SCIENCE OUTREACH IN THE COMMUNITY
Members of the Ecosystems Center staff judge community and state science fairs for students in kindergarten through grade 12 and mentor junior high school students as they research their projects. The center also continues its participation in the Woods Hole Science and Technology Education Partnership (WHSTEP), providing assistance to teachers and students in the local school systems. Senior research assistant Matthew Erickson gave an overview of research in Antarctica to teachers from Upper Cape Cod schools at WHSTEP’s annual dinner and meeting in 2008.
Ecosystems Center staff members serve on many town committees, including the Falmouth Planning Board and Conservation Commission, Falmouth Associations Concerned with Estuaries and Salt Ponds, the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, the Falmouth Coastal Resources working group, the Nutrient Management working group and the Falmouth Ashumet Plume Nitrogen-Offset Committee.
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 Home > Education
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EDUCATION
The Ecosystems Center is actively involved in education in a variety of ways. In addition to teaching in the Semester in Environmental Science, center scientists serve as adjunct professors and advisors in the Brown-MBL Graduate Program, members of doctoral committees and mentors for postdoctoral scientists and undergraduate interns. The center staff also takes part in a range of community outreach activities to increase public understanding of science.
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SEMESTER IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
The Semester in Environmental Science (SES) is offered each fall by the Ecosystems Center. SES is a 15-week program in environmental science offered to students enrolled in colleges participating in the MBL Consortium in Environmental Science. More than sixty colleges and universities have approved the SES for credit. Students from non-affiliated colleges and universities may receive credit for the semester through Brown University... More>>>
UNDERGRADUATE INTERNSHIPS
With funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and other groups, the Ecosystems Center has offered many college students the opportunity to undertake summer projects at research sites. Undergraduates have conducted research projects through NSF’s Research Experience for Undergraduate program, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coastal Internship program, the Woods Hole Marine Science Consortium or independently. Their projects have ranged from an experiment to determine algae growth in marshes at Plum Island estuary in northern Massachusetts to a study of denitrification in the Arctic tundra in Alaska.
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BROWN/MBL GRADUATE PROGRAM IN BIOLOGICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Four students are working with Ecosystems Center scientists in the MBL’s graduate program with Brown University. Gillian Galford is studying regional and global consequences of the expansion of mechanized agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon with Jerry Melillo of the Ecosystems Center and Jack Mustard of Brown. Shelby Hayhoe is looking at the effect of land use change on biogeochemical cycling in tropical systems, focusing on agricultural conversion in the Amazon. Her advisors are Christopher Neill of the Ecosystems Center and Stephen Porder from Brown. Yawei Luo's research with Dr. Ducklow and Warren Prell of Brown uses numerical simulation models to study plankton dynamics and nutrient cycling with emphasis on the open ocean. Lindsay Brin is examining how temperature influences nitrogen pathways in estuaries and mangroves. Her advisors are Anne Giblin from the Ecosystems Center and Jeremy Rich from Brown. Learn more about the Brown/MBL Program here.
SCIENCE JOURNALISM PROGRAM
The Ecosystems Center has participated in the MBL’s Science Journalism Program (SJP) since its inception in 1986.
In 2008, 10 journalists, led by Chris Neill, participated in the Polar Fellowship program and conducted hands-on research with center scientists at the Arctic Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site at Toolik Lake, Alaska. A number of interviews, articles and blogs resulted from their two-week stay at Toolik. Three polar fellows and Dr. Neill will also spend a month next winter at the Palmer Station LTER on the Antarctic peninsula.
Dates for the 2009 Polar Fellowship program are June 19-30. For more information, see the SJP web site or email Chris Neill (cneill@mbl.edu) or Andrea Early (aearly@mbl.edu).
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SCHOOLYARD LONG-TERM ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROJECTS
The three MBL-based Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) projects have received supplemental funding from NSF to promote educational activities near their sites. The Arctic Schoolyard LTER is based at Barrow, Alaska, and designed for students, mostly Native American Inupiat, their teachers and local residents. It consists of Schoolyard Saturday, a weekly series of lectures and field demonstrations by visiting scientists, and two field activities for Barrow students and teachers. One field experiment measures the effects of climate warming on tundra vegetation; the second experiment measures changes in lake water chemistry.
The Plum Island Ecosystem Schoolyard LTER is conducted in cooperation with the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Salt Marsh Science Project, and provides ongoing professional development for teachers in the greater Boston area. Through another component of the Plum Island Schoolyard program, middle and high school students from the region continued their long-term monitoring of salt marshes for vegetation, invasive species, salinity levels, and salt marsh fish.
The Palmer Station LTER collaborates with a number of educational organizations to create interdisciplinary projects that are based on research by scientists at Palmer Station in Antarctica. Palmer's program participates in several International Polar Year (IPY) projects, which include video and audio podcasts and a web-based Picture of the Day. A children's book, another IPY project, will be accompanied by an activity guide expanding the concepts in the book to reach a wider audience.
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