Pathways to Environmental Science Literacy

This project focuses on coupled human-ecosystem interactions in the context of socio-ecological systems as a framework to promote place based learning and environmental literacy. It seeks to increase students understanding of global water and carbon cycling, as well as biodiversity.

The Math-Science Partnership “Culturally relevant ecology, learning progressions and environmental literacy” is an NSF-funded project that connects the research and education prowess in the environmental sciences of universities and the Long-term Ecological Research Network with the professional development of science teachers of partner middle schools and high schools.

We are developing learning progression frameworks and associated assessments that document pathways to understanding these three themes for middle school and high school students. The project involves four LTER research sites (Santa Barbara Coastal, Short-grass Steppe, Kellogg Biological Station, Baltimore Ecosystem Study) and 22 K-12 schools/districts that extend across the nation, and directly impacts over 250 science teachers and up to 70,000 students of highly diverse backgrounds.