Thanks for kicking us off, Leigh! I wanted to add that on the research side, we look forward to engaging in conversation around the methodology and how we traced any potential signal from participants directly involved in the program (e.g., students, participating teachers, parent chaperones) out to the community. 

Thanks for your question, Brian. Our study was exploring questions like, 

• To what degree does an experience that is shared by an entire generation within a community lead to a traceable change that can be measured for those who participated and across the broader community?
• In what ways, if at all, can one out-of-school experience have an influence on the larger learning ecosystem (e.g., the Maine education system)?

One thing we're learning from our findings so far is the role of teachers champions, which Leigh discusses in the video. These are teachers that advocate for the program and put structures in place such as training new teachers to ensure the school continues to participate, even when there is teacher turnover. Another finding is that while the program appears to be well-known among participants, particularly teachers, it did not necessarily spread beyond those directly involved in the program. We were not able to trace a “ripple” into the community with our data collection methods.

Thanks for the great question, Billy. @Kelly and @Jim may be able to answer the question of how teachers see their roles in the community from their interviews with teachers. My program perspective is that teachers' attachment to the program seems to show up as placing value on the entirety of the experience -- the content we provide is great, but for many it's the whole package of getting kids out of their county for what is often the kids' first time to Portland or to the ocean and first time seeing that STEM research is done right here in Maine. As mentioned a bit below, the team lowers all possible barriers for the teacher. It's often a big contrast to the hassles of school-organized trips (getting a bus, getting permissions, etc.) and I think it makes it easy for them to repeat each year. We do pair the experience with open source curriculum for before/after the field trip and with the opportunity for (stipended) teacher professional learning around the experience. But I think those are things that come to matter after a teacher has come to be a "champion" rather than being a key incentive.

Thanks for your question, Billy. We collected data from retrospective surveys and interviews with teacher alumni -- teachers did not necessarily describe their role in the community explicitly but some from rural areas did take students on the field trip because they valued it as an important opportunity for students in their community, as Leigh describes above.

There is not a specific incentive for teachers to participate but our preliminary findings suggest there are some aspects of the program that teachers valued or appreciated such as the opportunity for students to use "real-world" science, engage with technology and experience science learning in a novel setting. Teachers also noted the logistical support that Leigh commented on earlier -- the fact that the transportation is arranged for them at no cost, the continuity of the program and their school's ongoing participation which makes it easier to get administrative approval to attend. 

Thanks for the question. I would say the most important element, and unfortunately the biggest challenge to replication, is providing free transportation. It's historically been possible to get one-time funding to build the space or create the content. But the year-after-year work of supplying free transportation is daunting. After 17 years we've built a cohort of corporate and philanthropic donors who remain committed and see the necessity of funding the not-very-flashy work of keeping the buses rolling. A thank-you note from the classes to the sponsors is the only thing required by the program and it creates a virtual cycle between the student beneficiaries and the sponsors that (hopefully) helps them see the impact of their dollars. The second thing that comes to mind relates back to the question above about "teacher champions" -- we make it as easy as possible for teachers to sign up, lowering every possible barrier we can think of from choosing the date, to securing permissions, aligning with required standards, and communicating on that day about the timing of the bus. We consistently hear that the ease of making it happen is one reason teachers come year after year. Does that help?

The evidence shows that the fundraising and efforts to make the visit easy to organize and participate in are making a difference, too. A recent analysis shows that, after controlling for school enrollment, travel time to Portland, and coastal location, there's no difference in participation rates based on community economic resources.

Larger schools do participate somewhat more than smaller schools, perhaps because it's easier to find a champion in a larger school, or because they don't need to coordinate with nearby communities to fill a bus. Schools that are further away (up to 5.5 hours) participate slightly less than those that are closer, though coastal communities near Portland participate less than would be expected, perhaps because the experience of going to Portland doesn't seem as novel as it is for inland communities.

To be completely honest, the main equity lens at the start was geographic because we were focused on how youth from our urban centers have a lot more access to STEM experiences than in rural Maine. So it felt like job #1 was to give rural kids access and, as mentioned above, transportation was the central element. The next big leap for us is taking what is a one-size-fits-all program and customizing it to the youth in the room. For example, we're working with the incredible Wabanaki Youth in Science program to think about what we put into and around this western science experience to place it inside an envelope built of Indigenous knowledge. Similarly, partners at Gateway Community Services will be helping us reflect the immigrant/refugee experience of new Mainers into the space and program. I wish we could say we were rebuilding from scratch with a stronger equity framework -- we have a long way to go on that front and are fortunate to have partners who have the patience to help design that journey. 

I would also say that your question and our dilemmas raise the trade-offs between scale and customization that I know many organizations wrestle with. I would love to hear how others have addressed those challenges so we can learn from them!

Hi Jake, Thank you for the great questions! Teachers receive professional learning experiences where they get to experience LabVenture before bringing their classroom on the field trip. They also receive an introduction to classroom activities and engage in reflections with other educators. You can learn more about the PD sessions here: https://gmri.org/projects/teacher-professional-development/. 

GMRI has also developed modules for students to continue exploring data and LabVenture content in the classroom: https://teach.gmri.org/find-content/labventure/. As part of our research, we interviewed some teachers who have participated in the program, and most mentioned pre and post activities they did with their students to connect the field trip with the curriculum. We are still analyzing the teacher interview data, but other teams have been focusing on the PD, modules and connections to the curriculum, and might be able to expand on this.