Category: Project Report

The STEM Gender Gap: Outreach Activities from Two Higher Education Institutions in Oklahoma

Susmita Hazra, Cameron University

Ann Nalley, Cameron University

Sheila Youngblood, Tulsa Community College

Abstract 

Studies have shown that one of the best ways to include a greater number of girls in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) is to influence them from an early age, starting at the elementary or middle school level. In the past 15 years, the Department of Chemistry, Physics, and Engineering at Cameron University (CU) has been involved in several outreach activities, including the hosting of a one-week summer academy for middle school girls, Women in Leadership and STEM conferences, and several workshops involving middle and high school girls. Tulsa Community College (TCC) recently inaugurated its high school summer academy to encourage more girls to gravitate toward STEM and to provide positive reinforcement. We believe our outreach programs have been very helpful to female students, particularly to students who are in underserved rural and metropolitan schools throughout the state of Oklahoma. 

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A Novel Course-Based Experience to Promote Ecological Field Skills During the COVID-19 Pandemic

R. Drew Sieg, Truman State University
Joanna K. Hubbard, Truman State University
Rachel M. Penczykowski, Washington University in St. Louis
Madison Williard, Truman State University
Zachary A. Dwyer, Truman State University

Abstract

Providing safe access to functional field experiences during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic was a distinct challenge. However, these experiences are critical to train students in ecological methods and provide an opportunity for open-ended, authentic research. Here, we report on a multi-week lab designed for an introductory ecology course, which was adapted for hybrid instruction during the pandemic. In the lab sequence, students independently surveyed basic phenological, population, and community dynamics of easily identifiable, cosmopolitan plant species in the genus Plantago. Students used this crowd-sourced dataset to develop, analyze, and report on unique research questions regarding interactions between Plantago and the local environment. The new lab sequence effectively met course learning objectives in experimental design, field methods, statistics, and science communication, while being accessible to both in-person and online learners. We conclude by discussing the evolution of this design for other audiences.

Introduction

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) promote early and expanded student engagement in scientific research that improves science literacy, analytical skills, and inclusivity within STEM majors (e.g., Bangera & Brownell, 2014; Olimpo et al., 2018). Incorporating academic research interests and novel pedagogies benefits both student and faculty development (Shortlidge et al., 2016). However, the transition to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic posed many challenges to the implementation of such lab experiences (Tsang et al., 2021). 

Institutions adopted myriad strategies for course delivery early in the pandemic, including distanced labs, hybrid formats, and asynchronous learning. Purely online simulations or recordings of experiments did not maintain student engagement and led to a superficial understanding of lab methodology or purpose (Sansom, 2020). Several methods to promote active participation in remote labs were later adopted, including computer simulations and ecological field research (Abriata, 2022; Creech & Shriner 2020), although it was important to ensure equal accessibility for all students using hands-on modalities (Jawad et al., 2021; Kelley, 2020). These rapid shifts to new modalities and implementation of new technologies induced anxiety and revealed inequity among students (Tsang et al., 2021). Feelings of isolation were common, making it difficult for students to establish a routine and remain motivated from home (Feldman, 2020). The pandemic also triggered emotional stressors caused by direct illness, grief, financial instability, and loneliness and led to physical and mental health issues including disordered eating and depression (Flaudias et al., 2020; Mushquash & Grassia, 2020). Within a semester of teaching during COVID-19, it became clear that pedagogical modalities should acknowledge and accommodate evolving student needs.

Independent field experiences using cosmopolitan organisms are one option to combat accessibility and equity issues associated with remote learning. Organisms that are easy to find and identify can be used by students to crowd-source data collection, address ecological research questions, and connect to their local community (Penczykowski & Sieg, 2021). Having students or community members assist in the collection of observational data can generate robust datasets while promoting bioliteracy and data management skills in participants (Hitchcock et al., 2021; Jones et al., 2021; Putman et al., 2021). Hands-on exposure also tackles “plant awareness disparity” and “biodiversity naivety” problems (Niemiller et al., 2021; Parsley, 2020; Wandersee & Schussler, 1999), whereby students fail to recognize the identities or functions of floral and faunal community members (Schuttler et al., 2018; Soga & Gaston, 2016). Engaging in field work may also lead to greater student retention or interest in ecological careers.

In approaching our first hybrid academic year (2020-2021), we recognized that traditional labs would be rendered non-functional due to social distancing procedures, safety concerns, and unpredictable attendance. Many labs were reconfigured or condensed to accommodate these challenges, but we wanted to maintain a field experience despite the challenges with hybrid instruction. We elected to build a new experience based on an accessible plant genus (Plantago spp.) that could be observed by both in-person and remote students while promoting skills in experimental design, data management, statistics, and science communication. In this report, we outline the pilot project and preliminary outcomes, discuss its limitations within our changing institutional curriculum, and describe how the fundamentals of this project have led to “second-generation” projects for other audiences on campus.

Methodology

The Institution and Course

Truman State University is a rural public liberal arts university of under 4,000 undergraduate students located in Kirksville, MO. During this study (2020), Truman State had a 72% acceptance rate, the gender identity at Truman was 40:60 identifying male:female, and approximately 80% were white, in-state, and received financial aid. Truman has a long-standing reputation in the Midwest as an affordable, quality public college option. As at many universities across the United States, enrollment has been steadily declining at Truman; undergraduate enrollment is down approximately 35% in the past five years. Biology is a consistently popular major that accounts for 12% of incoming freshmen, but enrollment has declined more than 50% since 2017. Recently, the Biology department implemented a new curriculum for the major. Biology majors who started before fall 2019 were required to take Introduction to Ecology (BIOL 301); after the curriculum change, BIOL 301 was one of four organismal biology course options. With many Truman students pursuing careers in medicine or healthcare, microbiology has proven more popular than ecology or the other two organismal courses (evolutionary biology and eukaryotic diversity). Since the new curriculum has been implemented, student demand for ecology has steadily decreased from six 24-seat sections per year in 2017 to a single section in 2022.

  

Course Structure Amidst the Pandemic

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Truman transitioned to a fully remote modality to conclude the spring 2020 semester. During the 2020–2021 academic year, faculty could select from several delivery options, including fully asynchronous, online, or hybrid instruction. Four hybrid sections of BIOL 301 were offered during fall 2020, with two asynchronous recorded lectures and one synchronous Zoom activity per week. Lab sections were split into three groups (two in-person sections, one virtual) that each met for 50 minutes of the nearly three-hour period to accommodate social distancing. Excluding the new Plantago project, labs were modified from established protocols used in previous semesters.

Course instructors (Drew Sieg and Joanna Hubbard, hereafter RDS and JKH) collaborated extensively to develop materials for this model; they restructured the learning management system, co-developed asynchronous recorded lectures and lecture activities, and held weekly meetings to discuss how the hybrid course was supporting student success and wellness. A full comparison of course changes to accommodate a hybrid delivery are listed in Table 1. Pre- and post-surveys evaluating student skills in science communication, statistics, and graphical interpretation were issued, but IRB approval was not established until after implementation of this project. Thus, evaluative feedback on this study is limited to voluntary course evaluations administered for all Truman courses and reflects the pedagogy of the course as a whole, rather than just the new lab experience. As both instructors taught sections in 2019 and 2020, comparisons between years were made to evaluate changes in student perceptions due to both COVID-19 and the intervention.

Experimental Study System

In pre-COVID semesters, BIOL 301 students would survey water quality and macroinvertebrate diversity from local streams to acquire field experience (modified from Doherty et al., 2011). Sampling sites were located up to 30 minutes from campus, which required university transportation and longer lab periods, neither of which were feasible using a hybrid model. For the new field experience, we expanded on a survey protocol for Plantago lanceolata and P. rugelii used by Rachel Penczykowski (RMP) to train students in the Tyson Undergraduate Fellows program at Washington University in St. Louis. Plantago are short-lived perennials commonly found in human-disturbed habitats, including lawns, parks, paths, and pastures. The geographic distributions of these species span gradients in latitude, elevation, urbanization, and other environmental factors. They are easy to find and identify, are regionally abundant, of low conservation concern, and extremely accessible (Penczykowski & Sieg, 2021). They are suitable for addressing research questions at the population or community level, due to their distinct phenological stages and easily recognizable evidence of interactions with both herbivores and fungal pathogens (Penczykowski & Sieg, 2021).

Project Outline

Three labs interspersed throughout the semester were developed to encompass the Plantago field experience. In addition to the instructional goal of providing an effective hybrid learning experience, student outcomes from the experience included the ability to 

quantify the abundance and status of local plants to combat plant awareness disparity, 

develop novel research questions regarding local variation in Plantago dynamics, and 

analyze data, address challenges with crowd-sourcing data, and practice visual science communication. 

Activities and assessments for each lab session are summarized below and in Table 2.

Lab 1: Introducing the Study System and Tackling Plant Awareness Disparity

The first lab established the utility of Plantago as a model organism for ecological research. Students watched a 13-minute recorded video by RMP discussing how the species can be used to address questions at multiple spatial scales across varying environment types. Connections to climate change and urban development were stressed, along with the use of cosmopolitan Plantago species in global collaborations including PlantPopNet and HerbVar. This video also emphasized the value of community science engagement and collaborative research across universities.

Following the video, students were trained to identify focal species, their flowering status, types of herbivory damage, and evidence of infection by a fungal pathogen (powdery mildew). These skills were practiced as a group for in-person students, followed by an individual homework assignment. Remote students participated in the training, but practiced individually. Example images were provided via PowerPoint, so that students could participate in synchronous group work in person or via Zoom. Groups also brainstormed research questions and hypotheses, generally focusing on variation in herbivory or infection between species or survey locations.

Lab 2: Field Surveys

After completing a series of guided online tutorials and discussing a paper on common issues in data management (Broman & Woo, 2018), each student independently conducted a field survey of P. lanceolata and P. rugelii using a modified line transect protocol. Students identified a local site containing both Plantago species, noted environmental conditions, and then recorded observations regarding flowering phenology, neighbor density, and evidence of community interactions for a single Plantago individual (summarized in Table 3). Students advanced 2 m to another individual Plantago and repeated the process a total of 30 times for each focal species. 

Students could complete surveys at any accessible site in their vicinity on their own schedule within a one-week window. Most surveys were conducted in parks or neighborhoods in Kirksville, but remote students provided data from across Missouri. Students recorded data on a data collection sheet provided by the instructor, entered handwritten data into a spreadsheet, and uploaded the file as a homework assignment. A teaching assistant compiled each unedited dataset into a master “crowd-sourced” spreadsheet for use in lab 3.

Lab 3: Experimental Design, Analysis, and Reporting

For the final lab activity, students accessed the master spreadsheet and worked in teams either in person or via Zoom to analyze their research questions. Tutorials on statistics were provided, and each group framed questions as testable hypotheses with their instructor prior to analysis. Groups worked over two weeks to organize their data set, conduct analyses, and synthesize their findings into a graphical abstract. A major component of this assignment was recognizing the amount of time and effort associated with organizing large datasets.

Graphical abstracts were a novel concept for most students. Therefore, the class initially evaluated examples from scientific journals and discussed their use in comparison to written abstracts. Instructors then provided a tutorial on building graphical abstracts in PowerPoint. Student products were posted to Padlet (padlet.com), which allowed students to asynchronously provide and receive feedback on their research questions, analyses, and abstract designs. In practice, most products took on a form resembling a research poster, probably because students had greater familiarity with that medium and a fear of leaving information out.

 

Results and Discussion

Novel Research Outcomes from the Lab Activity

Via this lab activity, 3360 plants were surveyed by 55 students, primarily in Kirksville. A map displaying Plantago distributions in the city was generated from these data (Figure 1), which has subsequently been used by independent research students to conduct follow-up studies on Plantago community dynamics. Survey locations were clustered around Truman State, as it is primarily a residential campus. The majority of student-generated questions and hypotheses focused on comparisons of herbivory and/or fungal infection across plant species, sunny vs. shaded microhabitats, or location types (e.g., roadsides vs. parks). Primary findings included a significantly higher likelihood of infection on P. rugelii than P. lanceolata, particularly in shaded habitats, while infection frequency was not affected by mowing or herbivory.  Undergraduate research students (Madison Williard and Zachary Dwyer) working with RDS independently evaluated the dataset and confirmed these patterns, presenting their research at Truman State’s Student Research Conference (Dwyer et al., 2021).  

Due to restrictions on social gatherings, students in the course did not disseminate their findings in the broader Kirksville community. However, this pilot study demonstrated that data collection within the Plantago system is tractable for novices. Elements of this project have been incorporated into submitted research proposals that incorporate community science, public outreach, and civic engagement as broader impact objectives (RDS & RMP, personal communication).

Student Responses to the Course

Beyond the Plantago project, other activities were implemented to promote an active classroom amidst a hybrid redesign. These included weekly interactive case studies using Zoom and Google Docs, a semester-long “EcoPhoto” project on Flickr to document local ecological interactions, discussion board prompts that pushed students to reflect on their wellness or creatively discuss course concepts (such as a knockoff of “Dear Abby” called “Dear Ecology”), a month-long lab that used EPA datasets to estimate water quality in wadable streams (modified from Nuding & Hampton, 2012), and team-based problem sets instead of virtually proctored traditional exams. We communicated with students through consistently formatted weekly announcements on our course management software and email, aiming to keep students on track without bombarding them with disparate notices. Collectively, these activities made our redesign distinct from previous versions of BIOL 301, but also from other hybrid courses at Truman.

Evaluative Likert-scale data and representative free responses reported in Table 4 pertain to the fall 2020 hybrid course redesign, including the Plantago CURE. While some outcomes are likely driven by the Plantago experience, we acknowledge that other elements of our redesign influenced student perceptions of the course. Total responses to the course survey (n=48) represent approximately 85% of the class. Since submissions were anonymous, we cannot directly compare different demographic responses to the redesign, but we can assume that the makeup of students roughly matches that of Truman State as described in the methodology section.

 

Students valued the applicability of the course, with more than 97% of respondents agreeing that the course related concepts to real-world issues or everyday life (Table 4). Informally, students noted that they found themselves spotting Plantago between classes, and felt a sense of pride that they could better identify the plants around them. Extended engagement and sense of familiarity with focal plants is a key component to combat plant awareness disparity (Krosnick et al., 2018; Niemiller et al., 2021); thus this new lab experience appears to have promoted greater bioliteracy and plant awareness.

The general organization, approach, and transparency regarding expectations in BIOL 301 was viewed by students as exemplary in comparison to other courses that transitioned to hybrid instruction (Table 4). Whether the new approach led to long-term positive feelings about ecology is less clear, as 29% of respondents indicated that they would not want to take additional ecology courses (Table 4). This may be a product of the hybrid design: students viewed asynchronous assignments (quizzes, readings, discussion boards) as busy work. Hybrid courses require a distinct mindset from both the instructor and the student in order to be effective (Shea et al., 2015), and most of our students took hybrid courses out of necessity rather than desire. Animosity towards materials used to maintain asynchronous engagement makes sense considering the rapid transition to online modalities. However, lessons learned from similar experiences are leading to new evaluations of best practices in hybrid or online instruction in a post-COVID era (e.g., Singh et al., 2021).

Using course evaluations, we also statistically compared student responses to these questions in fall 2019 (the pre-pandemic version of the Plantago project) and fall 2020 (during the pandemic, with the hybrid changes described in this study; Table 5). However, there are extrinsic factors that should be accounted for, such as general stress and COVID fatigue, which make direct comparisons between these two student populations tenuous. 

For three of four questions, no significant difference between semesters was seen (Table 5), suggesting that students perceived equal course rigor and relevance with the traditional in-person delivery and hybrid instruction. It is encouraging that objectives related to real-world application of ecology were maintained in the hybrid delivery, despite the new format and disruptions to instruction during the pandemic. We also take this to mean that the course structure and activities were seen as equivalent to a non-disrupted semester by upper division students who had taken college courses both before and during the pandemic.

In contrast, there was a significant increase in student willingness to take other courses in ecology (Table 5, p=0.020). The new lab module, coupled with accommodations made for hybrid instruction, may have made ecology a more tangible sub-discipline for students relative to the traditional mechanism of instruction. As a result, several of the activities used to improve the use of learning management software, communicate with students, and check in on student wellness have been continued by RDS and JKH in other courses, and have been formally presented to other university faculty.

Current and Future Status of the Project

Despite the effort to restructure BIOL 301 as a hybrid course, reduced student enrollment, curricular changes, and interest in the topic remains low, such that the department now offers only a single, in-person section per year. That section is not scheduled to be taught by RDS or JKH in the near future, and thus many changes are not trackable beyond the pilot implementation. The Plantago field experiment continues to be offered by the current BIOL 301 instructor, but a lower number of participants reduces the crowd-sourcing project elements. Since our pilot delivery, the project has been conducted two more times, with minimal changes to the established protocol. The instructor has considered widening the project to tackle other core skills in ecology related to estimating other population dynamics.

We had previously used social media (e.g., Flickr) in observational ecology projects to connect our students with peers enrolled in similar courses across the country (RDS and JKH, personal communication) and intended to build out a similar network with this project that would allow students to compare Plantago demographics across wider urban-rural, latitudinal, climatic, or temporal gradients. While we encourage interested parties to reach out if the modules would fit their course needs, the restructuring of BIOL 301 has limited our ability to further develop broader community engagement aspects of this project. 

We recognized the benefit of using open-ended projects to promote observational and data management skills in students majoring in biology at Truman, and we have since modified the Plantago project for an introductory biology course (BIOL 104) that RDS and JKH regularly teach. Introductory courses are a wise target for open-ended inquiry, as it introduces bioliteracy, statistics, and communication skills needed to succeed academically and in STEM-related careers. Early exposure to authentic research eliminates “cookie-cutter” experiences that do not accurately reflect the challenges associated with research (Wood, 2009), providing students with a better representation of the scientific process. 

In the new introductory biology module, students mine iNaturalist (inaturalist.org) to quantify global images of infection or herbivory on Plantago and address questions that are thematically similar to those emphasized in BIOL 301. The pilot implementation of this version of the project occurred in spring 2022, resulting in 13,700 images processed by 105 students (RDS, personal communication). This new initiative has the potential to be expanded both at Truman and in the wider community and has been a core component of new grant proposals written by RDS and RMP. We intend to build this database annually and embrace iNaturalist as a tool for community science, while tracking student perceptions of effective science communication and assessing challenges associated with community-sourced data (e.g., Dickinson et al., 2010). Ultimately, this introductory version of the Plantago project is likely to be a more impactful initiative than the original pilot project outlined in this manuscript.

Conclusions

The transition to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic was difficult for students and faculty alike, and we are now assessing which instructional approaches are most effective. The adjustments we made to maintain an accessible and rigorous field experience were largely successful within a hybrid undergraduate course. The pilot implementation of this project has evolved into a more robust project that targets new biology majors.

About the Authors

Drew Sieg is an assistant professor of biology at Truman State University. He is a SENCER Leadership Fellow whose traditional research examines chemically mediated ecological interactions among plants, fungi, algae, and herbivores. He is also involved in educational research, particularly examining how authentic research experiences and other novel pedagogies affect student engagement in STEM.

Joanna Hubbard is an assistant professor of biology at Truman State University. Her research interests include questions related to animal behavior, animal coloration, and evolutionary ecology in birds. She has conducted education research examining how different question formats provide insight into student misconceptions and understanding.

Rachel M. Penczykowski is an assistant professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research focuses on effects of climate change and urbanization on plant-pathogen interactions and food webs. She mentors graduate, undergraduate, and high school students in this work, including through summer field research programs at Washington University’s Tyson Research Center.

Madison Williard is currently a first-year student at Southern College of Optometry located in Memphis, TN. She graduated from Truman State University in 2021 with a BS in biology.

Zachary Dwyer is currently a first-year medical student at A.T. Still University, located in Kirksville, MO. He graduated from Truman State University in 2022 with a BS in biology and a minor in psychology.

 

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Sustainability Education and Civic Engagement Through Integration of Undergraduate Research with Service Learning

Guang Jin, Department of Health Sciences, Illinois State University 
Thomas Bierma, Department of Health Sciences, Illinois State University 

Abstract

Integrating service learning with undergraduate research, the student biodiesel project converted all waste vegetable oil (WVO) from campus dining centers into a sustainable biofuel used by campus vehicles, allowing half of the campus diesel energy needs to be met by a material (WVO) that was formerly a waste. Biodiesel reduced air pollution from campus diesel vehicles, including the emission of greenhouse gases. This project connected students to their community and increased students’ awareness of the social/economic aspects of environmental challenges in the world around them. Students felt a great sense of responsibility to make a real product that would make a difference in the real world. Students who participated in the research course became teaching assistants for another regular course in which biodiesel production was a component. This allowed biodiesel to be produced sustainably and provided additional students with hands-on bioenergy experience.  Specific challenges and suggestions for future practices are also reported. 

