Progress 08/01/23 to 07/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience of this grant project is 100 at-risk youth. This grant in the five years ( we are requesting another NCE due to shipping delays) has helped youth across the VI to learn about ag, water resources, and conservation methods while learning about ways to increase food security in the territory and ways that ANR are in need of protection due to limited resources across the VI. In doing so the project has worked with teachers across STT, STJ, and STX to bring in speakers, STEM kits and learning tools that increase understanding of our connection to engineering, infrastructure, and the need to increase educational experiences that are hands-on as many youths enjoy and learn better in this format so in the USVI via this project we have been hard at work t bring careers sessions to schools, provide STEM field trips to UVI where they youth can visit a farm, talk with engineering and other in STEM fields to get an idea of what they do and education, jobs and career paths they do it. This bridges people who look like the students and the STEM field to bring about awareness and further youth interest in STEM education in our community. Changes/Problems:More funding for staffing as we are all in soft money and more funds for youth in vocational trades vs those just interning - we need to offer funding for both types of youth and that was something I did not consider but am working to address in new projects as I write for funding. Not every youth will get a degree but lots go to college so exposing them and encouraging them with internships and voc training is HUGE!!! Also, the need outweighs funding. I could do 3000 youth with funding but, we are small and often underfunded, so we do what we can with what we have but I can say - they are INTERESTED!!! and READY to learn!! Thank you!! What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The trainings wereconducted inthe following areas- -Water Quality to share chemistry education in Schools -Soil Quality to increase interest in soil science -We set up new rain gauges and gave 7 teachers gauges. For us, that it is part of a broader movement which is desperately needed to develop a strong mathematical and scientific underpinning that students require to be competitive in the 21st-century workforce. In doing so, the pilot program ROCKET delivered engages youth programs in these subject matters by allowing them to take part in participatory research, career chats, and community dialogues along with hands-on lab and classroom opportunities in STEM education.Drought has been harsh for the past 11 years and so we are connecting health and climate a well as agriculture overall to our communities' need forfood security. In doing so, researchersrocketry kits, and chemistry kits for soil and water sampling connected to food production, and trained teachers in lab skills at UVI in the chemistry lab and youth in the practical applications and how they can be used along with drone technology and VR education to further understand hydrology and their watersheds across the USVI. They had a blast, the speakers who shared careers and college pathways had a ball and we collected a lot of new data in areas where we had none such as photos and volunteers for field work which was exciting for all of us. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes, we have had articles, completed videos, and also worked with youth in junior high school to create videos for our programs. The purpose was tocreateand discuss their work climate and natural resources such as water and air quality as it relate to ag to support scientific communication at UVI with this project! What a fun, enjoyable way to share our work and what youth in the VI are doing with UVI and funding from USDA NIFA! The PD and co'I's have had a great time exploring science and education with the youth who are now over 500 in the USVI who have been through the program. It's been a success. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are asking for an NCE. We want to do more engineering as ag requires a lot of engineering and that was one area youth were interested in exploring so we are going to do some UVI and Govt of the VIdirected careers for engineering and ag in the upcoming year. This way upon graduation from UVI they can consider jobs with local partners including the government of the VI. However due to staffing shortages, supply chain issues, and also many cost increases due to the purchasing of supplies - we are working to get another NCE to spend out the final bits of funds we have left. Covid killed my program and so now, getting back to speed which is fun, and the youth and educators LOVE it!
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We held the following events in support of this project- Teacher training with five teachers in the k-12 system in June of 2023. We had more than 500 youth take part in our programs Field trips to UVI (2) for HS youth Field 5 trips to Etelman Observatory- UVI's observatory to meet with interns, talk about programs, and learn about precipitation and data collection being conducted across the territory to support water access as we rooftop collect. USDA, NASA, and NOAA all work with the UUVI toprovideopportunities in STEM to help reinforce higher ed and showcase STEM career and internship opportunities for youth who will be entering the 21stCentury Workforce. This year in the program, researchers believed STEM is more than just a grouping of subject areas such as math, science, physics, and chemistry so post-COVID we went for hands-on, interactive activities to get the youth re-engaged and immersed in education. . Researchers involved in ROCKET all agreed that showcasing STEM and college pathways via field trips was a fun, interactive way to engage youth.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
VIDA annual Ag Meeting on Water Resources; June 2023; STT, USVI
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
EPA R2 Science Consortium; July 2023; STT, USVI ( online)
