As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for STEM learning in a variety of settings. Many military veterans who seek to transition to higher education or workforce pathways find it challenging to translate the skills they acquired during service to civilian STEM settings and the modern day workforce. Yet many returning veterans have significant experience with STEM fields, including mapping and geospatial technologies, because of their unique functions and service assignments. Such geospatial skills are useful for location-aware industries, citizen science and public services. At the same time, military and veteran families have been largely overlooked as an important public audience for focused informal STEM learning. Informal learning events called "mapathons" which enlists participants to mapping exercises and create geospatial data on open platforms that address authentic needs in their communities and the broader society at large. When seeking to further their education upon returning from service, veterans' typical options have included some form of formal higher education. Mapathons may be a feasible bridging activity that (a) recognizes veterans' unique, valuable, and in-demand STEM skills and (b) supports lifelong learning.
This pilot research seeks to understand how informal learning experiences such as mapathons are viable pathways for veterans to transition to the civilian workforce. The conceptual approach pays attention to the realities of the life course of military and veteran families, especially building upon theories of change related to transitions to include a spatial component. The foundation of the project's intellectual merit is its explicit inclusion and sensitivity to place, scale, and spatial behavior, building directly from findings of prior NSF-funded projects and the evidence base for informal learning pathways. The research will contribute to knowledge about workforce development by addressing the questions: (1) To what extent do veterans recognize that their extant skills acquired, in military settings, are translatable to civilian STEM settings?; (2) How can informal learning experiences help a diverse veteran population increase awareness of the translatability of geospatial workforce competencies, build confidence in technology skills, and motivate interest to pursue formal studies in STEM fields in general?; and (3) What pathways do which veterans favor when they could pursue formal STEM higher education learning among an array of choices online or at regional sites, and why? The study will engage 320 participants at 8 sites across Texas; employ in-depth surveys and interviews; and use spatial analysis to elicit insights about the research questions.
Military and veteran families include a significant number of people from group typically underrepresented in STEM fields. Supporting more veterans to transition successfully to higher education pathways or careers in STEM is a vital service to the nation. This study on informal to formal pathways for veterans will include an innovative understanding of the importance of place in meaning-making and in the reality of choices they consider during the transitions of their life course.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Patricia SolisMelanie HartDennis Patterson
This project is a Design and Development Launch Pilot (DDLP) of the NSF INCLUDES program. The goal of the project is to enhance the knowledge and applicability of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for a broad cross-section of people living in the U.S,-Affiliated Pacific Islands. The focus will be on water resources, which is an extremely important topic for this region and equally relevant nationally. The project will engage local community groups and schools in water monitoring, sampling, and analysis, in order to promote the benefits of science education and careers among a population that is underrepresented in these areas. Moreover, the project will improve the capabilities of the island residents for making decisions about sustainable use and protection of these scarce resources. A functioning network will be established among the islands that will have a positive impact on the health and well-being of the residents.
This project will use water as a highly relevant topic in order to involve a wide range of individuals in both general STEM learning and the basic scientific principles as applied to water resources. Specific aspects include engaging K-12, higher education, informal educators and community members to manage water resources in a sustainable fashion that will reduce disaster risk. In addition, the project will empower local communities through water literacy to make better informed, evidence-based decisions that balance the needs of diverse stakeholder groups. The overarching goal is to further advance the inclusion of underrepresented learners in STEM fields. Benefits to society will accrue by: increasing STEM learning opportunities for ~6,500 students from underserved and underrepresented Indigenous Pacific Islanders that will enhance their eligibility for STEM careers; building community resiliency through a collective impact network to resolve emerging water crises; and fostering collaboration among different constituencies in remote communities to make better-informed decisions that reflect the needs and constraints of diverse interests.
Recharge the Rain moves sixth through twelfth grade teachers, students and the public through a continuum from awareness, to knowledge gain, to conceptual understanding, to action; building community resiliency to hazards associated with increased temperatures, drought and flooding in Arizona. Watershed Management Group with Arizona Project WET will utilize NOAA assets and experts from the National Weather Service and Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) to inform citizens and galvanize their commitment to building a community, resilient to the effects of a warming climate. Project activities will be informed by Pima County’s hazard mitigation plan and planning tools related to preparing for and responding to flooding and extreme heat. Starting January 2017, this four-year project will 1) develop curriculum with Tucson-area teachers that incorporates systems-thinking and increases understanding of earth systems, weather and climate, and the engineering design of rainwater harvesting systems 2) immerse students in a curricular unit that results in the implementation of 8 teacher/student-led schoolyard water harvesting projects, 3) train community docents in water harvesting practices and citizen-science data collection, 4) involve Tucson community members in water harvesting principles through project implementation workshops, special events, and tours, and 5) expand program to incorporate curriculum use in Phoenix-area teachers’ classrooms and 6) finalize a replicable model for other communities facing similar threats. Environmental and community resiliency depends upon an informed society to make the best social, economic, and environmental decisions. This idea is not only at the core of NOAA’s mission, but is echoed in the programs provided by Watershed Management Group and Arizona Project WET.
This INSPIRE project addresses the issue of high volume hydraulic fracturing, also called fracking, and its effects on ground water resources. Fracking allows drillers to extract natural gas from shale deep within the earth. Methane gas sometimes escapes from shale gas wells and can contaminate water resources or leak into the atmosphere where it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Monitoring for these potential leaks is difficult because methane is also released into aquifers naturally, and because monitoring is time- and resource-intensive. Such subsurface leakage may also be relatively rare. This project seeks to improve overall understanding of the impacts of natural gas drilling using both advances in computer science and geoscience, and to teach the public about such impacts. The project will elucidate both the effects of human activities such as shale gas development as well as natural processes which release methane into natural waters. Results of the proposed research will lead to a better understanding of water quality in areas of shale-gas development and will highlight problems and potentially problematic management practices. The research will advance both the fields of geoscience and computer science, will train interdisciplinary graduate students, and involve citizen scientists in collecting data and understanding environmental data analysis.
The project combines new hydro-geochemical strategies and data mining approaches to study the release of methane into streams and ground waters. For example, researchers will explore how to analyze the heterogeneous spatial data that describe distributions of methane concentrations in natural waters. The objectives of this project are to i) transform the ability to measure methane in streams; ii) train citizen scientists to work with project scientists to sample streams in an area of shale-gas development and publish large-volume datasets of methane in natural waters and aquifers; iii) innovate data mining and machine learning methods for environmental data to identify anomalous spots with potential leakage; iv) run field campaigns to measure methane concentrations and isotopic signatures of water samples in these spots; v) foster dialogue among nonscientists, consultants, university scientists, members of the gas industry, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations in and beyond the target region. Toward this end, the team will host workshops aimed to build dialogue among stakeholders and will release data analytic software for environmental measurements to benefit a broader research community.