Introduction

Sustainably harnessing biomass and converting it into usable fuels (bioenergy) is a critical part of combating climate change and addressing other environmental problems associated with fossil fuels. The success of bioenergy depends upon well-informed professionals, consumers, and citizens.  Universities play a unique role in addressing climate change and creating a sustainable society through demonstrating best practices, researching solutions to real-world problems, educating future communities and leaders, and promoting sustainability (Brundiers et al., 2010; Bacon et al., 2011; Barth et al., 2014; Ralph & Stubbs, 2014; Evans et al., 2015; Moura et al., 2021). 

Producing biodiesel fuel from campus waste fryer oil offers an outstanding opportunity for bioenergy education and civic engagement through community service.  Biodiesel is a clean-burning, renewable substitute for petroleum diesel that can be manufactured from new and used vegetable oils, animal fats, and waste restaurant grease. Using biodiesel as an alternative petroleum diesel reduces lifecycle carbon emissions (U.S. Department of Energy [US DOE], 2017) and the emission of harmful air pollutants such as asthma-causing soot (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [US EPA], 2018).  Waste fryer oil retains almost all its energy content even after it is discarded from cooking. Illinois State University (ISU) creates about 6000 gallons per year of waste vegetable oil (WVO) that the university must pay to dispose. If properly treated, this WVO can be used to make biodiesel.  Producing biodiesel fuel from campus waste fryer oil presents several advantages as a bioenergy and sustainability education topic (Christiansen, 2008; Jin & Bierma, 2013) because

  • It converts a waste into a valuable product.
  • It involves a feedstock that is very familiar to students (fryer oil).
  • The fuel can be utilized to operate campus vehicles.
  • It provides opportunities to educate the campus as well as local communities about bioenergy and sustainability.

In this paper, we present our experience of a campus biodiesel project where students who were enrolled in the undergraduate research course at ISU converted WVO from campus dining centers to biodiesel fuel used in university vehicles. Students who participated in the undergraduate research course were later recruited as paid teaching assistants for another regular course in which biodiesel production was a component. This allowed biodiesel to be produced continuously and provided additional students with hands-on bioenergy experience.  This project is unique in that it is completely student-driven, student-run and financially sustainable once the initial capital cost is in place, whereas other similar projects require full-time personnel, paid from a separate budget (Christiansen, 2008; Waickman, 2022).

Project Description and Outcomes

The student biodiesel project began a few years ago as an idea of environmental health (EH) students and faculty. The EH undergraduate curriculum has an elective research course with variable hours (1–3 credits).  After successfully completing this course, students should be able to:

  • use library and other tools to search for existing body of research relevant to a given research topic,
  • collect and analyze data using appropriate techniques,
  • apply problem-solving skills to constructively address research setbacks, and
  • communicate research to others in the field and to broader audiences through presentations.

We integrated this research course with service learning and civic engagement in mind by guiding students through producing biodiesel fuel from campus waste vegetable oil (WVO).  Learning activities included sampling and analyzing WVO from campus dining centers (Figure 1); producing and testing small-scale (1-gallon) batches of biodiesel; researching large-scale (50- gallon) biodiesel production technology; producing and testing large-scale batches of biodiesel (Figure 2); researching recovery technology of methanol and glycerin from biodiesel glycerin waste; designing and building a solar-powered methanol and glycerin recovery unit; and presenting research findings in classrooms as well as community outreach activities. 

Faculty worked closely with students throughout the undergraduate research course with a typical enrollment of 8–10 EH students each semester (about 60% females).  In addition, faculty had weekly classroom meetings with students to discuss literature and data interpretation and analysis and to brainstorm with students on problem-solving ideas when there were research setbacks; faculty also worked with students in the lab and field to troubleshoot process/equipment.  Students formed a close relationship with faculty in this course, evidenced by frequently dropping by during faculty office hours to discuss academic and career plans.    

After several semesters of efforts, biodiesel has been produced in 50-gallon batches and has received American Society of Testing Methods (ASTM) certification. Approximately 6,000 gallons of biodiesel have been produced per year and have been used in a variety of campus diesel vehicles.  

 Students in this undergraduate course also hosted tours and demonstrations for junior high and high schools in the community.  Signs on the truck, as well as in dining halls, have educated ISU students about the waste-to-fuel practice on campus. News media coverage educated the community about local bioenergy and sustainability practices (Figure 3). Biodiesel production has also become part of another regular course called Renewable Energy and Agriculture (AGR 225).  Students in the three STEM majors (about half females) typically take AGR 225 in their junior and senior years.  ISU students who participated in the undergraduate research course were recruited as paid teaching assistants for AGR 225 providing approximately 30–50 students per year with hands-on bioenergy experience while allowing continuous production of campus biodiesel fuel. 

Student Feedback

Student feedback was collected from standard college course evaluation with one open-ended question: “Write a short paragraph about your experience with the biodiesel project. How did this experience influence your connection to the community?” In addition, instructors’ observations of student comments during the biodiesel production process, classroom discussions, and education outreach activities are also presented as anecdotal evidence. 

In the standard college course evaluation, students were asked to rate in a Likert scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest score.  Over 90% students rated their progress on relevant course objectives as 4 or 5.  All students rated learning to apply knowledge and skills to benefit others or serve the public goods as 4 or 5. 

In addition, students felt a great sense of responsibility to make a real product (i.e. biodiesel fuel) that had to pass a fuel quality control test run by themselves … and when it didn’t, they had to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it! It was a lot of work, but students felt inspired to do it and it felt rewarding to help people in the wider community.  Students also feel that they are more aware of community needs and have a deeper understanding of the social and economic impact of environmental problems on a community.  Students felt strongly connected to the local community, because they took actions and were able to serve the local community.

Discussion and Suggestions for Future Practice

Integrating service learning with undergraduate research, the student biodiesel project allowed half of the campus diesel energy needs to be met by a material (WVO) that was formerly a waste (N. Stoff [Illinois State University Facilities Management], personal communication, July 31, 2018), an example of greater sustainability through resource-conserving technologies and practices. Biodiesel reduced air pollution from campus diesel vehicles, including the emission of greenhouse gases.  This project allowed students to learn basic laboratory and research skills and apply them in a campus sustainability challenge, connected students to their community, taught civic responsibility, and increased students’ awareness of the social/economic aspects of environmental challenges in the world around them. Students felt empowered by being trusted to work on a research project that is meaningful and important because it is real research and makes a difference in the real world.  Students developed a profound personal attachment to achieving positive change in both the environment and their communities.  These student outcomes were consistent with many studies that showed that service learning resulted in gains in academic engagement (Covitt, 2006; Mpofu, 2007), self-efficacy and interpersonal and problem-solving skills (Chen et al., 2018; Bielefeldt & Lima, 2019), civic responsibility and attitudes toward community service (Kahne & Sporte, 2008; Manning-Ouellette & Hemer, 2019).

The student biodiesel project leveraged funding and support from several sources to establish biodiesel production on campus. Besides a gift from the Omron Foundation and a grant from ISU Student Sustainability Fund, space in the department of agriculture shop was provided for production without charge. A used pickup truck for WVO collection was donated by the university. Finally, ISU purchased our biodiesel at market price. This revenue paid for materials and supplies, student teaching assistants, and recapitalization of equipment, with the result that biodiesel production on campus was financially self-sustaining. 

Specific challenges encountered in this project included substantial initial capital investment, the requirement for campus-wide support in infrastructure and logistics, and the fact that financial self-sustainability of the project was subject to changes in the price of materials, product/ biodiesel as well as labor cost of student teaching assistants.  Despite the challenges, we believe this type of service-learning on university campuses presents great opportunities for sustainability education and civic engagement through community service.   

Our next steps will be seeking methods to make the process more labor efficient, recover more methanol, and find a way to generate more revenue from glycerin, for example by using it to make soap.  We will also seek donations of WVO from local small business to increase our biodiesel output to further serve the local community.  

Institutions with limited resources could implement an adapted form of the project such as Biodiesel on Wheels, where a flatbed trailer could be used to house all components required for making biodiesel. This setup requires much less space and fewer resources but could produce good-quality biodiesel from campus WVO, and it could be used as an excellent community education outreach tool.

About the Authors 

Guang Jin (Sc.D. in Environmental Health Sciences) is Professor of Environmental Health & Sustainability in the Department of Health Sciences at Illinois State University, with areas of expertise and experience in pollution prevention, biomass energy, and sustainability.  She is passionate about student engagement in STEM and about innovative pedagogies to enhance learning.

 

Thomas Bierma (Ph.D. in Public Health) is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Health & Sustainability in the Department of Health Sciences at Illinois State University, with research experience in sustainable business practices, bioenergy, waste management, and pedagogy for higher education.

 

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Barth, M., Adomßent, M., Fischer, D., Richter, S., & Rieckmann, M. (2014). Learning to change universities from within: A service-learning perspective on promoting sustainable consumption in higher education. Journal of Cleaner Production, 62, 72–81.  

Bielefeldt, A. R., & Lima, M. (2019). Service-learning and civic engagement as the basis for engineering design education. In Nur Md. Sayeed Hassan and Sérgio António Neves Lousada (Eds.), New innovations in engineering education and naval engineering (pp. 17–36). INTECHOPEN LIMITED. http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.83699

Brundiers, K., Wiek, A., & Redman, C. L. (2010). Real-world learning opportunities in sustainability: From classroom into the real world. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 11, 308–324.

Chen, T., Snell, R. S., & Wu, C. X. (2018). Comparing the effects of service-learning versus nonservice-learning project experiences on service leadership emergence and meaning schema transformation. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 17(4), 474–495. 

Christiansen, R. C. (2008, September 16). Biodiesel on campus. Biodiesel Magazine. https://biodieselmagazine.com/articles/2774/biodiesel-on-campus 

Covitt, B. (2006). Self-determination and student perceptions in environmental service-learning. Applied Environmental Education & Communication, 5(3), 171–181.

Evans, J., Jones, R., Karvonen, A., Millard, L., & Wendler, J. (2015). Living labs and co-production: University campuses as platforms for sustainability science. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 16, 1–6.

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Manning-Ouellette, A., & Hemer, K. M. (2019). Service-learning and civic attitudes: A mixed methods approach to civic engagement in the first year of college. Journal of Community Engagement & Higher Education, 11(3), 5–18. 

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Mathematics Preparatory Workshops to Foster Student Success

Sandie Han, New York City College of Technology
Diana Samaroo, New York City College of Technology
Janet Liou-Mark, New York City College of Technology
Lauri Aguirre, New York City College of Technology

Abstract

Mathematics preparatory workshops were offered to college students at a diverse urban undergraduate institution.  The goal was to prepare students for their mathematics course, by offering non-credit bearing and free preparatory workshops. The lack of adequate preparation for mathematics courses is a barrier for student engagement in future STEM courses. We believe that by providing preparatory workshops, we can improve not only the success but access for students in foundational mathematics courses. The workshops allowed students to engage with the course content in a rigorous and intensive manner prior to the start of the semester. Students who participated in the workshops are more likely to be better prepared when enrolled in the credit-bearing course.  

Introduction

New York City College of Technology (City Tech), a designated Hispanic-Serving Institution in an urban metropolitan area, provides education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to a diverse student population. As of fall 2021, the student ethnicity/demographics at the college were 34.1% Hispanic students, 26.8% African American, 20.9% Asian, 11.4% White, 4.0% Nonresident alien, 2.2% two or more races, 0.4% American Indian or Alaskan Native and 0.2% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. As a primarily undergraduate institution, the college offers associate and bachelor’s degree programs.  Some associate degree programs serve as a pathway toward a bachelor’s degree with the advantage of enabling students to take prerequisite and developmental courses.   Often referred to as “two plus two” (two-year associate and two-year bachelor’s), this model enables students to start in an associate degree program while taking prerequisite and developmental courses and continue into the bachelor’s program. This model provides a path for students to enter a STEM program even if there are gaps in their mathematics and science coursework in high school.  

The college’s mission is to prepare students for applied and technical careers by providing access to opportunities which include interdisciplinary and ‘place-based learning’. Celebrating its 25th year as a Hispanic Serving Institution, the college fosters practices which promote equity for its diverse student population (City Tech, n.d). Furthermore, students are often engaged in high-impact practices, such as undergraduate research, which can focus on community-based or local issues, such as water quality (Galford, 2017; Samaroo, 2022) or integration of STEM into the elementary school curriculum (Samaroo, 2018), alongside other projects that include peer led team learning (Han, 2022).  

The mathematics department at our college offers more than two hundred sections of mathematics classes, with two-thirds of them considered gateway (see below) classes  to a student’s chosen degree path. These include quantitative reasoning, college algebra and trigonometry, precalculus, calculus 1 and calculus 2, and are taken by 4,000-5,000 students every semester. In STEM disciplines, this often results in a lengthy sequence of courses where one is a prerequisite to the next. Worse yet, these courses are often ranked among the most failed courses at the institution. Gateway mathematics courses with high failure rates is likely to deter students in their STEM pursuit, leading to high attrition and low graduation (Sithole, 2017).

(We define gateway mathematics courses as the foundational course students need to complete in their first year of studies for a specific degree program. These courses can also be a pre- or co-requisite to other major courses required fora degree. For example calculus is a prerequisite to certain engineering courses at our college. Calculus can also be considered a gateway course in the Applied Mathematics major, for example, as it is the first required course in a sequence of courses for that degree.)

The preparation of students for college courses is more problematic than ever due to the well-documented learning loss experienced by students in recent years (Gordon, 2021; Moscoviz, 2022).  One of the key areas of significant learning loss is in mathematics (NEA, 2022). The problem also points to increased inequity in access to quality education during the pandemic among underrepresented minorities and underserved populations (NEA, 2022). Examining the demographics found that minority students and students with financial needs tended to be those starting at developmental level or needing prerequisite content support (Attewell, 2006; Logue 2016).

Recognizing that mathematics is the foundation of any STEM program, and that student success and timely completion of prerequisite mathematics courses strongly impact their ability to complete the STEM major (Frost, 2017), we implemented at our institution low-stakes, high-impact preparatory workshops designed to help bridge the learning gaps. In literature review, we found only few articles reporting on “preparatory workshops”, “bootcamps” or “bridge programs”. Most reported that there is a strong need to prepare and support students especially in the first year of college (Alavi, 2020; Campbell, 2015; Frost, 2017; Jura, 2022; Reisel, 2014). Some bridge programs range from three to four weeks.  Clune et al. reported on the success of a mathematics bootcamp for graduate students (2022). Such programs, whether workshops or bootcamps, benefit students beyond the subject matter; they help provide study skills, critical thinking, college resource awareness, and they are important in the transition and the mental preparation for college (Alavi, 2020; Jura, 2022). The goal of this paper is to disseminate the work from our mathematics preparatory program for undergraduate students and to provide a model for practitioners.

Workshop Design 

The key goal for our preparatory workshop is to improve student success in mathematics courses. We identified those courses that are gateway in degree programs and designed a week-long workshop to provide a review of the prerequisite materials and an introduction to the course.  The typical design of the workshop is for four days at three hours a day for a total of 12.  For our college algebra and trigonometry with co-requisite, designed for students with greater needs for remediation and reviews, we offer a slightly longer workshop for five days at three hours a day for a total of 15 hours. The workshops are strategically scheduled right before the beginning of the semester (in summer, August and in winter, January), so students would be motivated and mentally ready on the first day of class.

Figure 1: Samples of Workshop Materials

The workshops are low stakes in the sense they do not bear any credits or grades, and are completely voluntary and open to all students.  At our institution, the workshops are funded by First Year Programs and are offered free of cost to students. Recruitment for the workshops is through college email announcement, recommendations by the instructors or departments, or through First Year Programs and other support services.  There is a required registration process for the workshop which allows us to identify the students and follow their progress in the semester.

In designing the workshops, we considered the following aspects:

Content support. Each workshop is specifically designed to prepare students for a particular course. A corresponding workbook is created for each workshop to provide the content materials which include prerequisite review as well as introductory topics that students may see again in the course. The workshop instructors are recruited from among the mathematics faculty, typically those with experience teaching the course.

High-impact pedagogies. High-impact active learning pedagogies are incorporated into the workshop and the workbook design, such as exploratory learning, collaborative learning, hands-on problem-solving, real-world applications, and the use of visualization for the demonstration of concepts (Abate, 2022; Presmeg, 2006).  

Peer-support system. The peer-led team learning (PLTL) is an important component of the support system where peer leaders recruited from among the upper-class students in various STEM majors to support and facilitate either one-on-one learning or group discussions in the workshops (Liou-Mark, 2015). Another importance of the PLTL program is the “role modeling” impact by the peer leaders whom we made strong efforts to recruit from women and underrepresented minorities. 

Equitable and inclusive access. The workshop design considers academic, financial, and emotional support in providing equitable and inclusive access, adopting high impact strategies to support women and underrepresented minority students. The pedagogical strategies mentioned above, as well as tuition-free workshops, the open-access resources, the PLTL support, and the use of visualization in the workbook design are all aiming to increase learning opportunities and reduce challenges.  

Developed over the years, we have expanded our workshops to support six mathematics courses. Other than Quantitative Reasoning, which is considered the gateway mathematics for non-STEM majors, the other five courses are part of the STEM sequence required by engineering, mathematics, computer science, and some sciences such as computational physics and applied chemistry. Students who begin their mathematics with college algebra (based on college placement exams), often face a lengthy mathematics sequence. The college algebra course is the most enrolled course in the mathematics department. We present below a brief description of each course and its corresponding workshop:

Quantitative Reasoning is a course designed for non-STEM majors who need a review of equations, problem-solving and basic probability, and statistics. The workshop incorporates real-world data such as COVID-19 or Census data which are relevant to students and their communities.

College Algebra and Trigonometry with Corequisite is a course with additional hours of corequisite support designed for students who can benefit from additional algebra review. For many STEM majors, this is the first of their STEM mathematics sequence. The workshop starts with a review of elementary and intermediate algebra topics with emphasis on addressing common mistakes and pitfalls.

College Algebra and Trigonometry, same as (2) above, is the first of STEM mathematics sequence. The workshop puts greater emphasis on introduction to trigonometry because students tend to have difficulties with trigonometric concepts.

Precalculus. The workshop focuses on the studies of functions and their characteristics using graphs and visualization tools such as Desmos.  

Calculus I. The workshop incorporates numerous graphs and visualizations to demonstrate the related concepts. The workshop provides “just in time” review of algebra. 

Calculus II. The workshop focuses on both concepts and techniques, as well as provides “just in time” review of algebra and trigonometry needed in integration.

The freely accessible corresponding workbooks focus on concept understanding through visualization, hands-on problem solving, and real-world applications. The design of the curriculum offers targeted lessons that anticipate the immediate needs of the student providing relevant review materials with new content. This not only helps review a topic but also applies it right away in problem-solving. Below, we share some sample workbook materials. 

Effectiveness of the Workshops

Presented in this section is a summary of findings from the workshops offered in summer 2019, summer 2020, and summer 2021. The workshops were in person in summer 2019 and online in summer 2020 and 2021. Of the total 464 participants in the workshops, 417 registered for the corresponding courses in the Fall semester immediately after the workshops, while the remaining 47 students either did not take math in the immediate semester or took a course different from the workshop in which they participated. These 47 students were included in the demographic data but excluded from the grade distribution data.

