EXPANDING THE RISING TIDE
PROJECT: CHANGING HOW RESEARCHERS,
EDUCATORS, AND STUDENTS WORK TOGETHER
Principal
Investigator:
Robert
F. Young
Associate
Professor
Department
of Marine Science
Coastal
Carolina University
Co-Principal
Investigators:
Brian
Helmuth
Assistant
Professor
Department
of Biological Sciences and Marine Sciences Program
University
of South Carolina
Leslie Sautter
Associate Professor
Department
of Geology
College
of Charleston
Steve
Stancyk
Professor
Department
of Biological Sciences and Marine Sciences Program
University
of South Carolina
INTRODUCTION
Table
1. Selected participant comments from
pilot program assessment surveys in response to the question, "what
aspects of the Rising Tide Project were most successful and/or beneficial to
you?"
|
Teacher
comments: ·
"I cannot say enough about the positive effects of working in
the field with others of equal and (usually) greater knowledge/skill. Just as students and athletes must stretch
themselves and challenge themselves to improve, so must academicians. It's so great not to be the only one in
the group that has the big picture.
It's terrific to learn on a higher level." ·
"I am a better science teacher because I was able to get
connected with real science. Also,
like my students, I learned by doing." ·
"Professional skills (as a teachers) improved by constantly
thinking about how to get this across to students and how to construct an
activity that will achieve the desired effect." ·
"The data analysis… that students are asked to do in these
activities fosters skills that are useful well beyond the science
classroom. These are the thinking
skills critical to success in life in general!" ·
"Science teachers periodically need to re-connect with the
reasons they fell in love with science to start with. Then we can instill this passion in some
of our students." · "I really felt like
part of the team. I have done a lot
of teacher programs, but this was the first time I didn’t feel like a guest
at someone else’s research project.”
·
"It left me hungry for more!" ·
"[I] gained confidence in my abilities as a scientist, not just
a science teacher." ·
"I was able to teach my students material that was relevant to
current research." |
|
Undergraduate
comments: ·
"allowed for collaboration with others to accomplish a
goal" ·
"[I] loved learning how to design a web page. It was a lot more complicated than I anticipated,
but it was really enjoyable. My
computer skills and confidence level were really increased by this." ·
"gained research tools, difficult hands on work that not everyone
gets to experience" ·
"compiling data into useful and meaningful charts and graphs to
analyze the research" ·
"opened my mind to future career plans;" "reinforced
my interest in career choice" ·
"able to gain insight into the world of education and
teaching" ·
"making new friends with faculty and teacher" ·
"I became more (much more) interested in pursuing a career in
science education because of this." |
|
CCU
faculty comments: ·
"My research was enhanced by the participation of my team
members. It was one of the most
focused summers I have had in terms of a true research team working on the project. The relation-ships with my team members,
and their excitement from learning and participating, were great." ·
"I liked having the interaction with a high school teacher and a
student (who is considering a teaching career). This process gave me new insight into the high school
curriculum, state standards, and teacher’s perceptions. I also certainly learned a lot about web
design and this has translated back into my abilities in creating web
delivery of information to my students." ·
"The money [research contribution] was adequate to purchase
equipment to collect data. The equipment purchased is still up and running
and being used to collect data. The
faculty/teacher/student pairing was very effective, it made for an effective
science team in which everyone had their unique role." |
The external review also identified potential areas
for improvement, including aspects of the development of the web-based
classroom activities, assessment of the classroom activities, and planning for
the long-term financial sustainability of the overall program. In this proposal, we will address each of
these points with a specific strategic plan.
To improve and standardize the development of the classroom activities,
we will institute formal development guidelines and milestones for the
creation, testing, and assessment of activities, and we will increase the level
of training for web page design. We
will implement a comprehensive testing and assessment plan for the development
of each activity, and we will institute a long-term assessment strategy to
determine the frequency of use, longevity, and usefulness of the activities to
educators. Our plan to expand the
Rising Tide Program and ensure financial sustainability will include a marketing
strategy to pursue corporate sponsors and additional external support for the
program and a dissemination strategy utilizing the resources of the
participating universities and SECOSEE.
These additions, in combination with the proven success of the Rising
Tide model, will create a sustainable and effective program in South Carolina.
OBJECTIVES
"A rising tide floats all boats." The
overarching goal of the Rising Tide Project is to raise the level of
scientific awareness and confidence on a local level by making collaboration
between researchers and educators the norm, rather than the exception. This is a long-term goal and cannot be
assessed within the time span of the grant, but with this primary goal in mind,
we offer the following measurable objectives:
During Year 1, the grant will support three Rising
Tide teams at CCU (each composed of a research mentor, teacher, and
undergraduate) and 2 teams each at USC and CofC. In Year 2, only 1 team will be supported at CCU while USC and
CofC will receive support for 3 teams each.
