Session Descriptions--nmea 2016 Sessions are listed alphabetically by primary presenter’s last name. Allen

CollinsJE@si.edu

Studying the species that make up an ecosystem is the first step in understanding how biological systems function and predicting impacts of change. Most of the world’s biodiversity occurs at small scales: organisms hidden in leaf litter, soil, and the nooks and crannies of environments. Thus, teachers can lead highly relevant field biology exercises at this small, accessible scale. By focusing on a cubic foot of space, students, just like scientists, can characterize representative communities and begin to understand distributions, interactions, and relationships. The Biocube program was inspired by a feature article in National Geographic that involved Smithsonian scientists and led to a book, "A World in One Cubic Foot: Portraits of Biodiversity." The biocubes featured in the book were documented by photographer David Liittschwager, assisted by a professional field crew and in consultation with various biologists. The cubes were from around the world and highlighted several things about biodiversity in small spaces, including a staggering number of nook and cranny species; almost every cubic foot they sampled yielded hundreds of species. The biocubes showed interesting differences among living communities from different continents, different habitats, and wild versus domesticated land. What can we discover in just a cubic foot of Earth? As it turns out, a whole lot! Biocubes (the life in a cubic foot of soil or water over one day) capture enough variation to explore the complexity of entire ecosystems. You don’t have to be a professional wildlife photographer or biologist to investigate and report on a biocube. At the workshop, participants will use the various tools associated with Biocubes, talk about how they can use Biocubes in their teaching situations, and be pointed to a range of useful resources on the Q?rius Website from the National Museum of Natural HIstory.

Podcasts: Engaging Learners in Marine Education Environmental education at its best is holistic and collaborative. It was never intended to be limited to science curricula and enrichment programs. In fact, the responsibility for teaching and learning was intended to be shared not only by scientists and formal and informal educators working across the disciplines but also by local communities and students. The same holds true for marine education. While scientific proficiency is foundational to understanding anthropogenic impacts on marine ecosystems, local traditional and cultural knowledge have been essential to resolving some conservation issues (Harris, 2014; Tabing, 2008). Improved support for conservation also has been associated with a shift in science communication: sharing stories by involved local communities (Day, et al., 2014). Bringing the voices of local community members into marine education is consistent with learner-centered pedagogical approaches (ie., Makaguchi, Friere), which emphasize teaching should begin with valuing learners’ lived experiences. One of the ways to recognize, value, and share local knowledge for the good of all is through participatory media such as community radio and increasingly, podcasts. My praxis has focused on teaching podcast production as a means of grooming students, educators, and local community members for participatory roles in educating and motivating action toward sustainability. Studies for K-12 and higher education (Kemp, Mellow, Kotter & Oosthoek, 2011; Putman & Kingsley 2009; Riddle, 2010) have identified numerous learning benefits of student-produced podcasts in science education: critical and creative thinking, public speaking, support for different learning styles, and examining social-scientific issues. Because these outcomes support not only Next Generation Science Standards but also learning expectations across the disciplines, podcasts present a rich opportunity for educational collaboration. Through a hands-on workshop, NMEA conference participants will collaboratively produce 30-second podcasts about marine conservation heroes (animal, plant, or human) they have encountered. The over-arching goal for implementing podcast production as a marine education tool is to motivate and facilitate active participation in learning and action. Therefore, the workshop will conclude with educators sharing their ideas on the types of podcasts they foresee as feasible and useful in their roles, and exploring how to develop opportunities for learners to exchange and learn from one another’s podcasts.

kelly.cook@sdhc.k12.fl.us

scooper@ldeo.columbia.edu; karavan@njaes.rutgers.edu

What is it like to participate in an ocean expedition onboard a scientific vessel? What do we learn from the data retrieved from the bottom of the ocean? How do we study microfossils, sediment, and microbes from the seafloor to learn about earth's history, climatic change, and geologic events? Learn this and more from the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) and educators who have sailed on the JOIDES Resolution! In this session we will share the exciting and important work being done by scientists and staff onboard the JOIDES Resolution scientific ocean drilling research vessel. Learn how your students and other groups can interact with researchers onboard during free, live ship-to-shore events, and use daily blogs, videos, and other resources on the JR website to engage your students in a real scientific adventure. We will also tell you how you can apply to sail on the ship as an Onboard Education Officer or participate in our professional development program, School of Rock. Activities and free resources will be provided.

