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Humanities
- ISSN: 2155-7993
- Journal of Modern Education Review
Expanding Access and Deepening Engagement: Building an Open Source Digital Platform for Restoration-based STEM Education in the Largest Public School System in the United States
Lauren B. Birney1; Samuel P. Janis2
(1. Pace University, USA; 2. New York Harbor Foundation, USA)
Abstract: Citizen science is an ideal vehicle for building smart and connected communities, particularly in underrepresented and urban populations. It provides the means for a community to become vested in its local ecosystem. It simultaneously engages students and schools, public and private stakeholders, educators, and scientists. It plays an essential role in empowering local communities to restore biodiversity, ecological
productivity and ecosystem services.
Just as citizen science is a means by which a community can help form its ecological future, citizen policymaking is the analog by which a community can help form its environmental future. The practice of policy connects the diverse disciplines necessary for informed decision-making, such as science, law, technology, economics and social sciences. The combination of science and policymaking, a staple of environmental governance, creates for student, teacher and community member a creative venue for applied learning that connects scientific discovery with civic engagement, scientific method with policy governance, and all-important STEM skills with all the above.
Through a curriculum that explores the combined role of monitoring technologies, data collection and decision-making one can demonstrate the processes that harmonize STEM-based and ecological knowledge with policy priorities and environmental necessity for the greatest societal benefit. For students in particular, such lessons open the door to the interdisciplinary thinking and applied value of STEM in the professions. Just as our schools should be unrivaled training grounds for citizen science, so too should they be the hub for the applied interdisciplinary learning and skills that animate and enliven the principles of democracy and law.
Key words: STEM education, citizen science, environmental restoration, smart and connected communities