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Progress 08/01/22 to 07/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The USVI is a low-resource rural community. It is divided by the ocean and consists of three islands which can only be reached by ferry or plane.The target audience of this program is junior and high school youth in public private, parochial, and home schools. The audience is to include more than 200 youth in the program each year. ROCKET works to enhance classes such as physics, chemistry, and math to offer more hands-on tools and active training that will provide new tools, supplies, and materials needed for expanding interest across disciplines to create an added and stronger interest in STEM education for junior high and high school youth while also reinforcing learning in these courses. The goals and objectives of the project are as follows: 1. Increase student participation in STEM activities 2. Increase student literacy in Math/Science literacy 3. Increase student literacy on water resources and conservation 4. Increase student literacy in water and soil quality 5. Increase student literacy in health and climate as they relate to food security USDA, NASA, and NOAA all work with the US Department of Education by providing opportunities in STEM to help bolster the pathway to higher education and reinforce opportunities for youth who will be entering the 21st Century Workforce. At UVI CES and in this program, researchers believe STEM is more than just a grouping of subject areas such as math, science, physics, and chemistry. UVI CES and program researchers involved in ROCKET all agree that it is part of a broader movement that is desperately needed to develop a strong mathematical and scientific underpinning that students require to be competitive in the 21st-century workforce. Changes/Problems:Problems include the obvious and include the following; 1-Teachertraining in the UVI chemistry lab so we can really get back to our original goal of increasing training for teachers through this grant. This offers a good opportunity to create team building, and learning in a peer-to-peer environment so the teachers can share their knowledge, work cohesively and share ideas that work in areas of stem ed in the classroom. 2-Increase STEM supply spending to complete the final purchases of supplies that we were unable to access due to supply chain issues; work closer with our procurement teams to do this. It's certainly a team effort so working across the university system is vital in completing this project. 3-Work on working with vendors who will do free ground for us to Miami to reduce costs related to shipping; this is a huge challenge at the moment and all we can do is work to try to get better pricing but because we are in the territory it is much, much harder to get supplies. 4-Do more pricing analysis as the higher costs due to inflation are killing the project. These are now 30% higher than they were when the project was submitted. This makes having a small grant a bit harder as the costs of materials and supplies have just been a hardship overall and it's even harder to do her as everything is shipped in. 5-Increase the number of youth to another 200 as the program can support it as we have in the past so that goal is still attainable and since youth are back in classrooms, it should be easier to get a new group across the USVI involved and engaged in the project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have done water quality training and also some soil test kit training but it's been hard to get back to our normal training schedule as this year, the district has moved the school year to accommodate the college entrance at UVI and across the nation. Due to this, it has been a harder year to schedule as much of that is done in the summer. In normal years, we do this at UVI in the chemistry lab and we host many teachers over the summer months to come in and learn about equipment ( EPA equipment loaner program) and also teach them how to use the new kits we were able to bring in new kits that were simpler and could be used in one science lesson for up to 30 students working in groups. We have been hit by supply chain issues so it was challenging getting more kits in that could aid us- weather balloons for instance could not be purchased due to a lack of materials from our vendors. So in some instances, we stayed the course using NASA resources to help drive the rocketry and stem components of this and push out the drone video to drive the ANR components to complete the project. To be honest, it was not what I would have thought when we submitted but all of the changes have been a blessing as we used developmental evaluation which allows us to change the project to meet the goals so, I was confined in outcomes, but the whole supply chain issues has been a true challenge. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Videos, studentpresentations, and formal presentations in the community and at conferences and professional meetings have been the best way to disseminate the successes and challenges of our efforts. Also, for the past two years, we have had several classes in the program along with Addeliate Cancryn Junior High School submit videos at the annual NASA Outreach event which showcases engineering ideas, water resources, and drone videos by youth and presented to NASA scientists so that they can have an opportunity to learn from their peers and also share their work on a broader scale. This has included more than 13k youth online. More than 500k saw these videos as presented by UVI and the youth in the program including more than 22 states, 30 countries, and two insular territories. The dissemination of this project has been the centerpiece of the project because the youth are for the first time in NASA's outreach efforts in the USVI being able to present directly to them as a cohort of the USDA grant which is being reported on at this time. These have been the highlights of our efforts and these arethe things I am most proud of - the youth of the USVI have crossed all barriers including a lack of access to educational material post two cat 5 's in 20217 and being displaced in classrooms that are temporary as we rebuild - to showcase their talent, resilience, and dedication to education. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next round, if the NCE is approved, I will complete the following: 1. Increase student participation in STEM activities by another 200 youth this year. 2. Increase student literacy in Math/Science literacy This was a fun project to include many engineering projects and using math and applied physics to show that we use these skills in everything, not just homework. 3. Increase student literacy about water resources and conservation includingdrought 4. Increase the STEM supply orders related to physics, chemistry, and biology to promote more youth going into stem pathways post-high school. 5. Include drone training for youth as UVI has a new program where youth can get their drone pilot's license for this and we want to leverage that and offer youth the opportunity to do so and become drone pilots which can aid us in environmental monitoring cross the USVI for the benefit of the USDM's related to drought data collection. .