By this time, the CCU program is expected to be partially
self-supporting, with at least 2 externally funded teams in addition to the 1
grant-supported team. The USC and CofC
programs will only be in their second year of development, and are not expected
to be self-supporting yet. The PI (R.
Young) will serve as the overall Rising Tide Project Director, and the Co-PIs
at USC and CofC will serve as the Project Coordinators for each site. Based on the momentum of the program and the
cumulative progress at each site, all three programs are expected to be able to
support at least 3 teams with external funding by the end of the grant period,
thus establishing a sustainable tradition of communication and cooperation
between local schools and higher education.
Though teachers and students may have different
motivations for participating, one common component is that both are seeking
experience and training as scientists.
This can be measured in terms of new skills and techniques learned, in
the assessment (personal and external) of their skills and abilities, and in
their success in completing data collection, analysis, and interpretation.
Educational activities are required to disseminate
the educational exercises and research findings beyond the Teacher/Student
Team. In order to be effective, they
must be educationally challenging and linked to the standards. This will be verified through a process of
assessments and revisions. The local
relevance of the activities to South Carolina teachers does not preclude them
from being of interest to educators from other regions in the country.
The degree to which the web-based activities are
used by educators will be assessed through multi-year tracking of Rising Tide
teachers and their schools, and through various tracking tools on the web
site. Dissemination will also occur via
presentations and publications by Rising Tide participants and via the
marketing of the Rising Tide Project itself.
In the long term, researchers will only continue to
participate if it is beneficial and enjoyable for them. The inclusion of a Teacher/Student Team
should enhance their research efforts, not burden them. This can be measured by the researchers' own
assessments, their willingness to continue as mentors in future years, and
their research productivity, including papers, and presentations.
Simply by placing these three groups together for a
summer, we will essentially achieve this goal.
However, given the positive outcomes of this dynamic (as seen in some of
the comments in Table 1), we believe this simple goal is a desirable outcome in
and of itself.
The Rising Tide Project is not designed to reach the
maximum number of people in a single event.
Rather, this is a catalytic program designed to establish a pattern of
cooperation and interaction between higher education and local schools that
will persist well beyond the ending date of the grant. Having students, teachers, and educators
work together is not a new concept, but the sustainable design of the Rising
Tide Project is truly unique.
Why
a Local Emphasis?
The Rising Tide Project is based on the premise that
(1) educators will readily teach science subjects if they have experience with
the material, and (2) although mass-produced, widely disseminated science
curricular materials are often excellent, both students and teachers are best
motivated to learn science through hands-on, locally significant research. A number of excellent programs are available
which pair top teachers with top researchers.
These laudable programs distribute expertise throughout the teaching
community. At the same time, they are
often limiting in terms of sustainability (they end when the grant ends) and
long-term cooperative relationships (participants may have little interaction
after the completion of the workshop or program). These programs fail to reach the vast middle ground of teachers
who are both interested and competent, but are unable to participate for
various reasons, including time, family, financial, and career restraints. We propose to change the paradigm in which
university researchers interact with secondary teachers in their community and raise the level of scientific research
experience and confidence among secondary teachers by providing sustainable,
accessible, and locally relevant research opportunities with researchers in
their own community.
Why
Marine Science?
Nationally, the field of marine science has been a
popular theme for science and math curricular materials due to the level of
student interest, and due to its interdisciplinary nature, which effectively
supports specific standards for biology, chemistry, geology, and physics, by
grade level. The nature of the
geosciences, including marine science, makes them "especially endowed with
opportunities to motivate students to engage in high-level thinking"
(Holliday, et al. 1996). The
marine-related programs at CCU, CofC, and USC have a long record of involving
undergraduates in high quality marine research. Collectively, these three schools have approximately 1000
undergraduate marine science/marine biology majors -- a huge, untapped, and
extremely enthusiastic resource for the state and region. The schools are located in three separate
major population centers in South Carolina.
Marine science is clearly a research and educational strength within the
state and is an ideal subject for this project.
METHODOLOGY
PARTICIPANT
GROUPS
The Rising Tide Project model requires the
cooperation of numerous participant groups and partners. To be sustainable in the long term, it must
be financially self-supporting, and perhaps more importantly, it must generate
sustained individual interest for all participants. Therefore, the goal of our model is to make it "easy and
desirable" to participate. For
example, university professors, by nature of their job description and
evaluation criteria, must prioritize the progress of their own students and
their own research activities. Many
professors who wish to work with teachers do not do so because they are confronted
by the reality of promotion and tenure criteria that prioritize research and
teaching over service to the community and local schools. There will always be some researchers and
educators that seek out collaborative opportunities with each other, but this
pattern will not become widespread until doing so is convenient and personally
rewarding. By pairing undergraduate
students and teachers as a research team working on a faculty member’s project,
our design combines the professor's primary mission of providing educational
research opportunities for college students with the opportunity to work with
teachers. The addition of incentives
(such as a research contribution, summer salary, or logistical support) make
the experience desirable for a larger pool of faculty. For each participant group below, we
describe their motivation to participate, their responsibilities as
participants, and the incentives provided for their participation.
