Advancing Informal Environmental STEM Literacy & Learning: A Co-Created Citizen Science Rainwater Harvesting in Underserved Communities

环境教育项目中经常缺少的一个要素是社区、组织、政府和学术利益相关者共同努力，通过公众参与环境研究来建立有意义的伙伴关系和培养非正式的科学学习机会。这种协作方法不仅使科学信息更容易获得，而且还使社区成员参与科学调查、综合、数据解释和将结果转化为行动的过程。该项目将建立一个共同创建的公民科学计划，结合同行教育模式和广泛的成果交流，以提高环境STEM素养。该项目针对的是历史上代表性不足的人群，这些人群可能会受到气候、水资源稀缺和粮食安全的不成比例的影响。根据目标社区过去的需求评估，由收集的雨水灌溉的花园将成为环境STEM教育和研究的中心。在这个项目中，用收集的雨水灌溉的花园将作为环境扫盲教育工作的中心。来自亚利桑那大学和索诺拉环境研究所的研究人员将与社区环境卫生工作者合作，然后他们将培训居住在环境受损地区(城市和农村)的家庭如何监测他们的土壤、植物和收集的水的质量。该项目旨在：(1)以与参与者的生活直接相关的形式共同编制环境监测、暴露和风险数据；(2)增加社区对环境决策的参与；(3)提高农村和城市社区的环境STEM扫盲和学习能力。该项目将调查和收集大量的定量和定量数据，以了解：(1)参与共同创建的公民科学项目如何提高参与者的整体环境STEM素养；(2)同伴教育模式与共同创建的公民科学计划相结合，影响历史上代表性不足的群体对公民科学的参与；以及(3)环境监测方法影响参与者的环境健康学习结果和对科学方法的理解。同时，该项目将评估以当地为基础的知识调解人和交流成果的不同机制的作用。这些发现将推动非正式科学教育、环境科学和风险传播领域的发展。因此，该项目将促进共同生成一个强大的数据集，该数据集不仅将为收集的雨水利用提供指导和建议，还将在服务不足的社区建设能力，并为安全和可持续的食物源生产提供信息。这项研究工作对干旱和半干旱环境中的人口尤其重要，这些环境占全球陆地面积的40%左右，居住着世界三分之一的人口。该项目将提供英语和西班牙语版本，能够真正实现环境STEM研究和政策的民主化。该项目由推进非正式STEM学习计划资助，该计划旨在推动在非正式环境中设计和开发STEM学习的新方法和基于证据的理解。

A frequently missing element in environmental education programs is a concerted effort by communities, organizations, government, and academic stakeholders to build meaningful partnerships and cultivate informal science learning opportunities via public participation in environmental research. This collaborative approach not only makes scientific information more readily available, it also engages community members in the processes of scientific inquiry, synthesis, data interpretation, and the translation of results into action. This project will build a co-created citizen science program coupled with a peer education model and an extensive communication of results to increase environmental STEM literacy. The project targets historically underrepresented populations that are likely to be disproportionately impacted by climate, water scarcity, and food security. Based upon past needs assessments in the targeted communities, gardens irrigated by harvested rainwater will become hubs for environmental STEM education and research. For this project, gardens irrigated by harvested rainwater will serve as hubs for environmental literacy education efforts. Researchers from the University of Arizona and Sonora Environmental Research Institute will work alongside community environmental health workers, who will then train families residing in environmentally compromised areas (urban and rural) on how to monitor their soil, plant, and harvested water quality. The project aims to: (1) co-produce environmental monitoring, exposure, and risk data in a form that will be directly relevant to the participants' lives, (2) increase the community's involvement in environmental decision-making, and (3) improve environmental STEM literacy and learning in underserved rural and urban communities. The project will investigate and gather extensive quantitative and quantitative data to understand how: (1) participation in a co-created citizen science project enhances a participant's overall environmental STEM literacy; (2) a peer-education model coupled with a co-created citizen science program affects participation of historically underrepresented groups in citizen science; and (3) the environmental monitoring approach influences the participant's environmental health learning outcomes and understanding of the scientific method. In parallel, this project will evaluate the role of local-based knowledge mediators and different mechanisms to communicate results. These findings will advance the fields of informal science education, environmental science, and risk communication. Concomitantly, the project will facilitate the co-generation of a robust dataset that will not only inform guidelines and recommendations for harvested rainwater use, it will build capacity in underserved communities and inform the safe and sustainable production of food sources. This research effort is especially critical for populations in arid and semiarid environments, which account for ~40% of the global land area and are inhabited by one-third of the world's population. This program will be available in English and Spanish and can truly democratize environmental STEM research and policy.This project is funded by the Advancing Informal STEM Learning program, which seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understandings of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments.