Collaborative Research: COSEE: Ocean Systems - Building Capacity Through Collaboration

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This award provides renewed funding for the Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence - Ocean Systems (COSEE-OS). Through its ongoing efforts, COSEE-OS has identified key areas for future growth, including: (i) facilitating the creation of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) resources that are conceptually linked to ocean-climate content; (ii) scaling up ocean scientists' impacts by taking advantage of networking infrastructure; and (iii) building tools to assess the quality of consensus-based products created by diverse communities. The Center will expand its successful model of creating software that is flexible, transferrable, and user focused for the ocean science community. OS will share this model via workshops for scientists at other COSEE's. OS will scale up its regional initiatives to have national impact, with a focus on rural and inland audiences. In addition, a new partnership with the Institute for Broadening Participation is improving engagement of underrepresented minorities in OS opportunities, and will serve as a model for the greater Network. By supporting existing educational programs, OS will assist two small, but prestigious, research laboratories -- Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences -- in meeting their goal of providing effective research experiences for K-12 educators and "young scientists" in training. The Center's goal is to build Capacity nationwide, honing individuals' abilities to develop effective "Broader Impacts" (BI) activities. This is accomplished, in part, by engaging informal education institution partners such as Seacoast Science Center (SSC) and New England Aquarium (NEAq) to aid in the development of BI activities with scientists. The Center also supports the New England Ocean Sciences Education Collaborative (NEOSEC), a diverse network of over 40 organizations coordinated by NEAq, to build regional capacity by training its educators in planning and implementing BI activities for ocean scientists. This ensures that the content and products of current ocean science research can efficiently reach a broad audience in a timely fashion. A newly formalized partnership with the Northeastern Regional Association of Coastal and Ocean Observing Systems (NERACOOS) unites the New England cadre of ocean science educators and their students to the NERACOOS scientists, providing opportunities to increase the BI for scientists. The Center's joint efforts with New England regional Sea Grant Extension staff to field test new analytical tools that aid consensus building about climate change issues in New England coastal communities is another opportunity for scientists to increase their BI activities.