Teacher/Student
Teams
Motivation
In general, high school science teachers either
double majored in some sort of combined education/science degree, or they were
simply science majors in college. Many
science teachers would like to participate in research and share their
experiences with their students, but they are not sure how to go about doing so
or where to find the time. By involving
science teachers in local research, we hope to help them rediscover the
excitement of the scientific process, as well as learn about new theories,
concepts, and techniques. Since the
teachers make a substantial connection with a researcher in their community,
they are likely to continue that relationship over time. By bringing their experience back to the
classroom, teachers will pass on their enthusiasm and knowledge to their students. Teachers armed with an understanding of the
scientific process can generate an infinite supply of critical thinking
classroom science activities, leading to a lifetime of effective teaching.
It is well recognized that undergraduate science
students, especially those planning to pursue graduate studies, are eager to
obtain research experience. It is less
well recognized that many of these students are also interested in obtaining
teaching experience. A large proportion
of undergraduate marine science/marine biology majors pursue teaching jobs,
either in high schools or informal education programs (aquariums, field
programs, etc.), or at the college level following additional graduate
studies. In South Carolina, all science
subjects are listed as "critical needs" subjects, enabling college
graduates with science degrees to obtain their secondary education teaching
certificates without a traditional education major (SC Department of Education,
2003). Thus, it is appropriate to
target undergraduate science majors as potential future South Carolina high
school science teachers. Interaction
with teachers and their classrooms will serve undergraduate students well in
developing their career paths, making the Rising Tide Project a potentially
effective recruitment tool for South Carolina schools.
Responsibilities
Each teacher will be paired with an undergraduate
science major, forming a Teacher/Student Team.
Each team will work with a single marine science Research Mentor on a
local marine-related research project.
Both team members will be required to:
·
Work
with the Research Mentor for 120 hours on the research project during the
summer. Specific days and scheduling
will vary depending on the project.
Research activities will include data collection (field and/or lab),
data analysis, and interpretation.
·
Attend
all components of a 12 hour Teacher Training Institute (described later in the
proposal). These hours count as part of
their 120 required hours.
·
Produce
web-based classroom activities to be piloted by the Teacher/Student Team in the
teacher's classroom during the fall semester (design and assessment described
later in the proposal). The development
of classroom activities is in addition to the 120 research hours required
during the summer, although the activities will utilize the data collected.
·
Assess
and revise the classroom activity for submission to the SECOSEE web site
Incentives
·
Undergraduates
will receive 4 hours of research credit, and teachers will receive 3 credits of
a "Scientific Research for Teachers" or equivalent existing graduate
course at each university.
·
Undergraduates
will receive a $1000 stipend, and teachers will receive a $1500 stipend for the
summer. The time commitment for this
program exceeds the typical requirement for a 3-4 credit research course. Thus, a modest stipend is appropriate as an
additional incentive.
·
The
scheduling flexibility associated with local participation works well for
teachers and students.
Research
Mentors
Motivation
University professors are typically highly motivated
educators. Thus, it is not surprising
that many faculty members are interested in working with local teachers to
improve K-12 education. As indicated
previously, this desire is often unfulfilled due to the realities of faculty
priorities as dictated by promotion and tenure criteria. The Rising Tide model allows faculty to
work with teachers in harmony with their primary mission. In fact, it enhances the experience provided
to their students and it supplements their research efforts. During years of adequate funding, the Rising
Tide model encourages faculty researchers to involve teachers and students in
their projects. During interim periods
of limited funding, the model actually assists faculty research by providing summer
research assistants and modest funding, so that essential data and preliminary
results for further proposals can continue to be collected.
Responsibilities
Research mentors will provide an appropriate
research project for the Teacher/Student Teams. These will typically be part of their ongoing local
marine-related research. Specifically,
they will:
·
Serve
as the instructor of record for both the teacher and the undergraduate
courses.
·
Serve
as the research advisor for the Teacher/Student Teams. As such, they are expected to provide extensive
hands-on supervision, guidance, and feedback throughout the research
period.
·
Attend
"The Teacher's Perspective" workshop of the Teacher Training
Institute (TTI, described later in the proposal). This workshop will provide information on the expectations of the
teacher participants, so the Research Mentors can better understand the context
in which the teachers are working.
