[LTER-education] Websites that house curriculum for teachers to discover?

Fri May 1 09:17:49 PDT 2020

Hello all,

I want to make sure you’re aware of the RAPID proposal that several OBFS folks just submitted – see summary attached. I am a co-PI on this proposal to provide guidance in developing virtual learning experiences that are meaningful. It was basically invited by NSF (NEON and FSML program officers) so it has an extremely high chance of being funded. I will be pulling together several UFERN people for a Delphi study to do this work. There was a bigger vision for it to be a one-stop shop for virtual field learning resources, but that bigger vision got put to the side to some extent to focus on developing a few specific kinds of virtual learning experiences right now with something bigger happening in the future. That was based on Peter McCartney’s strong suggestion. I also gave them a lot of advice to not create a clearinghouse without considering how it might be connected to other efforts, such as Marty is advising below!! And I warned them against the philosophy of, “we will build it, they will come!” which does not work. So…I would advise that we keep that in mind here as well! Although I think paired with professional development and connections to other efforts, this kind of thing could be helpful to teachers.  ESA is keeping a list (I think). ESA is also doing a series of water cooler chats that have been well attended and welcomed by the community – lots of great discussion going on.  I have to be honest that I would have very little time to devote to a proposal such as this, but I do know the current president of NSTA very well (he is a co-PI with me on one of my projects), and I’d be glad to reach out to him if that would ever be helpful. NAAEE might be worth throwing in the mix. I’m also always happy to be part of an ideation session. That’s my favorite!

Quick additional thought – I think it’s important to think about what can LTER uniquely bring to this work? I say it’s place-based and data focused.

Hope you all are doing well!!!

Best,
Kari

From: education <education-bounces at lists.lternet.edu> On Behalf Of Marty Downs
Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020 8:48 AM
To: Snow, Pamela M. <psnow at fas.harvard.edu>
Cc: education at lternet.edu
Subject: Re: [LTER-education] Websites that house curriculum for teachers to discover?

If there truly is no good, well-known place, it would make sense to pursue funding for this with a couple of other organizations (maybe ESA, OBFS, and NSTA?). I think it's important that it include time for promotion as well as reviewing and some technical support. All three aspects are important. SERC is revamping their infrastructure and we might be able to go in with them on something, but I didn't detect much excitement from the committee after their presentation. I don't think going it alone will make an appealing funding proposal.

I would love to have this conversation in the EOC, if there's real interest.
-Marty

On Fri, May 1, 2020 at 8:15 AM Snow, Pamela M. <psnow at fas.harvard.edu<mailto:psnow at fas.harvard.edu>> wrote:
Yes, this issue of finding a place to share teacher resources keeps coming up!!!! I think it is good to notice how often this is brought up.  To me, it demonstrates a need for a place for us to put LTER education resources. Saying that, it is also challenging for anyone to tackle this, as we each juggle so many other balls.

I had made the choice to focus on posting and sharing our resources within Harvard Forest outreach mechanisms…website, blog and email.  And have participated in the LTER digital library when it was operational.  I agree with Steven that the vetting process was a stumbling block, because it involves time and energy not only for the review process, but it requires someone to coordinate and maintain it.  At one time, LTER paid Beth Simmons for that role, but the funding did not continue and she moved on since then.  Like everything else, it requires a long term funding commitment…and I’m not sure we can get that?

Without the funding,  if there is a place Marty can provide to post unreviewed resources, we could do that, but I suppose we have to ask what the value of that is, over posting on our own site websites…I think the review process was one of the major things that appealed to me about the digital library…both as someone contributing and as someone referring teachers there.

Is anyone keen on taking this on??? Is this worthy of discussion on an EOC call?

Pamela

Pamela M. Snow
Schoolyard Ecology Coordinator

Harvard Forest
324 North Main Street
Petersham, MA
978-756-6146
[cid:image001.png at 01D61F98.A98A1FE0]

From: education <education-bounces at lists.lternet.edu<mailto:education-bounces at lists.lternet.edu>> On Behalf Of Steven McGee
Sent: Wednesday, April 29, 2020 5:48 PM
To: Marty Downs <downs at nceas.ucsb.edu<mailto:downs at nceas.ucsb.edu>>
Cc: education at lternet.edu<mailto:education at lternet.edu>
Subject: Re: [LTER-education] Websites that house curriculum for teachers to discover?

Hi Marty,

Thanks for the reminder. When the library was set up, we established a rigorous review process for the materials and the decision was made to include only lessons (not units) in the repository. We only had funding to do the review process once and now I am not sure what the review process is. If we wanted to relax the requirement to have materials reviewed and allow units in addition to lessons sponsored by the sites to be included, it would open the door to adding more materials.

