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STEM Literacy Project Report 2015-2016
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Nature’s Academy
Table of Contents
Highlights and Major Accomplishments
The STEM Literacy Project:
34,000 Served over 2,700 Manatee County 5th grade students, bringing the STEM Literacy Project direct impact to over
10,000 local students since its 2009 inception.
Faciliated over
hours
34,000 student
committed to science literacy and environmental stewardship.
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history and overview
The STEM Literacy Project:
Bringing the classroom outdoors.
What makes it special?
Leveraging Nature to Improve Science Literacy: Barrier Island Investigation and Data Recording
Fostering Environmental Stewardship: Coastal Cleanups and Final Conservation Projects
Inspiration:
Provided curriculum support and field
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Our Citizen Science Database: A Regional Contribution
every Manatee County Elementary School.
program to
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330 300 teachers and adult chaperones. Directly reached over
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Measuring Results Table of Contents
Demonstrated learning gains for 100% of participating schools.
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Literacy without Limits
%
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Highlights and Major Accomplishments
150 pounds of coastal debris total during the
Removed over
STEM Literacy Project.
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STE M
Provided the STEM Literacy Project to
all of Manatee County’s Title I elementary schools.
The STEM Literacy Project: Launched Nature’s Academy’s
Citizen Science Database
in collaboration with regional partners, the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System and the Galveston Bay Foundation
history and overview
school youth throughout Manatee County. The Project takes a triple pronged approach to positive change: science education, stewardship, and inspiration.
Nature’s Academy was founded by Executive Director Dana Pounds, a marine biologist and experienced educator whose lifelong commitment to science education and conservation spurred the STEM Literacy Project. Our nonprofit organization’s mission is to enhance science literacy and foster environmental stewardship through experiential, outdoor programs.
By linking abstract scientific concepts to handson activities including a diagnostic water quality investigation, wildlife sampling, and waterway observations, the Science Literacy Project promotes STEM aptitude and addresses the education crisis in Florida, where nearly 50% of 5th grade students are failing science.
The STEM Literacy Project provides a rigorous, comprehensive, free program to 5th grade public
2015 Guy Harvey Magazine Education Issue.
Nature’s Academy featured in
Executive Director, Dana Pounds, was honored with the
2016 Daily Points of Light award for her
work with Nature’s Academy.
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Students Reached by the STEM Literacy Project
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2015 NOAA Marine Debris Prevention through Education and
Nature’s Academy was awarded
Executive Director, Dana Pounds featured as
Bay News 9 Everyday Hero for her work with Nature’s Academy.
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Outreach Award.
Highlights and Major Accomplishments
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The STEM Literacy Project: History and Overview
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Natures’s Academy
STE M By providing a direct connection to nature through hands-on activities such as a mangrove ecology walk and seagrass biodiversity study, and educating students about environmental challenges such as pollution and invasive species, the STEM Literacy Project encourages students to understand and care about conservation. Finally, by participating in action items including a coastal cleanup, citizen science data collection, and conservation project creation, students are inspired and empowered to become local environmental stewards and to leverage science toward positive change in society.
The STEM Literacy Project: History and Overview
The STEM Literacy Project:
What makes it special?
The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Literacy Project takes a unique, comprehensive approach to science and stewardship education. STEM Literacy Project students no doubt remember their field trips on the beautiful barrier Island of Anna Maria as the highlight of their experience with our program; the program, however, goes much deeper and involves more preparation, reinforcement and lasting impact than our 5th graders might realize.
The STEM Literacy Project: What makes it special?
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Leveraging Nature to Improve Science Literacy: Barrier Island Investigation and Data Recording Pre/post testing: Studies show that
Training module: Teaching the Teachers Ocean science and ecology are complicated subjects which encompass many basic scientific principles that students need in order to pass demanding standardized tests. Teachers without expertise in marine science may find the idea of introducing unfamiliar subject matter overwhelming. To make sure teachers feel confident teaching and utilizing the material students glean through the STEM Literacy Project, Nature’s Academy staff provide training to teachers even before the school year begins. Our training module ensures both teachers and students are prepared, equipped, and well-positioned to apply their experiential grasp on ecology to abstract science concepts they need in order to perform academically.
