RAPID: Informal Learning about Urban Ecology through Community-Engaged Research as a Pathway to Persistence for Disaster-Impacted Students

North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC

Investigators

Abstract

North Carolina State University will work with 50 undergraduate students affected by Hurricane Florence and Tropical Storm Michael to collect time-sensitive data about the storms' damage on urban forests. This community-engaged research project will involve students affected by the storms in personally meaningful, relevant learning tasks. Engaging in issues relevant to disasters can help students who have experienced losses from a disaster to develop increased resilience and persistence. These learning opportunities may also increase students' understanding of how science can help their communities and perceptions of themselves as scientists. The project aims to provide an urban ecological research experience to disaster-impacted students and to measure the impact of this experience on students' persistence, resilience, and scientific identity. This project has two major goals: 1) To promote science learning, resilience, and persistence among students from communities affected by the recent storms; 2) To collect vital, time-sensitive data on impacts of the hurricane on urban forests to inform future urban ecosystem management in Eastern North Carolina and beyond. As part of this project, students will complete pre- and post-test measures of their science identity, their academic persistence, and their resilience, as well as an assessment of forestry knowledge and responses. They will also complete a daily journal reporting changes in their interest in science and identity as a scientist, to capture progressive changes across the learning experience. The project will use photographic analysis to rapidly assess the extent of damage to trees and the storms' impacts on urban infrastructure including: 1) aerial photographs and remotely sensed images for before-after comparisons on city-/region-wide scales; 2) 360-degree photos taken from the ground to analyze the three-dimensional structure of the urban forest and effects of hurricane damage; 3) images and reports from social media postings; 4) longer-term comparative analyses using available historical images. As a culminating activity, students will develop and curate a documentary exhibit, and present findings at libraries, museums, and K-12 schools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.