PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #47: Education: K-12.
Wednesday, August 7. Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Exhibit Hall B & C, TCC

Enhancement of ecological education by NSF GK-12 Teaching Fellows in the middle grades of West Virginia schools.

Cumming, Jonathan^*,1, Klugh, Katrina¹, Springer, Clint¹, Pyle, Eric¹, ¹ West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV

ABSTRACT- TIGERS is an NSF GK-12 project of interdisciplinary teams of graduate fellows in various science, mathematics, and engineering disciplines at West Virginia University. The teams, mentored by faculty members, work cooperatively with middle school mathematics and science teachers to develop and implement curricula while making available current research as a part of daily lesson plans. Participating fellows benefit through the opportunity to teach in a variety of classes, thus improving their teaching skills. The TIGERS Ecosystem team is composed of graduate students in the departments of biology and chemistry. A module of inquiry-based, hands-on activities were co-developed and disseminated by graduate fellows and participating middle school teachers. The module encompassed many ecological themes, such as taxonomy of various types of organisms, energy cycles and budgets, population dynamics, environmental change, ecological restoration, and anthropogenic impacts on ecosystem function. The activities were designed to exemplify experimental design principles, data collection in both field and laboratory settings, as well as data synthesis and analysis techniques using mathematics and computer software. A variety of assessment tools were used to determine whether expected student learning outcomes had been reached after completion of each activity. The results of assessment analysis indicated that students exhibited an increased understanding of ecosystem function and a greater appreciation of humans as an integral part of ecosystems. Furthermore, attitudes of participating graduate fellows suggest increased competence in curriculum development and delivery.

KEY WORDS: Ecology Education, K-12 Education, NSF GK-12, Graduate Education