4694 Views (as of 05/2023)
  1. Lisa Tossey
  2. Assistant Director of Communications and Outreach
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. SEAS Islands Alliance, Maryland Sea Grant, UMCES Univ of Maryland Center for Environmental Science...
  1. Allie Durdall
  2. Watershed & Marine Specialist
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. SEAS Islands Alliance, University of the Virgin Islands
  1. Genae Gonsalves
  2. SEAS Islands Alliance Coordinator
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. SEAS Islands Alliance, University of the Virgin Islands
  1. Soely Luyando Flusa
  2. SEAS Islands Alliance Workforce Fellow
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. SEAS Islands Alliance, Ana G. Méndez University
  1. Ian Perez Cruz
  2. SEAS Islands Alliance Workforce Fellow
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. SEAS Islands Alliance, Ana G. Méndez University
  1. Zola Roper
  2. SEAS Islands Alliance Workforce Fellow
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. SEAS Islands Alliance, University of the Virgin Islands
  1. Joseph Townsend
  2. http://www.josephtownsend.com
  3. SEAS Islands Alliance Workforce Fellow - Coral Disease Response Coordinator for the USVI
  4. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  5. SEAS Islands Alliance, University of the Virgin Islands

SEAS Islands Alliance

NSF Awards: 1930869

2021 (see original presentation & discussion)

All Age Groups

Island regions are strongly connected to the oceans that surround them and are among the country’s most diverse communities. The SEAS Islands Alliance works to broaden participation and possibilities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education with the inclusion of nuanced cultural expertise from diverse underrepresented minority and underserved populations in US territories and US-affiliated islands.

This video highlights ways in which the Alliance works to collaborate with these communities and students through three hubs in Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. It also show how the Alliance is working to engage students in the marine and environmental sciences by illuminating a full career pathway and to increase their sense of belonging in STEM by connecting them across the island hubs.

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Discussion from the 2021 STEM For All Video Showcase (34 posts)
  • Icon for: Lisa Tossey

    Lisa Tossey

    Lead Presenter
    Assistant Director of Communications and Outreach
    May 10, 2021 | 10:38 p.m.

    Thanks for checking out our video, which highlights ways in which the SEAS Islands Alliance works to collaborate with communities and students through three hubs in Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, to broaden participation and possibilities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education! It also shows how the Alliance is working to engage students in the marine and environmental sciences by illuminating a full career pathway and to increase their sense of belonging in STEM by connecting them across the island hubs.

     
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    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Allie Durdall
    Kristin Grimes
  • Icon for: Fredrika Moser

    Fredrika Moser

    Higher Ed Administrator
    May 11, 2021 | 11:55 a.m.

    It is terrific to hear the voices of the students explaining their place along a supportive pathway for aspiring marine scientists. And across U.S. islands and many time zones no less! Big shout out to the students who created this great video.

     
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    Allie Durdall
    Kristin Grimes
    Lisa Tossey
    Genae Gonsalves
  • Icon for: Kristin Grimes

    Kristin Grimes

    Research Assistant Professor
    May 12, 2021 | 08:50 a.m.

    Thank you Fredrika! I agree, the students are so inspiring!

     
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    Lisa Tossey
  • Icon for: Folashade Solomon

    Folashade Solomon

    Facilitator
    Senior Researcher
    May 11, 2021 | 12:56 p.m.

    I wish I could experience this program myself. It seems so exciting. I appreciate how the examples show participants across the pathways. It's very powerful.  What implications can you share from this important work? 

     
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    Lynda Gayden
    Allie Durdall
    Kristin Grimes
    Lisa Tossey
    Genae Gonsalves
  • Icon for: Genae Gonsalves

    Genae Gonsalves

    Co-Presenter
    SEAS Islands Alliance Coordinator
    May 12, 2021 | 09:07 a.m.

    Thank you Folashade! I too wish I could experience these programs myself! An important implication would be focusing on the sense of belonging and offering support to the students in this field. Many beautiful stories have been shared stating that these programs have provided many opportunities for them. Some opportunities they never thought they would have had. 

     
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    Folashade Solomon
    Allie Durdall
    Lisa Tossey
  • Icon for: Kristin Grimes

    Kristin Grimes

    Research Assistant Professor
    May 12, 2021 | 09:12 a.m.

    Hi Folashade! Thank you! I think one of the most important things we are learning from this work is that there are many ways to support island students within STEM ecosystems and that including family, culture, and place are some powerful ways to do this. I am sure others on the team have other thoughts too, so please add them!

     
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    Folashade Solomon
    Allie Durdall
    Lisa Tossey
  • Icon for: Shellie Banfield

    Shellie Banfield

    Higher Ed Administrator
    May 11, 2021 | 05:41 p.m.

