EnvironMentors Explore Your Environment DC EnvironMentors Participation Options 1) Mentor (3 times a Month) Mentors are paired with a student and work directly with them over the course of the academic year. The student-mentor pair work to develop rigorous environmental science projects based on relevant environmental issues in their communities. Mentors help the student develop an environmentally-related project topic, based on the students’ interests, which can be researched and tested through hands on experiments to produce a full scientific research paper and EnvironMentors Fair project. Mentors are guided through the program by the Student Coordinator, their EnvironMentors Mentor Manual, and various workshops and events throughout the year. Mentors meet with their student for a 1-2 hour meeting approximately once-per-week, or two- three times per month, at a mutually convenient time and location. 2) Project Review Committee (2 Hours per Meeting) Students are guided through the scientific research paper writing process through a series of assignments that are delineated in the EnvironMentors Student Manual. To ensure the scientific rigor of the final paper and to help the students’ writing skills, their assignments must be approved at 4 different junctures in the process, which constitute 4 Project Review Committee meetings. These include: •
The Project Topic Form- 1 worksheet focusing on the general topic area, problem statement, need for project, project purpose, and research question
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Background Research Paper- 3-4 pages including an introduction, problem statement, research question, basic information, literature review, and expert interview
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Hypothesis and Experimental Design- 2 worksheets discussing Hypothesis, control and variables, experimental data sets, experimental procedure, and materials list
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The Final Paper- 10-12 pages including title page, abstract, introduction, background research, experimental methods, results and analysis, discussion and conclusion, bibliography, and appendices
3) EnvironMentors Fair Judge (3 Hours at the EnvironMentors Fair) Students present their final project results at the EnvironMentors Fair to at least three judges. Judges circulate through the projects and evaluate the students based on the use of the scientific method, understanding of the issue, rigor of the experiment, creativity of the project, and presentation. 4) Subject Matter Expert (1 Hour) As part of the Students’ research they are asked to conduct Expert Interviews with local professionals to get a personal understanding of the issue and how it is being dealt with in
EnvironMentors Explore Your Environment the community. As Students choose their own topics, the need for Experts in almost every field is necessary. Experts will be part of an Expert Database that Students will have access to throughout the program. The Expert may be asked by the Student to assist with the experimental design as well. 5)Experimental Design Expert (2 Hours @ the Experimental Design Workshop) Throughout the program students and mentors choose a project topic and design an experiment to test a hypothesis they have on that issue. The Experimental Design workshop teaches students the basics of designing an experiment and collecting data. We need Experimental Design Experts to help the student and mentor pairs brainstorm how a workable experiment can be created around their topic. Experts may be asked to help several groups. The ideal Experimental Design Expert is someone who has done field research and has designed experiments in the past. (Graduate students, professors, and research scientists are great candidates). 6)Career Advisor (2 Hours @ the Environmental Career Workshop) Help students broaden their understandings of an environmental career by sharing your journey through college and into your career. The goal of the workshop is to expose students to a wide variety of career options and give them perspective on the pathway to a career in STEM.