Linking Watershed Research and GK-12 Education within an Ecosystem Context

Ohio State University Research Foundation -Do Not Use, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

GRADUATE TEACHING FELLOWS IN K-12 EDUCATION ABSTRACT PROPOSAL #: 0638669 PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Richard Moore INSTITUTION: Ohio State University TITLE: Linking Watershed Research and GK-12 Education with an Ecosystem Context The GK-12 project from the Ohio State University will engage STEM graduate fellows, along with collaborating faculty and resource professionals, and students and teachers (from grades 3-5, 6-8, 10-12) including those from Amish schools, in the research on watershed science. The project will build on existing interdisciplinary research on the Sugar Creek Watershed in North East Ohio. The project will recruit 8 STEM fellows each year. These fellows will work with 8 teachers each year. The intellectual merit includes the exploration of watershed science as a model system for incorporating multiple disciplines, such as environmental science and rural sociology, into a holistic, constructivist, systemic educational approach to create a cooperative learning opportunity involving university researchers and K-12 teachers and students. The broader impacts include providing the opportunity to fellows and teachers to join other project members for a research visit to Japan to analyze firefly habitat remediation as related to stream ecology.