92% of students exposed to experiential education outperform their peers academically (SEER). At Nature’s Academy, we not only know this to be true, but we continuously test the success of the STEM Literacy Project through evaluations administered to students before and after their trips. Students take tests using state-of-the-art Mimio technology, ensuring scores are accurately recorded, students gain experience using digital tools, and Nature’s Academy saves paper.
Nature walk: Mangrove ecology provides a versatile platform for teaching science—the unique and dynamic habitats of the mangrove swamp are fertile ground for teachable observations concerning biology, chemistry, oceanography, and even less obvious fields of study like meteorology and physics. STEM Literacy Project nature walks use inquiry-based instruction to cover core elements including the water cycle, adaptation, habitat requirements, invasive species and ecosystem connectivity. Students use binoculars to observe rare wildlife and learn about the important, multifaceted ecosystem services that mangrove swamps provide including water filtration, nursery habitat and storm surge protection.
Looking ahead: Nature’s Academy staff are currently working with the Manatee County School District to expand and improve our Training Module for the 2016-17 school year, including developing our materials and hosting a seminar for 5th grade teachers across the County.
The STEM Literacy Project: What makes it special?
Leveraging Nature to Improve Science Literacy
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Seagrass biodiversity study: Seagrass beds
are one of the most productive and biodiverse habitats in coastal ecosystems, providing a ripe opportunity to explore the connection between estuary health and abundance of life. STEM Literacy Project seagrass exploration is the very essence of hands-on education: students learn how to safely and effectively use dipnets and collect samples of marine life from seagrass beds just offshore. While Nature’s Academy staff provide interesting information about commonly caught species (including useful adaptations, noting juvenile forms of commercially important food species, and the existence of indicator species), students participate in data recording. Through this process, students learn to use abundance codes, scientific names, and reinforce principles of the scientific process.
Water quality investigation: Biodiversity is dependent upon varied elements, but water quality and condition are determining factors for the amount and variety of life in the estuary. Using Vernier diagnostic equipment, Nature’s Academy staff lead STEM Literacy Project student participation in a true investigation of the quality of the water in which their biodiversity studies took place: the seagrass beds. Students gather and record data on temperature, salinity, pH, nitrates and more, while Nature’s Academy staff explain in youth-friendly, inquiry-based fashion the interplay between chemistry and biology that result in an ecologically productive seagrass bed ecosystem. The STEM Literacy Project: What makes it special?
Fostering Environmental Stewardship: Coastal Cleanups and Final Conservation Projects Coastal cleanups: Roughly 80% of marine
to five pounds in fifteen minutes. Again, students practice debris originates on land, often unknowingly deposited scientific process skills in weighing, analyzing, and recording litter abundance and composition data. far from the ocean, but washing through rivers and streams and eventually reaching the Gulf of Mexico. STEM Literacy Project students learn about the sources School cleanups: Nature’s Academy firmly believes in the power of individuals (including kids) to make of marine debris, its effects on water quality and a difference. As part of the STEM Literacy Project, we provide wildlife, and what they can do to prevent it. Students are often instantly moved by the negative impacts of students with Tools of Change—buckets, gloves, and a vision for litter remediation back at school. To date, STEM Literacy pollution on the animals they observe through their Project participants have removed at least 45 gallons of trash biodiversity study, and eager to take action. Armed with gloves and buckets, students set out to scour the from their schools’ properties, ensuring that litter stays out of our estuaries and the Gulf. shoreline for litter, often collecting up
Leveraging Nature to Improve Science Literacy
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Inspiration:
Literacy without Limits
Final conservation projects: STEM Literacy Project
students are tasked with creating Public Service Announcementthemed projects demonstrating take-home messages, which are shared with their younger peers through presentations and schools through science fair demonstrations and even over the schoolwide PA systems. Through final conservation projects, students become “Environmental Ambassadors”, spreading the message of stewardship throughout the community.
Looking ahead: With the STEM Literacy Project’s rapid growth and commitment
to STEM aptitude in mind, we plan to move student final conservation projects to a digital platform. Digitally produced projects will help students master new technological and engineering skills and create a longer-lasting, more easily distributable final Public Service Announcement, broadening the reach of the stewardship message.