Figure 2. Demographics of Workshop Participants During Summers 2019, 2020, 2021 (N=464)
  1. The demographic data of the workshop participants from summer 2019, 2020, and 2021 shows that 56% were female, and 73% were African American, Hispanic, or other (Native American, Pacific Islander, two or more races).  These numbers are significant compared with the institution’s enrollment data which consists of 46% women and 67.7% African American, Hispanic, and other (Figure 2). Given that registration for the workshop is voluntary and self-selected, the high participation rate among women and underrepresented minority groups, particularly Hispanic and African American women and men, suggests the preparatory workshops respond to the needs of women and underrepresented minority students for learning support.
  2. The grade distribution comparison indicates that students who participated in the workshop generally had a higher percentage of A, B and C grades and a lower percentage of failure (F grade) in the corresponding course as compared to students who did not participate in the workshops (see Figure 3). Overall, 56% of the workshop participants earned a grade of A, B, or C in the corresponding course in the immediate semester after the workshop.
  3. While we had hoped workshop participants would show a lower withdrawal rate (W grade), a possible explanation for the higher withdrawal rate observed in Fall 2020 may be due to the special allowance for Credit (CR) and No Credit (NC) grades during the pandemic semesters. The college data grouped NC with F, rather than W grade, which may have resulted in skewed F and W grade distribution.  
  4. Using Chi square test to see if there is a significant difference in the grade distribution pattern of the workshop participants compared to the non-participants, we found no significant difference in the Fall 2019 and Fall 2020 data; but there is significant difference in the Fall 2021 data.
  5. In desegregated comparison, students who participated in the workshops for College Algebra and Trigonometry (including both the extended course with corequisite and the regular course without the corequisite) showed a higher percentage in earning A, B, C grades and a lower percentage of earning F and W grades.  See Figure 4, which also provides a pre-pandemic (Fall 2019) and post-pandemic (Fall 2021) comparison for the same course.  The post-pandemic data shows an exceedingly high withdrawal rate (32%) among students who did not participate in the workshops.
  6. The participation rate of the workshop among registered students in the course has increased from 1.7% in Fall 2019 to 2.6% in Fall 2020 and to 4.0% in Fall 2021.  This seems to indicate that more students feel the need for course review and learning support. We think changing the workshop to the online format in 2020 and 2021 may have contributed to the increased participation.  Students have also indicated that they preferred online workshops.  
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is SamarooFig3-1024x517.jpg
Figure 3: Grade Distribution Comparison of Workshop Participants versus Non-Participants in the corresponding courses during the Fall Semesters. (City Tech Office of Assessment, Institutional Research and Effectiveness (AIRE). http://air.citytech.cuny.edu/data-dashboard/)

Figure 4: Grade Distribution Comparison of Workshop Participants versus Non-Participants in College Algebra and Trigonmetry (with or without corequisite) (Fall 2019 and Fall 2021). (City Tech Office of Assessment, Institutional Research and Effectiveness (AIRE). http://air.citytech.cuny.edu/data-dashboard/)

At the conclusion of the winter 2022 preparatory workshops, students were asked for (voluntary) feedback.  Of the 55  students who responded, a significant majority agreed or strongly agreed that the workshop was helpful. Overwhelmingly, students strongly agreed that the instruction was helpful, an indication that students connected with the instructor despite this being a short one-week program.  

We also asked the workshop instructors to gauge their student response or receptiveness towards the workbook; they reported positive responses and that the visual activities and graphs from the workbooks were very helpful. Regarding student engagement, instructors reported that students were actively engaged. One instructor commented,  “Best online workshop that I’ve taught.” 

Conclusion

Student access to the preparatory workshops described in this paper seems to show an increase in student success in mathematics courses. Students who participate in preparatory workshops are more likely to be better prepared and show better results when taking the credit bearing course. In addition, these students are taking responsibility for their own learning since participation in the non-credit bearing workshops is completely voluntary. The preparatory workshop offered at our college focuses on bridging learning gaps in mathematics, however, this should not be exclusive to mathematics.  Preparatory workshops in other first-year courses can be just as beneficial, especially those in STEM requiring foundational knowledge, such as chemistry, biology, or writing. 

We share this work because it is low stakes with measurable impact and can be easily replicated for colleges who seek to address equity in student learning. We summarize additional benefits here for those who consider designing and implementing a preparatory workshop:

  • A preparatory workshop may be offered in targeted discipline support based on needs.
  • A preparatory workshop is easy to develop and flexible in length. The workshops may range from a few hours of review to a more extensive course prep.
  • A preparatory workshop not only helps students review for a course, but it also helps prepare students with college readiness skills and mental state. 
  • The cost-benefit analysis shows a preparatory workshop before the semester is an efficient way to support students on a limited budget.
  • Since there is no requirement for grades, the curriculum can be more creative and customized to students’ skill level. 

We believe that students respond favorably to the workshop because they view the instructors as helping instead of judging and are more likely to bond and enjoy the experience of learning. 

In conclusion, we found that the one-week mathematics preparatory workshops just prior to the start of the semester were helpful in building motivation, increasing learning success, and providing equitable and inclusive support for students, in particular women and underrepresented minorities.  Although we could not fully determine whether the post-pandemic workshops had more impact than the pre-pandemic workshops, we believe the need for learning support is stronger than ever, and the workshop is an effective way of providing a valuable foundation.

Acknowledgements

First Year Programs is thanked for sharing the compiled data. We thank the instructors for their participation in the workshops.  The authors also acknowledge the editors for their feedback.

About the Authors 

Sandie Han is a Professor of Mathematics at New York City College of Technology. She has extensive experience in program design and administration, including serving as the mathematics department chair for six years, PI on the U.S. Department of Education MSEIP grant and Co-PI on the NSF S-STEM grant. Her research area is number theory and mathematics education.  Her work on Self-Regulated Learning and Mathematics Self-Efficacy won the CUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mathematics Instructions in 2013. She is passionate about increasing student engagement and participation in STEM, particularly to empower women and underrepresented minorities.  She started the CUNY Celebrates Women in Computing conference and is currently the 2022 – 23 faculty leadership fellow in CUNY Office of Undergraduate Studies, Academic Programs and Policy serving in the role of Assistant Dean for Academic Technology & Pedagogy.

Diana Samaroo is a Professor in the Chemistry Department at NYC College of Technology in Brooklyn, New York.   She has experience in curricular and program development, as well as administration as the Chairperson of the Chemistry Department for six years.  She has mentored undergraduates under the support of Emerging and Honors Scholars program, CUNY Service Corps, Louis-Stokes for Alliance Minority Participation (LS-AMP) and the Black Male Initiative programs.  She serves as co-PI on several federal grants, which include NSF S-STEM, NSF RCN-UBE, and NSF HSI-IUSE grants. With a doctoral degree in Biochemistry, Dr. Samaroo’s research interests include drug discovery, therapeutics and nanomaterials.  Her pedagogical research is in peer led team learning in Chemistry and integrating research into the curriculum.

Janet Liou-Mark was a Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at NYC College of Technology. Her research interests included peer-led team learning, mentoring, interdisciplinary learning, and enhancing diversity in STEM. Dr. Liou-Mark received thirteen awards for her excellence in education, which included the 2011 CUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mathematics Instruction and the Mathematical Association of America Metropolitan New York Section 2014 Award for Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics.  Dr. Liou-Mark was co-principal investigator on several National Science Foundation grants, as well as Department of Education Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program grant. 

Lauri Aguirre is the Director of First Year Programs (FYP) at New York City College of Technology. In this role, she has administered and designed programs for new students, focusing on their acclimatization of basic academic skills, college preparedness and student success. Programming has included the First Year Summer Program immersion courses and workshops in English and mathematics, First Year Learning Communities, City Tech 101: A Student Success Workshop, the FYP Peer Mentoring program, and the student handbook, The Companion for the First Year at City Tech.

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Evaluating Knowledge Transfer after a Science Cafe: A Qualitative Approach for Rural Settings

Abstract

Science Cafés are informal community gatherings that aim to facilitate the engagement of scientific researchers with the general public.  These events have been implemented worldwide in rural and urban settings.  This article evaluates two Science Café series, held in rural Iowa communities.  Evaluation of Science Cafés typically consists of participant surveys to measure satisfaction with the presenter, interest in the topic, or solicit topic suggestions for future events.  This paper presents results from a qualitative evaluation that aimed to better understand how the information presented at Science Cafés was shared with others in the community following the event.  Results suggest that participants share information in both formal and informal settings following a Science Café, especially those who self-identify as “champions” of an issue. This research suggests that future evaluations examine rural social networks to better understand the broader community impact of these events.

Introduction

Science Cafés are informal community gatherings that aim to facilitate the engagement of scientific researchers with the general public.  These events have been implemented worldwide in rural and urban settings. The University of Iowa’s Environmental Health Sciences Research Center (EHSRC) has hosted Science Cafés since 2013, mostly in rural communities in Iowa.  Evaluation of Science Cafés typically consists of participant surveys to measure satisfaction with the presenter and interest in the topic or to solicit topic suggestions for future events.  This paper presents results from a qualitative evaluation that aimed to better understand how the information presented at Science Cafés was shared with others in the community following the event.  

Background

Science Cafés are casual events designed to engage members of the public with science and scientists. These interactive gatherings can be in a coffee house, bar, library, or community space. They typically involve a presentation by one or more speakers with a scientific research background, followed by a group discussion and questions (NOVA Education, 2020). The bi-directional communication, in which audience members discuss the topic and pose questions, allows researchers to learn about public perceptions, concerns, and curiosity for their area of expertise. The community benefits from participation as they learn about science in their everyday lives and see the value of research and STEM (S. Ahmed, DeFino, Connors, Kissack, & Franco, 2014; S. M. Ahmed et al., 2017). Science Café events should emphasize “participation” over “popularization,” to better “demythologize science communication, bringing it out of the cathedra and into everyday life” (Bagnoli & Pacini, 2011). Science Café events are held across the globe and many are now recorded and posted online so that they are broadly accessible to the general public. 

The first Science Café was held in 1997 at a wine bar in Leeds, England and was modeled after the the French Cafés Philosophiques, forums held in cafés to discuss philosophical issues (Nielsen, Balling, Hope, & Nakamura, 2015). This format of gathering in a public space to socialize and discuss science has been adopted all over the world in a somewhat grassroots fashion (NOVA Education, 2020). A Science Café is one model of scientific communication with the public that encourages public participation and exploration of emerging issues in medicine, science, technology, the environment, and globalization. The global nature of the Science Café movement is “part of a wider participatory trend” that aims to engage the public with the processes of science (Nielsen et al., 2015, p. 15).  However, events are also “adapted to local contexts” to shape and define forms of interactions and dialogue between scientists and their immediate constituencies (Nielsen et al., 2015, p. 3).

Evaluation is a standard component of Science Café events, consisting primarily of participant satisfaction surveys (Einbinder, 2013).  Researchers have found that the events are effective at encouraging the discussion of scientific issues among members of the public (Navid & Einsiedel, 2012), including among youth (Hall, Foutz, & Mayhew, 2013; Mayhew & Hall, 2012).  The Clinical and Translational Science Institute of SE Wisconsin also evaluated the impact of attendees’ understanding of health and scientific information using a Likert scale assessment of participants’ reported level of confidence across a five-item instrument. They found that attending a Café increased participants’ confidence in health and scientific literacy (S. Ahmed et al., 2014).  In addition, Science Cafés are seen as a mechanism to improve the ability of scientists to communicate with the public by providing an opportunity to practice explaining scientific concepts to a general audience (Goldina & Weeks, 2014).  This is particularly important for those scientists who may see public engagement as “troublesome or time-consuming” (Mizumachi, Matsuda, Kano, Kawakami, & Kato, 2011).  One key challenge of evaluating Science Cafés, or other “dialogue events” aimed at increasing public engagement with science, is understanding the extent to which they increase individual participants’ knowledge about scientific concepts (Lehr et al., 2007). Furthermore, Science Café events may hold greater value as interactions that broadly improve relationships between scientists and society through accessible engagement, rather than serving merely as a mechanism to teach specific ideas, such as in formal scientific lectures or courses (Dijkstra, 2017).

Public Health in Rural Settings

In the US, rural communities disproportionately suffer from a number of adverse health outcomes, including higher rates of obesity and earlier mortality, as well as higher rates of smoking and lower physical activity than their urban counterparts (Garcia et al., 2017; Matthews et al., 2017). Further, recruiting and retaining health care personnel is difficult in rural areas (Asghari et al., 2019; Lafortune & Gustafson, 2019; Thill, Pettersen, & Erickson, 2019) In addition to addressing structural and geographic disparities in rural areas, the social context must also be considered when delivering effective public health interventions in these settings (Gilbert, Laroche, Wallace, Parker, & Curry, 2018).   Factors including demographic shifts due to immigration (Nelson & Marston, 2020), poverty (Thurlow, Dorosh, & Davis, 2019), and the necessary engagement of rural residents with extractive industries, such as agriculture or mining (Kulcsar, Selfa, & Bain, 2016), also contribute to health disparities and require interventions that take into account the social and cultural components unique to rural communities. 

There has long been an understanding that social networks may be associated with mortality risk (Berkman, 1986) and spread of disease (Bates, Trostle, Cevallos, Hubbard, & Eisenberg, 2007), but they may also provide a framework for behavioral interventions (Eng, 1993; Yun, Kang, Lim, Oh, & Son, 2010). In addition, social transmission of knowledge has been documented in relation to ethnobotanical knowledge (Lozada, Ladio, & Weigandt, 2006; Yates & Ramírez-Sosa, 2004) and agricultural practices and innovations (Flachs, 2017; Stone, 2004).  Despite this, evaluations of public health or science-related events do not regularly assess the potential for knowledge dissemination by participants following the event’s occurrence.  Our evaluation aimed to understand the potential for knowledge transmiss

Analysis

To evaluate the UE program, we employed a simple pre-post-intervention task. As previously stated, on the first day of the program we asked each student to draw a picture that reflected what they thought about when hearing the term “nature.” We created inventories according to items represented (Sanford, Staples, &. Snowman, 2017; Flowers, Carroll, Green, & Larson, 2015). We repeated this task on the last day of the program before the students were dismissed. Because of unforeseen time constraints (see Limitations, below), we provided students with just five minutes to complete the post-program drawings. We chose to employ this evaluation method after speaking with a school liaison, who expressed concern about the ability of these children to express their opinions in written form. This type of evaluation has been successfully employed with children through eighth grade (Sanford et al., 2017).

Using an emergent thematic coding analysis, researchers analyzed each drawing and developed codes to compare pre-program drawings to post-program drawings in order to determine whether the intervention changed perceptions of what “nature” means to the students. Because of the small sample size (n = 20), each researcher coded all drawings, and the group worked together to reach full agreement. To determine statistical significance, we used a chi-square analysis.

Research Setting

At the University of Iowa, the NIEHS-funded Core Center, the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center (EHSRC), and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS) have been organizing Science Cafés since 2013 in various small Iowa towns, most consistently focusing on two communities.  Community One, a town of 4,435 residents with a small liberal arts college, and Community Two, a slightly larger town, with 10,420 residents and an alternative business school. Both communities also have a robust agricultural economy that includes produce, livestock, and grain farmers.  The Science Café events involve one presenter, usually a researcher or faculty member from the University of Iowa, and the coordinating staff from the EHSRC.  The researcher delivers a presentation about 20–30 minutes in length, followed by questions from the audience and discussion.  There are no Powerpoint or other slide shows; however, in some cases the presenter may put together a handout that includes two or three slides or graphics with main points from the presentation.  Because the events are meant to allow considerable time for discussion and questions from the audience, there are no formal learning objectives or knowledge tests for participants. Most presentations reflect the environmental health focus of the EHSRC.  However, the standard evaluation questionnaire distributed after each event solicits suggestions for additional topics from the participants; these topics are then prioritized for future events.  Participant suggestions have led to presentations on topics such as wolf habitat in the Midwest, obesity, and healthy sleep habits.

The Science Café location in Community One is a local coffee shop in the center of town, while in Community Two it is the public library. Both of these venues have strong relationships with the EHSRC and support the events by posting flyers for upcoming Cafés. The library in Community Two includes the events on their programming calendar, sends out announcements via Listserv, and sometimes sends press releases to the local paper. The EHSRC regularly advertises in the local paper of Community One. The age of the attendees varies from college students to elder retirees, with retirees being the largest group of consistent participants. There is a core group of about eight participants in each community who attend all of the Cafés, while other attendees vary based on the topic. 

This paper presents a novel evaluation of the EHSRC Science Cafés by examining the extent to which participants share what they learned with others. Rather than simply assessing how satisfied or interested participants were in the topic, or assessing individual knowledge, this evaluation seeks to better understand how information travels through communities and social networks, recognizing the importance of social networks as described above, and the implications for broader scientific literacy and environmental health literacy. Given the rural context of the EHSRC Science Cafés, this paper reflects on the implications of knowledge sharing in the rural landscape. 

Methods

In the spring of 2019, the EHSRC Community Engagement Core (CEC) staff added several questions to the standard written evaluation that is administered after each Science Café.  In addition to asking participants about how far they traveled for the Science Café, how they learned about the event, examples of what they learned during the Café, and to rate their level of satisfaction with the content, participants were asked, “Do you plan to share this information with friends, family, or others?  If so, how will you share?”  The evaluation also asked if we could follow up with a phone interview in the future.  These additional questions were posed at all six Science Café events in spring 2019. The project description was submitted to the University of Iowa’s Institutional Review Board, where it was deemed not to fit the criteria for human subjects’ research. This work was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, P30 ES005605.

A 13-question instrument was designed for use via Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) system.  Science Café participants who had indicated their willingness to be interviewed provided their phone numbers on the evaluations and were contacted within two weeks of the Science Café event.  The interview reminded participants of their response to the original question, “Do you plan to share this information with friends, family, or others? If so, how will you share?” and asked whether they had in fact shared information from the Science Café and with whom and how they shared it.  In addition, participants were asked to describe any other instances when they shared information from any Science Café and who in their communities they felt would most benefit from attending Science Café events.

Interviews were conducted by trained interviewers at the Iowa Social Science Research Center on the campus of the University of Iowa.  The CATI system allows for interviews to be transcribed as they are conducted. Following the interviews, written transcriptions were provided to the research team for analysis.  

The interview transcripts were coded using both deductive and inductive approaches.  The research team read the transcripts and developed an initial set of deductive codes based on the categories of people with whom information was shared:  friends/family, social group, professional contacts.  A second round of inductive coding generated novel codes from the data and illuminated concepts specific to the population and conditions under which information was shared (e.g. agricultural occupations or cancer survivor) (Legard, Keegan, & Ward, 2003).   

Research

Science Café Attendance

In spring 2019, attendance at the Science Cafés ranged from eight to 31 participants (see Table 1).  Travel to the events ranged from less than one mile up to 35 miles (one attendee in Community One) with most attendees traveling one mile or less to attend. This suggests the audience for Science Cafés is mostly local residents.  In both communities, the highest proportion of attendees report that they are “retired” or “semi-retired”: 38% (n= 12) in Community One and 32% (n= 14) in Community Two.  Other occupations identified include farmer, educator, student, medical professional, and self-employed person.

Results from Written Evaluations

Over the course of three Science Cafés in Community One, we received 32 evaluations from a total of 66 participants.  In Community Two, we received 44 evaluations from 73 participants.  In this paper, we have combined all evaluation results to present the results across both communities.  

In response to the question “Do you plan to share this information with friends, family or others?” 56 respondents indicated “yes,” nine indicated “no,” and 11 did not respond to the question.  The majority of respondents (33) who said “yes,” indicated that they would do so through conversations with family or friends.  Others also indicated social media (two), email (six), and by sharing “notes” (five).  Four indicated they would share through a community group or organization (see Figure 1).  

The written evaluation also included a question asking for examples of something the participants learned.  Among the responses to this open-ended question were some very specific items, such as “how to count pollen + p2.5-p10 measurements + pollen fragments” following a presentation on air pollution, to more general statements or perceptions of the content.  Following a presentation on Iowa agriculture, one participant wrote, “I loved being reminded that conventional ag and diversified small ag are a venn [sic] diagram and have things in common” and another wrote, “intersection of local and global ag in formal and informal ways.” After a presentation on air quality, someone responded: “I learned about air control.” 

Results from Interviews

Over the course of the spring 2019 Science Café events, 26 indicated on their evaluation form that they were willing to be interviewed. Of those, we were able to contact and interview 18 individuals, ten women and eight men.  Given the relatively narrow focus of the interview guide, this number should be sufficient to reach saturation, the point at which no new themes emerge from the data (Guest, Bunce, & Johnson, 2006).

Consistent with the responses in the initial evaluations, most participants shared information in conversations with family or friends:

  • I have a friend that I get together with once a week and we chat. We were at lunch and I talked about how Iowa is one of the worst states for cancer. We are also the best research state for cancer, I was kind of bragging on us. (Participant #4)
  • I talked about it by word of mouth to a ton of people (Participant #8)
  • The bottom line for the lecture after going through many ideas is that the future is solar, and I had a friend who asked me about it and I told him that. (Participant #17)
  • I have a friend in Cedar Rapids that I have shared the information with (Participant #15)

Others indicated that they shared information strategically with family or friends who might be particularly interested in it or benefit from it.  In some cases, the information was directed at someone who lacked knowledge about the topic: “It was a casual conversation with a friend we were talking about. She’s new to being in a rural area which brought up the different types of agriculture with which she wasn’t familiar with and I was able to share” (Participant #10). 