Mentors may choose to attend other portions of the TTI, as well.
·
Provide
scientific feedback and guidance for the classroom activity designed by the
Teacher/Student Teams, and ensure compliance with the developmental guidelines
and assessments for the activity.
·
Review
the activity assessment and final product, assign a final grade, and ensure
that the activity is provided to SECOSEE and the Rising Tide Project Director
on time and in the proper format.
Incentives
·
Research
mentors will receive $2000 summer salary.
The additional responsibilities of advising and reviewing the
development of classroom activities by the Teacher/Student Team represent a
significant commitment through the fall semester.
·
Research
mentors will receive a $1000 research contribution, to be spent on the research
project in a manner that enhances the experience of the teacher/undergraduate
team. The specific use of the funds
will be project-specific and must be approved by the appropriate PI or Co-PI.
Southeast
Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence (SECOSEE) (see attached letter of support)
The
SouthEast Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence (SECOSEE) is one of
seven regional centers receiving support from the National Science Foundation,
NOAA/Coastal Services Center and NOAA/Office of Ocean Exploration. It is administered from the South Carolina
Sea Grant Consortium and includes science and education partners in Georgia,
South Carolina and North Carolina. It's
primary mission is to facilitate the integration of research into educational
materials and programs, and establish linkages that will foster their development
and dissemination. SECOSEE will:
·
House
and manage the educational activities on their website (instead of SC Aquarium
web site used during pilot program) and assist with tracking and assessment of
site activity and utilization
·
Assist
with the marketing of the Rising Tide Project, pursuit of external funding and
cooperative agreements, and the promotion of the web activities
· Provide services as an
assessment consultant and External Evaluator.
SECOSEE will assist in the
design of an assessment plan and the development of assessment tools for the
program and will conduct intermediary and summative assessment reviews
(described later in proposal).
The Waccamaw, Midlands
(Columbia), and Charleston Math and Science Regional Centers (formerly “Hubs”)
are part of a statewide network of regional mathematics and science education
centers to support curricular and instructional reform. Originally funded by the National Science
Foundation's Statewide Systemic Initiative Program, the centers are now funded
primarily by the South Carolina Department of Education. The Centers offer a variety of professional
development activities for teachers and foster communication within the
education community. The Math and
Science Centers will:
·
Assist
with program advertisement and teacher selection
·
Assist
in the planning, design, and facilitation of the Teacher Training Institute
·
Assist
with the review of the educational activities for compliance with state and national
standards
·
In
subsequent years (sustainability), commit to the oversight of the above
Recruitment
and Selection of Participating Teachers and Undergraduates
We are targeting primarily high
school teachers (grades 9-12), although we may consider some applications from
teachers at lower grade levels.
Interacting with the high school curriculum is the least
"stretch" for university faculty and undergraduates. Teachers will be recruited from the
Horry/Georgetown, Columbia, and Charleston areas only, in keeping with our goal
of establishing local connections for each site. An informational Rising Tide Project web site and on-line
application materials have already been developed during the pilot program and
will require only minimal modification.
During the pilot program, letters of invitation were sent to every high
school science teacher in Horry and Georgetown counties. A similar effort is possible, but this
proposal will support fewer teams at each site and there are more teachers in
the Columbia and Charleston areas.
Therefore, it is likely that advertising through the local school
district and Math and Science Center newsletters will be sufficient to generate
numerous applicants. Efforts will be
made to identify local teachers from underrepresented groups and send them a
personal invitation to apply. The
Centers will assist the PI’s in selecting participating teachers. Selection criteria will emphasize equity in
race, gender, and school.
The selection of participating undergraduate
students is at the discretion of the faculty researcher for each project. Preference will be given to students
interested in careers that integrate research and education. Students should be classified as Juniors or
above.
Research
Projects
Each Teacher/Student Team will work with one
Research Mentor on a specific research project. CCU will host 3 teams in Year 1 and one team in Year 2 (with
anticipated external support for at least 2 more). USC and CofC will host 2 teams in Year 1 and 3 in Year 2. The P.I. and co-P.I.s will serve as Program
Coordinators at their respective institutions (Helmuth and Stancyk may
alternate years at USC), and each will mentor a team in both years of the grant
period. Faculty mentors for additional
teams will be identified as needed from the respective departments during the
preceding school year, typically by the end of January. It will be up to the Program Coordinators at
each institution to choose additional mentors.
All three institutions have a large number of dynamic faculty with
active research programs, so we anticipate numerous volunteers to
participate. During the pilot year, 7
of the 12 tenure track faculty members in the CCU marine science department accepted
the invitation to participate.
