Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience: Primary audiences include: adults who work currently provide water education to youth; adults who currently provide youth programming but have not yet focused on water education; and youth with a focus on ages 11-17. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?ThinkWater provided both in-person and virtual opportunities for training and professional development. In person it has hosted "WE Thinks: A Water Education Summit" in Madison, Wisconsin, on November 4-5, 2014: an invitation-only event for leaders in water education. WE Thinks' purpose: -to explore how new approaches to teaching and learning will dramatically transform water education; -to showcase teaching strategies and tools that emphasize thinking in water education; -to bring attendees together to transform water education by shifting the emphasis from water to thinking; and -to provide a venue to develop this new vision in a highly interactive series of sessions. Attendees included more than fifty national and state leaders in water education, water science, education, cognitive science, evaluation, and youth development. Several participants have remained actively engaged and this has resulted in longer term collaborations. In particular, Arizona Project Wet has engaged in comprehensive implementation of ThinkWater and is sharing this with its national Project Wet networks as well as its Extension/4H networks. Virtual trainings and professional development includes an on-line training called "Systems Thinking in the Classroom" which is an interactive, 16-hour, free online training designed for formal and informal educators to learn to incorporate systems thinking into their lesson or classroom. Includes 4 hours of video and animations produced just for the course. Additionally three webinars provide additional learning. These are: ThinkWater Overview and Introduction, ThinkWater Water Lessons and Wetland in a Pan Thinkified Lesson demonstration. See #7 for additional detail. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?ThinkWater has engaged an outreach and dissemination strategy that includes conferences, publications, events, marketing and social media. In order to share and engage others around the goals, purpose, and strategy of ThinkWater, we developed a variety of informational materials, including a "deck" for presentation, overview 'brief' documents, a short introductory video called "We are ThinkWater." We built a website that serves as a main portal for all ThinkWater resources including tools, classes, examples, media, and blogs. A cornerstone of ThinkWater's work with educators is an online idea-lesson mapping system to help them translate better thinking into better water lessons for youth. The website includes an area to build, improve, share and comment on a whole range of water education lessons and curricula, along with video content and other communication devices. The website features access to MetaMap, a graphic/mapping software that both allows the visual communication of complex ideas and increases the user's aptitude at systems thinking. The website also allows access to free training resources such as "Teaching Thinking 101," a multi-part lesson in systems thinking. Additionally, the best of the best water lessons are crowd-sourced on the website, making it easy for other educators to use and adapt. A fundamental goal of Water Equals was to shift young people's consciousness around and relationship to water. This transcends instruction and incorporates focus on engaging hearts and minds of youth in the arenas (e.g., online, in multi-media format) they already frequently inhabit. The ThinkWater website features elements of our multi-media campaign targeting youth/student emotion, motivation, and cognition to demonstrate the importance of systems thinking and changing the paradigm of water education from information memorization to deep learning and content understanding based on thinking. This includes the award-winning, 2-minute informational "We Are ThinkWater" video, which introduces basic ThinkWater concepts and prompts viewers to learn more. This is supplemented by a 12-minute, award winning, filmic introduction to the four universal patterns of systems thinking (DSRP) called "A Little Film About a Big Idea." Key motivational components of the multi-media campaign were also developed and are accessible from the website. First, a spoken word video offers an emotional, motivational, and cognitive appeal to educators, students, and parents to incorporate systems thinking into educational content. The "Count Me In" single and music video offer a similar emotional, motivational, and cognitive appeal but primarily targeting students. The music was written in collaboration with young hip-hop artists and singers. Educational marketing materials include "9 Types of Thinking" card set (download this zipped set of .jpg files as individual cards. You can print and collect all 9 or print them individually for your classroom); "9 Types of Thinking Poster (Get a free digital classroom poster of the 9 Types of Thinking sponsored by ThinkWater); "Pro-social, Creative, and Critical Thinking" posters, "What is Meta-Thinking?" posters; advertising PSAs (Fish and Desert- 'the next big thing in water education...."); 2-page ThinkWater overview What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Evaluation findings are described below, however it is important to note that evaluation activities are on-going and will be reported as results are available. This project ended August 31, 2015 but due to some longitudinal evaluation efforts, findings will be reported in the coming year. A proof of concept study was conducted to discover initial implementation criteria and analysis on the differences between existing water lessons and thinkified lessons. The study was designed and implemented to better understand ThinkWater's approach and potential impact on youth water education. The study sample included middle school students from two different geographical sites and examined the impact of existing water education lesson plans and "thinkified" lesson plans that explicitly teach students the patterns of thinking and promote metacognition. Preliminary results support the effectiveness of the intervention, particularly in students' water content knowledge in pre-post assessments. In this study, data from 49 youth were analyzed, as well as interviews conducted with 6 students from each of 3 groups. We found statistically significant increases in understanding of water content in the thinkified lessons, as well as improved awareness of the thinking processes they used to master the content. A second pilot study in partnership with Arizona Project Wet focuses on the best ways to develop proficiency in systems thinking related to water. In this study, educators received 6 hours of online professional development to develop an understanding of ST concepts and tools. Additional training components focused on how the 3 educators could then train their 80 teachers to do the same thing. Teachers received 3 days of professional development facilitated by the educators who utilize the TST101 course in their training, in essence, "flipping" the experience.The teachers' online learning is facilitated by their own skill development. Students (approx.. 