RCN-UBE: The River Field Studies Network: Connecting rivers, people, & science through immersive field-based education

河流对人类社会和河流流经的景观发挥着广泛的重要作用。人与河流的关系经常受到破坏，这对河流和人类都构成了威胁。恢复这些关系将需要一支跨学科问题解决者组成的多元化劳动力队伍。实地学习对于培养这种劳动力至关重要，因为实地学习通过在现实世界环境中沉浸式的主动学习，将学生与学习目标、同龄人、教师和社会联系起来。它们有助于克服成就差距，促进包容，促进职业兴趣，并创造知情和参与的公民。然而，为了实现这些好处，现场教官必须克服一系列独特且不断增长的挑战。除了掌握STEM学科知识外，实地研究讲师还需要对专业教学法和评估、筹款、机构官僚主义谈判、多样性、公平和包容性问题以及风险管理的多个维度有深入的了解。掌握这些是许多自学成才的教师无法独自管理的。没有支持和指导的网络，教师会精疲力竭，厌恶风险的机构会回避，实地研究将继续衰落。河流实地研究网络是对河流和实地研究的成对危机的回应。在这个极其脆弱的时刻，我们必须恢复和扩大通过主动学习使学生和河流接触的能力。河流实地研究网络旨在通过沉浸式实地教育，将河流、人类和科学联系起来，推动STEM教育，支持健康的河流。为实现这一目标，该网络将建立一个双轨专业发展结构，包括指导和课程交流网络以及更密集的实地证书课程；为教师开发一个开源课程和其他内容的在线图书馆，其中包括旨在促进学生跨机构和地区合作的创新模块；有意招聘以克服各种多样性障碍，并对参与者进行培养包容性的教学方法培训；通过面对面指导和专家教程视频，解决实地教育中对知情风险管理的迫切需求；建立面向公众的河流实地研究网站，并建立促进学生交流的机构，从而扩大社区范围；并在各个层面进行评估，以评估并不断完善我们的计划。这些都是形成一个可持续的河流教育实践社区所需要的基本要素，这个社区可以分享专业知识，传授专业技能，培养下一代领导者，最终缩小目前威胁该领域未来的机构能力差距。该项目由生物基础设施司生物科学理事会资助，作为他们应对本科生物学教育的愿景和变化：行动呼吁（http://visionandchange/finalreport/）所提出的挑战的努力的一部分。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Rivers perform a broad set of functions essential to human societies and the landscapes rivers flow through. The relationship between humans and rivers are often impaired, which threatens both rivers and people. Restoring these relationships will require a diverse workforce of interdisciplinary problem solvers. Field studies are essential to creating this workforce because they connect students to learning objectives, peers, instructors, and society through immersive active learning in real world environments. They help overcome achievement gaps, propel inclusion, catalyze career interest, and create informed and engaged citizens. However, to achieve these benefits, field instructors must overcome a unique and growing set of challenges. In addition to knowledge of their STEM discipline, field studies instructors require a sophisticated grasp of specialized pedagogy and assessment, fundraising, negotiating institutional bureaucracy, issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and multiple dimensions of risk management. Mastering these is more than many self-taught instructors will be able to manage on their own. Without a network for support and guidance, instructors will burn out, risk-averse institutions will shy away, and field studies will continue to decline. The River Field Studies Network is a response to the paired crises of rivers and field studies. At this moment of critical vulnerability, we must restore and expand the capacity to bring students and rivers into contact through active learning. The River Field Studies Network aims to advance STEM education and support healthy rivers by connecting rivers, people, and science through immersive field education. To accomplish this, the network will, create a dual-track professional-development structure, including a network for mentorship and curricular exchange as well as a more intensive field-based certificate program; develop an online library of open-source lessons and other content for instructors, featuring innovative modules designed to enable student collaboration across institutions and regions; recruit intentionally to overcome barriers to diversity of all kinds, and train participants in pedagogical methods that foster inclusivity; tackle the pressing need for informed risk management in field-based education through in-person instruction and expert tutorial videos; reach out to a wider community by building the premier public-facing website for river field studies and creating structures to facilitate student exchange; and incorporate assessment at every level to evaluate and continually refine our programming. These are the essential elements needed to form a sustainable community of practice in river-based education that shares expertise, imparts specialized skills, and cultivates the next generations of leaders, ultimately closing the gaps in institutional capacity that currently threaten the future of the field.This project is funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure, as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action (http://visionandchange/finalreport/).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.