Thank you lots for sharing this amazing video - I really enjoyed the students being at the forefront of this work. I do have a question about the extent that cultural based pedagogy is involved in this work. The students shared their experiences and shared how they learned about the history of water and places (to name a couple), but wanted to learn more about how you incorporate culture into the STEMulate program. How often are community members involved in teaching and sharing knowledge with the students, how about family members? Again, thank you for sharing this wonderful video! 

Hi Sandra! Thanks so much for this important questions! It's actually involved in many aspects of the program, from the college content (incorporating different ways of knowing and both Western and Indigenous science and scientific methods), and many of our community partners and presenters for our "authentic learning experiences" (field trips to special sites to work with community members and organizations to learn about what these organizations do) are also culturally based. Students have several of these experiences throughout the 6-week program (up to 2-3 per week) as they work on their problem. We don't involve family members as much - although they are welcome and invited to the presentations. However, it's something we should definitely consider incorporating for the future - thanks for the great question and ideas!

In the Great Lakes, our problem is not so much "water shortage" (in fact our lakes are at a record high), but water pollution.  A big problem (and even in the enormous Pacific you have this) is plastics contamination.  Unsightly, and genuinely dangerous for fish, turtles, etc.  Our project has spawned a number of video outputs, like this one encouraging students to make a video about plastic pollution:  https://www.biaquariumstem.org/uploads/1/0/6/4/106486701/nsfgrantvideo.mp4

We've also had algae bloom problems:  A couple of years ago the Toledo city drinking water plant had to be shut down due to microcystis blooms poisoning the water!

Aloha Michael!  Thanks for visiting our video presentation.  We appreciate your questions and feedback.  Nahid, our researcher, has answered your questions below.  I wanted to add that we are developing a website that will house materials developed through this project.  The Upward Bound programs that we currently working with are interested utilizing project materials beyond the grant end.  

We're not too sure how the professional development will evolve beyond the grant funding cycle.  Seems like your interested in the professional development training course... Just curious, do you think this is a need to teacher training program around Problem-based Learning? Is there anything particular you suggest?

Ideally, professional develop is intended to update the skills or content knowledge of teachers.  So recent college graduates of teacher education programs should certainly have a strong foundation in problem based learning, but I doubt they would be versed in how to use community resources as you have done.  Good teacher mentors or master teachers could fill the gap.  Resource materials of examples, lesson and background materials help. If the accepted curriculum demands this type of teaching, my experience is teachers will respond.  Teacher development programs might be the most efficient way to implement such changes, but they also so costly that they are unsustainable.  I assume most of your teachers are trained locally. 

Mahalos for your thoughts Michael.

Facing the largest challenge the world population might have ever seen seems like perfect direction on how valuable PBL skills will be as we face our future.

Aloha James, Thanks for stopping by!  Field experiences are a crucial role in the project.  We call them Authentic Learning Experiences (ALE), these are opportunities where students get to learn in the moment, engage in active learning and can take place in the field, lab, guest speaker or hands on experiments.  These ALE are by far the students favorite part of the course.  They LOVE going out into the field and working with mentors.  

It's difficult to schedule and plan these ALE... we want students involved in the investigation and identifying places to go but timing is an issue... especially when it comes to the procurement process.   

This year is going to be super interesting as 'stay at home orders' have forced to deliver the course through an online distance learning format.  We're exploring ways students can still have these ALE and do field work in their homes, yards, and places in walking distance. 

Do you have experience with high school students doing field work?  Any challenges or advice??  

Aloha Leigh!  Thanks for your comment and questions.  It sounds like we have some similarities (remote areas, yet STEM industry/impacts).  We ask various potential partners each year.  While on one hand it is a big ask, we try to help address real-world issues for the industry/STEM Partner.  Some of our best partners have been either small organizations who can use the information provided (such as our Ko'ie'ie Fishpond with questions about improving the health of the fishponds with a watershed holistic view) to private companies that have a mission to provide educational outreach/benefit the communities (such as related to renewable energy), to research projects with a mission to serve the community state (such as an NSF EPSCoR project).  For partners who don't have a lot of time to give, they may just provide the initial problem, some guidance near the end, and then serve as a judge/give feedback to the student groups.  The teachers are then able to facilitate guest speakers and site visits (such as take water samples).  It really has varied each year at each site.