2400) receive water related content that has been thinkified by their own teacher. This study will be complete in spring 2016 and a final evaluation report will be made available after that time.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We developed an educational campaign comprised of a core national message, infrastructure and strategy to engage, educate and empower youth and adults to think and care about water. These deliverables are described within this report in various sections. The campaign is grounded in the work of leading systems theorist, Derek Cabrera, who is becoming recognized as having the unifying theory of all systems theory, as well as application of systems thinking to education reform. When applied to existing water curricula and programmatic efforts, our approach to building thinking capacity, results in deeper understanding of water content by youth. Activities and deliverables for specific objectives are described below: To attract the attention of young people and catalyze their thinking related to water The "COUNT ME IN" multi-media campaign uses music and video to target youth emotion, motivation, and cognition in order to engage them in thinking and caring about their own capacities for learning and action. It is empowerment focused and seeks to inspire youth to be agents in their own education. Products in this campaign include spoken word, music, video and web-based social action. To create, disseminate, and build cohesion among national stakeholders around a shared national message related to water National advisors and networks in diverse geographic and professional locations were engaged with through webinars, electronic newsletters and events.Others in the NIFA-Land Grant network were engaged through national conferences such as those hosted by the Soil and Water Conservation Society and National Integrated Water Quality Program. NIFA project directors across divisions and focal areas were kept informed through regular, annual or biannual updates and presentations.Outreach to national agencies and organizations included events and targeted communications. Some of these include: Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA, Department of Interior, National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, Girls Inc., NOAA. University students at University of Wisconsin, Cornell University, and other institutions were involved through class presentations, projects or internships.Through these means, as well as outreach materials such as the video short "We are ThinkWater" we've begun to build a shared national language and interest in systems thinking as it relates to water. To expose young people to a wide range of water careers and livelihoods Young people were exposed to diverse water careers through a set of resources describing "What is a WaterThinker?" These resources included a blog as well as profiles of people who have made interesting careers of being conventional and unconventional "water thinkers." Additionally, the film "A Little Film About a Big Idea" features several careers that involve water. To disseminate and foster the adoption/integration of the "Water Equals" (now ThinkWater) framework nationally In addition to on-going and targeted outreach efforts, the project hosted two events focused on engaging partners and stakeholders in learning about the ThinkWater approach. The first was held in the first year of the project and brought together key leaders from youth serving organizations; some of whom currently program in water and some who do not.The focus of this meeting was to understand the context in which a wide range of youth-serving programs operate, and to understand their needs for staff development in relation to their stated youth outcomes.The second event, "WE Thinks: A Water Education Summit" was hosted in year 4 of the project. The Summit themes of "Curiosity" and "Expect to be Different" brought together a diverse set of educators, evaluators, water scientists to learn in depth about ThinkWater and build a network across water but with a new shared language.Products from this event include posters, a journey map, downloadable educational resources and a conference video. Additionally, the ThinkWater approach was disseminated through marketing, publications, social media, video and other communication strategies already described. The effort has been covered in local media, such as Wisconsin's "Agri-View" publication, as well as national coverage such as Fox News. Our work has attracted the attention of various professional publications such as "Society and Natural Resources." To engender knowledge, caring, and engagement related to water; and to integrate these in our approach to education The basic framework that ThinkWater is built on teaches people about four simple steps our brains make when building knowledge. These include making distinctions (thing-not thing), seeing relationships, identifying systems (parts and wholes), and taking perspectives. All of these patterns of thinking help build knowledge, and with this, help develop empathy through improved capacity to take and understand perspectives; see relationships between cause and effect. Building DSRP capacity is embedded in all ThinkWater deliverables. To infuse water education into the "places youth inhabit: their homes, their communities, popular culture including social media, and to a lesser degree, school Described above in the response to #1. To provide professional development and better access to resources for adults interested in youth water education Development of, and capacity building on, educational resources to help adults engage youth with greater impact is a central aspect of the ThinkWater campaign. The ThinkWater website hosts a wide range of resources including: MetaMap content and systems thinking platform, ThinkQuery tool for educators/outreach specialists to map questions, several on-line self-paced courses and webinars (e.g. Systems Thinking 