The following topics are offered as examples of
potential projects by the Co-PIs. All
have been extremely active in both research and educational pursuits (see vitae
for additional information).
Physical Ecology in the Salt
Marsh: Linking Physiology, Ecology and Climate Change
Brian
Helmuth, Research Mentor (USC)
With
funding from NSF and other agencies, Dr. Helmuth has conducted research on the
thermal biology of rocky intertidal invertebrates, the physiological ecology of
reef corals in relation to water currents, and the impacts of climate (and
climate change) on salt marsh invertebrates.
Team members will work with Dr. Helmuth on one of several potential
projects involving the physical ecology of salt marsh organisms, including both
field and laboratory activities.
Opportunities with the South
Atlantic Bight Regional Exploration Initiative
Leslie
Sautter, Research Mentor (CofC)
Working
with the NOAA Coastal Services Center, the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration,
and as the director of Project Oceanica, Dr. Sautter has lead a new multi-year
initiative to explore and study the coastal and oceanographic processes of the
South Atlantic Bight (SAB). Team
members will likely work with Dr. Sautter on her own research on sedimentation
rates in the SAB, utilizing automated sediment traps and analysis of planktonic
foraminifera to determine the linkages between the shelf and deep sea and
seasonal patterns on the surface.
Benthic-Pelagic
Coupling: The Role of Burrowing
Brittlestars in Trophic Transfer of Sediment-Bound Toxins to Mobile Estuarine
Fauna
Steve
Stancyk, Research Mentor (USC)
With
support from NOAA, Sea Grant, NSF, and various state agencies, Dr. Stancyk and
his students have been studying life histories, regeneration patterns, and
trophic dynamics of burrowing ophiuroids (brittlestars) for many years. Possible projects for team members could
include studying effects of pollutants on tissue, nerve and skeletal
regeneration patterns, quantifying the means by which brittlestars obtain
toxins (food? assimilation?), or a
toxicological test of whether regenerated tissue from brittlestars placed in
cores around marinas contain higher levels of polyaromatic hydrocarbons and
metals.
The Role of Dolphins and Fish in a Salt Marsh System
Rob Young, Research Mentor (CCU)
With support from NSF, NOAA, SCDNR, and private
foundations, Dr. Young has conducted research on bottlenose dolphins and fish
in the North Inlet salt marsh estuary for many years. Drawing on a multi-year data set, as well as ongoing surveys, team
members will work on one of several potential projects, including the use of
dolphin distribution as an indicator for seasonal and annual prey composition
and movements, the impact of tidal currents on dolphin and fish behavior due to
bioenergetic constraints, and the role of young-of-the-year nekton in driving
nutrient cycling in the salt marsh.
Teacher
Training Institutes
A Teacher Training Institute (TTI), consisting of several workshops, will be developed to provide educational guidance for all participants. In combination, these workshops will take approximately 12 hours to complete. The structure of these workshops has been modified from the original pilot program, based on experience and specific assessment recommendations. Workshop 2, below, is a combination of two different workshops from the pilot year, and workshop 3 has been moved into the fall semester and split into two sessions. Each workshop will be planned in consultation between the PIs and educational specialists at the Math and Science Centers. In many cases, the education specialist may be the primary presenter. Research Mentors that are not PIs are only required to attend the first workshop but are encouraged to attend all of them. The PIs and the Teacher/Student Teams will attend all workshops. The TTI workshops are the only time that different Rising Tide teams at a given site interact, and during the pilot year, we found this to be an extremely dynamic time for all participants. The TTI workshops are:
1.
The
Teacher's Perspective: This workshop
will take place at the start of the summer and is primarily a workshop to
prepare the research mentor and undergraduate student to work with the
teachers. This is also a time to
provide an overview of the Rising Tide Project for all participants. Topics to be addressed include the set-up of
the school system and administrative guidelines, the requirements of the state
and national science and math standards, and the expectations of the participating
teachers.
2.
Science
Education Pedagogy and Assessment Tools:
This workshop will address techniques for science education and will
suggest methods to design effective classroom activities (based on the team's
research project) using best practices in instructional delivery. Various assessment tools and techniques for
the activities will be introduced, developed, and formalized during this
workshop.
3.
Web
Authoring: Since classroom activities
will be designed in a web-based format, this workshop will introduce web
authoring techniques and instruction in the design of web-based educational
activities. The Teacher/Student Teams
will utilize standardized Rising Tide web page templates developed during the
pilot program by Dusti Annan, the web site coordinator at the South Carolina
Aquarium. These templates utilize
Microsoft Frontpage, which is already available on university computers and in
many schools as part of the MS Office software package. The PIs at each site, and in some cases
personnel from the Math and Science Centers, have experience with web page
development and will lead these workshops (the use of already existing
templates makes this extremely straightforward). Based on comments from the pilot year, we have moved this
workshop into the early fall semester, when team members will have already
analyzed data, designed a conceptual web layout, and collected text, figures,
and images ready to be inserted into the templates. We have also broken this workshop into two sessions: the first will be primarily initial
instruction in web page design, and the second will be supervised development
of the activity web pages.