Conversely, information was shared with people who had very specific knowledge of the topic, such as in the case of a cancer survivor or someone remediating mold in a home:

  • I shared some points with my mother who is a cancer survivor (Participant #13)
  • We were cleaning a house because it was dusty and the new occupants, one of them, has a dust allergy, and I said I was just at the Science Café on air quality and the question was “What is one thing we can do ourselves on air quality?” and the teacher said basement mold and the person I was talking to said the moldy basement was a bigger issue than the dust and I was able to confirm what they said with the advice of an expert. (Participant #26)

Others noted that the topic was relevant to their professional life and so they discussed it with colleagues in a professional capacity.  In this context, student status is considered a professional setting:

  • I brought it up in class and told them what it was about. (Participant #8)
  • Since I’m a farmer I’ll sometimes relate something that came out of there to someone else in the same profession. (Participant #11)
  • Friends who are water quality testers like me, we all agreed that we need to be referencing data and all of us generally agreed that this ups the game of water quality of Iowa and is the proof that we need to show that we have to turn things around. (Participant #16)
  • Finally, a couple of respondents referenced formal social or community groups that they shared information with:  
  • [with] the breakfast club…I told it to my husband, my friends at the book club, and several other people. (Participant #5)
  • I work with the local Sierra Club so it was an interesting background to have. (Participant #21)

In some cases, respondents referenced their own reputations or positions within the community, indicating that the Science Café information provided additional weight or legitimacy to areas of concern that they have been known to discuss:

  • Informally as always. They’re used to me talking about local ag at this point. (Participant #14)
  • It was about agriculture and I am a farmer so it is my life. (Participant #9)
  • I talk about it in my community and how we can implement it in our community. I also talk about compost and trash a lot so I might be a little excited about it. (Participant #14)

Most respondents indicated that they shared information verbally or through casual conversations.  A few, however, noted that they shared information via written notes, video, or online mechanisms:

  • I take notes and I give the whole thing to my husband and my friends. (Participant #5)
  • Well that is odd that you called because just an hour ago I was talking to someone about it. The fellow had a graphic on the information. It turns out the 5,000 pigs put out the sewage amount of 20,000 people. I’m going to take the map that he showed and make it a poster size and put it around town so that people see it because they need to. (Participant #20)
  • A friend put a video that I made up on a forum. I didn’t spread it but she did. (Participant #20)

Discussion

These results shed light on the diversity of social settings and groups that individuals in small rural communities may encounter and engage with.  One challenge of conducting community outreach or participatory research in rural communities is that low populations make it difficult to generate impactful numbers of participants or attendees at events.  However, responses indicated a wide number of settings, both formal and informal, in which information was shared.  These included book clubs, breakfast clubs, the local Sierra Club chapter, and with family members, fellow students, and colleagues.  In some cases, participants sought out individuals who they knew would be interested in the information (e.g., a parent who is a cancer survivor). In other cases, interview respondents indicated that they were asked about the event, or the topic came up, and they had information to share.  

Notably, the content gleaned from Science Café events provided legitimacy and evidence for several participants in their interactions, particularly in formal settings such as the workplace or a community organization.  For example, content from a water quality event generated a longer discussion among community water testers about the importance of good data and evidence in water quality discussions.  In other contexts, such as cancer-related research, the Science Café material provided information about resources in Iowa, allowing the participant to “brag” about research productivity in the state.  Knowledge sharing among social networks can be an important conduit for information transmission, particularly in rural areas (Burch, 2007; Mtega et al., 2013).  Even relatively small events like these Science Cafés can enhance knowledge in formal settings, broadening the initial reach of the event and informing professional networks as well as informal social groups.

In addition, several participants indicated that they are known for being interested in a topic, as evidenced by comments such as “I talk about composting and trash a lot” and “They’re used to me talking about local ag” as well as “I am a farmer, so it’s my life.” The literature related to program development in sustainable food systems suggests that many new endeavors are initiated by “champions” who engage with the community and promote their cause (Bagdonis, Hinrichs, & Schafft, 2008).  Likewise, other evaluation strategies have examined the qualities of people who support initiatives in quality improvement (Demes et al., 2020). Recognizing that these highly engaged “champions” may participate in other events, gleaning information and resources to pass along in other settings, is a potentially new way to think about how content from a Science Café event might reach additional community members.  Future evaluations in these communities could include social network analysis or mapping to better understand the social and professional channels through which information may be distributed (Wasserman & Faust, 1994).

While most participants shared information verbally by reporting that they described the content of the Science Café to others, some developed additional materials or used other media.  One participant stated that they took written notes, which they shared, and another described developing posters and videos for distribution. This was an unexpected product and suggests there may be additional opportunities to engage with Science Café participants to co-develop products or materials related to the events’ content.  Providing content in a way that participants can reproduce and share, such as an electronic version of the standard handout or graphics, could further encourage participants to develop follow-up materials after the event.

In this small study, respondents’ diverse reports of what they learned, in conjunction with the wide array of approaches to sharing information, suggest that Science Cafés may serve as more than simply sites where the public learns about scientific concepts. Among participants in this study, some were inspired or reminded about the intersections between systems (such as conventional and alternative agriculture), some became excited about, and advocates for, cutting-edge cancer research in their communities, or they used the content to champion projects in local organizations.  When viewed from this perspective, Science Cafés have a great deal of potential to improve the relationships between scientists and society. This study contributes a new approach for evaluating Science Café events.  Future research could link pre-determined learning objectives with an evaluation of how those objectives are communicated more broadly.

Conclusion

This study suggests that evaluating small events in rural communities can benefit from learning not only who attends and their levels of satisfaction, but also how they may recount and communicate the information they learn with their social and professional networks.  Recognizing that participants may be leaders in local groups, champions for causes, or may glean information that is particularly relevant for a friend or family member can help organizers develop programming that can be tailored to and/or shared in a variety of media.  In addition, being attentive to those who are motivated to develop additional outputs, such as posters or video, can help organizers expand the reach of what is otherwise a relatively small event.  Understanding how science may be communicated via social networks can assist in developing programs with the potential to have a broad community impact, beyond the setting of one individual event.

About the Authors

Jacqueline Curnick is the Program Coordinator of the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center Community Engagement Core at the University of Iowa. She holds a Master of Sustainable Development Practice with a focus in environmental communication. 

 

Brandi Janssen is a Clinical Associate Professor of Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Iowa. She directs Iowa’s center for Agricultural Safety and Health (I-CASH) and the Community Engagement Core for the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center (EHSRC).

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Appendix A

Science Café Evaluation Questions

1. Name

2. Profession

3. Email

4. Are you already on the mailing list? 

5. Are you willing to be contacted via phone for a brief interview? If so, please list phone number.

6. How did you learn about the event? 

  • Email from school/professor
  • Flyer
  • Newspaper
  • Email list from EHSRC
  • Other (please describe)

7. Please rate the following as excellent, good, fair, or poor: 

  • Presentation
  • Group discussion

8. Examples of something you learned: 

9. Do you plan to share this information with friends, family, or others? If so, how will you share?

10. Are there any topics you would like to learn about in a future Science Café?

11. Do you have any suggestions for how we can improve the Science Café?

Appendix B

Phone Interview Questions

Hello, may I speak with (first name, last name)? This is __ calling from the University of Iowa, and you are being contacted because you had previously indicated at a recent Science Café event that you were willing to be interviewed. 

On the evaluation form at the most recent Science Café you attended, we asked you:   Do you plan to share this information with friends, family, or others? If so, how will you share?

You responded:  SOME FORM OF YES 

1. Why did you indicate you would share information? For example, it was interesting, relevant, important, you had someone in mind, etc. 

2. Did you discuss the information you learned at the Science Café in person, by email, or by telephone with anyone? Answer options: Yes, No, I don’t know/remember, Refused (If no, go to question 6)

3. How many people?

4. Can you describe that interaction or discussion?

5. What was the outcome of the interaction? For example, did the person indicate interest, say they learned something new, disagree or take issue with the information?

6. (If answered no to question 2) Why have you not talked about the Science Café with anyone? For example, you didn’t think of it, it wasn’t important information, you are not comfortable sharing, etc. 

7. (If answered no to question 2) Do you think you’ll talk about it in the future?

FOR ALL: Now I’d like to ask you about the Science Cafés in general.

8. About how many Science Café events have you attended?

9. Have you ever talked about past Science Café content with friends, coworkers, or family members following the event? Answer options: Yes, No, I don’t know/remember, Refused (If no, go to question 12) 

10. Can you tell me about or describe a conversation you’ve had with friends, coworkers, or family members about a Science Café? 

11. Do you think the information you shared was new to the person or people you spoke with?

12. (If answered no to question 9) Why have you not talked about the Science Café with anyone? For example, you didn’t think of it, it wasn’t important information, you are not comfortable sharing, etc. 

13. Who in your community would most benefit from the information shared during Science Café events?

On the evaluation form at the most recent Science Café you attended, we asked you:   Do you plan to share this information with friends, family, or others? If so, how will you share?

You responded:  SOME FORM OF NO

1. Why did you indicate you would not share the information? For example, not interesting, relevant, important, no one to share with, etc. 

2. Did you discuss the information you learned at the Science Café with anyone? Answer options: Yes, No, I don’t know/remember, Refused (If no, go to question 8)

3. How many people?

4. Can you describe that interaction/discussion?

5. Did you communicate about the Science Café by email  or telephone with anyone?

6. Can you describe that interaction?

7. What was the outcome of the interaction? Did the person indicate interest, say they learned something new, disagree or take issue with the information? (Go to question 9)

8. (If answered no to question 2) Why have you not talked about the Science Café? For example, didn’t think of it, wasn’t important information, not comfortable sharing. 

9. Do you think you’ll talk about it in the future?

FOR ALL: Now I’d like to ask you about the Science Cafés in general.

10. About how many Science Café events have you attended?

11. Have you ever talked about past Science Café content with friends, coworkers, or family members following the event? (If no, go to question 14) 

12.  Can you tell me about or describe a conversation you’ve had with friends, coworkers, or family members about a Science Café?

13. Do you think the information you shared was new to the person or people you spoke with? (Go to question 15) 

14. (If answered no to question 11) Why have you not talked about the Science Café? For example, didn’t think of it, wasn’t important information, not comfortable sharing. 

15. Who in your community would most benefit from the information shared during Science Café events?

For those who responded:  UNSURE OR BLANK

Intro language—they are being called because they indicated at a recent Science Café event that they were willing to be interviewed.

You recently attended a Science Café presentation, 

1. Did you discuss the information you learned at the science cafe with anyone? (If no, go to question 7) 

2. How many people?

3. Can you describe that interaction/discussion?

4. Did you communicate about the Science Café by email or telephone with anyone?

5. Can you describe that interaction?

6. What was the outcome of the interaction? Did the person indicate interest, say they learned something new, disagree or take issue with the information? (Go to question 8) 

7. (If answered no to question 1) Why have you not talked about the Science Café? For example, didn’t think of it, wasn’t important information, not comfortable sharing. 

8. Do you think you’ll talk about it in the future?

FOR ALL: Now I’d like to ask you about the Science Cafés in general.

9. About how many Science Café events have you attended?

10. Have you ever talked about past Science Café content with friends, coworkers, or family members following the event? (If no, go to question 13) 

11.  Can you tell me about/describe a conversation you’ve had with friends, coworkers, or family members about a Science Café? 

12. Do you think the information you shared was new to the person or people you spoke with? (Go to question 14) 

13. (If answered no to question 10) Why have you not talked about the Science Café? For example, didn’t think of it, wasn’t important information, not comfortable sharing. 

14. Who in your community would most benefit from the information shared during Science Café events?

 

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A Community Outreach Chemistry Lab Success in a Pandemic

Abstract

This project report highlights a simple yet effective outreach lab benefiting the community partner, specifically the Alameda Point Collaborative (APC) youth program and Saint Mary’s College students in a general science course. Building on a partnership focused on reciprocity, a portable lab experiment (Mattson Microscale Gas Chemistry lab) was proposed.  Given the pandemic, the major challenge was working through how to incorporate the community engagement without being physically present at APC.  To address this, the Saint Mary’s students created an instructional video to be viewed in advance of the activity as a replacement for the formal lab handout, which allowed us to participate without being onsite.  With the lab chemicals and materials delivered in advance, APC staff did a pilot run to facilitate a more successful joint lab. When both populations (APC youth and SMC students) met through a Zoom meeting, the lab resulted in a successful experiment and a shared learning experience.  This lab experience raised everyone’s spirits even during the pandemic.  In this report, the two authors provide reflections on the student gains and wish to emphasize that civic learning can still occur even in a pandemic. 

Introduction

Can one really do a community outreach chemistry lab during a pandemic?  How can college students be truly involved and engaged performing outreach when their classes are taught remotely?  Can a community partner feel supported when colleges keep pressing onward in the midst of the pandemic?

The students in a Saint Mary’s College environmental science course and their stalwart community partner, the Alameda Point Collaborative (APC) ventured together to answer the three questions above and continue a partnership where reciprocity has always been a focal point.  The Urban Environmental Issues (UrbanE) course had previously done educational outreach lab work with APC, but because of the pandemic, it needed to be done remotely.   This project report discusses their shared laboratory experience.   

The UrbanE class studies environmental chemistry issues and investigates the redevelopment of Alameda Point, the former Alameda Naval Air Station (NAS).  Since Alameda NAS became a Superfund site in 1999, the course content was regularly aligned with clean-up activities. Several course labs have followed site characterization and clean-up methods (X-ray fluorescence soil screening and a thermal reaction, which mimics how in situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) is used to clean up the groundwater onsite) (Bachofer, 2010).  Beyond utilizing Alameda Point as a study site, the community engagement aspects of the course have involved some direct service for a community partner, the Alameda Point Collaborative.  APC provides services to the homeless on the former Alameda NAS, assisting them with housing, job training, and social services to empower individuals who were formerly homeless.  In the past, students have performed educational outreach experiments for the APC youth.   This past year, an educational outreach project with APC teens was selected as appropriate in a pandemic.  

Educational outreach projects have been a part of many previous course iterations.  The outreach labs have ranged from inviting APC youth to Saint Mary’s College to do an experiment, implementing a chemistry lab for the local middle school, and learning the chemistry of garden nutrient kits.  These outreach projects were typically done in Alameda. Thus, planning to share a lab experience with the APC teens was somewhat routine, yet this year’s challenge was to do this lab remotely.

The Alameda Point Collaborative claimed, restored, and reinvigorated the base housing and facilities including one building initially used as a Native American health clinic, which was repurposed as a teen center. The central mission of the APC Teen Center is to inform, inspire, and educate the local youth to become productive members of their community and world.  Due to the pandemic, the Teen Center itself took on new role as a remote learning hub for the APC teens.  The center needed a full Wi-Fi upgrade and a new fence surrounding the building to provide some privacy and safety, and all the sinks, toilets, and dispensers were changed to be hands-free along with added temperature detectors so that the APC teens could have a COVID-safe instructional space.

Outreach Lab Methodology

Pre-planning  

Professor Bachofer and Mr. Cass discussed several laboratory experiments that might be sufficiently portable and educational during the summer of 2020.  To give the UrbanE students a vested interest in the outreach, there were a few Mattson gas generation labs as options.  The UrbanE students were encouraged to select a gas generation lab similar to their first lab preparing carbon dioxide.  The oxygen gas generation lab had a fun aspect of testing the oxygen gas with a smoldering splint (think lighting something on fire, safely) and it was selected.  

The oxygen gas generation lab was designed for students ranging from middle school to college.  The instructional materials are freely available via the Mattson Microscale Gas Generation website (Mattson, 2019).  This resource has three introductory gas labs to prepare either carbon dioxide, oxygen, or hydrogen. The procedure for gas generation and equipment to prepare each gas are nearly identical, except for the reagents.  The oxygen gas generation used only hydrogen peroxide, H2O2, as a reactant and potassium iodide, KI, as a catalyst.  The reaction time required to generate a full syringe of oxygen gas was approximately 10 minutes.  This gas was transferred into a test tube and upon adding a smoldering splint, reignition occurred.  

Professor Bachofer had previously used this lab with visiting middle school students on educational field trips to the College, so it was known to be very safe.  As the lab equipment and consumables were affordable and easily transportable, APC needed to only provide a safe working space and access to water for syringe work.  This implementation built on previous educational labs, so again the only real challenges were the restrictions imposed to keep everyone safe from the corona virus. 

UrbanE Student Preparation

The UrbanE students performed a gas generation lab as one of their labs.  Three lab periods were devoted to delivering the outreach lab to the APC teens.  Specifically, the UrbanE students’ carbon dioxide gas generation lab gave them hands-on experience. The UrbanE students generated CO2 gas following procedures from the Mattson website (Mattson, 2019).  During the two planning lab periods, the UrbanE students were asked to recall what was most helpful for them when they did the lab remotely.  This reflection activity led them to propose that a video be created, along with a one-page instructional sheet replacing the formal lab handout that they had used.  Two sets of students agreed to be filmed doing a setup and generating oxygen gas, one student edited the videos, and another few students revised a bulleted set of directions.  They were confident that this would provide multiple instructional tools to make the lab a success.  In the meantime, Professor Bachofer and Mr. Cass worked on the final logistics—how long these two groups would meet and the exact date and time (the lab would last approximately one hour and the course class time matched the Teen Center’s workday).  Cass and Bachofer also planned a discussion for the APC teens on what college is like, and Cass coordinated a starter set of questions.  This would prepare both groups of students to have a discussion. 

This outreach lab was aligned with productive educational civic engagement aspects outlined by W. Robert Midden (2018).   Elvin Aleman and his coworkers also noted that undergraduates exhibit significant gains in learning when planning educational service-learning projects designed to inspire the next generation of scientists (Godinez Castellanos et al., 2021).  Remote hands-on instruction has become a more critical tool during the past year, and many straightforward lab experiences can be instructional and fully portable as noted by Jodye Selco (2020).  All of these authors have indicated that faculty can easily provide guidance to undergraduates, and that implementation of hands-on and civic engagement activities empowers all students (Midden, 2018; Godinez Castellanos et al., 2021; Selco, 2020).    

Unfortunately, there was not time to request formal institutional review board approval of this project, which means that this article cannot include any student response data.  The results and conclusion sections will have only the authors’ reflections and insights on the effectiveness of this activity. 

Results

After the delivery of individualized laboratory materials, Mr. Cass and other APC staff performed a pilot run using the UrbanE students’ video to guide them.  This preparation gave them intimate knowledge of the experiment and made the joint lab day a tremendous success.

The APC teens did the experiment a total of three times, twice on the day of the joint Zoom session, plus another time approximately a week later.   The experiment was considered a success when the iodide catalyst caused the hydrogen peroxide to decompose forming the oxygen gas.  The APC teens, however, evaluated the experiment as a success only if one reignited a smoldering splint in the oxygen gas, generating a burst of flames!  With that definition, there was only 50% success on the first trial, yet on second trial, there was 100% success.  Only one detrimental incident occurred when the glass test tube broke and one APC teen got a minor cut.  The successful demonstration of oxygen gas reactivity with a smoldering splint overshadowed this minor incident, and all students gained from the shared lab experience.

When all were on the Zoom call, a further dialogue began during the second trial’s 10-minute gas generation time.  Mr. Cass asked the UrbanE students about the challenges of going to college and learning under COVID conditions.  This discussion was instructional as the UrbanE students shared their thoughts about college in general and their learning in a pandemic.   It gave the APC teens some idea how college could still be accomplished in a pandemic.  This outreach lab was so successful that two groups arranged for a subsequent shared meeting so that the UrbanE and APC teens could share thoughts on the challenges of recycling various materials, providing a second linkage to their course content.    

There were two big successes from this outreach lab.  The APC teens noted that the UrbanE student videos did help them do the experiments and come away with some renewed confidence that doing science, specifically chemistry, was possible.  The UrbanE students recognized that they could use their new knowledge to positively impact others.

Co-Instructor Reflections

Mr. Cass’s Reflection 

In my case, there was a personal reason why this experimental format was beneficial, besides all of the obvious educational reasons. During my interview for Teen Center coordinator, in December 2018, I was playing basketball with some of the APC teens who also happened to be present during the experiment. We chatted while we played and when I asked “What do you guys want to be when you grow up?” one of the students responded to me that he wanted to be a chemist when he grew up. On the day of our experiment, that student reminded me of our conversation in 2018 and how the opportunity to try the experiment firsthand was satisfying. 

Recently, I asked what they remembered about the experiment. I was surprised to find that they were able to give me the step-by-step instructions and they remembered a lot about why and how the experiment worked.  They noted that they hadn’t read the instructions initially, but to finally see the splint ignite was great. In fact, the syringe lab was really interesting and was worth doing over with them.  They also commented that the experiment could teach students something deeper than just chemistry: that you can fail at something over and over again but if you keep doing it, eventually you’ll get it right.  

