Workforce Development for Environmental Literacy

Objectives

• To provide 5 professional development opportunities per year for K-12 teachers and nonformal educators on coastal topics.
• To offer work experiences, internships, or fellowships in environmental education to 3 individuals per year.

Methodology

Professional Development Opportunities Professional learning opportunities for formal and nonformal educators allow for the integration and translation of research to the classroom and thus to K-12 students. Workshops deepen teacher content knowledge, increase teacher confidence and self-efficacy in topical areas and often serve to re-enthuse teachers for the upcoming school year. Research has shown that effective professional development workshops involve active learning (Darling-Hammond et al 2009), deeper knowledge of content (Blank et al. 2008, collaborative learning (Supovitz and Turner 2002, Jaquith at al. 2010), and modeling classroom instruction (Guskey and Yoon 2009, Gardner et al. 2019, Wojnowski and Pea 2013). The Mississippi Alabama Sea grant Consortium (MASGC) Education Team encompasses 3 facilities, Discovery Hall Programs (DHP) at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (AL), the Marine Education Center (MEC) at the University of Southern Mississippi (MS), and the Environmental Studies Center (ESC) for the Mobile County Public School System (AL). 

All 3 informal education centers will offer professional learning opportunities to K-12 in service and pre-service teachers and nonformal educators on topics relevant to Sea Grant focus areas, state science standards and Ocean Literacy Principles. 

Workshops offered will include both in-person and virtual options. Workshops may focus on a single topic and be of short duration or extend over several days and cover a wider body of information. Workshops will follow best practices, including expertise from researchers, field or hands-on learning, and time to explore activities that will be used in classrooms or teaching environments. Workshops will include assessment and evaluation components, typically pre/post testing to assess knowledge gain and evaluations to inform attitudinal changes, teacher/educator self-efficacy and logistical aspects such as facility/ technology/ field operations. Support of workshop opportunities such that there is no cost to participants lowers barriers to participation. Workshops are open to all interested educators, however, educators from the MASGC area will have priority. 

The MEC will provide Changing Coastlines, a teacher/educator professional development workshop, each year. The workshop will address workforce development for environmental literacy by providing innovative educator training, using outdoor data collection related to restoration monitoring. It will include a classroom session to introduce career opportunities and workforce development paths specific to restoration, sustainability, and healthy coastal ecosystems. This workshop will be under the leadership of Dr. Jessica Kastler, Director of the Marine Education Center. 

The ESC will provide a professional development workshop for teachers and other educators, Coastal Ecology, each year. Coastal Ecology will be offered to 8th grade and secondary teachers in the Mobile County Public School System and is coupled with an environmental education field trip during the school year for their students. Coastal Ecology is open to any Mobile County Public high school teacher in a STEM discipline. Participation in the workshop is required for subsequent support of the student field trip. Coastal Ecology is under the leadership of Dr. Tracy Jay, Director of the Environmental Studies Center. 

DHP will provide 2 at least workshop opportunities for teachers/educators per year; a field-oriented summer multi-day workshop geared for educators working with younger students (elementary and middle school age students) as well as either a virtual or in-person workshop focused on current coastal science or emerging coastal issues for those teachers/educators working with older students. These latter workshops, titled Gulf Environmental Issues, and subtitled with a specific focus will vary in topics from year to year. Field-oriented summer workshops will also vary in topic each year integrating current coastal issues and formal education science standards (AL will adopt new standards in 2024) as well as Ocean Literacy Principles. 

Workshop titles will vary to reflect curricular focus and enable participation and professional development credit by all interested. DHP professional learning opportunities are under the leadership of the Discovery Hall Programs Chair, Dr. Tina Miller-Way. Internships and work experiences Internships and work experiences provide opportunities for students to investigate a field of study or area of employment more deeply. 

As there are few undergraduate degree programs in environmental education, an environmental education internship provides students with direct experience in this career field, which is expected to grow 11 over the next 10 years. Research has shown that internships can increase student retention in STEM (Dansberry 2012, Papadimitriou 2014), improve academic performance (Binder et al 2015), improve students’ skills (Dansberry 2012), positively impact a students’ early career outcomes (Saltikoff 2017) and promote personal growth (Borgerding 2015). Paid internships increase intern enthusiasm and satisfaction and positively impact student career success (NACE 2019). MASGC education organizations will offer internships or work experiences to provide direct experience in environmental education for college and high school students. Interns and student workers will experience the many facets of outdoor, STEM and science education, including conducting outreach, program design and development, animal care, exhibit maintenance, research results translation and transfer, skills and technology tool development and direct experiences with P-12 students – engaging students, classroom management, field trip safety considerations, hands-on activities, and outdoor education pedagogy. 

