Mimi Larsen Becker

Tools for Successful Student-Teacher-Scientist Partnerships.

Student–teacher–scientist partnership (STSP) programs are cooperative relationships in which students, with the support of their teachers, participate in and contribute to the research of scientists. This paper examines one of the worlds largest STSPs—an international environmental science education program called GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment)—and proposes recommendations to scientists about how they can get the most out of their research and teaching relationship with students and their teachers. GLOBE is an international K–12 STSP that engages students in Earths Systems investigations. Extensive training is needed for students to collect and report accurate data to scientists, and special preparatory curricula are needed to make their partnership effective and motivating. Recognizing these issues, this research was conducted specifically to identify and recommend a set of training material design criteria for implementation of STSPs in the elementary and middle school levels. The conclusions—the result of background research, extensive interviews and consultation with teachers—provide guidance to GLOBE and other STSP programs to enhance the development of effective and engaging training materials.

A GLOBE Collaboration to Develop Land Cover Data Collection and Analysis Protocols

Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) is an international environmental education and science partnership which coordinates the work of students (aged 5 to 18), teachers and scientists from 48 countries on five continents to study and better understand the global environment. Accurate ground reference data is fundamental to the use of remotely sensed data for land cover classification and mapping. Because very little ground reference data has been collected, the accuracy of many land cover maps may be questioned, thus accurate land cover ground reference data is an important need that could be addressed through GLOBE scientist-student collaboration. If earth systems scientists are to use student data, it is important that those data be as accurate as possible to ensure reliability of research results. Thus a key question for this research is whether student collected data are accurate enough to support rigorous scientific investigations. This paper describes results of the GLOBE Science-Education Team on Data Validation and Accuracy Assessments collaboration with teachers and students to: (1) design and test the pre-protocol learning activities; (2) test the protocols intended to guide the collection and analysis of data; and (3) implement the learning activities and protocols to determine the relative accuracy of student collected versus professionally collected land cover data. To ensure the most accurate classification of land cover possible, a new international hierarchical land cover classification system, the Modified Unesco Classification (MUC) system was developed. GLOBE Data Collection Protocols and methods were designed and implemented to test the accuracy of student collected reference data were designed and implemented. Students who collected land cover reference data using GLOBE protocols, obtained data which are at least as accurate as that collected by professionals.

Decision processes for multijurisdictional planning and management: community wildfire protection planning in Oregon.

Recently, national fire policy has been redirected from a primary focus on suppression toward a more integrated and comprehensive approach developed at the community level. As part of this policy shift, Congress passed the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (P.L. 108-148) in 2003, encouraging communities to develop community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs) to guide wildfire mitigation efforts on both federal and nonfederal lands. This research examines U.S. Forest Service and community collaboration in the development of CWPPs through a case-study analysis of two CWPP efforts in Oregon. A decision process framework is used to examine the effectiveness of each communitys planning effort to address the wildfire problem. Findings indicate that communites lack effective multijurisdictional decision processes and fail to adequately address all of the decision functions necessary to successfully mitigate the wildfire threat.

An evolutionary systems approach to policy intervention for achieving ecologically sustainable societies

This paper describes an approach to policy intervention aimed at achieving sustainable relations between humans and their ecosystems. Following the Introduction, Section 2 defines an ecologically sustainable and economically healthy society, and advances the premise that the achievement of sustainable societies is impossible without the reorientation of social values. Sections 3 and 4 summarize the main principles of the theory of dissipative structures and add an ecosystem basis to this paradigm to develop a conceptual model for the purpose of evaluating alternative forms of intervention to influence the evolution of a society along a sustainable and healthy path. Section 5 outlines a methodology for assessing, evaluating, and tracking the systems transition from its current state to one that is within the acceptable definition of sustainable functioning. The final section proposes application of this approach to policy development problems in the Gulf of Maine ecosystem.

What can funders do to better link science with decisions? Case studies of coastal communities and climate change.

Many reports and studies have noted that a significant portion of problem-oriented coastal science does not actually link to decisions. Here, three competitively funded project case studies are studied to determine what funders can and should do to better link science with decisions. The qualitative analysis used for this study indicates that the studied program was seen as being unusually attentive to the issue of linking science to decisions, as opposed to simply generating new knowledge. Nevertheless, much of the data indicate that funders can and should do more. Three ideas figured most prominently in the qualitative data: (1) funders should do more to ensure that the problem itself is defined more thoroughly with people who are envisioned as potential users of the science; (2) funders need to allocate more resources and attention to communicating effectively (with users) throughout the project; and (3) funders need to demand more engagement of users throughout the project. These findings have important implications for how funders review and support science, especially when competitive processes are used. Most importantly, funders should adjust what kind of science they ask for. Secondly, funders need to change who is involved in the review process. Currently, review processes focus on knowledge generation, which means that the reviewers themselves have expertise in that area. Instead, review panels should be balanced between those who focus on knowledge generation and those who focus on linking knowledge to decisions; this is a separate but critical discipline currently left out of the review process.

Funding Science that Links to Decisions: Case Studies Involving Coastal Land Use Planning Projects

Many reports have noted that a significant portion of coastal science that is funded to help society address resource management issues does not actually link to decisions. A few studies and reports have offered valuable but general advice on what the funders of this science can do to better link science with decisions; there are fewer still published empirical case studies assessing the impacts of innovative funder methods for getting more science used by intended audiences. Here, we report on three case studies involving new tools and science to help land use planners better protect coastal resources. Our qualitative analysis indicates that funder efforts to bring scientists and users into greater alignment did improve the extent to which science linked to decisions. However, these cases show that funders can and should do more if the paramount motivation behind the science is to address societal problems rather than generate new knowledge. Based on these findings, we assert that funders need to focus significantly more attention and resources on the user engagement aspect of science projects, making strong user engagement methods as important as strong biophysical science or social science methods.