Prof. Bachofer’s Reflection

The impact of this educational outreach lab was quite remarkable.  The UrbanE students came away from the hour-long Zoom session impressed and exhilarated that the APC teens had conducted a very successful experiment. The student reflections were filled with positive thoughts and nearly all began with a note that they were initially unsure that we could accomplish this outreach.  The students were graded on their contributions to both the outreach lab and discussion.  Marque Cass’s most impactful question was, “What are you as Saint Mary’s UrbanE students likely to take away from this course?”  This prompted many students to remark in their reflections that they would be more committed to helping their communities in the future.  Again, the reciprocity of this educational outreach was apparent.

The community engagement made this environmental science course more meaningful for the Saint Mary’s UrbanE students, and it truly heartened the faculty member in these exhausting times.  The major takeaway is that educational outreach can be done in a pandemic and it will truly enrich you and your community.   

Key Points to Ensure Success

  • The college and the community partner were committed to listen and to make plans that would benefit each other.
  • The planning was done in advance and follow-up through emails ensured the project progressed on schedule.
  • The instructor and the supervisor aligned their work expectations to benefit both student groups.
  • The lab experiment yielded an easily observable reaction.  The lab materials were also very affordable.
  • The students were empowered to do tasks connected to the educational content of their courses and recognized that each community was a significant contributor.

Acknowledgement

At Saint Mary’s College, this Urban Environmental Issues course serves as a general education science course with an integrated community engagement component.  It assists students to fulfill two core curriculum requirements with one course.  Via CILSA (Catholic Institute for LaSallian Action), the institution supports faculty and community partners in their efforts to organize and implement the latter curricular objective.  This does not eliminate the work that is required to implement it. However, CILSA does assist with the administrative challenges (MOUs), helps to maintain more durable college/community organization partnerships, and provides the faculty with additional training on effective implementation.  

About the Authors 

Steven Bachofer teaches chemistry and environmental science at Saint Mary’s College and has worked with the Alameda Point Collaborative for more than 15 years through his affiliation with the SENCER project. He has also co-authored a SENCER model course with Phylis Martinelli, addressing the redevelopment of a Superfund site (NAS Alameda).  

Marque Cass has been in the field of education since before his graduation from UC-Davis, where he earned a BS in Community and Regional Development with an emphasis in Organization and Management. Since January 2019, he has been the youth program coordinator for Alameda Point Collaborative, doing mentoring and advocacy work for formerly homeless families. More recently, he has been elected a community partner liaison with Saint Mary’s College, working to help create stronger networks between organizations.

References

Bachofer, S. J. (2010). Studying the redevelopment of a Superfund site:  An integrated general science curriculum paying added dividends.  In R. Sheardy (Ed.), Science education and civic engagement: The SENCER Approach, 117–133. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society. 

Godinez Castellanos, J. L., León, A., Reed, C., Lo, J. Y., Ayson, P., Garfield, J., . . . Alemán, E. A. (2021). Chemistry in our community: Strategies and logistics implemented to provide hands-on activities to K–12 students, teachers and families.  Journal of Chemical Education, 98(4), 1266–1274. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/bk-2010-1037.ch008  

Mattson, Bruce. (2019). Microscale gas chemistry. Omaha, NE: Creighton University. Retrieved from http://mattson.creighton.edu/Microscale_Gas_Chemistry.html  

Midden W. R. (2018). Teaching chemistry with civic engagement: Non-science majors enjoy chemistry when the they learn by doing research that provides benefits to the local community.  In R. Sheardy and C. Maguire (Eds.), Citizens first! Democracy, social responsibility, and chemistry, 1–31. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society. 

Selco, J. (2020). Using hands-on chemistry experiments while teaching online. Journal of Chemical Education, 97(9): 2617–2623.  https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.0c00424 

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Farming Practices as Funds of Knowledge

Abstract

This study examines farming practices across regions as funds of knowledge that may be integrated into K–12 curricula and instruction. Funds of knowledge, as conceptualized by Moll, Amanti, Neff, and González (1992), include the knowledge students bring from their families and home communities to the classroom, and serve as resources to enhance curricular relevancy, concept and skill development, learner and family engagement, and a positive learning environment. Funds of knowledge include home language use, family values and traditions, caregiving practices, family roles and responsibilities, and professional knowledge, among other factors identified by González, Moll, and Amanti (2005). This qualitative study interviews four participants with U.S. and international farming experience to invite reflection on practices across cultures and regions. Constant comparative analyses of interviews (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015) highlight ways culture and farming are connected and present farming practices as important funds of knowledge. This inquiry offers valuable implications for elementary curricula and instruction. 

Introduction

This study examines farming practices as funds of knowledge that may be integrated into K–12 curricula and instruction. Funds of knowledge, as conceptualized by Moll, Amanti, Neff, and González (1992), include the knowledge students bring from their families and home communities to the classroom, and serve as resources to enhance curricular relevancy, concept and skill development, learner and family engagement, and a positive learning environment. Funds of knowledge include home language use, family values and traditions, caregiving practices, family roles and responsibilities, and professional knowledge, among other factors identified by González, Moll, and Amanti (2005). This research has sought to develop theory and practical approaches for educators to learn about the funds of knowledge of language learner families, and all learner families, in their school communities and to “re-present them on the bases of the knowledge, resources, and strengths they possess, thus challenging deficit orientations that are so dominant, in particular, in the education of working-class children” (Moll, 2019, p. 131). Collaborations among teachers, parents, and students are needed. 

Historically, U.S. public schools have not acknowledged the “strategic and cultural resources” or “funds of knowledge” that U.S.-Mexican multilingual learners have brought to the classroom from their home environments (Velez-Ibenez & Greenburg, 1992). Research offers creative approaches for integrating learner funds of knowledge into curricula and instruction. Alvarez (2018) invited bilingual first graders to author autobiographical stories sharing about life in a town on the Mexican-American border. Stories demonstrated self-perceptions as adding to family well-being. Humanizing pedagogies have drawn on students’ politicized funds of knowledge to support critical thinking, literacy skills, and political participation in achieving social equity for all by connecting their lived experiences to school curricula (Gallo & Link, 2015). This study builds on previous research demonstrating family farming experience as valuable student knowledge to engage in elementary science classrooms (e.g., Harper, 2016). Moll (2019) includes farming as one of the careers in the primary and secondary sectors of the economy that learners may bring to the classroom from marginalized working-class homes, and he encourages educators to create opportunity for learners of all backgrounds, including farming families, to “display, elaborate, and share” their experiences as a learning resource and rich knowledge base (p. 131).

Need for the Research

In Fall 2017, 10.1% of students in U.S. public school K–12 classrooms were identified as English Language Learners (ELLs), an increase from 8.1% in 2000 (U.S. Department of Education, 2017–18). These statistics also reflect the population of ELLs in a sample Midwest county, indicating that diversity of student populations exists not only on the borders and coasts, but is integral to the nation. In the Bartholomew County School Corporation in South Central Indiana, of approximately 1,200 students, just over 10% of the K–12 school population identified as English Language Learners (ELLs) (Johannesen, 2019). Of multilingual families in the U.S., about 77% reported speaking Spanish at home, with other common home languages including Arabic, Chinese, and Vietnamese (Bialik, Scheller, & Walker, 2018). Migrant language learning families make up a significant percentage of U.S. agricultural workers. In an article on immigration and farming, Kurn (2018) reflected that “immigrants are deeply involved in this complex journey from seed to plate … an indelible part of rural America, contributing to the economic and cultural fabric of these communities” (para. 2). Farmworkers Justice found that around 70–80% of farmworkers are immigrants, while the United States Department of Agricultural (USDA) found that 60% of all agricultural workers are immigrants (Kurn, 2018, para. 4). The above statistics demonstrate the need to prepare teachers and teacher candidates to support ELLs, farming and migrant families in U.S. schools. Classrooms need curricula and instruction that affirm and engage student backgrounds and knowledge as resources for all in the classroom, including farming knowledge. Moreover, teacher preparation programs need to prepare teacher candidates with curricular resources and instructional capacities for this.

Purpose

This study seeks to “re-present” (Moll, 2019, p. 131) farming knowledge across cultures and regions as funds of knowledge. To do this, the study examines connections between culture and farming practices, including similarities and differences across the U.S. and international regions. This study further considers how these farming practices as funds of knowledge may be integrated into elementary curricula and instruction and in teacher preparation contexts seeking to prepare teachers to support multicultural, multilingual learners. A model lesson plan (Appendix A), developed in a teacher preparation course for integrating funds of knowledge into curricula and instruction, is shared.

Methods

This qualitative study engaged constant comparative analysis (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015) to examine similarities and differences across farming practices and consider how culture and farming shape one another, from the perspectives of participants who have farming experience in the U.S. and in one or more international regions. Collected data included 30–45-minute interviews with four participants identified through a purposive selection process (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015) that involved asking the county’s soil and water conservation district for suggested participants. The first three participants were identified through this route. The fourth participant was identified by inviting volunteers through a social media outreach posted by one of the two researchers conducting the study. All four participants were selected to participate in the study because they had farming knowledge and experience in a U.S. region and in an international region culturally, ecologically, and politically distinct from their own. In the interviews participants were asked to consider how culture shapes and is shaped by farming practices in the U.S. and in international regions where they farmed. The interview protocol is included in Appendix B. Constant comparative analysis was used to identify themes and sub-themes that emerged from the interview data; the themes were not predetermined. This analysis process involved recording participants’ responses to each of the five interview questions, then coding responses focused on the U.S. context or the international context, to identify similarities and differences. The next layer of analysis involved reviewing this chart for key themes that emerged, including theme-based comparisons the participants made about the U.S. and international contexts in which they farmed. Finally, thematic findings were considered for how farming practices as regionally and culturally distinct funds of knowledge might inform and be integrated into K–12 curricula and instruction, and how this integration might play a role in supporting multicultural, multilingual learners and in meeting Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Teacher Preparation Standards.

Findings: Farming Practices as Funds of Knowledge

The findings from this qualitative study build on previous research by suggesting that culture shapes and is shaped by farming practices, and demonstrate specific ways in which U.S. farming practices contrast with farming practices in international settings. Analyses of participant interviews resulted in findings highlighting the following themes: automated vs. manual labor, individual vs. social farming, climate impact on food cultivation, institutionalized vs. personalized practices, and the politics of land ownership. Each of these themes highlights how farming involves funds of knowledge embedded in the communities and cultures of practice.

Automated vs. Manual Labor

Across interviews, participants emphasized distinctions observed in automated farming in the U.S. and manual farming practices in international developing regions, specifically the Philippines, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. One participant reflected on the necessity to be well versed in technology to farm in the U.S.: “Here in the U.S. we are so reliant on technology and the data it gives us” (Peru-Ecuador-U.S. Farming Participant). She noted the similar use of automated practices in Canada, the Netherlands, and England. In contrast, she reflected on practices in Ecuador, where farming was “super hands-on” and where farmers had the opportunity to obtain technology, “but they choose not to, and would rather have their cows they know personally, and 20 cows they milk every day” and yet “here in the U.S. we might have 10,000 cows on a big farm” (Peru-Ecuador-U.S. Farming Participant). 

Individual vs. Social Farming

Another theme that surfaced across interviews is the noted distinction between individual and social farming practices. The participant with experience in the Philippines described farming there as a social enterprise that brought together family and community members. In contrast, he reflected that much of the farming that took place in the U.S. tended to be individually experienced. He noted that in the Philippines, there were “family groups working together in the gardens and fields” and that farming was “part of their social life, so there was a connection there with the culture” that “happens a lot less in the farms here” because “we are just more spread out” (Philippines-U.S. Farming Participant). Another participant, who had farming experience in Bolivia, reflected on his family’s difficult transition to farming abroad but said that their intentional development of friendships resulted in their “farm not walking away on them,” or having items taken. This farmer described his transformation in discovering the importance of community to support one another. He emphasized near the end of the interview, “Get to know your neighbors and the services they can offer for free. That is priceless” (Bolivia-U.S. Farmer Participant), and he encouraged this practice across professional fields and across international regions—in the U.S. as much as in Bolivia.

Climate Impact on Food Cultivation

Only one participant emphasized the importance of climate in shaping agriculture and the kinds of foods that can be cultivated, and thus the kinds of foods that are enjoyed most often by the local culture. This farmer referenced his experience in the Philippines to highlight that “where we live determines the climate and what is possible to grow” (Philippines-U.S. Farming Participant). This then influences the kinds of foods that are enjoyed at family and community gatherings, holidays, and other cultural celebrations.

Institutionalized vs. Personalized Practices

All participants described distinctions between institutionalized farming practices in the U.S. and more personalized farming practices in international regions, particularly the Philippines, Peru, and Ecuador. The participant with experience in Ecuador and Peru described the value farmers hold there for knowing “each cow, personally,” in contrast to her experience in the U.S. She reflected, “In America we are taught Go big and do what makes it easier, but in Peru [the focus is] take care of yourself, take care of the land, take care of others” (Peru-Ecuador-U.S. Farming Participant). She said that in Peru there are more “diverse, small field” crops and that farmers “care more about their native plants and what they can grow well,” but in the U.S., there are “mass farming or commercial farms that plant all the same crop … 100 acres of potatoes and they are exported” (Ecuador-Peru Farming Participant). This participant felt there was more “pride in what [Ecuadorians and Peruvians] grow because they know it is feeding their neighbors and the community,” while in America, it just seems more of an industry” (Peru-Ecuador-U.S. Farming Participant). This participant referenced her observations of farming practices in Canada, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom that minimized “Go big or go home” practices putting smaller farms out of business. For example, a quota system in Canada requires farmers to purchase rights to the amount of milk a farm will produce—aside from the cost involved in producing that milk. Thus, bigger farms have greater incentive to veer from large-scale farm development. This middle ground seemed ideal to her, as Ecuador’s system led to underproduction of milk for the people, yet America’s big farm efficiency led to 100 family farms closing their doors in one year. One of the participants with experience in Bolivia emphasized the political challenges they faced in accessing the resources they needed to sustain their living situation. He felt similar challenges will be faced in the U.S. if big business farming pushes out smaller farms, leading to lease farming, and minimizing a farmer’s ability to understand and respect the land being cultivated. Likewise, another participant noted that most U.S. farm families are “looking for the next generation to farm that same ground,” so it is “critical to preserve that land, so their kids and grandkids can make a living from the land” (Philippines-U.S. Farming Participant). Without personal connection to the land, the process of land ownership can become complex, both financially and politically driven.

The Politics of Land Ownership

The two participants with farming experience in Bolivia continued to emphasize throughout the joint 1.5-hour interview the complex politics involved in land ownership in Bolivia and increasingly in the U.S. One of these participants reflected on observing land permit applications being stacked in one pile for those with “the right connections” and in another pile for those without such connections. He relayed the fear expressed by American Mennonite farmers in Bolivia when a new political leader entered office, and the negative consequences this would have for their ability to access the resources needed to farm and make any profit on their produce. This participant reflected, “governments and institutions are just a way for whoever has control to have legitimacy to look the other way on the people who they want to get ahead” (Bolivia-U.S. Farming Participant). The same farmer expressed concern over the rising trend in big business farming in the U.S., leading to land rentals and pushing smaller generational family farms out of business.

Discussion and Implications


This study offers insights into important connections between culture and farming practices, and demonstrates ways that farming practices are funds of knowledge integral to communities and their cultures. These findings are important for teachers seeking to support multicultural, multilingual learners who may immigrate to a new region and bring a farming background with them, and learners who might gain new knowledge from classmates with a farming background. This study recognizes farming practices as meaningful funds of knowledge that learners and their families may bring to K–12 classrooms, as emphasized by Harper (2016). This study also recognizes that student familiarity with farming will vary based on the family, school, district, and region, and teachers will need to adjust accordingly. More broadly, this study builds connections across local and international cultures to promote glocalization as a valuable societal aim for K–12 schools and society, as supported by Patel and Lynch’s research (2013). This study reveals specific connections across culture and farming practices regarding the use of automated vs. manual labor, individual vs. social farming, the impact of climate on food cultivation, institutionalized vs. personalized farming, and the politics of land ownership.

Implications for Elementary Curricula and Instruction

This study demonstrates ways culture and farming shape one another and reveals farming practices as a significant fund of knowledge that students and their families may bring to a classroom and to a school community. Understanding similarities and differences across regional farming practices can support teachers in integrating this knowledge into curricula and instruction. Moreover, foundational understandings about agriculture connect to important climate-related content. The following themes from this study align with content covered in the Next Generation Science Standards, particularly Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems: Environmental Impacts on Organisms taught in Grade 1, 2, and 3; Weather and Climate in Kindergarten and Grade 3; Earth and Space Systems in Grade 1, 2, 4 and 5; and Structure and Function in Grade 1 and Variation in Grade 3. For example, climate impact on cultivation addresses NGSS 3-ESS2-2: Obtain and combine information to describe climates in different regions of the world, and 3-LS4-3: Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. Examination of institutionalized and personalized farming practices and the use of land meets NGSS 4-ESS3-2: Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth processes on humans, and 5-ESS3-1: Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment. The following themes address topics covered by the National Council for the Social Studies Standards, including Culture; People, Places, and Environments; Science, Technology, and Society; Global Connections; Civic Ideals and Practices. The potential thematic connections to these standards are many, and we encourage educators to explore them in depth.

Automated vs. Manual Labor

Teachers might guide elementary students in examining both the values and limitations of automated and manual farming practices in the U.S. and in one or more international regions. Such instruction might draw on this study by asking students to debate the pros and cons of using automated farming equipment for different types of farming work such as harvesting crops and milking cows, and to consider how their own values interact with the cultural values of the regions where these farming practices are implemented. One group of students might be asked to learn about and argue for the cultural value of knowing every cow, as in some smaller farms, while another group may be asked to learn about and argue for the business value of producing high volumes of milk in big farms.

Individual vs. Social Farming and Climate Impact

Teachers might partner with the community by inviting parents, older siblings or students, instructional aides, or other members of local multicultural, multilingual communities to visit their classroom and share about their own or their family member’s experiences with social farming practices in international regions. This sharing might articulate the benefits of farming together to feed the local community, as well as nutritional benefits and traditional celebrations that are based around specific locally cultivated crops. The speaker might also share any challenges navigated in a family unit and/or local community when members are farming together. Related to culturally cherished foods, the teacher might guide students to research the climate of different regions, how this shapes the kinds of foods grown there, and specific dishes and recipes that become integral to cultural gatherings, holidays, and traditions.

Institutionalized vs. Personalized Practices and Land Politics

Teachers might connect two themes of this study, by helping students examine how institutionalized and more personalized approaches to farming shape and are shaped by the politics of land ownership. Student groups might each take a country and examine how the national and local policies of land ownership shape attitudes toward the land and the practices therein. They might also examine how local farmers and their farming needs and practices influence (or not) local and national policies on land use and ownership. As students compare similarities and differences across regions, the teacher will need to guide students to continually contextualize farming and policy practices with broader local and national cultural influences. Students can be guided to view and understand this new information as funds of knowledge they may use to support their own local and global understandings.

Implications for Teacher Preparation

This study offers valuable implications for institutions of teacher preparation, and suggests that the integration of farming knowledge as funds of knowledge into teacher preparation coursework is valuable for multicultural, multilingual classrooms. Both local and international learners and their families benefit from connecting with and learning about local and international farming knowledge and practices. Such knowledge is a window for introducing complex cultural, ecological, and political topics, including automated vs. manual labor, individual vs. social farming, climate impact on food cultivation, institutionalized vs. personalized practices, and the politics of land ownership. Preparing teachers to integrate farming knowledge as culturally shaped funds of knowledge into curricula and instruction supports teacher candidates in meeting the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) Elementary Teacher Preparation Standards, particularly using knowledge of diverse families and communities to plan inclusive learning experiences that build on learners’ strengths and address needs (Standard 1b); integrating cross-cutting concepts in the content area of science (Standard 2c); differentiating plans to meet the needs of diverse learners (Standard 3d); supporting student motivation and engagement through culturally relevant and interesting content (Standard 3f); and collaborating with peers and other professionals to create developmentally meaningful learning experiences for all (Standard 5a). 

Preparing teachers to integrate funds of knowledge into curricula and instruction also supports teacher candidates in meeting TESOL PreK–12 Teacher Preparation Standards, including guiding students to engage in discourse across the content areas (Standard 1a); planning for culturally and linguistically relevant, supportive environments (Standard 3a); utilizing relevant materials and resources to support learning (Standard 3e); and collaborating with the broader community as a resource to support student learning (Standard 5a). A model lesson plan, Farming Practices as Funds of Knowledge for Multilingual Learners, is provided in Appendix A. Local and international farming practices as funds of knowledge serve as a window to better understand students’ diverse backgrounds. It is important to prepare teachers to engage this important form of cultural knowledge to affirm and learn from diverse learners. 

