| Abstract Detail
Education and Outreach Monfils, Anna [1], Prevost, Luanna [2], Mourad, Teresa [3], Linton, Debra [4]. Addressing ecoliteracy needs for the 21st Century STEM workforce. Ecological, botanical and data literacy are essential for a productive and diverse workforce that is equipped to address critical science related concerns including management of limited natural resources, loss of biodiversity, impacts of a changing climate, and anthropogenic disturbance. We will introduce two NSF Research Coordination Networks, Ecological Society of America’s Transforming Ecology Education (TEE) and the Biodiversity Literacy in Undergraduate Education Data Network (BLUE), and discuss an emerging collaboration and upcoming opportunities to engage the botanical community. The TEE RCN builds on the Four Dimensional Ecology Education (4DEE) framework, a national movement for multidimensional instruction and assessment across K-12 and undergraduate STEM education. The 4DEE framework guides ecology educators to focus on four dimensions: ecology concepts, ecology practices, human-environment interactions, and cross-cutting themes. The BLUE network incorporates biodiversity information and data skills into undergraduate education and endeavors to develop competencies, materials, and strategies that infuse biodiversity data into the curriculum, facilitate broad-scale adoption of data literacy competencies, and improve undergraduate biology training to meet increasing workforce demands in data and biodiversity science. Our goal is to bring the TEE and BLUE networks and associated communities together to explore ways we can create inclusive materials, translate those to the classroom, facilitate uptake and application in the undergraduate classroom, and increase eco-literacy opportunities across the curriculum. In the fall of 2022, TEE will be initiating the first of eight BioQUEST Faculty Mentoring Networks (FMN). The fall 2022 FMN will be done in collaboration with BLUE and will focus on adopting and adapting biodiversity data based educational modules with the 4DEE recommendations. At the Botany 2023 meeting in Boise Idaho, 4DEE and BLUE will partner with the Botany & Beyond Initiatives to lead an Inclusive Pedagogy Workshop for educators from community colleges, tribal colleges and universities, and minority serving institutions. Working across disciplines the TEE, BLUE and Botany & Beyond initiatives will promote a growing and inclusive community of practice to enhance education and workforce training for an informed and eco-literate emerging workforce.
1 - Central Michigan University, Department of Biology, Mount Pleasant, MI, 48858, USA
2 - University Of South Florida, 4202 E Fowler Ave AOC200, University Of South Florida, 4202 E Fowler Ave SCA110, University Of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 33620, United States
3 - Ecological Society of America
4 - Central Michigan University, Biosciences, Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI, 48859, United States
Keywords:
Biodiversity Informatics
Education
ecology.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Number: EO2001
Abstract ID:1032
Candidate for Awards:None |
