Cool project! Also nice to see an Americorps person in here among the academics. Have you been able to connect to teachers and schools to run pilot programs this summer? Would you be interested in working with public libraries?

Well done! I appreciate your focus on place-based learning.

For the kits you assembled to test water quality, etc., do you plan to distribute those to teachers?

Thanks.   We have in the past, so I hope that we can find these again.  A collaboration between LaMotte (supplier) and Earth Force (non-profit in Denver), a non-profit working with K-12 students. Our GLOBE Program Country Coordinator is at New Hampshire (Leitzl Center) .  Take a look at the GLOBE program video - students from Netherlands, Thailand, ... describing how the Earth has changed, from their own perspectives.

Hi Rich and Samantha-

I can see where a project like this creates student interest in their own community and is a real call to action.  Have you done any longitudinal studies or student surveys to see if this project (or ones like it) results in more STEM courses in later studies or environmental activism?

Hi Laura,

This is a brand new project that is just passing the proof of concept stage.  We are doing our first multi-day workshop in June, so your comments are helpful as we are setting up the evaluation and research data methodology.  

Our recent 4-year ITEST grant had many of the same elements, but any longitudinal data we have is related to teacher surveys.

Hello Rich and Sami,

This is such a great project. The citizen science part of it is so good for the community.

Hello Sami and Rich,

Great work! Engaging learners with community-based projects is a fantastic way of creating interest in STEM and community.

I am interested in learning more about how the activities in the online folder support students of varying proficiency and how teachers/facilitators might be supported in adopting these activities to meet their students' needs.

Nice to hear from you, Samuel.

Until this year, we were collaboratively working with in-service teachers who shared with each other how they were implementing our lesson ideas.  We emphasize the approach along with sufficient content scaffolding that each teacher adapts to their unique students' needs.

That said, this specific work using the Platte River site is in the pilot stage and we are just starting to share with our K-12 teacher network.

Rich

Your project seems very interesting and relevant.  I’m curious if there are any explicit mathematics related activities associated with the work?  We are working to promote the mathematics learning to understand your world and increase student agency.  These both seem like they are related to your efforts.

Below I have linked our project's Padlet so that we can continue discussions and provide you with resources that align with our project.

Platte Padlet

I love this idea and am excited to learn more, so I bookmarked the padlet! Place based learning activities are critical to ensuring relevancy for students- especially those that may not have the opportunity to travel beyond their own communities. Have you given thought to documenting how you developed these materials as a sort of model for teachers (and students) to develop similar programs outside of Denver?