The Implications of the “Virtual Water Trade” and Virtual Environmental Degradation Trade for the São Francisco River Basin in Brazil

Nao e de hoje que os problemas ambientais deixaram de estar apenas em esferas nacionais e se constituiram em problemas internacionais. Contudo, as solucoes para estes problemas ainda estao longe de um consenso, nao so pelas poucas solucoes de comprovacoes tecnicas unanimemente aceitaveis, sobre as reais consequencias dos desgastes ambientais provocados pelo sistema produtivo urbano-industrial, mas especialmente, pela falta de uma autoridade politica internacional, que proponha estrategias efetivas e preventivas eficazes. Este texto faz uma analise desta ingerencia politica, em nivel internacional, de um problema que se presume ser de todos, desta e das geracoes que viraoEste artigo apresenta resultados de um estudo exploratorio sobre fatores de inovacao e competitividade em micro e pequenas empresas (MPEs) de biotecnologia, organizadas em um cluster na regiao metropolitana de Belo Horizonte, estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil. O trabalho empirico baseia-se em entrevistas em profundidade realizadas com diretores e gerentes de PD a segunda apresenta o referencial teorico adotado, destacando o ambiente e atores, assim como a organizacao industrial dos bio-empreendimentos; a terceira parte descreve a metodologia do estudo empirico; a quarta discute os resultados obtidos na pesquisa e a quinta apresenta as reflexoes finais sobre o estudo realizado e as perspectivas futuras.O artigo dedica-se a investigar os caminhos que a agua, como elemento vital e produto de negociacao, vem tomando em virtude de sua evidente escassez em meio a devastacao ambiental crescente. Tem como enfoque norteador as questoes: o que podera a humanidade esperar da diminuicao de agua potavel no planeta; que perspectivas sao esperadas de assinaturas de acordos e de manifestos que recriam o sentido da etica nas organizacoes e revitalizam os conceitos de responsabilidade e sustentabilidade nas organizacoes; qual a responsabilidade do individuo no papel de protagonista de uma historia na qual destroi suas proprias fontes de vida. A pesquisa pergunta: sera que a preocupacao manifestada por autoridades de diversas ordens sobre a escassez de agua no planeta procede? O trabalho investiga por que a preocupacao com a agua vem ganhando importância nas discussoes sobre o meio ambiente em todas as nacoes e em muitas entidades globais. Descreve sobre a legislacao da agua, do seu consumo e do desenvolvimento sustentavel. Aponta o nivel de conhecimento sobre a escassez de agua no planeta por parte de 10,21% da comunidade academica de duas Instituicoes de Ensino Superior da cidade de Pato Branco, Parana, uma delas publica e uma privada, especificamente 219 academicos da Universidade Federal Tecnologica do Parana (UTFPR), e 184 academicos da Faculdade Mater Dei, respectivamente, investigados por meio de aplicacao de questionario. Indica a falta de informacoes acerca da real problematizacao sobre a agua no planeta, e resistencia na adocao de novos habitos de consumo por descrenca ou por relutância em mudanca de comportamento. Tais resultados implicam em um novo questionamento sobre a direcao a ser tomada pela sociedade de capital diante da escassez de agua no planeta e da extensao de seus reflexos a nivel global com mudancas imperceptiveis de reversao.

Validating Student Data for Scientific Use

The need for accurate data is universal. For scientific use of data collected by students, high accuracy is a prerequisite. Valid student-collected data for scientific purposes is of great benefit, both to the student who experiences science firsthand and to scientists who then have a larger database of information. Therefore, projects and techniques that provide for validating student data are extremely useful. Such a technique was applied in a program called GLOBE.

Social–Ecological Resilience and Adaptive Capacity in a Transboundary Ecosystem

Empirical research conducted in the transboundary Crown of the Continent Ecosystem on stakeholder perceived impacts of climate change reveal causes for concern and potential avenues for future success in developing social–ecological resilience and adaptive capacity. Utilizing a “bottom-up” research approach as part of a case-study methodology, three subregions spanning both sides of the Continental Divide and the international border were studied. Results indicate stakeholder concerns related to the capacity of natural resource management agencies to adequately respond to the impacts of climate change, while at the same time identifying the ecosystems robust collaborative regime as a potential means to bridge the perceived gap in institutional capacity. Nevertheless, historical responses to novel climate change impacts may serve as an additional barrier to the future development of adaptive capacity.

Hydro-businesses: National and Global Demands on the Sao Francisco River Basin Environment of Brazil

The sao Francisco River provided very obvious, close-by forms of sustenance for local communities. Beginning in the mid-1950s, the river became the place for large hydro-electric facilities, large-scale flooding, and population resettlement. A decade later, the federal government began working on pilot irrigation projects that would lead to areas described today as the Brazilian California. Hydro-power for Brazilian cities such as Recife and Salvador and irrigation for grapes and mangoes destined for the United States and Europe are among the eco-system services this river supplies. The purpose of federal policies for the north-east went beyond mitigation of the consequences of droughts, the hydraulic approach, and started to follow an economic approach based upon development; as a consequence, river and user came to be distant from one another. The two major intensive uses of the river, electricity and irrigation, threaten the long-term sustainability of this system.