SciGirls Strategies Implementation Evaluation Report

Publication

For the SciGirls Strategies supplemental activity, ten educators were trained to be SciGirls Strategies trainers during June 2019 (see the Training Evaluation Report). During that time, they developedaction plans for their local teacher training. The goal was for each Trainer to train ten or moreteachers in their local schools/districts. Trainers could plan and schedule their workshops to fittheir local context in order to accomplish the objectives of building teacher’s confidence andskills in using gender equitable and culturally responsive teaching strategies. After the trainingworkshop, the

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SciGirls Strategies Training Evaluation Report

Publication

For the SciGirls Strategies supplemental activity, ten educators were trained to be SciGirls StrategiesTrainers in June 2019. SciGirls Strategies Trainers participated in a four-day (36 hour) in person training Tuesday through Friday, June 25-28, 2019 at Twin Cities PBS in St. Paul. The Gender Equitable Teaching and Advising Strategies (GETAS) training workshop included information on the newly updated (in 2019) SciGirls Strategies: How to Engage Girls in STEM which includes gender equitable and culturally responsive teaching strategies to advise, encourage, recruit and retain girls into CTE

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STELAR Webinars: 2020 NSF ITEST Solicitation and Q&A Session

Event

In April and May of 2020, STELAR hosted National Science Foundation Program Officers for a series of informative webinars on the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) Program’s Solicitation (NSF 19-583). View the presentation, slides, and additional resources provided during these events.

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ITEST Project Strategy Share Meetup: Sustaining your ITEST Project

Event

In the fall of 2018 STELAR staff held a series of ‘virtual meetups’ with  ITEST Community of Practice members to learn more about the work that projects have been engaged in and to uncover the challenges that projects have faced. The STELAR team reviewed the discussions for common themes, and identified three topic areas where examples of best-practices would benefit the community. These topics are:

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Preparing Responsive Educators using Place-based Authentic Research in Earth Systems (PREPARES)

Curricular Materials

Preparing Responsive Educators using Place-based Authentic Research in Earth Systems (PREPARES) seeks to expand, implement, and conduct research on a framework for providing indigenous students with the skills and knowledge needed for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers. PREPARES includes culturally-relevant climate science instruction for Yup’ik and Native Hawaiian middle-school students and teachers. Students analyze and share climate data unique to their locations, model baseline climate scenarios, and develop management plans for adapting to forecasted impacts.

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Philly Scientists - Biodiversity Project

Curricular Materials

The Philly Scientists project is dedicated to developing innovative science curriculum for in-school and out-of-school programs for middle school students in the West Philadelphia Promise Zone. The website contains insight on curriculum development and an example lesson. The Philly Scientists mobile app was modified from a safari animal tracking tool and walks students through identifying and cataloging neighborhood plants and animals. Local scientists visit the school sites to engage students in discussions about how scientists make good observations and aid in data collection of neighborhood

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Educating students about invasive species

News

Educating students about invasive species can serve the dual purpose of meeting science content and science and engineering practices requirements for Michigan Science Standards and protecting the Great Lakes from new invasive species. A new state-wide project co-led by Wayne State University, Michigan Technological University, and the Belle Isle Conservancy will provide workshops for educators (http://sun.science.wayne.edu/~jram

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The Impact of Environmental Education on Sense of Place Among Urban Youth

Publication

Research suggests that an ecologically informed sense of place, including strong place attachment and ecological place meaning, contributes to pro-environmental behaviors. Yet it is unclear whether an intervention such as environmental education can intentionally influence sense of place, especially in cities. To investigate the impact of urban environmental education programs on sense of place, we used pre/post surveys of youth in 5-week environmental and non-environmental summer youth programs in the Bronx, New York City, in 2010. Results show that urban environmental education programs

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The Nature Relatedness Scale

Instruments

Disconnection from the natural world may be contributing to our planet's destruction. The authors propose a new construct, Nature Relatedness (NR), and a scale that assesses the affective, cognitive, and experiential aspects of individuals' connection to nature. In Study 1, the authors explored the internal structure of the NR item responses in a sample of 831 participants using factor analysis. They tested the construct validity of NR with respect to an assortment of environmental and personality measures. In Study 2, they employed experience sampling methodology examining if NR people spend

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