About the Authors 

Laura B. Liu, Ed.D. is an assistant professor and Coordinator of the English as a New Language (ENL) Program in the Division of Education at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC). Her research and teaching include the integration of civic science and funds of knowledge into elementary and teacher education curricula and instruction.

Taylor Russell is an elementary teacher and earned her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC), with a dual license in teaching English as a New Language (ENL).

References

Alvarez, A. (2018). Drawn and written funds of knowledge: A window into emerging bilingual children’s experiences and social interpretations through their written narratives and drawings. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 18(1), 97–128.

Bialik, K., Scheller, A., & Walker, K. (2018, October 18). 6 facts about English Language Learners in U.S. public schools. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/25/6-facts-about-english-language-learners-in-u-s-public-schools/

Gallo, S., & Link, H. (2015). “Diles la verdad”: Deportation policies, politicized funds of knowledge, and schooling in middle childhood. Special Issue Dissolving Boundaries: Understanding Undocumented Students’ Educational Experiences for Harvard Educational Review, 85(3), 357–382.

García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

González, N., Moll, L., & Amanti, C. (Eds). (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Harper, S. G. (2016). Keystone characteristics that support cultural resilience in Karen refugee parents. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 11, 1029–1060.

Johannesen, K. (2019, January 26). BCSC superintendent outlines legislative priorities. The Republic. Retrieved from http://www.therepublic.com/2019/01/27/bcsc_superintendent_outlines_legislative_priorities/

Kurn, J. (2018, August 24). Immigration and the food system. Cambridge, MA: Farm Aid. Retrieved from: https://www.farmaid.org/blog/fact-sheet/immigration-and-the-food-system/

Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2015). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Milway, K. S. (2010). The good garden: How one family went from hunger to having enough. Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press.

Moll, L. C. (2019). Elaborating funds of knowledge: Community oriented practices in international contexts. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 68, 130–138.

Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & González, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, 31(2), 132–141.

NGSS Lead States. 2013. Next generation science standards: For states, by states. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Introduction. (n.d.). Silver Spring, MD: National Council for Social Studies. Retrieved from https://www.socialstudies.org/standards/national-curriculum-standards-social-studies-introduction

Patel, F., & Lynch, H. (2013). Glocalization as an alternative to internationalization in higher education: Embedding positive glocal learning perspectives. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 25(2), 223–230.

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TESOL International Association (TESOL). (2019). Standards for initial TESOL Pre-K–12 teacher preparation programs. Alexandria, VA: Author.

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), Local Education Agency Universe Survey, 2017–18. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgf.asp

Vélez-Ibáñez, C. G., & Greenberg, J. B. (1992). Formation and transformation of funds of knowledge among U.S.-Mexican households. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 23(4), 313-335.  

Appendix A

Lesson Plan: Farming Practices as Funds of Knowledge for Multilingual Learners

Teaching Context

Grade Level(s): 5th   
Number of Students: 20–25  
Multilingual Learners: 50–75%

Lesson Planning

Indiana Science Standard 5.ESS.3:
Investigate ways individual U.S. communities protect the Earth’s resources and environment.

Learning Outcome:
Students will COMPARE how communities in three regions practice sustainable farming.

Indiana Social Studies Standard 5.2.8, Roles of Citizens:
Describe group and individual actions that illustrate civic virtues, such as civility, cooperation, respect, and responsible participation. 

Learning Outcome:
Students will DESCRIBE sustainable farming practices in three regions as funds of knowledge. 

WIDA ELD Standard 3 and WIDA ELD Standard 5:
English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content areas of Science and Social Studies

Language Objectives:
Students will IDENTIFY and DESCRIBE similarities and differences in sustainable farming practices as funds of knowledge in Honduras, Guatemala, and the U.S. (Indiana).

Lesson Instruction

Lesson Introduction: 

Share with the class three pictures of sustainable farming practices, in Honduras, Guatemala, and the U.S. Ask if anyone knows or can guess what sustainable farming, means. Repeat student ideas in English and Spanish and write ideas in both languages on the board. Provide a definition for sustainable farming in English and Spanish. Explain that sustainable farming is important for all countries as everyone needs access to sustainable, nutritious food. Note the class will learn about sustainable farming practices in three different countries today: Honduras, Guatemala, and the U.S.—Columbus, Indiana! Introduce the book, The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough (Milway, 2010). Ask the class to examine the title and picture on the front cover to predict what the book may be about. Explain the book is about one family’s work in Honduras to begin sustainable farming practices, by creating a garden to provide sustainable food security for local families. 

Learning Activities: 

Pass out the Venn Diagram graphic organizer.

I DO: Model for students how to complete the Honduras section. Read The Good Garden in English, with Spanish translation by the instructional aide. Complete this sentence frame on the board: “In Honduras, sustainable farming can include ____ and ____.”

WE DO: Invite the instructional aide to share in English and Spanish about sustainable farming practices on her grandparents’ farm in Guatemala. As a class, complete this sentence frame on the board: “In Guatemala, sustainable farming can include ____ and ____.”

YOU DO: Play video a local farmer in Columbus, Indiana created about sustainable farming practices that many farmers use in Indiana. Invite students to pair-share and complete this sentence frame by speaking and writing, in English OR another language: “In Columbus, Indiana, sustainable farming can include _____ and _____.”

Lesson Conclusion: 

Invite pairs to verbally respond to the following questions: What are similarities across the sustainable farming practices in Honduras, Guatemala, and Indiana? What are differences? Students will be invited to use their Venn Diagrams and the following sentence frames to respond: “One similarity in sustainable farming practices across the three regions is ______.” and “One similarity in sustainable farming practices across the three regions is ______.” Ask students how these practices relate to the concept, funds of knowledge, shared in the previous lesson. Conclude that the sustainable farming practices discussed today are funds of knowledge of the cultures and families within those regions, including their agricultural, environmental, and professional knowledge.

Appendix B

Interview Questions: Farming Practices as Funds of Knowledge

Interview Introduction: 

We are conducting this interview as part of a study to learn more about farming practices as funds of knowledge and how these may be integrated into K–12 classroom curricula and instruction. Dr. Luis Moll, from the University of Arizona, studied and describes  funds of knowledge as the knowledge that students bring from their families and homes to the classroom, which can be used to teach concepts and skills in the classroom curricula. Dr. Harper of the University of Georgia encourages reciprocal construction of classroom knowledge in which families’ farming practices are engaged as valuable  funds of knowledge in science. 

Funds of knowledge can include a variety of understandings, such as cultural traditions, values, beliefs, languages, professional skills, farming practices, recipe nutrition, etc.

Interview Questions:

1. Explain any farming practices that are valuable to your culture and may represent  funds of knowledge within your culture.

2. Explain any views toward the ecology and the land that are important in your culture and may represent  funds of knowledgewithin your culture.

3. Do you feel your culture and farming practices are connected? Explain your response.

4. Do you feel your culture may shape farming practices in your region of origin? Explain.

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Promoting STEM Learning through a Multidisciplinary SENCER Framework at a Minority-Serving Institution

Abstract

The Prospect Park Biodiversity Project was a SENCER collaboration project between the Departments of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, and Mathematics at the New York City College of Technology.  The goal of this project was to enhance students’ participation and learning in STEM disciplines through a civically engaged framework. The project utilized the eco-complexity of Prospect Park Lake in Brooklyn, New York for an interdisciplinary study on the water quality. The project, which involved ten students and four faculty mentors, integrated microbiology, chemistry, and mathematics perspectives using active-learning pedagogies, including hands-on exploration and collaborative learning.

Introduction

The Prospect Park Biodiversity project was initiated by four faculty—a microbiologist, a biochemist, and two mathematicians—at the New York City College of Technology (City Tech).  Located in downtown Brooklyn, City Tech is a public, open access, non-residential, minority-serving institution. With students representing the demographics of Brooklyn and the Metropolitan New York City area, it is one of the most racially and ethnically diverse higher education institutions. The intention of the project was to promote STEM learning among women and underrepresented minority students through an interdisciplinary collaboration in a SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities)  framework (Figure 1).  The main goals were to accomplish the following: 

  1. To promote STEM learning through a hands-on collaborative interdisciplinary experience.
  2. To create an undergraduate research experience for students.
  3. To heighten students’ awareness of community resources and their civic responsibilities.
  4. To encourage STEM learning and research among women and underrepresented minority students.

According to Heidi Jacobs’ manual, “interdisciplinary” is defined as a “knowledge view and curriculum approach that consciously applies methodology and language from more than one discipline to examine a central theme, issue, problem, topic, or experience.”  She recognized the growing need for interdisciplinary content and emphasized “linkages” and “relevance” rather than fragmentation or polarity in curriculum design (Jacobs, 1989).  Studies have shown that an interdisciplinary framework for teaching encourages cognitive thinking and real life problem-solving (Husni & Rouadi, 2016; Cowden & Santiago, 2016). Pedagogy in Action, a project of the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) and the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) that shares and disseminates pedagogical practices, points out that interdisciplinary teaching helps foster the development of self-efficacy and multi-dimensional thinking, such as recognizing bias and understanding moral and ethical considerations (Pedagogy in Action, 2021). Shifting away from the traditional discipline-focused learning, today’s education values interdisciplinary learning in multi-perspective contexts and the transferability of skills across disciplinary boundaries (Murray, Atkinson, Gilbert, & Kruchten, 2014).  

Research also shows that active-learning pedagogy enhances the success of underrepresented minority students in STEM. Ballen, Wieman, Salehi, Searle, and Zamudio (2018) found that active-learning pedagogy (ALP) disproportionately positively benefited underrepresented minority (URM) students in science classes. While the non-URM (white and Asian) students showed little or no difference in course performance using ALP compared with the traditional lecture, the URM students showed an increase in science self-efficacy and sense of social belonging in classes that employed ALP, resulting in better grades and academic performance for URM students (Ballen et al., 2018). For active-learning pedagogies, Cattaneo (2017) used key words such as discovery-based, project-based, learner-centered, interdisciplinary, collaborative, etc., all considered high-impact STEM education practices for promoting deeper understanding and critical thinking, and for building STEM identity and belonging (Betz, King, Grauer, & Montelone, 2021; Kuh, 2016; Repko, 2006; Singer, Montgomery, & Schmoll, 2020).  

The SENCER framework was chosen because we believe in SENCER’s mission of connecting STEM learning to real-world problems and the issues of local, national, and global importance as well as teaching students about their civic responsibilities (SENCER).  The site of our study was Prospect Park, which was selected not only for its vast biodiversity and eco-complexity, but also for its vital role in the life and vigor of the community as “Brooklyn’s Backyard.” With 10 million visits a year, the Park provides events, concerts, and recreational and educational programs to help promote healthy, balanced living for its community. With one lake, the Park supports wildlife habitat of over a hundred species of birds and other fauna and offers resting, feeding, and breeding grounds for migratory birds (Prospect Park Alliance, n.d.).  

Project Design

The four faculty designed an interdisciplinary project involving students from the following three courses: Microbiology (BIO3302), General Chemistry 2 (CHEM 1210), and Statistics (MAT 1372). Students selected for the project would also enroll in the Honors and Emerging Scholars Programs, undergraduate research programs at City Tech. Of the ten undergraduate students, seven (70%) were female, seven (70%) were identified as underrepresented minority; five (50%) were female in the underrepresented minority group. Altogether, nine (90%) of the ten participants were either female or underrepresented minority students. They came from various STEM and health majors including Biomedical Informatics, Chemical Technology, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Nursing. The project had three main components:

  1. Disciplined specific research with the faculty mentor: Students worked individually with the faculty mentor of their discipline to review literature and study the background of the project.
  2. Group work and interdisciplinary activities: Students and faculty from all three disciplines worked collaboratively in team meetings, laboratory experiments, field trips, etc.
  3. Project presentations and conference participation: Students were encouraged to disseminate their research results at local and national venues. This is integral to STEM identity building. 

The project attempted to investigate the key question “What is the water quality in Prospect Park Lake?”  The project activities were hands-on and exploratory, and encompass the scientific process from the microbiology, chemistry, and mathematics perspectives. The students worked as a team throughout the whole project. They went on field trips to Prospect Park, made observations of the park habitat, and collected water samples from the lake.  A map of Prospect Park Lake is provided in Figure 2, showing the water collection sites numbered 1–5 in red.  These accessibility sites were defined by the Prospect Park Alliance. Next, 50-ml water samples were collected in sterile tubes from the five sites in the lake. To avoid bacterial growth, the water samples were stored at 4°C in a cooler. After water collection, the team of students reconvened in the laboratory and performed chemical and microbial analysis (Figures 3 and 4). 

 

The Microbiology Perspective

As a result of an extensive literature search, students found that one of the most-used parameters to monitor environmental water quality is the level of enteric bacteria (coliforms), usually occurring in the intestines of humans, animals, and birds.  The presence of coliforms, such as Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Enterobacter spp. is an indicator of fecal contamination (Coulliette, Money, Serre, & Noble,  2009; Tortora & Funke, 2013). This could be of serious concern because the higher levels of coliforms show potential presence of pathogens (bacteria, viruses, etc.) and other pollutants (Bergman, Nyberg, Huovinen, Paakkari, Hakanen, & the Finnish Study Group for Antimicrobial Resistance, 2009). 

In our research, following collection of water samples, the students performed tenfold serial dilutions, and 1 ml from each dilution was inoculated, using nutrient agar and MacConkey agar plates (Gavalas & Cook, 2015). Nutrient agar is a general-purpose medium, supporting growth of wide range of microorganisms. MacConkey agar is a selective and differentiating medium for cultivation of coliforms (E. coli and Enterobacter spp.) After incubation at 37°C for 48–72 hours, the number of bacteria was determined by the colony forming units (CFU) assay. The colonies were counted manually, and the results shown as the number of CFU in 100 ml of water. Additionally, Simmons Citrate agar was used to differentiate between E. coli and Enterobacter spp. 

The Chemistry Perspective

The chemistry perspective focused on examining water quality in terms of dissolved oxygen, conductivity, concentration of nitrates and nitrites, pH, and hardness of water. Chemical analysis was performed on the water samples in the following manner: a) a Fischer Scientific Traceable Conductivity Meter was used to measure the conductivity; b) the dissolved oxygen (DO) was measured using the Winkler Method (data are reported as an average of three trials); and c) LaMotte multi-factor test strips were used to measure the water pH and nitrate or nitrite levels. All analyses were done at room temperature.  Distilled water was used as reference sample (where the dissolved oxygen levels were recorded to be 6.6 ppm and the conductivity 2.3 μS/cm [microSiemans/cm], both acceptable values).

The Mathematics Perspective 

The mathematics perspective provided students with the tools to examine the experimental data, think critically, and make scientific connections between the data and the water quality.  Students used Excel spread sheets for data analysis. Students learned to formulate alternative and null hypotheses based on practical problems and assessed the data critically using chi-squared test and correlation coefficient.

Results and Discussion

The Prospect Park Lake provides a wide variety of habitats with multiple wildlife species. The results from our water sample analysis are presented in Table 1. The students identified the potential sources of fecal contamination to be domestic dogs and wildlife. A variety of birds were observed along the lake (specifically at sites 1, 4, and 5), such as ducks, geese, and swans (members of Anatidae family). It has been shown that some birds can excrete high amounts of coliforms, which may be a potential risk for pathogens. An earlier study has demonstrated that the density of aquatic birds affects the total number of bacteria in lakes, as birds are a natural source of coliforms, including E. coli (Hoyer, Donze, Schulz, Willis, & Canfield, 2006). 

Furthermore, the students observed the presence of multiple freshwater turtles at site 3, which most likely contributed to the highest numbers of total bacteria and coliforms at that site. Another factor resulting in the large number of bacteria at sites 2 and 3 could be the water stagnation, with lack of aeration and water currents, and the fact that these sites of the lake are very narrow. In contrast, the low number of total bacteria and coliforms at sites 4 and 5 could be explained by the water dynamics and free flow, as well as the location of the sites at the widest part of the lake. Other potential factors that affect the total number of bacteria are the temperature and weather conditions. Our results indicate that the sites in which the number of coliforms was higher are the areas with significant concentration of wildlife. Thus, it seems that the water contamination is due to the inhabitants of Prospect Park Lake. Moreover, the samples obtained from sites 4 and 5, which are from the area used for recreation purposes such as fishing and boating, showed the lowest bacterial levels. The numbers of coliforms at all sites of the lake, however, were above the safety standards established for boating and fishing (1000 CFU/100ml) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (2017).

Conductivity and dissolved oxygen are two important water quality parameters.  Conductivity measures the ability of a solution (such as water) to conduct electricity and can be correlated to salinity level. Higher conductivity values indicate more dissolved ions (which are necessary to conduct electricity) such as phosphate or chloride anions, or calcium or sodium cations (EPA, 2012a).  Prospect Park Lake appears to be on the lower end of conductivity; lakes and river water in the U.S. are typically 50–1500 μS/cm (EPA, 2012a).    The level of dissolved oxygen in water is temperature dependent.  Colder water typically has higher levels of dissolved oxygen (EPA, 2012b). Stagnant water contains less dissolved oxygen.  This was observed in sites 2 and 3, as the water was stagnant.  These two sites also had the lowest dissolved oxygen levels.   According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) (2018), as organic matter decomposes, “bacteria in water can consume oxygen,” which may also point to why the levels of bacteria at sites 2 and 3 are high and dissolved oxygen levels relatively low, as well as to their moderately strong negative correlation coefficients (see mathematical analysis below). On the other hand, most enteric bacteria (coliforms) are facultative anaerobes.  In the presence of oxygen, they perform oxidative metabolism (respiration), whereas if dissolved oxygen levels are low, they switch to fermentation and still survive. As noted previously, the high bacterial counts at site 1 could be attributed to birds along the lake.  For aquatic life (i.e., fish) to be sustained, the dissolved oxygen level in water should be above 5 ppm.   Overall, the water quality of Prospect Park Lake (based on dissolved oxygen level) shows potential to support some aquatic life.

The undergraduate students made use of Excel spread sheets to record, organize, and analyze data. Students were tasked with finding the correlation between several parameters using correlation coefficients. The correlation coefficient, r, takes on a value between –1 and +1; an r value close to 1 implies a strong positive correlation between two parameters, an r value close to –1 implies a strong negative correlation, and an r value close to zero implies weak or no correlation.  We found a moderate negative correlation between the total number of bacteria with dissolved oxygen (r=-0.64353) and the number of coliforms with dissolved oxygen (r=-0.52226); a correlation between bacteria and dissolved oxygen is expected as explained in the paragraph above. Comparisons of other parameters yielded insignificant correlations. A chi-squared test on the number of coliforms revealed statistically significant variations in coliform counts between various sites for all sample data (p-value < 0.0001), meaning that the variations in the coliform counts were too large to have occurred by chance alone. Other factors such as animal activities and water conditions (stagnation or open lake) may have contributed to the coliform counts, as previously discussed.

This project led to two poster presentations at City Tech’s Semi-Annual Poster Sessions for Honors and Emerging Scholars, two oral presentations and a poster presentation at the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Metropolitan New York Section Annual Conference, an oral presentation at the SENCER Regional Conference hosted by City Tech, a poster presentation at SENCER Summer Institute (SSI) and a student publication in the City Tech Writer (our college journal for exemplary student writing)  (Gavalas & Cook, 2015). 

A highlight and an eye-opening event for the students was the SENCER Summer Institute.  Here are comments by students reflecting their experience:

My SSI trip was one of highlights of my summer. And it was my first time attending an out-of-state conference. Although my team and I were the youngest participants, I really enjoyed showing the audience our poster. Many of them commended us for our work.… I watched many presentations by other attendees and even got to learn interesting facts about the National Park Service. It was amazing to hear what they do to preserve our country’s national parks.

My peers and I had the opportunity to meet the other attendees, and learned about the topics of their projects.…  I had an amazing time, thank you Professors for the opportunity.  

My group and I presented our poster and communicated with attendees of various backgrounds. It was interesting to see the poster presentations that (other) professors and students worked on.

Conclusion

Collaboratively, faculty members from biology, chemistry, and mathematics designed an interdisciplinary SENCER project on Prospect Park biodiversity.  Our investigation revealed that the coliforms in Prospect Park Lake exceeded the safety standards for secondary human contact (boating and fishing) (1000 CFU/100ml) established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, 2017). The water quality in the lake is considered “threatened” (e.g., supports recreational use but exhibits a deteriorating trend) because of contamination with coliforms and other pollutants. In the last decade, the Prospect Park Alliance worked diligently to engage the community, expand its volunteer force, and secure funds for restoration and environment protection projects. We recognize the importance of their work and how much more still needs to be done. 

