In an effort to increase the visibility of the National COSEE Network within target audiences, the COSEE Central Coordinating Office is working to establish an organized COSEE presence at various national science and education society conferences and meetings including:
Carrie Armbrecht, Annette deCharon, Jennifer Graves, and Dr. Fei Chai 2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting, Portland, OR
To communicate science effectively there are challenges scientsts should consider when trying to craft audience-appropriate messages. The use of concept maps, people as facilitators, and effective teaching strategies can help scientists communicate effectively.
This study looks at challenges which can occur during message packaging and understanding. Specifically it focuses on the use of concept maps as an effective tool for creating audience appropriate packages. Concept mapping allows both specialists and learners to see connections among related concepts. It shows the big picture, while also allowing one to focus in on details. When a learner makes connections between concepts, her/his understanding of the material deepens.
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Tansy Clay, Andrea Anderson, and Rick Keil 2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting, Portland, OR
COSEE Ocean Learning Communities experiments with strategies to catalyze and support a community of ocean scientists, learning science researchers, educators, and citizens interested in the marine environment. COSEE Ocean Learning Communities has experimented with adapting the poster session of scientific conferences as a tool for connecting ocean scientists and learning science researchers and their research with the public.
The goals of our poster sessions are to:
Connect citizens to current research
Provide scientists with feedback on their presentations
Increase scientist participation in COSEE Ocean Learning Communities events
Amy Holt Cline, Perrin Chick, and Karen Romano Young 2010 National Science Teachers Association, Philadelphia, PA
Last March, Amy Holt Cline of COSEE Ocean Systems and UNH, along with Perrin Chick of the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, NH and Author/Illustrator Karen Romano Young, presented the connections between art and ocean science using COSEE-OS online tools. This presentation included background on why art and science are naturally connected and should be taught together to help create more innovative and creative thinkers.
Before the presentation, questions were sent to the National Marine Education List Serve, called Scuttlebutt, to find out what ways educators have been using art to teach marine science topics in their classrooms or work places. Over fifty responses were collected and were assembled into a concept map. The map is interactive in that a description of the text is found when the cursor rolls over each circle to learn more.
Included is an annotated bibliography of resources that were used in creating this presentation. Feel free to explore these and the COSEE-OS Resources located at http://cosee.umaine.edu/.
Christy Herren, Annette deCharon, J. Theodore Repa, Amy Holt Cline, Carla Companion, and Deb Goodwin 2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting, Portland, OR
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" – Chinese Proverb. Can we teach scientists to "fish" for their audiences from all walks of life, and enjoy the experience so much that they contribute to informal education for a lifetime? Using cutting-edge multimedia tools and a novel workshop model, COSEE Ocean Systems is helping scientists better communicate with the public by working with informal science educators. In conjunction with Informal Science Education Centers in the New England region, we will share a new workshop model designed to help scientists “bait the hook” and effectively translate their current ocean-climate research via informal educator teams into digestible and appropriate messages that appeal to a wide range of audiences frequenting ISEs.
The workshop model is based on a dynamic and visual process of group concept mapping that evolves over the course of the multi-day event. At the end of the workshop, each participant has multiple “take home products” - unique and customized concept maps (see figure) hyperlinked to educational assets (images, videos, news items, and curriculum resources). Peer-to-peer community building and mutual professional benefits are key to the sustainability of this collaboration. Informal educators benefit not only by gaining knowledge from and interacting closely with their scientist teammates, but also by delving into the thought processes behind the scientists' discoveries. Scientists benefit from learning about educational pedagogy as well as the “real world” interests of their citizen audiences – handy skills for successfully fulfilling those NSF broader impact requirements with meaningful results! Post-interviews, evaluation data, and concept map products will be presented, as well as materials (fishing gear!) to help you run your own scientist-educator collaboration workshop in your home institution. Grab your fishing poles!
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Amy Sprenger and Fritz Stahr 2010 Ocean Sciences Meeting, Portland, OR
Ocean Inquiry Project (OIP), a non-profit organization in Puget Sound, WA, delivers inquiry-style marine science education using a hands-on curriculum while gathering research-quality data in Puget Sound for scientific partners. A collaboration between COSEE Ocean Learning Communities and OIP is bringing together ocean researchers, volunteers from environmental organizations, informal educators, and local youth groups for day-long field-research learning experiences on Puget Sound. These field experiences strive to give the diverse participant groups a better appreciation for the process of science, how oceanographic data is collected, and an increased understanding of the Puget Sound ecosystem and the role humans play in the ecosystem’s health. This collaboration has benefited the non-scientists and scientists alike. In this presentation, we will discuss our approach, and provide examples of the successes and challenges encountered during this collaboration.