    This project is a wonderful collaboration across islands and we are planning a project in the future to connect community colleges together in a similar way. I love the pathways students can clearly see to navigate their STEM careers. This video is well done.

     
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    Shane Woods
    Allie Durdall
    Kristin Grimes
    Lisa Tossey
    Genae Gonsalves
  • Icon for: Kristin Grimes

    Kristin Grimes

    Research Assistant Professor
    May 12, 2021 | 08:45 a.m.

    Thanks Shellie! We'd love to learn more about your project! 

     
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    Lisa Tossey
  • Icon for: Perrin Chick

    Perrin Chick

    STEM Education Specialist
    May 11, 2021 | 07:14 p.m.

    This is exciting and inspiring.  How long do you stay in touch with participants? I would be so curious to see their journey in marine sciences.

     
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    Genae Gonsalves
    Kristin Grimes
    Lisa Tossey
  • Icon for: Kristin Grimes

    Kristin Grimes

    Research Assistant Professor
    May 12, 2021 | 08:49 a.m.

    Hi Perrin! All of the individual interventions have run for different amounts of time and we are better at tracking participants at some levels of our programming (e.g., undergraduate and graduate students) versus pre-college students, at the moment. But, we hope to improve on this. We have built and implemented  a student-tracking system through Salesforce that is helping us to do this.

     
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    Genae Gonsalves
    Shane Woods
    Lisa Tossey
  • Icon for: Karen M Peterman

    Karen M Peterman

    Researcher
    May 14, 2021 | 05:38 p.m.

    Hey Perrin - great to "see" you here! Just a quick note to add to Kristin's. As part of a concurrent effort, we just interviewed 16 of the first 21 students to go through the earlier iterations of our SEAS UVI undergrad and UVI/Penn State Bridge programs. They were part of a program some time between 2017 and 2020. All 16 that we talked to are still involved in marine science, and so we are excited about these early results!  Our PR Hub colleagues also have some strong results related to persistence for their TORGUGA program, though I'm going to be vague about those here because the data aren't mine and I don't want to share anything I'm not supposed to! 

     
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    Genae Gonsalves
  • Icon for: Jamie Bell

    Jamie Bell

    Facilitator
    Project Director
    May 18, 2021 | 07:20 a.m.

    Thanks for this additional insight, Karen. We (CAISE) would love to be able to share your and the Tortuga program's findings with the informal STEM learning community when they are available.

  • Icon for: Karen M Peterman

    Karen M Peterman

    Researcher
    May 18, 2021 | 07:52 a.m.

    Hi Jamie - great to "see" you! We would love to share our results via CAISE, and so I'll reach out in a couple of months when we are ready.  I'll check with the TORTUGA team on their timing and interest too. Thanks for the suggestion! 

  • Icon for: Jamie Bell

    Jamie Bell

    Facilitator
    Project Director
    May 18, 2021 | 07:57 a.m.

    Great, thank you Karen!

  • Icon for: Meghan Marrero

    Meghan Marrero

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 11, 2021 | 09:19 p.m.

    Very inspiring project! Kudos!

     
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    Allie Durdall
    Kristin Grimes
    Lisa Tossey
    Genae Gonsalves
  • Icon for: Kristin Grimes

    Kristin Grimes

    Research Assistant Professor
    May 12, 2021 | 08:49 a.m.

    Thank you Meghan!

     
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    Lisa Tossey
  • Icon for: Jamie Bell

    Jamie Bell

    Facilitator
    Project Director
    May 12, 2021 | 07:13 a.m.

    Thank you for the this compelling, well-organized presentation where the participants' voices are authentic and clear. I'm wondering how much interaction learners have across the island sites and what forms that takes? 

     
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    Allie Durdall
    Kristin Grimes
    Lisa Tossey
    Genae Gonsalves
  • Icon for: Kristin Grimes

    Kristin Grimes

    Research Assistant Professor
    May 12, 2021 | 08:59 a.m.

    Hi Jamie! We connect them in a few different ways. The Islands Alliance Summit is one way, where we connect participants from pre-college through to the Workforce in a two-night/morning virtual event. This event includes families and happens each year. We just held the first of these in March of this year. Another way is by bringing students together at professional society meetings. For undergraduate, graduate, Bridge, and Workforce Fellows, this happens through attendance at the National Diversity in STEM Conference by SACNAS and attendance at the Coastal & Estuarine Research Federation Meeting and participation in that society's Rising TIDES Program. We pair attendance at those meetings with pre- and post-conference activities that connect students through culture and other cohort-building activities. Another way is through virtual clubhouses; we have experimented with different forms of these this past year and I think one new thing we will try this year is quarterly culture nights where students will learn more about the different places we are all from. Finally, the Bridge Program brings students together in a single program; this program has had to be adapted to be virtual because of the pandemic, but students have connected that way and in the future, we will bring those students together in person as conditions allow.