In addition to the SENCER framework, the project achieved its four goals: (1) The project activities were interdisciplinary, collaborative, and hands-on. All students regardless of disciplines were engaged in the activities; computer science and engineering students learned about biodiversity and performed laboratory tests alongside biology and chemistry students; biology and chemistry students learned to formulate and test scientific hypotheses using Excel alongside computer science students. (2) All students were required to enroll in the undergraduate research program and worked with faculty mentors an average of two hours per week. Research activities included one-on-one research with the faculty mentor as well as joint work with all faculty and students in the team. (3) All students had to read literature regarding water quality and its importance before starting the activities.  In addition, all students worked collaboratively to prepare posters and presentations, resulting in seven presentations and one student publication. (4)  Nine of the ten participants were women or underrepresented minority students in STEM or in a health major. All participants successfully completed the program.  Faculty and students shared the sentiment and appreciation for the richness and meaningfulness of the experience.  Future work may include an expansion or repetition on a regular basis for the benefits of civic engagement and educational values. 

Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by a SENCER Post-Institute Implementation Award. We acknowledge the SENCER mission, which gave this team the opportunity to create a nontraditional and interdisciplinary curriculum to support the STEM learning of our students. We also acknowledge the City Tech Foundation, which provided financial support for students to present at the SENCER Summer Institute.

We acknowledge the excellent research performance of all student-researchers: Andrew Cook, Natassa Gavalas, Victor Adedara, Edrouine Gabriel, Erica Yeboah, Mallessa Yeboah, Eni Sejdini, Bryan Cespedes, Farjana Ferdousy, Natalie Nelson. We are grateful to the Office of Undergraduate Research, Emerging and Honors Scholars Programs at NYC College of Technology and City Tech Foundation for their support. DS acknowledges the support of the Chemistry Department and CUNY Compact funding.  The authors dedicate this paper in memory of Dr. Janet Liou-Mark, mathematics professor, scholar, and humanitarian.

About the Authors

Diana Samaroo is a professor in the Chemistry Department at NYC College of Technology in Brooklyn, New York.   She has experience in curricular and program development, as well as administration as the chairperson of the Chemistry Department for six years.  She has mentored undergraduates under the support of the Emerging and Honors Scholars program, CUNY Service Corps, Louis-Stokes for Alliance Minority Participation (LS-AMP), and the Black Male Initiative programs.  She serves as co-PI on several federal grants, which include NSF S-STEM, NSF RCN-UBE, and NSF HSI-IUSE grants. With a doctoral degree in biochemistry, Dr. Samaroo’s research interests include drug discovery, therapeutics, and nanomaterials.  Her pedagogical research is in peer-led team learning in chemistry and integrating research into the curriculum.

Liana Tsenova is a professor emerita in the Biological Sciences Department at the New York City College of Technology. She earned her MD degree with a specialty in microbiology and immunology from the Medical Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria. She received her postdoctoral training at Rockefeller University, New York, NY. Her research is focused on the immune response and host-directed therapies in tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. Dr. Tsenova has co-authored more than 60 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and books. At City Tech she has served as the PI of the Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program, funded by NIH. She was a SENCER leadership fellow. Applying the SENCER ideas, she mentors undergraduates in interdisciplinary projects, combining microbiology and infectious diseases with chemistry and mathematics, to address unresolved epidemiologic, ecologic, and healthcare problems. 

Sandie Han is a professor of mathematics at New York City College of Technology. She has extensive experience in program design and administration, including service as the mathematics department chair for six years, PI on the U.S. Department of Education MSEIP grant, and co-PI on the NSF S-STEM grant. Her research area is number theory and mathematics education.  Her work on self-regulated learning and mathematics self-efficacy won the CUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mathematics Instruction in 2013. She was one of the eight selected participants in the CUNY-Harvard leadership program in 2018.

Urmi Ghosh-Dastidar is the coordinator of the Computer Science Program and a professor in the Mathematics Department at New York City College of Technology – City University of New York. She received a PhD in applied mathematics jointly from the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University and a BS in applied mathematics from The Ohio State University. Her current interests include parameter estimation via optimization, infectious disease modeling, applications of graph theory in biology and chemistry, and developing and applying bio-math related undergraduate modules in various SENCER related projects. She has several publications in peer-reviewed journals and is the recipient of several MAA NREUP grants, a SENCER leadership fellowship, a Department of Homeland Security grant, and several NSF and PSC-CUNY grants/awards. She also has extensive experience in mentoring undergraduate students in various research projects.   

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Turning STEM Education Inside-Out: Teaching and Learning Inside Prisons

Abstract

The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program is an international network of teachers and learners who work to break down walls of division by facilitating dialogue across social differences.  In this model, first developed by Lori Pompa at Temple University, campus-based college students (outside students) join incarcerated students (inside students) for a college course that is taught inside a correctional facility.  Compared to other disciplines, STEM courses are underrepresented in the Inside-Out program.  Here we discuss the unique opportunities of teaching a STEM course inside prison using the Inside-Out approach and how it differs from other models of STEM teaching in prison.  Our analysis is based on the experience of three instructors from two liberal arts colleges, who taught Inside-Out courses in statistics, number theory, and biochemistry inside a medium-security state prison for men.  

Introduction

For over 20 years, the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program (https://www.insideoutcenter.org), based at Temple University, has brought campus-based college students together with incarcerated students for semester-long courses held in prisons, jails, and other correctional settings all around the world (Davis and Roswell, 2013). The Inside-Out approach to education is a collaboration between all parties involved, not one in which higher education professors and students go to a carceral organization to “help inmates” out of a sense of volunteerism or charity. The Claremont Colleges Inside-Out program at the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC), a medium-security  state prison for men located in Norco, CA, was originally brought to Claremont by Pitzer College (one of the Claremont Colleges).  The Claremont Colleges Inside-Out program is run in part by a group of incarcerated men at CRC who are vital members of our “Think Tank.”

Although hundreds of Inside-Out courses have been taught nationwide and the outcomes have been extensively studied (Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, 2020), a very small number of the Inside-Out courses offered to date have been in the fields of mathematics or the natural sciences. In this paper, we explore some of the unique challenges and opportunities of using the Inside-Out approach for STEM classes.  

We recognize that there are myriad STEM programs inside carceral institutions.  They range from the nationally supported (e.g., NSF INCLUDES Alliance) to the very local (e.g., a program at CRC that allows inmates to earn an AA degree from Norco Community College).  At the Claremont Colleges, a group of student volunteers goes into prisons to teach non-credit physics, chemistry, and engineering through the Prison Education Project (http://www.prisoneducationproject.org). 

In contrast, here we are addressing the specific case of bringing traditional campus (outside) students into prison, not to be teachers, but to be co-learners alongside incarcerated (inside) students.  The simple difference of bringing together inside and outside students (which for us included both male and female students) fundamentally changes the structure of the classroom.  Without the co-learning process, both the inside and outside students miss out.  As part of the Inside-Out experience, the inside students have an opportunity to learn material to which they do not necessarily have access; but more importantly, the power structure of the learning is dismantled in a setting (a STEM class) where hierarchies typically dominate the space (Martin, 2009). For the outside students, the disruption of the power structure of the STEM classroom can be enlightening. The outside students experience the depth of learning that can happen when ideas come from many different perspectives.  In our experience, the impact of the Inside-Out classroom can be transformative for both groups of students, helping them to approach their learning and the world in a more humane way (Peterson, 2019).  

Here we present reflections based on three separate courses (math, statistics, and biochemistry) taught by three instructors from two different liberal arts colleges.  All three instructors had completed the weeklong Inside-Out Training Institute, and we were all teaching our first class in this format.  Each course was a full semester, credit-bearing course for all students, both inside and outside.  During the semester, the courses met once per week for up to three hours a week inside the prison.  We will talk about each course individually and then integrate our thoughts to offer a synthesis and analysis.

Thinking with Data (Jo Hardin)

Although Math 57 was a statistics class taught at an introductory level, it was not “Introduction to Statistics” as most university campuses conceive it.  The learning goals centered around being able to critically evaluate numbers and claims based on data that are presented.   The hope was for the students to realize that statistical conclusions are being made around them every day, and that to understand how those conclusions come about is a matter not only of quantitative literacy but also of a larger logical framework.  

Each week, the students read from a chapter of a statistics text (Utts, 1999) along with external articles.  For example, during the week when we covered sampling, the text was supplemented by articles on the sampling methods suggested by the Census Bureau as a way to improve the accuracy of the census—methods that were ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, although statisticians believe the outcome of the ruling is to continue to undercount people of color and people with transitional living situations (Department of Commerce v. U.S. House of Representatives, 1999).  During the week covering probability, we spent time discussing forensics and how different “match” probabilities (e.g., hair match, DNA match, etc.) can have very different accuracy rates.

A typical day started with an activity designed to bring us all into the space, followed up with an activity which would highlight the day’s topic.  For example, during the week in which we covered confidence intervals, I brought in a blow-up globe.  We stood in a circle and threw the ball to one another, each time recording whether our right thumb landed on water or land.  We used technical details from the week’s readings to calculate a confidence interval for the proportion of the Earth that is covered in water.  (Depending on the correctional facility’s character, you might not choose to throw a ball around in an Inside-Out class; some facilities have strict security protocols and will not allow anything to be thrown around the classroom.)

After the topic-specific activity, we would often gather in small groups with a list of pre-written discussion questions.  The thought questions were meant to help the students dig deeper into the readings and debate the topic at hand.  Time and again, both the inside and outside students reported that the group discussions were their favorite part of the class.  In their small groups, hesitant students were given a voice, and each student could share their understanding of the material without fear of speaking up incorrectly in front of the entire class.

 Although we often ran short on time, we would always close with some kind of reflection on the material or on the day’s activities.  Sometimes we would go around the circle with a one-word reflection.  Sometimes I would ask them to report the part of the day which they were still struggling to wrap their heads around, or, slightly nuanced, the topic which was hardest to understand in general. 

After the class session each week, students were asked to write a reflection essay.  The reflection essay was among the most powerful aspects of the class, as it gave the students an opportunity to spend time putting down on paper both their emotional reactions and their understanding of the statistical topics.  The reflection paper had three sections: (1) observations from the class meeting—anything that stood out, (2) statistical analysis—using references from the texts, and (3) emotional reactions—feelings.

The reflections essays were not given a letter grade, yet they served the incredibly valuable purpose of connecting each and every student to both the material (statistical content) and the people in the room.  Detailed instructor feedback was provided on the essays, and without the essays, especially the personal reflection part, it would have been much harder for the students to feel connected and integrated into the course.

The last three weeks of the semester were spent working on projects whose purpose was to bring the ideas from the class into a larger space.  Outside visitors were invited to the closing ceremonies, but the logistics surrounding visitors’ clearance was unfortunately too complicated.  Instead, the students presented their projects to each other.  One group did a Dear Data (http://www.dear-data.com/) assignment where they compared artistic visualizations of the data describing a week in an inside student’s life with a week in an outside student’s life.  Another group made a chain link out of construction paper where each link detailed a study, a dataset, or an individual’s story describing recidivism.  A third group talked about some of the biggest misconceptions in statistical studies and how we can raise our consciousness to form valid conclusions about a study. 

HIV/AIDS: Science Society & Service (Karl Haushalter)

Chemistry 187 explored scientific and societal perspectives on infectious disease.  The course was divided into three modules focusing on plague, HIV-AIDS, and tuberculosis, with time approximately evenly divided between societal context and scientific content.  The complex and multidisciplinary challenges of responding to highly stigmatized infectious diseases such as HIV-AIDS can be fertile ground for exploring the entanglement of science and society, as demonstrated by the large number of published courses that use HIV-AIDS as a focus for integrating science education and civic engagement (for example, see Fan, Conner, & Villarreal, 2014; Iimoto 2005; SENCER 2020a; SENCER 2020b).  

Chemistry 187 was taught with the Inside-Out pedagogy, which emphasizes a dialogic approach with the majority of class time spent in small, mixed discussion groups (Pompa, Crabbe, & Turenne, 2018).  For the Chemistry 187 content related to our societal readings, this format was a natural fit for the issues we examined.  The students learned substantially from each other, especially given their differing perspectives based on life experiences related to the social determinants of health, which was an underlying theme of the course.  

Implementing the Inside-Out pedagogy for the science content of Chemistry 187 was challenging for me as an instructor.  Many of our chosen topics (e.g., virology) required a firm understanding of threshold concepts (e.g., the central dogma of molecular biology) in order to have an entry point into meaningful discussions (Meyer and Land, 2003).  As an instructor, I felt that I could not ignore the variation in previous exposure to biology instruction, but I did not want to center upon this difference either.  Thus, even though the students majoring in biology could have taught lessons on the threshold concepts, this approach would be counter to the spirit of Inside-Out in which the students are all co-learners. Ultimately, I used a hybrid approach that featured some mini-lectures that I strived to make as interactive as possible. When possible, these mini-lectures were preceded by small-group brainstorming sessions to generate motivating questions for the mini-lectures and followed by small-group applied problem-solving sessions.  The Inside-Out emphasis on community building, through icebreakers, circle activities, and jointly authored ground rules, paid dividends in the smooth functioning of the small group science lessons.   

If Chemistry 187 were taught as a traditional college campus-based course, the class would utilize technology (lecture slides, PyMOL, YouTube animations) for visualizing the molecular details of host-pathogen interactions.  In prison, where it was not possible to routinely access this type of technology, our class had to develop other methods to help the unseeable be seen.  Indeed, the absence of technology led to creative solutions.  By providing the students with large-format flip chart paper and thick colored markers, I allowed them to be creative in making colorful, detailed images that were even more informative than the standard slides used in the traditional campus-based course.  Several of the students had untapped artistic talent and working together with their classmates to interpret our readings, they were able as a group to communicate complex scientific ideas visually on the flip chart paper.  

An important part of an Inside-Out course is the end-of-semester group project. These projects are intended to be focused specifically on intersections of the course disciplinary topic and prison, with a strong emphasis on application (Pompa, Crabbe, & Turenne, 2018, p. 55).  In Chemistry 187, teams were blended, with two or three inside students and two or three outside students in each team.  All students were tasked to bring their own expertise to bear on the project, the theme of which was picked by the student teams.  For example, one of the student teams created educational posters about influenza vaccination.  As a class, we learned from the inside students that the flu vaccine is available at the California Rehabilitation Center, but many incarcerated men do not opt to get vaccinated, possibly due to low trust in the prison health system and widespread conspiracy theories (e.g., prison officials used the flu vaccine to inject people with tracking devices).  This is a missed opportunity to prevent a serious communicable disease that spreads easily in confined spaces (Sequera, Valencia, García-Basteiro, Marco, & Bayas, 2015). Working together, the inside and outside students on this team developed materials to address the common concerns of the target audience related to influenza vaccination and provide health-promoting education in the context of prison.  

Other team projects included a letter to the warden proposing the adoption of harm reduction strategies (e.g. bleaching stations for sterilizing needles used for illicit tattoos or injection drug use) to reduce the spread of hepatitis C in prison; educational pamphlets about preventing sexually transmitted diseases; and an evidence-based letter to the State Prison Board about the connection between nutrition and a healthy immune system.  The student projects shared in common the key feature of bringing together inside and outside students to share their unique expertise as they collaborated on a project that applied what they had learned about the science of infectious disease during the semester to an authentic issue in the living context of the inside students.  

Introduction to Number Theory (Darryl Yong)

Even though I have no formal training in number theory, I chose to teach this subject because it lends itself well to exploration and rehumanizing approaches to teaching and learning mathematics (Goffney, Gutiérrez, & Boston, 2018). Requiring only some mathematics skills and ideas from high school algebra, this course started with the divisors of integers and modular arithmetic and culminated with the Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) cryptosystem, a widely used method for secure data transmission.

Of our three courses, this one was perhaps the most grounded in its disciplinary content. While I organized several class discussions around our prior experiences of learning mathematics and about contemporary mathematicians (mostly of color), about 90% of class time was spent working on carefully sequenced sets of mathematical tasks in small groups. Students shared their results communally on the board, and I occasionally convened the group to share their findings with each other. The list of tasks for each class was adjusted based on what students accomplished and found interesting in previous classes.

In “Math Instructors’ Critical Reflections on Teaching in Prison,” Robert Scott writes: “A math pedagogy premised upon following the rules, accepting that there is only one right answer, and relying on practice/repetition in order to habituate oneself to predetermined axioms would seem to reprise the culture of incarceration itself.” How does one teach a class on a well-established field like number theory without reproducing the dehumanizing effects of prisons in the classroom?

To do this, I used a pedagogical approach based on my work delivering professional development to secondary school teachers through the Park City Mathematics Institute. In this approach, students encounter new mathematical ideas without any formal definitions or specialized notation. The mathematical tasks are designed to encourage students to look for patterns and make connections. Mathematical ideas are solidified when students give voice to them by sharing them publicly. Finally, after several exposures to similar patterns and connections, I formalized ideas by introducing their established mathematical names and notations. I followed this general approach during the entire course except for the last day of class when we used all of the machinery that we had developed to explain how the RSA cryptosystem works (Omar, 2017). So, even though students were often practicing and repeating mathematical calculations, they were in fact creating meaning for themselves and others in the classroom.

My observations of the students’ progress and their written reflections lead me to believe that they truly enjoyed learning mathematics, even though some had been traumatized by previous mathematics learning experiences. Each class period seemed to fly by. Students would work almost continuously for the entire period, though there was also quite a bit of casual banter and joyful laughter around the room. It felt like a space where both inside and outside students were doing mathematics and creating meaning together. My Inside-Out experience made me wonder why I don’t try to use more of this kind of rehumanizing pedagogy in my usual classes at Harvey Mudd College.

Lessons Learned

Examining the experiences of the three instructors, we find that several common themes emerge from our efforts to integrate STEM content within the Inside-Out Prison Exchange program. First, while many undergraduate STEM courses are primarily lecture-based, the Inside-Out program challenges faculty to use liberatory pedagogies (Freire, 1970).  Thus, we all chose to minimize lecturing as much as possible and spend most of our class time in small group activities or whole class discussion.  These forms of instruction democratize intellectual authority in the classroom and allow both inside and outside students to draw on personal funds of knowledge. An inside student wrote, “In non-Inside-Out classes I don’t learn who my peers are, whereas this class was unique in the fact that we were learning from one another just as much as we were learning from our professor.” Furthermore, with the inside and outside students constantly talking together and working with each other, the students discovered for themselves the many ways in which traditional college-age STEM students and incarcerated STEM students share common struggles, concerns, and motivations.  

A second common theme that we encountered in our classes was how Inside-Out courses helped students uncover and confront societal expectations and stereotypes about who is competent in STEM. In our end-of-course evaluation surveys, we asked students what their biggest worry about the class was prior to starting the course. A few outside students wrote that they were concerned that the Inside-Out course wasn’t going to be as rigorous as their usual courses, whereas inside students wrote that they were initially concerned about being able to “keep up” with the outside students. These concerns relate to societal stereotypes that STEM competence is innate rather than a skill to be developed and that incarcerated people and people of color are not able to access STEM. Fortunately, these surveys also revealed that students uniformly felt their Inside-Out courses to be intellectually demanding and that inside students felt successful in the class and were recognized for their contributions in class. The reason that students were able to upend their worries was because our Inside-Out courses brought together groups of people who would otherwise never get to meet each other in the context of doing rigorous, challenging STEM work together. One inside student wrote that he was surprised at the “ease [with] which people from diverse lifestyles and backgrounds can struggle with a subject, work together, and succeed.”

Finally, all three of the authors chose to teach an Inside-Out course primarily because of the humanity it offered to our work.  And while none of us are experts in criminal justice, we are all deeply aware that STEM is neither objective nor apolitical.  When designing our courses, we specifically chose topics and approaches that would connect STEM back to the human condition, for example, discussing how disease manifests in different communities, how forensic probabilities do not represent truth, and how mathematical self-identification is different from mathematical ability. There is abundant evidence that bringing humanity into STEM can have an enormous impact on marginalized communities, and we believe that our courses are part of that trend.

Along with humanizing the course content in each of our STEM courses, the act of bringing the courses inside is a manifestation of our collective belief that STEM is not the domain of the privileged few.  Instead, science and science education belong to and are in service of all people.  In plain sight of each other, students of all backgrounds are able to embrace the learning of STEM content. Creating a space that allows for the tangible recognition by everyone involved that STEM is for all people is itself a highly political act.  

