Making Connections: Integrating Formal and Informal Learning Experiences for Teens Who Are at Risk of Dropping out of School

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

The Making Connections (MC) study is a time-sensitive research project that is built around a unique event that will be occurring in the summer of 2010, the removal of two enormous dams on Elwha tribal lands and affecting Olympic National Park in Washington State. This is the largest dam removal project in the world, and the removal of the dams will have an enormous effect on the river environment in that area. Effects are expected to be positive and include the restoration of salmon breeding grounds. This will significantly alter the immediate environment of people living on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, including the indigenous people living on tribal lands who will have the natural habitat restored. This study will use the dam removal project to connect 7th and 8th grade students (including indigenous students) with the relevant science and mathematics knowledge and skills to make sense of its environmental impact, and to more fully understand and participate in important scientific and community activities. In order to do this, first, specialized curriculum materials will be developed that teach important knowledge and skills that can be used to understand the dam removal process and its effects on the environment, and to study it first-hand in the field. The PIs will work with teachers collegially to implement this curriculum. Next, students and teachers will collect baseline data at the dam sites and areas below, allowing them to document and better understand the changes that will occur as the dams are removed, and afterwards as the river system slowly restores itself. Students will use video to document some of these features, creating the potential for dramatic before and after video evidence. Finally, during the summer, the students once again will return to dam sites as they are taken down, brick by brick. Honors students from the University of Washington will help mentor middle school students in the field. In addition, videographers from the University of Washington will collect video/ethnographic data on the students interacting with the environment, making predictions, collecting data, and making connections between their knowledge of science and colossal impact that this environmental event is having on the ecosystem and on the community. The study includes measures of blended formal/informal learning with the aid of pre- and posttests, progressive self-assessments, and ethnographic methods. The eventual goal is to prepare for a follow-on study that involves students after the dams are removed, as they participate as docents who can explain what has occurred to visitors to the National Park. This study is important because it takes advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime environmental event as the platform for teaching and learning about science and mathematics. Students participating in this study are expected to engage in the actual practice of science in a way that blends informal and formal science education. The overall goal is to develop student expertise in areas of science education stemming from the restoration of the river watershed. Students will learn and apply scientific principles as they learn to develop videographer and museum-like docent skills and, in so doing, capture and process valuable footage of the present (pre-dam-removal) landscape. The study integrates formal classroom learning with informal experiential learning by first, engaging students in the restoration of their community landscape, and thereafter, in their telling of this story to peers and to the outside world. The study would provide mediation, tools and artifacts to help learners notice key dimensions of their experiences and demonstrate linkages to other aspects of their culture and lives. The project will partner with The National Park Service (NPS)to develop visitor activities for the site so that others can learn about myriad geo-scientific and social issues involved in dam removal and habitat restoration.