Download Rebecca Sanders-Demott Presentation - Project GLACIER

2013
GK-12 Belize Program
Rebecca Sanders-DeMott
Ryan Keser
Program Goals
1) Engage firsthand in global change research
2) Develop K-12 curriculum modules for
classrooms in both the US and Belize
3) Create partnerships between K-12
teachers and students in Belize and the US
4) Afford graduate students opportunity to
broaden their research
Participants
BOSTON
Nathan Stewart: BU Researcher Assistant Professor
Ryan Keser: Science Teacher, Brookline
Scott Hess: Science Teacher, Brighton
Margaret Hendrick: BU Glacier Fellow
Rebecca Sanders-DeMott: BU Glacier Fellow
BELIZE
Eden Garcia: UB Biology Instructor
Carolyn Williams: UB Faculty, Education
Jonelle O’Brien, UB Pre-Teacher
Loretta Sorano, UB Pre-Teacher
Itinerary
Days 1-5:
La Milpa Research Center,
Rio Bravo Conservation Area
Day 5:
Belize Zoo
Day 6-10:
Calabash Caye Field Station,
Turneffe Atoll near Belize Barrier
Reef Reserve
Experience-Based Curriculum
Design Process
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Research Experience
Cultural Experience
Mind Mapping
Backwards Design Process
Curriculum Writing and Editing
La Milpa EcoLodge and Research Center
• Rio Bravo Conservation Area
• Semi-deciduous subtropical moist upland forest
• La Selva Maya
– includes areas of Guatemala, Mexico, and Belize as the 2nd largest
continuous tropical rainforest with 240 tree species
Research Experience
- Identification of birds, amphibians, herbs, trees, insects
- Biomass assessment: Tree height and circumference
- Ecological indicators: Old growth and new growth
Rio Bravo Conservation Area Carbon Sequestration Plots
Established in 1996 under the U.S. Initiative on Joint Implementation, in collaboration with
the Nature Conservancy, We Energies, and U.S. energy companies as a 40-year project
Cultural Experiences
Mennonite farming and Belizean food economy
Ancient and
modern Mayan
civilization and
culture
Calabash Caye Field Station
• Belize Barrier Reef - 280 km, 2nd Largest in world
• Turneffe Atoll, seagrass beds, mangroves
• Habitat for threatened American crocodile, Hawksbill
sea turtle, Antillean manatee and Nassau grouper.
Research Experience
- Identification of invertebrates, fish
- Community survey transects
- Ecological indicators: parrot fish and Diadema
Environmental Research Institute Ongoing Research
• Research and monitoring
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Coral reef, mangrove, seagrass ecosystems
Coral bleaching monitoring
Coral spawning
Monitoring of reef herbivores
• parrotfish and Diadema
– Lionfish monitoring
– Seagrass Net monitoring
• Inventories and environmental assessments
• Biodiversity and environmental monitoring
• Restoration and rehabilitation monitoring
Boston University establishing long term monitoring sites
Cultural Experiences
Garifuna dancing…
Sustainable conch
shell fishing
• Environmental issues in Belize
– Conservation and Economics
• Energy Independence
• Food security
• Tourism industry
Mind mapping
Connecting the big ideas
Backward Design Process
Establish learning goals
Students will explore the role
that trees and forests have in
global carbon sequestration.
Backward Design Process
Establish learning goals
Identify “Big Ideas”
1. The increase of green house gasses in
the atmosphere is causing climate
change, which is changing ecosystems2. When in tact, natural carbon storage
provides an ecosystem-service that
currently tempers climate change, as
humans go about their activities.
3. Human activities are significantly
affecting land, ocean, and atmosphere
and those changes are altering global
climate patterns. Human choices have
the power to modify the current
trajectory of global climate change.
4. Some systems are experiencing change
at a more rapid rate than others.
Certain species in these systems can be
monitored as indicators of change.
Backward Design Process
Establish learning goals
Identify “Big Ideas”
Develop essential
questions
1. Where is carbon produced
(sources) and stored (pool) and
how do humans perturb this cycle?
2. How do different ecosystems
respond to long-term changes in
climate?
3. How do our energy choices impact
climate change?
4. Are there choices you, as a global
citizen, can make to mitigate
human impact on climate?
Curriculum Writing and Editing
Partner-Teams
• Lesson Introduction
• Teacher Instructions
• Student Worksheets
Group Editing
Post-trip Processing
Program Outcomes
Unit 1: Forest Carbon Sequestration
Unit Summary
Unit Outline
Part 1: Measuring Up
Part 2: Model Measures
Part 3: Stand and Deliver
Unit 2: Marine Carbon Sequestration
Unit Summary
Unit Outline
Part 1: What’s Going On?
Part 2: Who Eats Who?
Part 3:Walk the Line.
Part 4: Making Sense of Data.
Part 5: Make a Model
Background Information and Teacher Instructions
Materials and Student Worksheets
Assessments
Where are we going?
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Finalize curriculum
Implement in classrooms
Disseminate to broader community (NSTA)
Develop new themes and experiences for new cohorts