WCS Education is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive movement of conservation advocates. We do this by creating equitable pathways to increased scientific literacy, engagement in conservation advocacy, and lasting connection with animals and nature.
One of the programs that incorporates all of these strategies is Project TRUE (Teens Researching Urban Ecology). Project TRUE is a partnership between WCS and Fordham University that is both a social science research study and a youth development program designed to support youth in STEM career pathways. Teams of high school students
The field of ecology is poised to substantially contribute to the creation of a socially and environmentally equitable urban future. To realize this contribution, the field of ecology must create strategies that ensure inclusion of underrepresented minorities so that a broad array of experiences and ideas collectively address challenges inherent to a sustainable urban future. Despite efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented racial minorities (URM) in the sciences, graduation rates have only slightly increased over the last several decades. While research mentoring programs at the
Today’s conservation challenges are complex. Solving these challenges often requires scientific collaborations that extend beyond the scope, expertise, and capacity of any single agency, organization, or institution. Conservation efforts can benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration, scientific and technological innovations, and the leveraging of capacity and resources among partners. Here we explore a series of case studies demonstrating how collaborative scientific partnerships are furthering the mission of the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), including: (1) contaminants of emerging
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Shauna MarquardtMandy AnnisRyan DrumStephanie HummelDavid MosbyTamara Smith
Project TRUE (Teens Researching Urban Ecology) was a summer research experience for New York City youth that focused on strengthening their STEM interest, skills, and ultimately, increasing diversity in STEM fields. Through a partnership between an informal science institution (the Wildlife Conservation Society) and a university (Fordham University), 200 high school students conducted urban ecology research at one of four zoos in New York City under the guidance of STEM mentors. A unique feature of Project TRUE was its near-peer mentorship model, in which university professors mentored graduate urban ecology students, who mentored undergraduate students, who mentored high school students Science research projects focused on urban ecology topics, with high school students identifying their own research questions that were nested within the undergraduate mentor’s larger research question, thereby establishing a sense of ownership. Youth collected and analyzed their own data and the experience culminated in the creation of research posters, with teams presenting their posters to the public at a student science symposium.
This project was funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. We studied the impacts of two key parts of the program – conducting authentic science research and near-peer mentorship – on the STEM trajectories of almost 200 high school students who participated in the program from 2015 to 2018. The research explored short-term outcomes immediately after the program and followed up with students multiple years after participation to understand the medium-term impacts of the experience during and after the transition from high school to college.