raquel.costa@emepc.mam.gov.pt

tracy.crews@oregonstate.edu

The Oregon Coast STEM Hub is a partnership of over 60 organizations aimed at increasing STEM literacy with a special focus on coastal and marine issues. By providing professional development to both educators and scientists, we seek to increase authentic learning and career exposure for the students we serve in 20 coastal school districts. The STEM Hub has successfully supported a wide variety of Student-Scientist partnerships, including projects focused on Tsunamis, plankton, sea grass studies, and ocean observing. Our STEM Hub connects educators and researchers through targeted professional development, and and further connects students and scientists through classroom visits and field experiences. This presentation will highlight a variety of successful projects, how they were designed to meet standards and other learning objectives, and discuss impacts realized for all participants involved.

pwcurley@ncsu.edu, tsh@cmast

NC State Universty's Center for Marine Scieces and Technology has partnered with area school systems to develop unique programs that help teachers integrate marine science and ocean literacy principals in their instruction. Come join us and learn about our programs and share in hands on activities that we use in our classrooms and learn how to access lesson resources for your classrooms and programs

As keen observers, we tend to overemphasize our sense of sight while deemphasizing our other senses. This bias carries over into how we present science, which excludes students with visual impairments. Our hands-on workshop will allow participants to explore ways to incorporate the sense of feel into science. The “noodling for mollusks” activity will demonstrate a real collection method (noodling) that scientists employ when feeling for bivalves in the mud. We will feel for shells without being able to see through the “sediment” and identify the mollusks we collect. The second activity explores how teachers can guide students into making a shrimp model out of a sock while embedding beads to mimic how parasites lodge in animal musculature. We will also discuss how shrimp carry their eggs externally and then model this by attaching beads to the sock by using pipe cleaners. After we build these models, we will exchange specimens to collect data on our ability to feel an unknown number of beads. Handouts will be provided along with links to the published activities. Participants can keep their “shrimp socktail” and a prize will be awarded for using your senses well!

lovetheeverglades@gmail.com, @evergladeslove

The work of the Love The Everglades Movement (LTEM) originated with a vision that came as a result of participating in prayer ceremonies centered around the use of sacred plant medicines. The following questions arose:

How do we encourage people to care about the Everglades if they have never been there?

How can we advocate for giving the Water the Respect it deserves?

Over the past 4 years, LTEM has developed the following Mission Statement to guide our work:

To implement evolving strategies across the full spectrum of being which address the environmental, structural, cultural, and spiritual problems plaguing the Florida Everglades by raising awareness and organizing positive community engagement at the local, regional, national and global levels.

In terms of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), LTEM is inspired by Miccosukee customs associated with their society of clans, the philosophy of the Circle of Life, and the contemporary social and scientific practices of their environmental protection departments. The Miccosukee community has a society of respect that honors the unique practices and complex relationships among their clans. The Circle of Life offers a multidimensional lens to analyze the world and the universe and how all parts of that are necessary to maintain a harmonious balance that contributes to sustainability. Today, the Miccosukee Tribe integrates TEK with scientific analysis in service to Everglades Restoration with community-wide environmental studies held throughout the year. Using this research, the Miccosukee Tribe develops and advocates environmental policies, which they advocate for at all levels.

The “full spectrum approach” to LTEM’s work is inspired by the community of researchers doing work around Integral Theory, pioneered by the work of Ken Wilber. Integral Theory has developed a theoretical framework that explores an “All Quadrants All Levels” paradigm that situates various philosophies in a four-quadrant grid along the axes of interior-exterior and individual-collective. LTEM’s praxis has been evolving since it’s inception and has used this framework to experiment with tactics and strategies that can be situated in various quadrants or levels. A poetic way of expressing this methodology would be “Do what you can with what you’ve got where you are.” In this way, we can engage a variety of individuals, communities, and institutions, with respect to their talents, skills, and resources.

As for subject matter, LTEM likes to begin conversations around Water Quality, and Indigenous Perspectives. With Indigenous Perspectives around the Florida Everglades, we can honor what the indigenous sovereignties themselves are saying by inviting collaboration with community members and/or their representatives in terms of event planning and project management. As for Water Quality, these discussions allow us to explore all the ramifications of Water Quality for the individual, our personal relationships, and it’s impact on society and culture: how clean is the water; how are the animals and plants impacted by water quality; what are the health risks to people of polluted water; where is the pollution coming from; how are consumer choices impacting water quality; what are the spiritual implications; etc.