If we decide to go that route there will need to be some basic updates to the search/filter functionality. Also it still has Sam’s name and email. We should probably put someone else’s name there.

Steven

---------
Steven McGee, Ph.D.
President
The Learning Partnership
1 W. Monroe St.
Chicago, IL 60603

(708) 710-5963 (voice)
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Twitter: @lponline_mcgee

On Apr 29, 2020, at 4:02 PM, Marty Downs <downs at nceas.ucsb.edu<mailto:downs at nceas.ucsb.edu>> wrote:

I have to pop in with a reminder that we also have a (formatted, organized, searchable) resource on the LTER Network website: https://lternet.edu/education-digital-library/<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__lternet.edu_education-2Ddigital-2Dlibrary_&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=Nr2Du23maISmPVjEUPMvJCJvC6VZfldqLhLsUYLz8uw&m=6djTo8WrljLtddV_GGTT_2jCJ_6CmKdYmtuSvTcyN0A&s=ewgcszQRQoYAzyy5Ir7w4Lvow6Mu6-R_Wg6VoyTNMck&e=>
There is a chicken-and-egg problem with it, though. There aren't enough resources uploaded to make it worthwhile to do a lot of promotion -- and there's no reason for you all to add resources if it's not being effectively promoted.

To make it really work, we would need a concerted effort to add as many LTER resources as possible to the site. If it were fleshed out with a bunch of resources, we could add a site (or region) category to the filters and provide you with a link to the resources for your site or region (or a feed of the posts). That would allow you to easily build on each other's resources and (once we hit some critical mass), make it worthwhile for the LNO to invest in sending someone (one of us or one of you) to promote it at NSTA meetings.

I haven't promoted this approach in the past because I always thought there were better (better known and better organized) resources out there that do the same thing -- and that we should be partnering with them rather than growing our own. If I'm hearing that there aren't, I'll revise that thinking. (Although I still think we ought to work with ESA or an environmental education group to maximize the reach).

Maybe a topic for an upcoming meeting?
Marty

On Wed, Apr 29, 2020 at 1:20 PM Annette Brickley <abrickley.edu at gmail.com<mailto:abrickley.edu at gmail.com>> wrote:
I'm blanking on one I used to use, but I've recently found https://ngss.nsta.org/classroom-resources.aspx<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__ngss.nsta.org_classroom-2Dresources.aspx&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=Nr2Du23maISmPVjEUPMvJCJvC6VZfldqLhLsUYLz8uw&m=6djTo8WrljLtddV_GGTT_2jCJ_6CmKdYmtuSvTcyN0A&s=9QSIi2xHVBqw36SpRB6EJ44T1MQMhgAEYxLSfVgzqNs&e=> to be useful.
If it fits into climate and energy, https://cleanet.org/clean/educational_resources/collection/index.html<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__cleanet.org_clean_educational-5Fresources_collection_index.html&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=Nr2Du23maISmPVjEUPMvJCJvC6VZfldqLhLsUYLz8uw&m=6djTo8WrljLtddV_GGTT_2jCJ_6CmKdYmtuSvTcyN0A&s=6ignDnA4xUUiCIUdmRLr1g2Y6GMtwKY02MrMCBtRqy8&e=>
Or, if it fits, SERC has options for contributing as well:
https://serc.carleton.edu/serc/contribute.html<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__serc.carleton.edu_serc_contribute.html&d=DwMFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=Nr2Du23maISmPVjEUPMvJCJvC6VZfldqLhLsUYLz8uw&m=6djTo8WrljLtddV_GGTT_2jCJ_6CmKdYmtuSvTcyN0A&s=G0SP0myRBQD6Oa6WLhuEkwKumFHEKuqBV0cpcCHjXrM&e=>

Annette Laursen Brickley (she, her, hers)
NES-LTER Education & Outreach Coord.
S
TEMming the Gaps Consulting
Mattapoisett
, MA
207-951-6273 (mobile)

On Wed, Apr 29, 2020 at 2:48 PM Alexandra Rose <alexandra.rose at colorado.edu<mailto:alexandra.rose at colorado.edu>> wrote:
Hi Everyone,
I’m working with some graduate students on developing hands-on activities intended specifically for classroom use (not really formal curricula). There are so many things on line now, especially given current events, but are you aware of any particularly reputable, long-lived websites where people can upload curriculum-like content for teachers (and informal educators) to discover and use? Many of the sites I’m aware of seem to only house their own activities that they’ve developed in-house.

Thanks for any leads!
Alex

Alexandra P. Rose, PhD
CU Science Discovery
Niwot Ridge and McMurdo LTER
4001 Discovery Dr., 610 UCB
SEEC, Room S230B
Boulder, CO 80309

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