A report following the 2016 Environmental Health Summit recommended engaging citizens in creating their own knowledge and solutions, thus ensuring that their concerns are adequately addressed and promoting sustainability of community projects. Indeed, citizen science has the potential to initiate a cascade of events with a positive ripple effect that includes a more diverse future STEM and biomedical workforce. This SEPA proposal involves the establishment of WE ENGAGE – an informal, citizen science-based, environmental health experiential learning program designed in partnership with and for under resourced communities struggling with health and environmental health challenges. Its purpose is to actively engage and build the citizen science capacity of citizens living in a single cluster of three contiguous under resourced, minority Cincinnati neighborhoods where generational challenges continue to plague residents despite the presence of established academic-community partnerships. Our hypothesis is that community-informed, experiential learning opportunities outside of the classroom that are structured, multi-generational, and story-based will encourage a) the active asking, discussion about, and answering of relevant complex health and environmental questions so that individuals and communities can plan action steps to make better health choices and pursue healthier environments, and b) greater interest and confidence in pursuing formal biomedical/STEM education and STEM careers. Our program has three specific aims: 1) We will co-create tailored story- based (graphic novel style) STEM education materials with a community advisory board and offer informal STEM education and research training to our target communities; 2) we will facilitate the application of scientific inquiry skills to improve health via community-led health fairs that use an innovative electronic health passport platform to collect data and through facilitated community discussions of health fair data to generate motivating stories to share; and 3) we will facilitate the application of scientific inquiry skills to foster community pride and activism in promoting healthier/safer built environments via walking environmental assessments. As in aim 2, facilitated discussions will be held to spur future community based participatory research studies and interventions. Critical to our success is the concept of storytelling. Storytelling is a foundation of the human experience. A key purpose of storytelling is not just understanding the world, but positively transforming it. It is a common language. Bringing together STEM concepts in the form of a story increases their appeal and meaning. Later, the very process of community data collection gives individuals a voice. In a data story, hundreds to millions of voices can be distilled into a single narrative that can help community members probe important underlying associations and get to the root causes of complicated health issues relevant to their communities. Through place based, understandable, motivating data stories, the community’s collective voice is clearer—leading to relevant and viable actions that can be decided and taken together. From preventing chronic disease, to nurturing healthier environments, to encouraging STEM education — stories have unlimited potential.
Public Health Relevance Statement:
Narrative WE ENGAGE is an informal citizen science-based, experiential learning program designed in partnership with and for middle schoolers to adults living in under resourced minority communities. Using the power of data collection and storytelling, its purpose is to actively engage citizens in STEM/research education and training to encourage a more diverse future workforce and to sustainably build local capacity to ask and answer complex health and environmental questions relevant to their communities. Further, by engaging citizens and giving them a more equitable stake in the research process, they are better able to discover their own solutions.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Melinda Sue ButschkovacicSusan Ann Hershberger
Lineage is a comprehensive educational media and outreach initiative that will engage individuals and families in learning about deep time and evolution, helping audiences come to newfound understandings of the connections between the past, present, and future of life on Earth. The project is a partnership between Twin Cities PBS (TPT) and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and is linked to the opening of that museum's new Deep Time Fossil Hall in June 2019. The project includes a two-hour film for national broadcast on PBS, and a 20-minute short version for exhibition in science centers. The documentaries will show how scientists, using paleontology, genetics, earth science and other disciplines, can reconstruct in detail the origins of living animals like birds and elephants, revealing their ancient past as well as evidence of ecological change that can inform our understanding of Earth today. Extensive educational outreach will include the creation of "Bone Hunter," an innovative VR (Virtual Reality) game designed for family co-play that engages multiple players in the process of paleontology as they piece together a fossil in a digital lab. Bone Hunter and other collaborative educational activities will be deployed at Family Fossil Festivals that will attract multi-generational learners. One such Festival will take place at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., while others will be based at geographically diverse institutions that serve underserved rural as well as urban communities. Lineage is a collaboration between national media producers, noted learning institutions and researchers, including Twin Cities Public Television, the Smithsonian Institution / National Museum of Natural History, Schell Games, the Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI), and Rockman et al. One of the project's primary innovations is its exploration of new learning designs for families that use cutting-edge technologies (e.g. the Bone Hunter virtual reality game) and collaborative multi-generational learning experiences that advance science knowledge and inquiry-based learning. An external research study conducted by ILI will investigate how intergenerational co-play with physical artifacts compared to virtual artifacts influences STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) learning and engagement. The findings will lead to critical strategic impacts for the field, building knowledge about ongoing innovation in the free choice learning space. The project's external evaluation will be conducted by Rockman et al and evaluative findings, as well as the educational materials derived from the project, will be widely disseminated through partnerships with professional and educator groups. Clips from the Lineage film and related learning resources will be hosted on PBS LearningMedia, so educators can incorporate these resources into their classrooms, and students and lifelong learners can explore and discover on their own. The project outcomes will have broad impact on public audiences, deepening and advancing knowledge and understanding about important scientific concepts, and promoting continued, family-based collaborative learning experiences to expand and deepen STEM knowledge. This project is 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. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning.
The World Biotech Tour (WBT) is a multi-year initiative that will bring biotechnology to life at select science centers and museums worldwide. The program, supported by the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) and Biogen Foundation, is scheduled to run from 2015-2017, with the 2015 cohort in Belgium, Japan, and Portugal. The WBT will increase the impact and visibility of biotechnology among youth and the general public through hands-on and discussion-led learning opportunities. Applications are now open for the 2016 cohort! Learn more and submit an application at http://www.worldbiotechtour.org/become-a-stop
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Association of Science-Technology CentersCarlin Hsueh