IUSE: Fostering Undergraduate Students' Disciplinary Learning and Water Literacy

University Of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln NE

Investigators

Abstract

This project will support undergraduate students to develop robust understanding of core hydrological concepts, as well as the social, cultural, economic, and political dimensions of water-related issues. This project will design and study a new, interdisciplinary undergraduate course, Water in Society, designed for first year students (STEM majors and non-majors). Project work will be transdisciplinary, drawing from the fields of STEM education, hydrological sciences, and social and decision sciences, and will contribute to theory and research on undergraduate teaching and learning about human-environmental systems, STEM-informed decision-making, and science literacy. The project will impact the future STEM workforce, as well as cultivate water literacy in future voters and consumers. The project will utilize a pre-specified, iterative instructional design process to inform the development and ongoing refinement of a course grounded in tenets of effective post-secondary STEM instruction and contemporary learning theory. Consistent with the project's focus on early-stage, exploratory research in an instructional design context, the project will explore associations between student outcomes, malleable factors, and mediating or moderating variables to clarify underlying theory about how students engage in STEM-informed decision-making about socio-hydrological issues. The project is a direct response to calls for discipline-based educational research on undergraduate students' science learning. Project deliverables will include a research-based, interdisciplinary water science course and empirical research findings from study of course implementation throughout the project period.