Interns also become familiar with Gulf coast organisms, ecosystems, and current and emerging issues of the region. Following NOAA guidelines, these are all paid opportunities lowering barriers to participation. The ESC will offer an internship in exhibit maintenance and animal care during the school year for a college level student majoring in a STEM subject. The intern will assist in care of rehabilitation animals as well as exhibit maintenance on the ESC grounds. The intern will work part-time and be paid an hourly wage. Through this internship, the individual will gain knowledge of coastal animals, coastal habitats, animal care requirements, environmental education operations, and develop essential job skills. DHP will offer a 9-week summer internship in environmental education to an undergraduate student.

In collaboration with Mobile County Public School Systems Work Based Learning program, DHP will also host a part-time intern from a Mobile County high school. Interns will assist in all aspects of Discovery Hall’s summer programs, day camps, overnight camps, marine science class, teacher workshops and summer outreach. Interns will learn about Gulf coastal flora and fauna and coastal ecosystems, the use and care of common environmental sensors and technology and sampling gear, gain experience on vessels, explore outdoor education pedagogies and the unique challenges of outdoor education, develop strategies for managing and interacting with children, and interact daily with a group of role models (DHP educators and DHP Summer Counselors) with varied backgrounds and perspectives. Collegiate interns will be paid a stipend and provided housing and board at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab during the internship. 

The high school student intern will work approximately half-time and paid an hourly wage. Weekly meetings will assess comfort, confidence and progress, inform interns about Sea Grant and NOAA organizations and opportunities, CV/resume development, mentoring, and career pathways. Exit interviews, subsequent requests for recommendations, retention in STEM fields, or job placements indicate potential impacts. 

Anticipated Deliverables: 

1. Provide appropriate and innovative teacher and educator training by hosting at least 5 workshops annually reaching approximately 170 classroom, nonformal, and pre-service educators annually with professional learning opportunities. Workshops format will vary, but all will follow best practices integrating content knowledge experts, hands-on experiences, and student-centered activities. Assessments will measure content knowledge gain, while evaluations will address educator self-efficacy and perceived workshop value.
2. Host, support and mentor at least 3 (1 at each facility) undergraduate and high school students annually through internships or work experiences. Exit interviews, job placements, or retention in STEM fields will serve as measures of success.

Rationale

The America COMPETES calls for a significant investment in U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education (America Competes Act, 2011). Alabama and Mississippi face challenges in education. The Science and Engineering Readiness Index developed by the American Institute of Physics, places them in the lowest category possible (“far below average”) (Melina, 2011). In addition, Mississippi has the highest poverty rate of children (0-17) in the nation, and Alabama has the fifth-highest rate (USDA, 2022). 

There is a clear correlation between high poverty rates and low academic achievement (Lacour and Tissington, 2011). Nonformal and informal education as defined by NOAA, semi-structured or unstructured education that occurs outside of the classroom, has been recognized as playing a key role in improving STEM education (NOAA, 2020). An environmentally literate person is someone who has a fundamental understanding of the systems of the natural world, the relationships between the living and non-living environments and the ability to understand and utilize scientific evidence to make informed decisions regarding environmental issues (NOAA Strategic Education Plan 2009-2029). 

In 2003, the National Science Foundation’s Advisory Committee for Environmental Research and Education stated that “in the coming decades, the public will more frequently be called upon to understand complex environmental issues, assess risk, evaluate proposed environmental plans, and understand how individual decisions affect the environment at local and global scales. Creating a scientifically informed citizenry requires a concerted, systematic approach to environmental education.” Many federal organizations, including NOAA, recognize that the path to environmental literacy involves environmental education programs. 

This subproject will provide workforce development training to educators and early career professional throughout Mississippi, Alabama and beyond. Alignment to MASGC Goals: 

• Professional learning opportunities for teachers and nonformal educators at all 3 environmental education organizations provides audience appropriate and innovative teacher/educator training which leads to a diverse, skilled and environmentally literate workforce in traditional education careers. Through their students, teacher/educator training leads to a workforce that is engaged and able to build prosperous lives and livelihoods in a changing world through traditional and innovative careers. 
• Paid internships contribute to a diverse, skilled and environmentally literate workforce through developing students’ skills, knowledge base, confidence or self-efficacy and essential job skills which increase student success in job placement.