     
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    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Genae Gonsalves
    Shane Woods
    Allie Durdall
    Lisa Tossey
  • Icon for: Jamie Bell

    Jamie Bell

    Facilitator
    Project Director
    May 14, 2021 | 02:15 p.m.

    Thanks Kristin! Wonderful to hear the rich variety of ways that the participants come together in this project. You use a strategy that we have also found to be effective and generative, i.e. leveraging society conferences as events where folks are already coming together and/or where students who are building their careers can make new connections and become inspired. Im curious if the Puerto Rico site is connected at all with the work of Ciencia Puerto Rico?

  • Icon for: Lawanda Cummings

    Lawanda Cummings

    Researcher
    May 12, 2021 | 12:01 p.m.

    Amazing video! I  was so elated to see the Youth Oceans Explorers program from USVI but I am so appreciative of the long-term goals of the SEAS Island Alliance for URM inclusion in these fields of study. 

    I am interested in your markers of success at each of the levels of student integration. Are there specific variables of interest, like STEM efficacy or STEM identity, that you are focussing on as predictors of student persistence? Island communities are usually closely tied to indigenous cultures, were there specific efforts to retain cultural congruence or relevance?

    Such an exciting project. 

     
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    Lynda Gayden
    Lisa Tossey
    Genae Gonsalves
    Kristin Grimes
  • Icon for: Allie Durdall

    Allie Durdall

    Co-Presenter
    Watershed & Marine Specialist
    May 14, 2021 | 09:26 a.m.

    Hi Lawanda, thanks for watching and for your comment and thoughtful question! We have a research team dedicated to working through those markers and incorporating culture. I've shared your question with them and will share back their response because I don't want to misrepresent their efforts.

    In the meantime, I can say that for each island location, the research team has hired an on-the-ground cultural liaison, who is shepherding their efforts and interactions with the community.

     
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    Lisa Tossey
    Genae Gonsalves
    Shane Woods
    Lawanda Cummings
  • Icon for: Lawanda Cummings

    Lawanda Cummings

    Researcher
    May 14, 2021 | 09:52 a.m.

    I love that. We have been transitioning some educational theory in culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings) into our formal and informal learning efforts in St. Thomas. Its been a great access point for relevance for students and their potential contribution in STEM to their local environment. I look forward to learning more. Again,  love the project.

     
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    Lisa Tossey
    Genae Gonsalves
    Kristin Grimes
  • Icon for: Rodney Hopson

    Rodney Hopson

    Professor
    May 18, 2021 | 04:19 p.m.

    Cheers, Lawanda.  Apologies for delay in response. A couple of thoughts, and happy to stay connected (hopson@illinois.edu):

    1) Our RT work in the SEAS project is driven by 3 questions:

    • how do our interventions and programming affect individual identity construction?
    • how do concepts like self-efficacy, engagement, sense of belonging, persistence in STEM affect individual identity construction?, and 
    • how do individual identity construction in island settings vary within and across cultural contexts?

    Currently, we are reviewing exploratory data from one hub event in fall, 2020 (ie. SACNAS participation) and our initial research team thinking is converging around the core notions of the SEAS work, especially in light of our indigenous and culturally responsive research design and framing, and

    2) We are in full throes of recruiting hub participants to collect more data that may give us a sense of success in the way of our outcomes presented in our project logic model.  These outcomes (and subsequent markers of success) would include evidence regarding, such as positive increases in self-efficacy in science, increased engagement in science activities, increase parental/community support, heightened sense of belonging in the Alliance.  These more quantitative outcomes however do not begin to brush the surface of the nuances we are finding out in the qualitative dimensions of the study.  Hope to share more soon...

  • Icon for: Nicole Freidenfelds

    Nicole Freidenfelds

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 14, 2021 | 08:25 a.m.

    What a great project! I really appreciate your efforts to increase your students' sense of belonging in STEM.

     
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    Genae Gonsalves
    Kristin Grimes
    Allie Durdall
    Lisa Tossey
  • Icon for: Allie Durdall

    Allie Durdall

    Co-Presenter
    Watershed & Marine Specialist
    May 14, 2021 | 09:19 a.m.

    Thanks, Nicole! Working with and seeing the students progress and feel more comfortable with STEM has been such a rewarding piece of the project. 

     
    4
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    Lisa Tossey
    Genae Gonsalves
    Shane Woods
    Kristin Grimes
  • Icon for: Shane Woods

    Shane Woods

    Facilitator
    Senior Director, STEM Center of Excellence
    May 15, 2021 | 04:06 p.m.

    I appreciate the breadth of this project from pre-college to career as well as the focus on getting those who live on the islands involved in careers they may not have felt were options for them. Are your current participants acting as ambassadors and recruiting up and coming participants through school visits?