4.
Reflective
Assessment and Dissemination Planning:
Toward the end of the fall semester, after all teams have tested their
web-based activities in their classrooms, all teams will gather for a
reflective assessment, to review the successes and challenges of their
projects, to share their assessment results, and to discuss dissemination
plans.
Design
and Assessment of Web-based Classroom Instructional Activities
The Teacher/Student Teams will develop web-based
classroom instructional activities based on their research. Upon completion, these activities will be
loaded onto the SECOSEE web site. The
design of the activities will vary depending on the project, but they will all
follow a similar overall format and will all have a strong discovery- and
inquiry-based foundation. For this
proposal, the teams will have the benefit of using the existing Rising Tide
activities from the pilot year as models.
At a minimum, classroom activities should include the application of the
scientific method in approaching the research project, manipulation and
analysis of challenging data sets to generate results, graphical and other
techniques for displaying and interpreting results, and discussion of the
findings as they relate to the local environment and community. Activities may also incorporate field trips
and/or the collection of additional data by students. All classroom instructional activities will be developed in a
teacher-friendly format that lists and describes the specific grade-appropriate
state and national math and science standards (NRC, 1996) that are addressed by
each activity.
A number of lessons were learned during the pilot
year regarding the development and assessment of the classroom activities. In general, teams had designed much of their
activity content by the end of the summer.
Once the fall semester started, however, the good intentions of teacher
and student participants were easily sidetracked by their academic
responsibilities. As a result, most
teams went beyond the target deadline for completion of the activities and had
variable success with the development, assessment, and revision of activities,
as planned during the TTI. The most
successful teams continued to meet during the semester and did not have these
problems, indicating a need for more structured guidelines to focus the efforts
of the teams. The need for such
structure was a universal comment on the Research Mentor questionnaires from
the pilot year. Therefore, we will
require that each Teacher/Student Team must submit a detailed Activity
Development and Assessment Plan to their Research Mentor prior to the beginning
of the fall semester. This plan will
include:
·
Specific
meeting times for the entire team during the fall semester, no less than once
every two weeks
·
Deadlines
for:
o
the
submission and subsequent revisions of the draft web-formatted classroom
activity (submitted by Teacher/Student Team to Research Mentor, revised based
on mentor’s critique)
o
the
development of a written assessment rubric for the activity, based on
principles learned during the assessment TTI workshop and the guidelines of the
project assessment consultant. Rubrics
will determine whether student results match predetermined goals for the
activities and whether state and national standards were adequately addressed.
o
testing
the activity in the teacher’s classroom and assessing its effectiveness using
the rubric
o
a
second testing and assessment of the activity by a teacher completely unrelated
to the development of the activity.
This may be a teacher in the same school, a different Rising Tide
teacher, or some other arrangement.
o
revision
of the activity based on the assessments from the two classroom trials
o
submission
of the final web-based activity by the Research Mentor to the Project
Coordinator at his/her site (deadline tentatively set for mid-January). The Coordinators at each site will have
personnel at the Math and Science Centers review and amend the "Standards
Addressed" section for each activity.
The Coordinators will then forward the activities to the Rising Tide Project Director for submission
to the SECOSEE web site.
The final grade for the students and teachers will
be tied, in part, to these guidelines.
This will promote the timely completion of their activities, and perhaps
more importantly, it will facilitate the effective assessment and revision of
the activities prior to their dissemination. According to the NRC (1996b)
guidelines on national science education standards, educational researchers
must do a better job of assessing understanding, reasoning, and rich,
well-structured knowledge, and they must engage students in ongoing assessment
of their work and others.
Project
Assessment
In addition to the assessments for the educational
activities described above, the PI will work with the SECOSEE External
Evaluator to formulate a comprehensive evaluation plan for the entire project,
prior to start of the summer program in Year 1. This will include pre- and post-survey questionnaires tied to the
objectives, pre- and post-content knowledge tests, and focus group interviews
in which the External Evaluator asks focused questions to cohorts of
participants, e.g. mentors, teachers, and undergraduate students. The Teacher Training Institute as a whole
will serve as a formative assessment tool, providing input and discussion on
the development of educational activities as the project progresses. As the classroom activities are developed by
the Teacher/Student Teams, individual Research Mentors will provide formative
assessment and review of the quality of the scientific content. The effectiveness of these activities in the
classroom will also be assessed, as described in the previous section.
