Track 1 GK-12: Graduate Fellows and Environmental Biology

智力优势：环境生物学研究生将学习使用探究式教学法，在教师培训，K-12学校和大学教学中发挥作用，并将获得将其研究专业知识转化为K-12学习环境的直接经验。参与研究生研究员将更有可能在整个职业生涯中与更广泛的社区联系，从而加强美国STEM教育。 通过竞争的过程中，12名研究员将从MN研究生课程的六个U每年选择：生态学，进化和行为;昆虫学;自然资源科学与管理;植物生物学;渔业，野生动物和保护生物学;和水资源科学。每个研究员将与来自明尼阿波利斯和圣保罗四所学校之一的经验丰富的教师配对（每所学校三对教师配对）。教师将获得更多的STEM内容和过程知识，他们的学生将从事真实的科学和科学研究。因此，参与该项目的城市学生将对自己的科学技能充满信心，从而更有可能将自己视为潜在的科学家。 计划开展三类项目活动：为研究员和教师举办暑期讲习班，学年期间在K-8教室开展科学活动，以及补充和支持研究员与K-12学校社区之间互动的活动。暑期为教师提供科学内容培训，为研究员提供初步教学法培训。课堂和课后科学活动旨在支持和扩展国家，州和地区的科学内容标准。研究员/学生课堂和科学俱乐部项目将在每所学校的校内科学博览会和项目范围的自然故事学生研究博览会上达到高潮，促进研究员和更广泛的学校社区，包括家长和家庭之间的联系。在学年期间，研究员将参加由PI领导的研讨会课程，并接受教学实践，赠款写作和为K-12教育提供资源的额外培训。 更广泛的影响：该项目的主要目标是培训36名研究生，他们将在整个职业生涯中与K-12学校合作，并最终培训下一代研究生。这些研究员将在四所城市学校担任榜样，其中来自代表性不足群体的学生占主导地位，并与大学和更广泛的科学界的同事分享他们的K-12经验。该项目的一个重要成果将是公立学校与明尼苏达大学STEM项目之间建立更紧密的联系，并提高大学对如何建立有效的K-12合作的理解。赠款期结束后，该计划的要素将纳入研究生课程和贝尔博物馆的方案努力。

Intellectual Merit: Environmental biology graduate students will learn to use inquiry-based pedagogy to become effective in teacher training, in K-12 schools and in university teaching, and will gain direct experience with translating their research expertise into a K-12 learning environment. Participating graduate fellows will be more likely to connect with the broader community throughout their careers, thus strengthening US STEM education. Through a competitive process, 12 fellows will be selected annually from six U of MN graduate programs: Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior; Entomology; Natural Resources Science and Management; Plant Biology; Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology; and Water Resources Science. Each fellow will be paired with an experienced teacher from one of four Minneapolis and St. Paul schools (three fellow-teacher pairs per school). Teachers will gain increased STEM content and process knowledge, and their students will engage in real science and scientific research. Consequently, the urban students involved in the project will gain confidence in their science skills and thus be more likely to see themselves as potential scientists. Three categories of project activities are planned: summer workshops for fellows and teachers, science activities in K-8 classrooms during the academic year, and activities to supplement and support interactions between fellows and the K-12 school community. Summer provide science content training for the teachers and initial pedagogy training for fellows. Classroom and after-school science activities are designed to support and to extend national, state and district science content standards. Fellow/ student classroom and science club projects will culminate with in-school Science Fairs at each school and a project-wide Natural story Student Research Fair that promote connections between fellows and the broader school community, including parents and families. During the academic year, fellows will enroll in a seminar course led by the PIs, and receive additional training in teaching practices, grant writing and providing resources for K-12 education. Broader Impacts: The primary goal of this project is to train 36 graduate fellows who will then work with K-12 schools throughout their careers and eventually train the next generation of graduate students to do likewise. These fellows will serve as role models in four urban schools in which students from under-represented groups predominate and share their K-12 experience with colleagues within the university and the broader scientific community. An important outcome of this project will be the development of closer ties between public schools and the STEM programs of the University of Minnesota, and an improved understanding at the university of how to create effective K-12 collaborations. After the grant period, elements of the program will be incorporated into graduate student curriculum offerings and Bell Museum programmatic efforts.