planned. Does your team design the activities on their own or are they consulting with teachers like you? I can see the benefits of having a team combining expertise from k-12 and higher ed!

Nice project!

Hi Susan! Thanks for watching our video! We really enjoyed doing these science investigations and participating in citizen science with our students.

Fantastic work you are doing.

Your and our programs have much in common.  Very complementary.  

We specialize in energy, climate science, and STEM based action on energy and climate.  Looks like those will also be the focus of yours in the coming years.

Should we be staying in touch.  Potential collaborations? 

Hope so!  

What a fantastic project! I like the idea of working with teachers, the shared leadership across boundaries of subject, role while promoting environmental sustainability and science investigations.

This is a great video and project! I really appreciate the different branches of the program, with the teachers learning via a master teacher program, and the students learning via hands-on investigations (knowledge transfer from teachers to students), and then the citizen science component as well. I was curious if there was cross-pollination between different cohorts- e.g. do the high schoolers present or mentor the younger grades? Do the teachers also meet/network as a cohort?

I also appreciate the comments above suggesting connections with water quality managers/experts as well- another great link to potentially make!

Hi Holly,

This year with Covid restrictions, our students weren't able to mentor much, although Lindsay had her students do video recordings for her remote students. Also, John and I were able to do a virtual field trip via Zoom with his students in Missouri and my students in Illinois. Our students learned about water quality and envirnmental stewardship while on the "field trip." My students were originally going to mentor younger students, but again with Covid, there were restrictions. 

Yes, our MTF cohort meets and collaborates on projects. We meet as s group for a different class each semester and again in the summer for research. This summer's theme is biodiversity and we're learning about tardigrades at the Cache River. We then collaboate and do presentations and create lessons to take back to our classrooms. 

I hope this answers your questions and thanks for your interest in our project.

Well done....spot on!

Thanks Craig! Starting with the water toxicology class, then engaging my students with the water quality investigation and contributing to citizen science, and now being a part of the STEM for All Video Showcase has been such a rewarding experience!

It's been great working with Lindsay and John on this project and receiving all the support from our River Region cohort.