Graduate Teaching Fellows in STEM High School Education: an Environmental Science Learning Community at the Land-Lake Ecosystem

Our NSF funded GK-12 program, Graduate Fellows in High School STEM Education: An Environmental Science Learning Community at the Land-Lake Ecosystem Interface at the University of Toledo’s Lake Erie Center partners advanced graduate students with high school teachers and their students, across an urban-suburban-rural watershed gradient. Goals are to: 1) Generate student enthusiasm for science careers, 2) Exchange knowledge and pedagogies between graduate fellows and teachers resulting in cutting-edge environmental science content and increased teaching and communication skills, and 3) Develop hands-on solutions to environmental problems and sustainability. Innovative program features are A) schoolyard stream sampling for water quality, macroinvertebrates, and fishes, B) mentoring the high school students in independent research, including science fair, and C) learning community activities to provide shared environmental education along the watershed theme to teachers and graduate students. Our schoolyard stream sampling links to a local Student Watershed Watch program, which features annual summit data presentations by the students.  Many of our high school students have won local and state science fair awards, and our program has resulted in 22 publications and 207 presentations by the graduate fellows, and has reached 420 high school students per year, totaling over 1250 to date. All gain hands-on experience in the role of urban and agricultural influences on watersheds in the history, social development, and future vitality of the Great Lakes region. In this presentation, we demonstrate working tools to engage high school students in watershed research, develop graduate students as effective mentors, and unify a learning community group. Our program effectively teaches and mentors students about water quality and science careers, and more importantly, builds young citizens who are engaged with their local environment.