Formal and Informal Environmental Education in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

With funding from the Gulf of Mexico Program-Environmental Protection Agency and in parnership with the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Center for Science and Mathematics Education at The University of Southern Mississippi provides environmental education for under-represented and underserved K-12 students in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, and the general public of the Gulf Region through teacher workshops, school visits, Coastal Ecology Camps and community evening programs. All 10 participating schools have a minority enrollment greater than 50 percent and include Alexandria Middle Magnet School, Alexandria, La.; Sherwood Middle Magnet School, Baton Rouge, La.; Gulfport Central Middle School, Gulfport, Miss.; N.R. Burger Middle School, Hattiesburg, Miss.; West Marion Elementary School, Foxworth, Miss.; Katherine L. Hankins Middle School, Theodore, Ala.; Donnie Bickman Middle School, Shreveport, La.; Ferriday Junior High School, Ferriday, La.; T.H. Harris Middle School, Metairie, La.; and Tupelo Middle School, Tupelo, Miss. Two teachers from each school receive professional development through lectures, hands-on activities and field trips in environmental literacy and stewardship ethics at Southern Miss\u27 Marine Education Center/Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and the Grand Bay NERR. During subsequent school-year visits to schools, profect staff lead students in conducting water quality and land cover GLOBE protocols or bring Touch Tanks for studnts (2,394 students to date) to see, handle and learn about marine life. Teachers then bring students (175 students to date) to the coast for field experiences at the Grand Bay NERR, Ship Island or the Pascagoula River. Post-test scores of both teachers and students show significant gains in content knowledge, and surveys used to collect qualitative data show enhanced appreciation for the environment. Funding has also provided 11 community evening My Coast events (on topics such as salt marshes, estuaries, bats, owls, flounders, etc.) with a total of 853 people in attendance

Coastal Watershed Connections: Student Impact, Stewardship, and Reflections

The project provided students and teachers in six coastal and noncoastal Title 1 secondary schools in Mississippi with experiential learning activities to emphasize connections between their local watershed an coastal habitats of the Gulf of Mexico using GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) protocols, OBIS (Outdoor Biology Instruction Strategies) Science and service-learning projects

Using the GLOBE Program to Educate Students on the Interdependence of Professional Development?

We present how we have used GLOBE protocols and programs in a college undergraduate English course for science and non-science majors, “Writing in the Sciences”, and in a graduate-level field course for in-service teachers. Collecting land cover data and determining biomass in conjunction with a series of writing assignments allowed the English students to connect their work to research done in ecosystems throughout the world, and to specific environmental concerns such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and the impact of controlled burning on ecosystems. Teachers demonstrated increased knowledge of ecology, natural histories of various organisms, and awareness of environmental resources. A study conducted the following summer revealed that teachers valued the course and felt that their experiences helped them be more effective teachers. Six of the eight teachers had conducted field activities with their students, but also reported significant challenges associated with the effort

An Investigation of Tree Biomass in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We determined the biomass (carbon storage) of four forest types in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park: pine/oak, cove hardwood, northern hardwood, and spruce/fir. Based on the GLOBE Programs land cover protocols (www.globe.gov), and the University of New Hampshire\u27s GLOBE Carbon Cycle Program (http://globecarboncycle.unh.edu/), we knew that species and tree circumference would be the two most critical factors in determining biomass, but we also hypothesized that number of trees in a study site and the elevation of the site would impact biomass. We hypothesized that old growth forest would contain greater biomass than a young forest. We recorded tree species and circumference for every tree that had a circumference greater than 15 centimeters in each plot of 900 square. The circumference of a total of 219 trees represented by 22 different species, as well as forest type, elevation, and GPS coordinates for each plot, were recorded

The Wheel Garden: Project Based Learning for Cross Curriculum Education

In this article, we discuss project-based learning in the context of a wheel garden as an instructional tool in science and mathematics education. A wheel garden provides multiple opportunities to teach across the curriculum, to integrate disciplines, and to promote community involvement. Grounded in the theoretical framework of constructivism, the wheel garden provides a multidisciplined educational tool that provides a hands-on, non-traditional arena for learning. We will examine some of the cultural, art, science, and mathematics connections made with this projec

Theme-Based Instruction: Making Conceptual Ties with the Sickle Cell Story

We describe the concepts and resources presented during a workshop offered to high school biology teachers using sickle cell disease as a theme in a biology course. We provide their pretest and posttest results and reactions