New GK12 GlobalWatershed: Integrating Rural and Global Perspectives with Research and Technological Advances

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AbstractThis award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5), and meets the requirements established in Section 2 of the White House Memorandum entitled, Ensuring Responsible Spending of Recovery Act Funds, dated March 20, 2009. I also affirm, as the cognizant Program Officer, that the proposal does not support projects described in Section 1604 of Division A of the Recovery Act. In project GlobalWatershed, graduate Fellows will conduct research in watershed science topics, at a range of scales and cultural contexts, while working with middle/high school teachers to create lesson plans that transfer this knowledge to their students. The goals of GlobalWatershed are to (a) expand traditional STEM graduate student training to allow graduate students to acquire improved teaching and communication skills and to gain a greater appreciation of the scientific context of their research, and make this expanded training a permanent fixture at MTU and to enrich STEM learning and instruction in local K12 schools serving low-income and high Native American populations and a Sonora, Mexico K12 school system, specifically by translating state-of-the-art watershed research to the K12 level, and make this enrichment sustainable at these schools. Fellows will receive training in effective teaching techniques, learning styles, lesson planning, classroom management, ways of assessing science proficiency, inquiry-based approaches for teaching science, teaching concepts of scientific research, and indigenous perspectives and awareness and sensitivity to other ways of learning. Teachers will attend professional development workshops to learn about watershed science research and methodologies. Lesson plans and units will be developed by Fellows and teachers on a range of watershed topics, to be incorporated into secondary school curricula, including science, mathematics, and social studies. These materials will be aligned with appropriate Michigan and Sonora educational standards.