We will also assess the long-term
impact of the project on the teaching and research activities of Rising Tide
participants, as well as the dissemination of Rising Tide educational
activities to a wider audience. In Year
1, we will survey the pilot year participants to determine the level of
continued use of Rising Tide activities and usage patterns by other teachers in
their schools. In Year 2, we will
survey these teachers again, along with the Year 1 participants. We will assess the wider dissemination of
activities using the SECOSEE web site.
When teachers download a Rising Tide activity, they will be asked to
submit their email address for assessment and evaluation purposes. Follow-up surveys will address content
evaluation and utilization patterns.
The number of hits on activity home pages and download pages will also
be tallied.
Sustainability
Based on the positive external evaluation of the
pilot year and the subsequent improvements incorporated into this proposal, we
are confident that the Rising Tide Project provides an exceptional and
successful model to meet objectives 2 through 6, as stated in the Objectives
section. To be truly effective in the
long term, we must also achieve objective 1:
sustainability. The pilot year
established the project design and developed the logistical infrastructure, but
it did not have a clear plan to procure on-going external funding. A good idea does not attract money all by
itself. Even so, we have already
received a $1000 donation from Walmart that is partially supporting one team
this summer, and the Rising Tide concept has been received with great
enthusiasm by administrators at CCU and educators and researchers at various
regional and national conferences. In this
proposal, we will ensure long-term sustainability by developing an aggressive
marketing plan to increase awareness of the Rising Tide Project and secure
corporate sponsorship and other cooperative agreements.
We will work with the public
relations and marketing offices at each university to promote the Rising Tide
project in the television and print news media at each site. We will aggressively promote stories on the
project during the summer, when the teams are working in the field and
laboratory, during the fall when they are testing the activities in their
classrooms, and in the winter/spring, when the activities are posted on the
SECOSEE web site.
Working with the advancement offices
at each university and with SECOSEE, we will develop a formal marketing
strategy at the start of Year 1 to identify and recruit external funding
agencies and to develop cooperative relationships (see letters of
commitment). Their efforts will be
coordinated with those of the public relations offices described above. For approximately $5000, a corporate sponsor
could support a single team, including teacher and student stipends, tuition,
and the $1000 research contribution.
The administrations at all three universities have committed to continue
to support faculty with $2000 summer salary after the grant period has ended,
as a match for each corporate-sponsored team (see letters of support). Thus, additional faculty will be encouraged
to become involved in the program, and the initial catalytic grant support will
ultimately establish a sustainable tradition.
Building on the pilot year, we have already identified focus areas for
the CCU strategic plan. Under the CCU
Public Engagement Initiative, a fundraising campaign is seeking to establish a
large endowment to fund cooperative programs between CCU and the surrounding
region. The Rising Tide Project will be
used in this campaign as a prominent example of such programs. It will also be promoted within ongoing
programs, such as those within the Center for Marine and Wetland Studies and
the new Waccamaw Watershed Academy. We
predict that Rising Tide fund-raising successes at one university will promote
further successes at the others due to "institutional peer pressure." SECOSEE will help to promote the visibility
of the project via their web site, and they will identify and engage potential
sponsors, and initiate discussions with potential cooperative entities. For example, SECOSEE would initiate
discussions with the South Carolina Department of Education to adopt the Rising
Tide model and provide partial support of teams. Corporate sponsors and cooperative agencies will be recognized on
the web sites for the activities, and they will be given updates and reports on
the achievements of sponsored teams.
Project sustainability will also
require logistical coordination. Toward
the end of Year 2, the Co-PIs will meet to develop a Logistical Sustainability
Plan. The Math and Science Centers will
continue to assist with program advertisement and teacher recruitment, TTI
instruction, and standards evaluation, and SECOSEE will continue to host the
web-based activities (see letters of support).
The duties of the Project Coordinators, such as the annual determination
of Research Mentors and the oversight of deadlines and workshops, will need to
be covered at each site. This should be
straightforward, but must be clearly defined to ensure a smooth
transition. Under various scenarios,
this could be covered by site coordinators with modest compensation from
corporate sponsors or universities, by Math and Science Center personnel, by
SECOSEE or Sea Grant education specialists, or by some combination of all of
these, depending on levels of commitment and funding at the time.
EXPECTED
RESULTS
By the end of the grant
period, we will have established the Rising Tide Project model at three major
universities within the state. At each
institution, the program will be financially and logistically independent and
sustainable at or above the level supported during Year 2 of the grant. The project will enhance marine research
projects with financial and personnel support, and it will develop and improve
the scientific skills and confidence of participating teachers and
undergraduates. Interaction between
participant groups will lead to improved communication and cooperation between
higher education and local schools. The
critical thinking skills of high schools students and the dissemination of
locally relevant marine research findings to educators, students, and the public
will be improved through the development of high quality, standards-based
educational activities available on the web, and through presentations and
publications associated with the Rising Tide Project. All of these results will be measurable using the assessment
tools and surveys described in this proposal.