As for the scope, we serve three sites on three islands in Hawaii, with an intent that each site might enroll up to 25 students.  

 

Thanks again for the comments and questions!  We are here to answer more if you have them.

Many years ago when I was a principal of a STEM high school, I needed partners to work with each of the seniors who were required to do a year of self-directed research.  I found that government agencies, particularly those with STEM research agenda, were more than willing.  In fact, they had a requirement in their funding to spend a small percentage on outreach (disseminating their research).  They were very enthused about taking on high school students and mentoring them in their project work.  Of course, this took a lot of monitoring and we assigned a teacher full time to supervising this effort (it was more than a full load for her and counted as HS credit for the students), but it was enormously successful.  Do you have access to and do you use Federal facilities?  Would they make good partners as you expand to other schools and communities?

Concur Michael...the earliest we can get in there with our future generations the better ;0

I believe the answer to your question is yes, I think this summer the "Big Island" team is working with national telescope crew.

Again - much thanks for your thoughts and questions.

Tom

Dear Rebecca,

Thank you for visiting our video and for your feedback. 

In the pre- and post-survey students had an opportunity to rate their skills. Also, these data were validated with responses to the focus group questions and confirmed through students’ final project and presentations. Qualitative analysis of the data, for example, revealed problem-solving to be the most exciting aspect of the program. In their papers and presentations, problems were clearly stated, and their discussions divulged critical thinking as they engaged with those problems by analyzing their data, exploring complexities and limitations, and proposing thoughtful solutions. Many students made comments similar to the last one above, reflecting their engagement with group collaboration—another important 21^st century skill.

Dear Nahid,

Thank you! I also love, as many others have said, that this is a "place-based" program. Has the program shared out how these projects have directly benefitted the environment as well?

Aloha Rebecca, 

Thought I would jump in :) 

We're still thinking about and in search of opportunities to disseminate our work.  Although, we haven't specifically thought about sharing out how student or their projects directly benefit the environment because it's not one of research questions. 

Student interest in their community and environment seems to be an emerging benefit, that we hadn't originally intended to research.   Thanks for pointing that out!

Hi Jonathan,

Yes...the "place based" education can be such an advantage in engaging our students.  Hawaii is in the forefront in the in language and STEM - UH Manoa has a Graduate Certificate program in Ethno-Mathematics that is contributing to the future instructors here in this direction.

https://coe.hawaii.edu/ethnomath/

Yes! Thanks Tom for sharing the UHM Ethnomathematics program. Jonathon (and Rebecca) - this is a program to train educators (and future educators) of STEM-related subjects to develop skills and background in teaching through a place-based, inclusive, and culturally-sustaining pedagogical practices. Through Project STEMulate, we incorporate many of these same principles.

Dear Scott,

Thank you for visiting our video and your feedback.

As for students reaching out to the middle school students, it has not been in our formal agenda. However, in Year 2 of the project, we heard from students that they have been wanting to join this program as they have heard from their siblings or friends. Therefore, unofficially I can say that I believe the informal and word of the mouth has increased other students interest in this program. 

That is great to hear Nahid.  Thanks for the quick response.

Hey Scott, 

Just joining the conversation :) 

This is actually a great idea!   This is our 3rd year of running this curriculum, and some of the sites that host the course are saying that older students don't want to repeat the course.  So maybe one possibility would be to have repeat students or older students work out with younger/first year students.

Although, one aspect of the curriculum is that students work in collaborative small groups of 3-5. These groups are mixed aged... so a senior in high school could potentially be in a group with an incoming freshmen.  

Great thoughts Scott...