Leveraging Nature to Improve Science Literacy
Nature’s Academy’s founder and Executive Director, Dana Pounds, is as unique as the project she initiated. A two-time cancer survivor and amputee, Dana has tenaciously pursued the expansion of the STEM Literacy Project, pushing through health challenges to manifest her dream. A key message we impress upon STEM Literacy Project students, using Dana’s story as an illustration, is the fundamental truth that with persistence and a positive attitude, anyone can accomplish his or her dreams.
Looking ahead: As we grow the Nature’s Academy
team, we continue to accumulate personal stories of triumph that empower students to make a difference in their lives and communities.
Inspiration: Literacy without Limits
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Our Citizen Science Database: A Regional Contribution
At Nature’s Academy, we focus on the big picture. Our target age range for the STEM Literacy Project is a strategic one—5th graders are the “seniors” of the elementary schools, looked up to by the younger students; 5th graders are subject to standardized science tests determining their academic progress; and 5th graders are uniquely both cognitively mature enough to absorb the material and youthful enough to be captivated by it. Our aim is to plant the seed within our students that they can succeed academically in science, but also that they can make a real contribution to science, starting now.
In the Fall of 2014, and in partnership with the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS), the Galveston Bay Foundation and the Florida Aquarium, Nature’s Academy launched a user-friendly citizen science database. All of the data collected and recorded by our STEM Literacy Project students on biodiversity, water quality, and litter is uploaded to the database and made available to their teachers for lesson purposes. For example, teachers interested in creating an exercise to test hypotheses concerning the link between temperature and abundance of a particular species could overlay biodiversity data with temperature data to produce a correlation. The ability of students to use data collected with their very own hands lends a depth and relevance to in-class exercises which they can only get through an experiential program.
Looking ahead: Student-collected data from Nature’s Academy has contributed
to a regional database developed by GCOOS. In this way, our student citizen scientists are making a contribution to a far-reaching project with much broader implications— creating baseline data for the Gulf of Mexico which can be used for critical purposes including measuring the success of restoration projects and predicting and remediating problems like red tides.
Our Citizen Science Database
Our Citizen Science Database
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“Nature’s Academy staff members were super friendly to our students. They made our students very comfortable in sharing their ideas and observations throughout the day. When one of my students made a real-world connection to what Ms. Deb was discussing with us, Ms. Deb’s excitement to his observation made him feel very empowered. He has continued to feel like he can be a scientist because of how Ms. Deb responded enthusiatically to his answer. Thank you for that.” -Teacher Surveyor
“They provide a fun, safe, learning environment for all to enjoy. The more hands on my students have the better background knowledge and experiences they have to anchor their classwork on…. please continue this great program for all students aligned to its curriculum.”
Student Surveys: To measure lasting attitudinal and behavioral change as a result of the STEM Literacy Project, students were asked to participate in a self-assessment survey. Student survey results for 2015-2016 show that 89% of students believe the health of our local watershed and natural habitats is extremely important to our community, 85% reported that they had begun to litter less and pick up trash more, and 81% said that because of their Nature’s Academy field trip, they feel that they can be a part of improving the world around them. “My school started to recycle and I love it because we are helping the environment.” - Bayshore Elementary student
Measuring Results In 2015-2016, 100% of participating schools demonstrated learning gains, which is the most direct and immediate measurement of the success of the STEM Literacy Project, but we employ other methods to ensure results.
“It was VERY FUN! I enjoyed dip-netting and collecting trash. Overall Natures Academy was a very enjoyable experience.” -Stewart Elementary student
Teacher Feedback: Participating teachers indicated
in surveys that their experiences of the STEM Literacy Project were overwhelmingly positive. On a scale of 1-5, ratings were close to perfect, from assessments of Nature’s Academy staff’s command of the subject matter (4.98) and academic content of the program (4.86), to staff interactions with students (4.91) and the safety and structure of the program (4.93). In fact, 94% indicated they would return with their students for yet another Nature’s Academy program, and 97% would recommend the program to others.
Measuring Results
Measuring Results
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