101), a set of "Thinkified Lessons" where we've taken the most popular water lessons and re-structured the content to build both thinking capacity and deeper understanding of water. Additionally we have included "how to" information for educators interested in re-framing their curricula by infusing systems thinking. The website also hosts a film and several video shorts that introduce core concepts and expected outcomes, networking, social media and other educational resources such as posters and samples. To create national visibility for USDA as a recognized leader in youth water education Project leaders have promoted USDA as a leader through presentations and responses to external interest in the work. Primary audiences have included other federal agencies (NOAA, DOE, NSF, EPA, Interior, Fish and Wildlife), national coalition of science museums,The Johnson Foundation ,and Pepsi. Additionally, the project has generated much localized interest from state agencies, school districts, Project Wet, and Extension services. The project has received several recognitions and awards including: 2015 21st Annual Communicator Award of Excellence Winner for Online Video. The Communicator Awards. New York, NY. 2015 21st Annual Communicator Award of Excellence Winner for Integrated Campaign.The Communicator Awards. New York, NY
Publications
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Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Year one of this project yielded numerous outputs with regard to each of the major components. The project, originally titled "Water Equals," created a campaign name of Youth Water United, as well as a corresponding vision and mission. The team responsible for the Educational Materials component created an educational model and framework, educational outcomes, a suite of 21 activities, and a career feature for the website. These were researched and tested as appropriate with youth and/or adults. The team responsible for the Marketing and Branding component delivered a Creative Brief, a logo, a character with name, a tagline and a style guide. Several of these were tested with youth. The team responsible for the Evaluation Component is completing and will soon deliver a baseline survey of programs and network analysis, as well as a formative feedback survey with component leads and key advisors. The team responsible for the Media component is completing the scripting and shooting of a promo video, as well as a temporary website, and a draft outline of the full website. The Youth Engagement component was put in place half way through year one and has focused on planning a comprehensive approach to engaging young people, in youth-adult partnerships. The team responsible for the Network and Community Engagement component has delivered a couple of conference presentations, a summary document from a face-to-face meeting with key partners in youth serving organizations, and bi or tri-monthly newsletters to the entire national network. The team responsible for Project Management has created an all-in-one resource book that contains all relevant project information, a detailed production schedule and timeline, on-boarding resources for national content reviewers and new advisors. PARTICIPANTS: The national project team includes professionals from a wide range of professional and geographic locations. Project team and network participants include: Project director, Dr. Jennifer Kushner (University of Wisconsin), Mr. Tom Bartholomay (University of Minnesota), Dr. Bret Shaw (University of Wisconsin), Dr. Reagan Waskom (Colorado State University), Dr. Greg Jennings (North Carolina State University), Dr. Chris Obropta (Rutgers University), Ms. Kate Reilly (University of Wisconsin), Ms. Debra Haller (Three Chicks Media, Inc.), Prof. Eric Hanson (University of Southern California), Prof. Norman Hollyn (University of Southern California), Dr. Holly Willis (University of Southern California, Dr. Matthew Calvert (University of Wisconsin), Dr. Tony Cook (Auburn University), Dr. Heather Darby (University of Vermont), Mr. Peter Mason (Association for Experiential Education), Mr. Beau Mitchell (College of Menominee Nation), Dr. Ryan Schmiesing (Ohio Community Service Council), Dr. Kerry Schwartz (Arizona Project Wet), Dr. Nancy Franz (Iowa State University), Ms. Jessica Jens (University of Wisconsin), Dr. Joanna M. Skluzacek (University of Wisconsin), Ms. Claire Antonucci (New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium), Ms. Gina DeMarco (Northern Rhode Island Conservation District), Dr. Brian Eisenhauer, (Center for the Environment), Ms. Julia Peterson (New Hampshire Sea Grant, University of New Hampshire), Ms. Laura Wilson (University of Maine), Dr. Tim Zimmerman (Rutgers University), Dr. Eve Brantley (Auburn University), Ms. Rhonda Britton (Alabama A&M University), Ms. Ashley Osborne (University of Kentucky), Dr. Amy Shober (University of Florida), Dr. Marnie Carroll (Dine College), Dr. Kitt Farrell-Poe (Arizona State University), Ms. Molly Flemate (Modesto Junior College), Ms. Meg Gonzalez (Tuolumne River Trust), Ms. Julie Kallenberger (Colorado State University), Ms. Nancy Mesner (Utah State University), Dr. Adam Sigler (Montana State University), Ms. Whitney Meredith (University of Minnesota), Ms. Nancy Kuehn (University of Wisconsin), Ms. Abby Katzman (Three Chicks Media, Inc.), Dr. Derek Cabrera and Dr. Laura Colosi (ThinkWorks, Inc.), Ms. Jennifer Fetterer (Penn. State University), Ms. Stacy Patterson (University of S. California), Mr. Gabriel Peters-Lazaro (University of S. California), Ms. Julie Benyo (Three Chicks Media, Inc.) Year one has also included several graduate students, and several dozen youth reviewers. TARGET AUDIENCES: The primary audience for this project is youth ages 10-13. Additional audiences include youth of other ages, their families, and adults working with youth in a range of non-formal and informal education settings PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
We have not begun to measure impact at this point, however this first year may have yielded impact in several areas. The first would be changes in thinking relative to how education is approached in the dominant paradigm. People potentially influenced include team members as well as participants at several conferences or meetings in which the YWU educational model and approach was introduced. Additionally, young people who have participated in focus groups to provide feedback on various elements, may be thinking differently about water as a result of their participation.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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