With these components in place, now we can enumerate many of the activities that LTEM has been involved in: field trips, art exhibitions and installations, educational workshops, prayer vigils, symposia, film/tv/video production and screenings, community discussions, concerts, performances, non-violent direct actions, coalition-building, etc. We can share illustrations of this work through photographs, videos, audio files, and artifacts.

dashoush@bu.edu

This presentation will provide approaches to teaching ocean literacy in an Early Childhood classroom. I share specific methods, activities and resouces used to prepare pre-service educators at Boston University’s Early Childhood program The lessons planned and experienced by the pre-service teachers can all be used in a setting as early as a pre-k. Culturally revelevant pedagogy and science notebooks in Early Childhood are also addressed as part of this presentation.

As a Marine Science Educator at Mote Marine Laboratory, I developed classroom kits modeled from the Ruth DeLynn Cetacean Osteological Collection, which houses over 650 individual specimens of 17 species of cetaceans. Teachers may check out these kits free of charge for their classrooms. Kits contain up to 3 complete bottlenose dolphin skeletons, detailed curriculum, and complete necropsy reports. Teachers in Sarasota and neighboring counties pick the kit up from Mote for two weeks at a time. My position as a Science Faculty member at Saint Stephen's Episcopal School allows me to implement the dolphin kits in a formal classroom setting. Participants in this session will be provided with an overview of the process that was used in creating the kits, with emphasis placed on logistics. This information could then be applied to creating a similar program at another facility with access to collections of biofacts or other educational materials. Participants will also get hands-on experience using the kit in a shortened program similar to what is presented in the classroom. Activities will include articulating parts of the skeleton, as well as trying to determine the cause of death for each dolphin. Finally, we will discuss how this curriculum can be adapted for various age groups in both formal and informal classroom settings.

jdiaz@evergladesfoundation.org

Did you know that one in every 3 Floridians rely on the Everglades for their water supply? Understanding the fundamental relationships between us and the health of the Everglades is vital to Florida’s environmental and economic future. We need our students of today to understand the vital links between the Everglades and our quality of life. The Everglades Literacy Project, sponsored by the Everglades Foundation, provides K-12 teachers with a free online teacher toolkit of resources and standards-based lesson plans for using the Everglades as a focal point for addressing science concepts and skills. Additionally, the Everglades Foundation’s Everglades Literacy Project conducts free professional development workshops to help teachers see how the Everglades can provide a real-world context for teaching many science standards. Everglades Literacy workshops are great professional development opportunities aimed at providing teachers with background knowledge, lessons and materials they need to easily integrate an understanding of key Everglades concepts into their curriculum. Teachers also become eligible to receive a $100 stipend for implementing at least one Everglades lesson in their classrooms and providing feedback. This session will introduce participants to the Everglades Literacy Conceptual Framework, modeled from the Ocean Literacy Framework. Participants will also learn how to access the many resources and lesson plans through the Everglades Foundation online portal. A sample lesson will be modeled and all participants will receive hard copies of the Everglades Literacy Conceptual Framework and sample lesson plans.

jessica@marinelab.org, @MarineLabKL

Marine Resources Development Foundation’s MarineLab program has been offering experiential education opportunities for students 5th grade thru college in subtropical marine ecology for the past 30 years. In 2012, MRDF created a Research Department. One of the focuses of the department is on forming partnerships with other organizations, universities, professors and agencies that are open to having students collect data to submit for analysis. Visiting students to MarineLab can participate in seagrass surveys, phytoplankton monitoring, mangrove restoration, coral surveys, a marine debris program and cleanup, amongst other opportunities. All data collected is used in some capacity in the scientific world. Some partners are large well-established citizen science programs such as GLOBE and Seagrass Watch that have online databases that can be accessed to see and analyze student data and other data from around the world. Other partnerships are more specific, such as working one on one with professors. For example, our students are trained to do parrotfish feeding surveys for a professor who integrates the student data into his overall research program. We also work closely with other non-profits in the Upper Keys, such as the Coral Restoration Foundation and REEF, so our students can have the opportunity to learn and participate in their work. As we want our students to have an understanding that scientific research does not end with the data collection, we have also incorporated a data analysis class into our seagrass curriculum. Students will spend some time analyzing the data they collected during their seagrass surveys. Professional development opportunities are offered at MarineLab offering teachers the opportunity to participate in many of these citizen science programs.