     

    Also, can you share how you fostered the partnerships with the local school districts?

     
    2
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    Lisa Tossey
    Genae Gonsalves
  • Icon for: Genae Gonsalves

    Genae Gonsalves

    Co-Presenter
    SEAS Islands Alliance Coordinator
    May 17, 2021 | 11:38 a.m.

    Hi Shane! Thank you for watching our video and for your appreciation. At times, our program participants act as ambassadors by sharing their great experiences and the opportunities they've had that arose from their programs. They share their stories at many conferences, social media, or at events we've hosted, like the SEAS Islands Alliance Virtual Summit. Our student's voices are important and we emphasize that their voices are heard.

    As for our partnerships, including school districts, we contact local members to organize and discuss recruitment efforts for students from middle school and high school students. STEM or geoscience activities are conducted in the communities which leads to more exposure to the geoscience field. We are continuing to work on improving these efforts on expanding our partnerships. I'm sure my colleagues can add some more details!

     

     
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    Lisa Tossey
    Shane Woods
  • Icon for: Daniel Zietlow

    Daniel Zietlow

    Informal Educator
    May 17, 2021 | 10:53 a.m.

    What a great project!  One thing that stood out to me was the different programs for different age groups that all funneled into a marine science career.  What did you find the younger students (like middle school) needed versus what support, maybe, college-age students needed to spark that interest in a marine science career?  Thanks!

     
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    Lisa Tossey
    Genae Gonsalves
  • Icon for: Genae Gonsalves

    Genae Gonsalves

    Co-Presenter
    SEAS Islands Alliance Coordinator
    May 17, 2021 | 11:57 a.m.

    Thanks Daniel! Many of our younger students benefit from more hands-on activities that can demonstrate the lessons taught during the program and more support from members in the STEM field. These activities assist in growing their creativity and overall interest in geosciences and we have found that many of our students now want to pursue careers in geosciences. 

     
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    Daniel Zietlow
    Lisa Tossey
    Shane Woods
  • Icon for: Howard Forbes, Jr.

    Howard Forbes, Jr.

    Extension Coordinator for the Virgin Islands Marine Advisory Service (VIMAS)
    May 17, 2021 | 12:13 p.m.

    Hi Daniel! And thanks Genae for including the use hands-on activities; this has probably been perhaps one of the most important features that help to engage our younger students. We have strived to ensure that a majority of the time spent by our younger students (and also high school students) is outdoors, participating in activities like snorkeling to ID corals, fish, marine vegetation, etc. Additionally, by utilizing elements of game design (components of relatability) into the activities has helped capture their attention in ways that traditional instructional approaches haven't been able to. It's not so much about "watering down" the science but instead framing it in such a way that is fun yet still educational and rewarding. 

     
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    Genae Gonsalves
    Lisa Tossey
  • Icon for: Daniel Zietlow

    Daniel Zietlow

    Informal Educator
    May 17, 2021 | 03:44 p.m.

    This is great, thanks for the info Genae and Howard!  That makes sense to have a number of hands-on activities for the younger students - and I'm always for getting more kids outside exploring!

     
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    Lisa Tossey
  • Icon for: Valerie Fitton-Kane

    Valerie Fitton-Kane

    Vice President, Development, Partnerships, & Strategy
    May 18, 2021 | 02:28 p.m.

    Thanks for sharing your work! I love how the program ties the islands together. If you are interested in engaging younger students, we have a standards-aligned, experiential program called Aquatic Investigators in which students aged 8-11 become ecologists, marine biologists, chemists, and engineers on a mission to investigate why a Hawaiian monk seal has left its habitat and where it has gone. The students learn about the food chain, ocean debris, currents, ocean acidification, etc, as they collaborate to solve the mystery (and save the lives of the NOAA scientists working in an undersea lab!). All that's required for a student group to participate is a one laptop/tablet per student, a wifi connection, and basic classroom materials (e.g., recyclables and craft supplies). If you're interested, you can learn more here: https://www.challenger.org/what-we-do/adventure...

     
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    Genae Gonsalves
    Lisa Tossey
  • Icon for: Lisa Tossey

    Lisa Tossey

    Lead Presenter
    Assistant Director of Communications and Outreach
    May 18, 2021 | 02:39 p.m.

    Wonderful - thanks for sharing Valerie!

  • Icon for: Genae Gonsalves

    Genae Gonsalves

    Co-Presenter
    SEAS Islands Alliance Coordinator
    May 18, 2021 | 02:48 p.m.

    Thank you for watching our video Valerie! The Aquatic Investigators looks like a remarkable and engaging program for that age group. We'll be sure to share it with our fellow members in the Alliance. 

     
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    Lisa Tossey
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