INFORMATION
PRODUCTS
Each Teacher/Student team will
produce one web-based classroom instructional activity based on locally
significant research with their faculty mentor. The content of these activities has been described in detail
previously. These classroom-tested,
standards-based activities will be promoted and available to students,
teachers, and the public statewide (and nationwide) through the SECOSEE web
site. The sustainable design of the
Rising Tide Project ensures that new activities will continue to be developed
each year, representing an ongoing source of excellent, relevant, and
up-to-date science education resources, and an outstanding dissemination tool
for on-going marine research in South Carolina.
As with the teams from the pilot year, many Rising
Tide participants will present their classroom activities at educational and
scientific conferences within the state and region. With a membership of over 200 devoted marine educators within the
state (mostly K-12 teachers), the spring conference of the South Carolina
Marine Educators Association (SCMEA) is probably the most appropriate venue for
statewide dissemination of the educational activities. Three of the PI's are former board members
of SCMEA, two are past-presidents, and two have won the SCMEA Marine Educator
of the Year Award. Nearly the entire
budget for this proposal is required to support the Rising Tide teams, so we
have not requested funding for travel to conferences. However, CCU has provided matching travel funds to support
student and teacher travel to SCMEA, and participants are encouraged to seek
the numerous conference scholarships provided jointly by SCMEA and the SC Sea
Grant Consortium each year.
We anticipate that by the end of the
grant period, the Rising Tide model and possible sample activities will also be
in preparation for or published in professional education journals (Journal of Geoscience Education) and
very likely, in such publications as Current
(the marine education journal of the National Marine Educators Association) and
South Carolina Sea Grant's Coastal
Heritage. Dissemination to the
general public will also be achieved through newspaper and television coverage
of the Rising Tide Project associated with our marketing strategy.
Once established in the Charleston, Columbia, and
Horry/Georgetown areas, the Rising Tide Project has great potential for
expansion into other coastal areas in South Carolina. We would like to eventually develop Rising Tide teams with
Research Mentors associated with government agencies (SCDNR, NOAA) as well as
universities. In subsequent years, we
anticipate increased participation by middle school teachers as well. Since the model can be applied to any
research project, it would be an excellent candidate for adoption by funding
agencies, such as Sea Grant, to become a standard educational supplement for
research awards, similar to NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)
supplements or Research Experience for Teachers (RET) supplements. Once established as an effective model
within South Carolina, we would seek the aid of SECOSEE and the national COSEE
network, as well as National Sea Grant, to expand the Rising Tide Project
regionally and nationally.
With its built-in incentives for all participants and its clear plan
for assessment, dissemination, and sustainability, the Rising Tide Project has
the potential to serve as a model for cooperation between teachers and higher
education in other regions and in other fields (including non-sciences). We believe that cooperation between
university researchers and local educators should become business as usual,
wherever locally relevant research can be used to forge bonds between secondary
and higher education.
The Rising Tide team members will benefit most
directly from participation. The
research mentor will receive financial and personnel support and dissemination
products for their research; the Teacher/Student Team will receive research
training and experience, as well as course credit; the teacher will develop
curricula for his/her class; and the undergraduate student will gain experience
as an educator. The students in the teacher's
classroom (and the second classroom involved for each activity’s testing and
assessment) will develop critical thinking skills while learning about locally
relevant marine research as they explore their educational activity. Assuming about 30 students per class, a
minimum of 420 students will do the classroom activities each year. Since the activities are web-based, we are
also targeting all high school science teachers and students in South Carolina
and beyond, and our success will be documented through surveys and web site
tracking. Research projects and
findings will be disseminated to educators and researchers through conference
presentations and publications, and to the general public through media
attention for the Rising Tide Project.
In the long term, we expect the number of sites and teams per site to
increase, causing the quality of local schools, universities, and their
surrounding communities to be raised by a rising tide of improved
communication, cooperation, and learning.
RELATED
WORK
The strength of the Rising Tide Project
is that any marine or coastal zone/watershed research project in the state is
potentially "related work."
Each Teacher/Student Team will contribute significantly to a South
Carolina marine research project, both in terms of 240 person-hours of assistance
(120 per team member) and in terms of a $1000 research contribution. The particular research projects supported
will change each year as the program becomes self-supporting. Thus, the Rising Tide Project can integrate
with the on-going research project of any marine scientist who chooses to get
involved.
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