PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 16: Ecology Education
Tuesday, August 9, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal

The Sombrero Marsh Education Program and NSF GK-12 at CU Boulder: partnerships enhancing life science and ecology education.

Hinners, Sarah ^*,1, ¹ University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309

ABSTRACT- One of the most challenging, yet effective, aspects of science education is getting students actively engaged in real-world science. In teaching life science and ecology, this often requires using the outdoors as a classroom, which is not an easy task in many public schools due to financial, time and administrative constraints. The Sombrero Marsh Education Program is the result of a collaboration between higher education, the local school district, a local government agency, and a non-profit organization to provide meaningful hands-on natural science experiences to a large number and variety of local K-12 students. Sombrero Marsh is a recently-restored saline marsh near Boulder, Colorado. It is managed by the local Open Space department in collaboration with the local school district and an environmental education institute which operates an education center on the site. The partnership between these groups has already resulted in a popular fourth-grade curriculum implemented throughout the school district. Now the NSF GK-12 program at the University of Colorado at Boulder has become involved to assist with expanding the curriculum to the middle school level. Activities are designed so that students collect real data that becomes part of a database monitoring the progress of the marsh restoration while complementing existing school curriculum. In 2005, three new activities were developed and tested for the seventh-grade level (Life Science): insect diversity and taxonomy, aquatic biodiversity, and adaptations to harsh environments. These activities were piloted with several small groups of students from local middle schools, composed primarily of English Language Learners. It was thought that students from this category would benefit most from experiential, hands-on science activities. The next step, with the ongoing support of the partners involved, will be to develop several more activities, resulting in a menu of investigations that are inquiry-based, directly relevant to grade-level curriculum and available to all middle schools in the district.

Key words: environmental education, inquiry, K-12