BIORETS
The National Science Foundation has awarded the Bishop Museum and partners in the Hawaiʻi Department of Education (HDOE), ʻIolani’s Community Science program, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa a three-year BIORETS Site award. This BIORETS Site (Research Experiences for Advancing Curriculum on Hawaiian Ecosystem Sciences) award to Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii will support the training of eight teachers each year for seven weeks during the summer and at least two weeks during the academic year.
K-12 and community college teachers from Hawaii’s underserved schools will be recruited 2024-2026. Schools with majority populations of people excluded because of their ethnicity, race, or sex (PEERS) include a disproportionate number of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. Engaging PEERS expands capacity and opportunities for participation in conservation and STEM fields through place based, authentic research experiences, that allow for use of Hawaiian examples for learning science standards. In collaboration with the HDOE and other partners, teachers will deepen their science literacy and understanding to translate these experiences into classroom curriculum and hands-on research activities, engaging a broader diversity of students. Participants will come from diverse cultural, economic, and generational backgrounds, and effective learning occurs where they feel welcome, accepted, and seen. The PIs and partners for REACHES will strive to create a safe learning environment and provide internal (mentors) and external (human resources) support network to promote diversity and inclusivity.
The thematic focus of REACHES is on ecosystem sciences through the lens of land snail ecology, conservation, and Hawaiian cultural values. Teachers will be integrated into captive rearing and genomic research in Malacology and the Pacific Center for Molecular Biodiversity at the museum to address questions about life history, diet, behavior, and biodiversity. Hawaiian cultural practitioners will provide training for incorporating cultural practices and values into research and teaching, thus expanding participation, and helping perpetuate aloha ʻāina. Applications and eligibility requirements are available at NSF ETAP with links disseminated via the HDOE and other partners. The deadline for applications for summer 2025 is February 1, 2025. Applications will be reviewed by PIs, Cultural Practitioners, and Education Specialists as they are received until all positions are filled. All applicants will be interviewed to make sure all participants are closely aligned with the objectives of the program. More information about BIORETS REACHES is available by contacting the PI (Dr. Norine Yeung at nyeung@hawaii.edu) or the co-PI (Dr. Kenneth Hayes at hayes.ken@gmail.com).
BIORETS and addressing shortfalls
Two major impediments to slowing the escalating biodiversity crisis are knowledge shortfalls (e.g., Linnean, Wallacean, Hutchinsonian, and Eltonian) and a lack of resource capacity (financial and human). Effective conservation suffers from large, diverse knowledge gaps that prevent the field from moving beyond merely keeping species from going extinct and toward science-based actions that inform ecosystem restoration and return population to viable levels. Our research aims to address several biodiversity knowledge gaps and capacity shortfalls through immersive research, professional development, and pedagogical training at all levels of the educational pipeline: K-12 – postdoctoral.
Early engagement of students in authentic and locally relevant STEM research-based curriculum increases retention in STEM fields and helps build the human resource capacity needed for a globally trained and locally engaged science workforce. Teachers are responsible for opening educational pipelines and key to building capacity, but too few K-12 science teachers have opportunities to engage with authentic research experiences.
Leveraging ongoing research into land snail conservation, ecology, genomics, taxonomy, and an established teacher training program will provide in-depth, regionally relevant, and immediately translatable research experiences for 18 teachers over three years. REACHES will target teachers from schools serving high percentages of students from PEERs groups (People excluded because of their ethnicity or race) and incorporate students from the UH Mānoa REU and a graduate student for research experiences and curriculum development training with teachers. The seven weeks includes 6-8 field days, 5-10 days of captive rearing training, and hands-on lab research experience. Participants also participate in workshops, including cultural orientation, museum studies, research methodologies, proposal writing, genomics, bioinformatics, community ecology, and curriculum development.
In the summer, teachers will work with scientists to develop a year-long project with captive reared Hawaiian land snails to answer questions from four core research objectives: 1) Develop life history data for endangered Hawaiian snails, 2) Assess snail influence on phyllosphere communities, 3) Characterize microbiome communities in captively reared snail chambers, and 4) Evaluate snail survivorship when fed different diets. Using this research as a foundation, teachers will develop novel curriculum to teach fundamental concepts in ecology, conservation, microbiology, evolution, and Hawaiian ecosystem functions with an emphasis on place-based, relevant examples that will promote retention of students in STEM fields. The authentic, research based curriculum experiences will help increase science literacy for students and teachers, and build a well trained global workforce engaged in helping address locally relevant environmental issues for a sustainable future.
Research experiences will be complemented with multiple workshops, professional development activities, and networking opportunities.
Teachers accepted to the program will receive a stipend for the seven-week summer program. One-third of the stipend will be distributed at the start of the summer program, and another third at the end of the summer, with the final distribution at the conclusion of the year-long program. Teachers will also receive funding for research and classroom support throughout the year. We will be recruiting highly motivated STEM teachers from Hawaiʻi’s public and charter schools , and community colleges across all islands, especially those teaching STEM at schools serving substantial populations of persons excluded because of their race or ethnicity and other underrepresented minorities. Teachers should be eager to translate their research experiences into curricular advancement through teaching modules shared with other teachers across the state. These modules should help teachers enrich the learning environment, deepen student science proficiency and engagement in STEM classes, and inspire students to pursue STEM careers, particularly in biology and conservation related disciplines.
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