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the guidance and support of our colleagues from the Claremont Critical Justice Education Initiative, especially Tyee Griffith, Tessa Hicks Peterson, Gabriela Gamiz, and Nigel Boyle.  We would like to thank the staff at the California Rehabilitation Center for their continuing partnership.  Financial support was generously provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Academic Deans Council of the Claremont Colleges.  Critical feedback on the manuscript was provided by Tessa Hicks Peterson and David Vosburg.  We gratefully acknowledge Lori Pompa and the Inside-Out Center for their leadership and expertise.  Finally, we owe the largest debt of gratitude to our students, both inside and out.

Dedication

This article is dedicated to the memory of David L. Ferguson, whose lifelong work in extending the joys and benefits of STEM education to underserved students continues to inspire us.  David saw the potential to be a scholar in all of his students, even before they could see it in themselves.  We strive to follow the example of David’s pioneering work in diversity and inclusive excellence in STEM education.

Authors

Jo Hardin

Jo Hardin (Jo.Hardin@pomona.edu) is a professor of mathematics at Pomona College.  She is a statistician by training, and her research focuses on applied and interdisciplinary projects with molecular biologists.  Through the Posse Foundation, she has mentored students at Pomona College originally from Chicago, IL.

 

 

Karl Haushalter

Karl Haushalter (haushalter@hmc.edu) is an associate professor of chemistry and biology at Harvey Mudd College.  His research interests include the enzymology of DNA repair and the regulation of gene expression by small RNA.  Karl works closely with the Office of Community Engagement at HMC and has led faculty development workshops to promote community-based learning.

 

 

Darryl Yong

Darryl Yong (dyong@hmc.edu) is a professor of mathematics, associate dean for faculty development and diversity, and mathematics clinic program director at Harvey Mudd College. He was also the founding director of the Claremont Colleges Center for Teaching and Learning. His scholarship has several foci: the retention and professional development of secondary school mathematics teachers, effective teaching practices in undergraduate STEM education, and equity, justice, and diversity in higher education.

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Peterson, T. H. (2019). Healing pedagogy from the inside out: The paradox of liberatory education in prison. In R. Ginsburg (Ed.), Critical perspectives on teaching in prison: Students and instructors on pedagogy behind the wall (pp. 175–187). New York, NY: Routledge.

Pompa, L., Crabbe, M., & Turenne, E.  (2018). The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program instructor’s manual. Philadelphia, PA: The Inside-Out Center, Temple University.

Scott, R. (2019). Math instructors’ critical reflections on teaching in prison. In H. Rosario (Ed.), Mathematical outreach: Explorations in social justice around the globe (pp. 211–232). Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific.

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Utts, J. (1999). Seeing through statistics (2nd ed.).  Pacific Grove, CA: Duxbury Press.

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National Summer Transportation Institute: Increasing Career Awareness in Civil Engineering for Underserved High School Students

Abstract

Our nation needs to increase the number of students pursuing degrees in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and those leading to transportation-related careers.  In order to meet the demand for qualified graduates in transportation, it is necessary to diversify the pool of students entering college with an interest in these fields. The National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI) is an educational initiative developed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Department of Transportation (DOT).   The NSTI at City Tech was designed to increase awareness of transportation-related careers among New York City high school students. The structure of City Tech’s NSTI includes lectures, field trips, projects, and laboratory activities that promote the growth of each participant and strengthen their academic and social skills.  This NSTI program provides a model for broadening participation in STEM and building America’s STEM workforce.

Need to Increase Underrepresented Minorities in Civil Engineering

In order to remain competitive in a world of advancing technology, the United States needs to build a workforce with knowledge and skills in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the projected number of STEM jobs was expected to grow 18.7% during the 2010–2020 period (Fayer, Lacey, & Watson, 2017). As the country’s economy and demographics change, it is important to increase the participation of underrepresented minority groups in STEM, including women (Gilliam, Jagoda, Hill, & Bouris, 2016; Briggs, 2016).  Given more opportunities to develop their capabilities in STEM, this untapped population can help to fill the critical STEM workforce gap (Science Pioneers, 2017; U.S. Department of Commerce, 2011).    

The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (2020) reports that the employment of civil engineers is projected to grow 6% from 2018 to 2028, an average rate faster than all other occupations. As the current U.S. infrastructure grows obsolete, civil engineers will be needed to manage projects that rebuild, repair, and upgrade bridges, roads, levees, dams, airports, buildings, and other structures. Because of the urgency to increase the civil engineering workforce, the Federal Highway Administration Office of Civil Rights (HCR) encourages academic outreaches to target groups who are underrepresented in the transportation workforce.  Females, economically disadvantaged students, and students with disabilities have been identified as underrepresented minorities in STEM (NSTIP, 2012). Based on the 2010 census report, the population of the United States is about 49.2% male and 50.8% female (Howden & Meyer, 2011). But although women make up half of the college student population and the general workforce, they account for only about one fifth of all bachelor’s degrees conferred in engineering in 2016 (National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, 2017; Yoder, 2016) and a quarter of the STEM workforce (Landivar, 2013). The statistics become more dismal for minority women.  In 2012, only 3.1% of bachelor’s degrees in engineering were awarded to minority women (National Science Board, 2016). Specific to the civil engineering workforce, the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey (2016) states that a tenth of the jobs were held by women. Only 3.6% of the civil engineering positions were held by African Americans, 10.4% by Hispanics, and 7.7% by Asian Americans. While the population trends show that minorities will become the majority, the STEM workforce statistics clearly does not proportionally reflect this trend, particularly in civil engineering. Therefore, it is imperative that more programs be developed to promote the awareness of civil engineering occupations and to increase the participation of minorities and women in these fields.  

Benefits of Exposure to STEM at the K–12 level

Many studies have shown a correlation between STEM exposure at the K–12 level and a student’s interest in pursuing a STEM degree (Chiappinelli et al, 2016; Lomax, 2015; Means, Wang, Young, Peters, & Lynch, 2016; Naizer, Hawthorne, & Henley, 2014.) While the majority of American youth are exposed to STEM content in high school settings, out-of-school programming may be particularly important for sparking an interest in the STEM disciplines (Gilliam et al., 2016). Programs that engage high school students in unique STEM experiences will likely continue to play a profound role in recruiting and retaining bright young minds in the increasingly important STEM fields. Summer camps and experiences are especially important for students in urban and low-income areas, where underfunded science curricula and limited access to role models and mentors in STEM are common (Phelan, Harding, & Harper-Leatherman, 2017). Moreover, post-secondary institutions should prioritize programs that engage underrepresented students in hands-on science experiences during the high school years (Phelan et al., 2017).    The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), recognizing the importance of inspiring the next generation of civil engineers, has established a website for precollege outreach, which provides resources including lessons, videos, and activities that promote civil engineering (ASCE, 2020).

The Landscape of Minority High School Students

National trends indicate that high school graduation rates have declined, with African Americans and Hispanic graduation rates being approximately 65% (Heckman & LaFontaine, 2010). Minority students are also far less likely to be college ready. This is particularly the case in underserved minority high schools, where students are the least prepared (ACT, 2015; Bryant, 2015; Moore et al., 2010).  Evidence of poor performance among minority high school students abounds not only in high school graduation rates, but also in SAT scores, Advance Placement courses, and enrollment in advanced mathematics courses (Musoba, 2010; Camara, 2013).  These poor academic performances have been attributed to poor academic preparation.  The National Assessment of Educational Progress (2015) found that overall only 33% of eighth grade students entering high school were proficient in mathematics. The corresponding percentages for African Americans and Hispanics were 13% and 19%, respectively. Since mathematics is the foundation of engineering degrees, there is an urgent need to strengthen these skills at the high school level.  

City Tech’s National Summer Transportation Institute

The National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI) is an educational initiative developed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Department of Transportation (DOT).   A transportation-focused career awareness program, it is designed to introduce high school students to all modes of transportation-related careers, provide academic enhancement activities, and encourage students to pursue transportation-related courses of study at the college/university level. Moreover, the NSTI focuses on addressing future transportation workforce needs by ensuring that the transportation industry has a well-trained, qualified, and diversified workforce.  City Tech was selected for funding by the FHWA and DOT in 2013, 2014, and 2015 to develop a NSTI for underserved urban high school students.  A grant is provided to cover all costs related to the program in order to provide the opportunity to participants on a tuition-free basis.  New York City is the ideal location, since it has both a diverse population and a complex transportation network.  The College’s location in downtown Brooklyn, New York, made it easy to recruit underserved high school students. City Tech is the designated senior college of technology within the 24-unit City University of New York, and it is the largest urban public university system in the nation. The college plays an important role nationally in the education of future scientists, engineers, technologists, and mathematicians for New York City (NYC) and the surrounding areas. 

The mission of the civil engineering technology department at City Tech is to prepare non-traditional students of diverse backgrounds to successfully enter a wide range of careers through a balance of practical knowledge, theory, and professionalism. The department’s mission aligns with the program objectives of the NSTI: to improve STEM skills, to promote awareness among middle and high school students (particularly minority, female, and disadvantaged youth) about transportation careers, and to encourage them to consider transportation-related courses of study in their higher education pursuits.

City Tech’s NSTI summer program includes lectures, field trips, projects, and laboratory activities which promote the growth of each participant and strengthen their academic and social skills.  The academic component is designed to reinforce the mathematics and science skills of the high school participants, to stimulate their interest in the various modes of transportation, and to expose them to new opportunities. The session topics are transportation related and are taught by certified high school teachers with a STEM background. 

The skills enhancement component is critical to the success of the program. The topics covered include critical thinking, problem solving, computer literacy, research, oral and written communication skills, and time management.

The length of the summer program has varied; it was one week long in 2013, two weeks long in 2014, and three weeks long in 2015. The daily program schedule was from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and included a lesson, activity, lunchtime speaker, and field trip.

Curriculum Modules

Five curriculum modules were implemented in the NSTI: (1) Bridges, (2) Land Transportation, (3) Air Transportation, (4) Public Transit and Railroad Transportation, and (5) Water Transportation. A summary of each module and the course objectives is presented below.

Bridges 

This module is designed to introduce participants to different types of bridges, structural forces, and geometry. Participants will be able to differentiate between materials and understand the force systems responsible for the stability of a bridge. The course objectives are to identify types of bridges, to understand the force distribution within a truss bridge, and to design a structurally sound bridge using principles of compression and tension.  

Land transportation

This module introduces the interrelationship of land use and transportation systems. Students will be introduced to concepts of energy, force, motion, speed, velocity, and acceleration. The course objectives are to introduce participants to the process of land use and effective transportation systems, to identify data sources needed to make prudent transportation decisions, and to demonstrate an understanding of land use planning and ways to minimize transportation problems (i.e., congestion, noise, pollution).

Air transportation

This module introduces students to the concepts of flight theories, aircraft performance, flight instruments, gravity, air navigation, and space. Students will be introduced to concepts of force, projectile motion, center of gravity, velocity, and aerodynamics. The course objectives are to introduce participants to flight theories as they relate to airplanes and space and to explore a historic aircraft carrier and space shuttle.

Public transit and railroad transportation

This module describes the history of railroads and public transit.  Participants will be able to summarize advantages and disadvantages of public transit systems in use today, in particular in the New York City area. The course objectives are to explore the social history of New York City, subway and station design, transit development, construction, and impact over time.

Water transportation 

This module is designed to give participants an opportunity to learn the fundamental regulations and responsibilities of safe water transportation. Students will be introduced to the concepts of buoyancy and density, as well as to the engineering design process. The course objectives are to inform participants of the best water travel practices, and to identify possible threats and solutions to promote safe waterways.

Speakers

Participants were able to interact with professionals in the transportation field.  These professionals were invited guest speakers sharing their own academic experiences and challenges with the participants while highlighting their careers and promoting the field of transportation. Speakers were representative of the various fields related to transportation and engineering.  

Staff

The program staff consists of a project director, two instructors, and two academic aides.  The primary role of the project director is to develop, implement, and direct all phases of the program, schedule, and budget and to supervise the program staff, develop curriculum, and provide laboratory activities and resource materials.

The primary role of the instructors is to provide daily academic instruction, interact with participants and administrative staff, and develop curriculum.  The instructors are certified high school teachers, and as such have the training and background required to deliver the STEM-focused lessons and activities.  

The academic aides assist the instructors throughout the day, set up laboratory activities, assist with coordination of field trips, and assist with orientation and closing activities. The academic aides are typically graduates of the civil engineering technology associate degree program at City Tech.  The academic aides are also recruited from a group of trained peer leaders on campus.  As peer leaders the academic aides bring to the program their knowledge of pedagogy and techniques for group facilitation. 

Activities

The curriculum is reinforced with projects and laboratory activities. Participants are engaged in the engineering design process through hands-on activities and computer simulation applications.  Computer-based activities include simulating bridge building and city planning.  Hands-on activities include building a model bridge, solar car, boat, and rocket.  The activities were preceded by a lesson or guest speaker introducing the relevant topics and careers in transportation.  Participants worked both independently and collaboratively to complete the projects in preparation for testing and display. 

Field Trips

Several field trips were organized during the NSTI. The participants had the opportunity to visit the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum, the NYC Transit Museum, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the U.S. Coast Guard Command Center, as well as John F. Kennedy International Airport.  Each trip included a customized tour for the group aligned with the program focus of transportation and engineering. 

Sample schedules are included as Figures 1 and 2. 

Week 1 Sample Schedule

Week 1 Sample Schedule

Student Eligibility, Recruitment and Selection

At the time of participation, applicants must be a rising ninth, tenth, eleventh, or twelfth grader, qualify for enrollment in algebra, and hold a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale.  Graduates of the NSTI program are not eligible to repeat the program.  The students are primarily recruited from City Poly High School and STEP-UP, a program of the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research. City Poly High School opened in September 2009 as one of four state-approved career and technical education (CTE) demonstration sites in New York City.  The New York State Department of Education (NYSED) indicates that the 2015–2016 student demographics for City Poly were as follows: 75% black, 16% Hispanic, 4% Asian, 3% White, and 2% Other. In addition, 76% of the student population were economically disadvantaged (NYSED 2016).  STEP-UP is a program designed by African-American and Latino adolescents (14 to 17 years of age) experiencing significant academic, social, and emotional issues for teens in similar circumstances. The STEP-UP participants were from Central Park East (CPE) High School. The NYSED has supplied the following demographics for CPE students in 2015–2016: 24% Black, 62% Hispanic, 8% Asian, 4% White, and 1% Other. Eighty-nine percent of the student population are economically disadvantaged (NYSED, 2016). These demographics are representative of underserved high school students. 

Applicants submit a complete application with one letter of recommendation from a teacher or guidance counselor and a statement regarding their reasons for wanting to participate in the program and how the NSTI can assist in meeting their academic and career goals.  The program director selects a cohort of 20 students, and a select number of applicants may be placed on a waiting list.  

Methodology

Participants

A total of 41 high school students participated in the NSTI from years 2013-2015.  There were 12 participants in 2013, which was a one-week program, 15 in 2014, which was a two-week program, and 14 in 2015, which was a three-week program. There were at total of 24 (58.5%) males and 17 (41.5%) females.  Among the 41 high school students, 22 (53.7%) identified themselves as African American (non-Hispanic), eight (19.5%) as Hispanic, nine (22.0%) as Asian/Pacific Islander, two (4.9%) as Caucasian, and one failed to respond. The average age of the participants was 15.7 years.  The average New York State Regent Mathematics and Science scores of the participants were 82.9 and 80.0, respectively. 

Data analysis

On the last day of the NSTI, the high school students were asked to respond to statements regarding four areas: (1) speakers, (2) staff, (3) activities, and (4) field trips. A Likert scale with 1 indicating “strongly disagree” and 4 indicating “strongly agree” was used.  Table 1 is a summary of the responses by year and collectively over the three years.  

A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine whether the mean responses were statistically significant among the years.  Table 2 lists the responses that showed statistically significant differences. A Tukey test was used to follow up to determine the mean differences between each year.  Overall the responses of the participants in 2014 and 2015 were most strongly positive to the statements that the speakers were well organized, the students were academically challenged by the speakers, the speakers responded well to the questions posed to them, and the staff was very interested in the students’ career awareness. The activities and the field trips statements were also evaluated more positively by the 2014 and 2015 groups than the 2013 group.  

Some of the high school students’ reflections regarding the NSTI: 

The U.S. Coast Guard trip was fun. It made me consider joining! (2013 participant) 

John F. Kennedy Airport trip was a very new experience.  The tour showed me there [were] more [jobs] in air transportation. (2013 participant)

I was very interested in Intelligent Transportation Systems; there were more things about information and technology and how it is used in transportation. (2013 participant)

In this first week, I have already learned a lot about a diverse range of topics from bridges, trains and kites. My favorite experience in the program so far has been making a kite constructed of string, straws and tissue paper, with my partner. I really enjoyed building a workable kite from few materials and being able to test the invention later. I had never really built something from nothing. The project also forced me to work with and depend on my partner. It was fun to collaborate and we were really proud with the end product. (2015 participant) 

Table 1: Means and Standard Deviations for Students Satisfaction Survey Responses by Year

Table 2: One-way ANOVA Results

Conclusion

The results of the study showed high school students participating in the NSTI responded positively to the program.  The participants felt academically challenged by the speakers, and they felt strongly that the speakers were able to address their questions and concerns. Students benefit from role models in STEM and can expand their interest in STEM by exposure to informal STEM-related learning opportunities (Weber, 2011).  Hands-on activities can stimulate interest in STEM and help students gain confidence in their ability to approach STEM activities (Colvin, Lyden, & León de la Barra, 2013; Ziaeefard, Miller, Rastgaar, & Mahmoudian, 2017).  The students also found the field trips very informative.  Many underserved students do not have the opportunity to be exposed to various careers, and field trips allow them to connect the importance of civil engineering to the real world.   

This study also found that the length of the summer program made a difference in the participants’ responses.  The participants responded more positively to the speakers, staff, activities, and field trips when the program was either two or three weeks long.  Better feedback responses came from the participants in the two-week program.

Lessons Learned

The NSTI offers an opportunity for students to be exposed to civil engineering and transportation fields while reinforcing their math and science skills.  The most significant challenge of the program is recruitment, since the average high school student may not recognize the value of a STEM summer program. Several outreach efforts to advisors, parents, and counselors were made to encourage participation. The three-week program provided the students with one high school elective credit; however, it was difficult for students to commit for a three-week period because many of them had summer jobs.  For two consecutive years, the program offered participants a stipend which helped offset the costs of participation.  In 2015 the guidelines removed the allowable costs of stipends making recruitment more challenging.  Students from these underrepresented populations residing in the five boroughs typically have to work during the summer to cover their expenses and assist their families.  Participation in the NSTI offers a wonderful opportunity; however, it means the students have no income for the duration of their participation, and they have the added the cost of transportation.  This study reinforces that stipends will allow for greater diversity in participation.  

Epilogue

City Tech was selected to host the NSTI in July 2020; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the program was offered in a virtual platform. The curriculum remained the same, participants were expected to be available Monday–Friday from 9 a.m.–4 p.m. during the two-week period.  Lessons and guest lectures were delivered via Zoom. Field Trips were delivered as virtual reality field trips using available technology.  Students were provided a supply kit to complete projects individually and participated remotely in software simulations.  In order to ensure that all eligible applicants could participate in the program, students were provided the opportunity to obtain a loaner Chromebook for the duration of the program.  In addition, a stipend was provided to each participant to offset the loss of income they might incur by participating in the program.  The program was a success and students were able to benefit from the experience in an alternate format. 

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Federal Highway Administration and the Department of Transportation for their support and the many speakers throughout the years for their time.  We also acknowledge the instructors, Wandy Chang, Henry Arias, and Steven Coyle for their dedication to the program.

This project report is dedicated in loving memory of Janet Liou-Mark, a role model and a champion for all who were fortunate enough to know her.

Authors

Melanie Villatoro

Melanie Villatoro is an associate professor in the Department of Construction Management and Civil Engineering Technology at the New York City College of Technology (City Tech). She earned her BE in Civil Engineering from the Cooper Union and her MS in Geotechnical Engineering from Columbia University. Her outreach events target groups underrepresented in STEM with the goal of increasing the number of diverse qualified students entering the fields of STEM, particularly engineering.

 

 

Janet Liou-Mark

Janet Liou-Mark is a professor of mathematics at City Tech, and she holds a PhD in Mathematics Education. Her research focuses on developing and evaluating programs that help women and underrepresented minority and first-generation college students to remain in school and successfully graduate with STEM degrees. She is the interim director of Faculty Commons.

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