We currently work with local Upward Bound HS students:

http://maui.hawaii.edu/upward/

But we do have a middle school program that would likely be a perfect population to target (Nasi?):

http://maui.hawaii.edu/gearup/

Hi Michael,

Thank you for visiting our video and for your feedback. As you have observed this project is very rich and helps students to learn and find solutions to a real-world problem through hands-on PBL approach. This project is guided by social constructionism theory and situated learning theory both of which undergird PBL. Few of the research questions we are exploring are: How Does this project benefit low-income and/or Native Hawaiian students in learning of science; how is students’ competency (e.g. knowledge, skills), motivation and persistence to join the STEM-related workforce supported through participation in this project? Or, can this project effectively engage teachers in guiding students?

Great questions Michael...in my short 3 years of being a STEM faculty participant in the DOE instructor education (STEMulate)...I have seen much progress and excitement.  I feel many STEM DOE teachers are looking for such help - proud to be a part of this venture.

Guides on the Side!

Hi Laura, 

I answered Hiller's question before you... and you many find my answer to her insightful. 

As I ponder your question, I'm beginning to realize that the STEM Parterns we've had over the past 3 years are like any other social network.  We started with people we knew and affiliated with the university.  We started the relationship with our STEM partners from year 1 and 2 when we were writing our grant, pitching our program, and searching for letters of commitment.  In year 3, one of our guest speakers from year 2 got a new job and wanted to work with us... so that was kinda cool! 

The students haven't had a role in identifying the partnerships.  But their motivation and interest does play a part in keeping the STEM Partner engaged and dedicated to the project.  I do like your suggestion to have students a part of identifying and forging partnerships with the STEM Partner. Thanks!   

Aloha Hiller!  Thank you for checking us out :) 

In the current model and structure of Project STEMulate, the idea is that the problem changes each year.  Things have evolved so much since we started!!

To be honest when we first got the grant, there was a need to hit the ground running!  The STEMulate core staff found STEM Partners and worked on developing the problem out for students to work on.  This happened across 3 Upward Bound sites on 3 different islands with 3 different STEM Partners/Problems across the State of Hawaii. In year 2, we approached 'Ike Wai (featured in this video) an NSF EPSCOR program who was able to pose the same problem to all 3 of our sites because they were on all 3 islands.  We integrated the STEM Partner into our Training Course with instructors and they were able to construct the problem statement for students to work on.  After year 2, our Upward Bound partners wanted to identify their own STEM Partner/problem.  One of the lessons we've learned is that our Upward Bound programs as well as the instructors we hire to facilitate the course want some autonomy in choosing STEM Partner and developing the problem.  We've worked on and continue to iterate around this need for autonomy with the Upward Bound programs and instructors while still meeting the necessary timelines for  implementation of the course in the summer.  Its a real balancing act.  Maybe you've experienced this as you implement your project... with schools and teachers?

As far as making the STEM problems culturally-relevant, it's kinda been a by product.  We've asked the STEM Partner and instructors to infuse Hawaiian culture... to have students take on a Hawaiian worldview as a lens when looking at the problem and exploring solutions.  But nothing more deliberate than that.  Maybe it's the STEM Partners that have been selected?  

In the future, especially as we plan on scaling up, I'm thinking (and our evaluator has actually suggested) that we may need to focus on one problem... at least for the first year we work with a program that wants to utilize our course curriculum.  

Any thoughts or suggestions??

Thanks for posing the question... it's really made me think.

Hi Jaymee!

The autonomy balancing act :) Yes, we're definitely experiencing this with our work.

One way that we're hoping to do this better during year 2 of our project is by being clearer with our partners what the hallmarks of Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global -- our inquiry process -- are and then working with teachers during the planning phase to co-construct the negotiable/flexible aspects of the project.

One of the cornerstones of PBI Global is that there is a thematic UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) focus, e.g, SDG 6 -- ensure access to clean water and adequate sanitation and that each student team's inquiry question must relate to this focus. However, each student team typically develops their own question, so that gives students a level of autonomy within the frame of water and sanitation. 

We're also figuring out how to broaden our PBI Global instructional materials for multiple SDGs while also improving what we have for PBI Globals in which we've already engaged. In terms of scalability and with respect to the manpower of our small team, we've decided to focus on creating robust instructional materials for three SDGs and to continue to test and improve these materials for the medium-term (at least the next year). We're hoping that this will result in high quality and usable instructional materials while also providing a few thematic focus options for our teacher partners.