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Accomplished under this reporting period are the following: We accomplished more than I thought post-COVID and returned in person.The following are some of the highlights accomplished on this project: 1. Increase student participation in STEM activities. The program was able to help share the idea that STEM pathways are more than just hard science and include things like writing, video, VR technology, and art, which are not really seen by many as part of STEM. We included script writing again this year for the video which was a fun, interactive way to help youth learn more about scientific communication. Of the more than 200 youth that benefited from the project, we felt that we must continue to motivate youth to be aware of ways that science and society intertwine and this creates new pathways for careers such as we are seeing at this time. 2. Increase student literacy in Math/Science. This was a fun project to include many engineering projects and using math and applied physics to show that we use these skills in everything, not just homework. More than 200 youth participated in the program. The fun part of this was that youth became so excited about doing the hands-on projects it actually worked as a way to invite and invest them into the science we were working on but allowed them to be THOUGHT Leaders dealing with real-world problems they had to work to solve. This was not only exciting for the youth and teachers but also for those who observed their efforts. We built bridges using popsicle sticks and paper rockets. 3. Increase student literacy about water resources and conservation via drone videos to further educate youth about conservation and erosion. The drought helped us to discuss this and the fires in the US also helped us to understand that we need to work on issues as communities in order to be able to adjust our needs and technology to the culture, ages, and systems they have to use in the world they will inherit. This program is solutions based and it was important as the youthwere able to work in teams to solve and compare problems that face our community related to ag, water resources, conservation, and food security. In doing so, we did a training with teachers where we worked on practical applications for them to work with youth such as drone video, providing stem kits, and increasing engineering kits so that more hands-on activities can be utilized in our schools that are participating in the program. Drone video changes a perspective as they can be seen from the air, and also ways to clean them up as an in-class lesson. 4. Increase student literacy in water and soil quality. The WQ training and activities have been fun and the youth definitely have the water down but they are not doing as well connecting itto food and to better health. I think driving the message that if the soil and water are contaminated, they too would get sick so I think I need to review ways to do more hands-on with soil once we get fully back in class this next school year. 5. Increase student literacy in health and climate as they relate to food security which has been done by doing hands-on activities and also using stem kits to promote learning in the classroom. The teachers are supplied with kits, tools, and trainingso having this project offer 20teachers tools in the class to leverage NGSS has been a blessing to many.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
NASA Teacher Education Conference; Kennedy Space Center; 2023
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
USVI Department of the Natural Resources and Planning; Outreach event of community collaborations; 2022; online
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
USVI Tettirorial Ag Plan; Water Resources in the USVI; 2022; online
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Progress 08/01/21 to 07/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The Research and Outreach Within Our Community To Keep Education On Target: Rocket Ambassadors - aims to redirect at-risk, low-resource youth across the USVI to bolster the workforce and plan for the 21 century. It introduced over 100 youth to good water and landscape conservation practices, data collection, and drought monitoring, using STEM and rocketry to share the status of hydrologic systems. Students learned the connection of water and soil to food safety and how to report on their watersheds. This was exciting as they did not know they could as students in public, private and parochial schools could actually contribute to real research. Working with a variety of researchers from across UVI who are all working with various colleagues at the University of Indiana who prepared historic analyses and shared them with students in small groups that showed how they worked in determining extreme drought patterns and related weather. Rocketryintroduced teachers to resources from NASA and teaching tools and lesson plans that would help them with the NGSS and with concepts of data collection and atmospheric occurrences. Youth were able to speak to and share their goals, dreams, and aspirations of science with researchers far and wide -- and they even got to share their work with professionals from across the NASA system which was exciting. Changes/Problems:The major thing was going from in-person which was going so well to online and hybrid which was challenging for many reasons. I put in for an NCE as I want to give one last effort to this project since COVID impacted it. I think online while great was not a good way to host a hands-on project. It made things harder, lessons were difficult to deliver and once we got going with the hybridthings did improve but the contact stops and starts were all-encompassing. Add in the shipping delays and the lack of tech tools and chips (memory cards) we needed for our activities and we were really behind the 8-ball. But overall, the challenges were a good thing for the youth to see. Teachers and I agreed that although it was not always easy, life isn't easy or fair so we powered through. They had great ideas, we split projects into groups of schools and each got to share their work so it was engaging and relevant but not my choice overall. Ireally like being with the youth in the schools and so do our team members so for us - we are coming back at it one more year to finalize and deliverthe best program ever as we are back in the schools in the FALL!!! What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We conducted online teacher training. It was fun, but not as well attended as the in-person training we have had. We also worked with NASA andwe used tools from the NASA website so we could encourage the use of online resources while we sheltered in place during COVID and we also gave out lots of kits including solar cars, Stem kits, physics kits, and we even shared a bit of film making so they could learn about ways to communicate the science they are learning. This was fun. We had a group that created a rap, some that did a mini film, and others who were just very excited to see that art in part is STEM. This was a great way to extend that science learning from science knowledge to science communication. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We made one cool video that was really exciting but we needed more time and since there were so many stops and starts with COVID it appeared we had never really hit the numbers needed for the project so we worked outside the box. We helped several assemblies with NASA over the TEAMS systems to engage youth in areas of STEM that allowed them to see themselves in science and also allowed one group of junior high school youth to share their work with NASA. This was very exciting as the youth presented their work to them and then NASA presented their careers. It was very interesting to see how the youth interacted with NASA and vice versa. We shared this on TEAMS, Youtube and Facebook. Dr. Lawrence and her team even took part in one of our sessions geared towards college youth and exploring internships. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This was a very hard year. I asked for NCE as we need to get to the youth in person and to the teachers. Felt the supplies were only as good as the training and since we were somewhat hybrid, it was hard to get it all accomplished - really feel like the teachers andstudents deserve better and they should but after two years of COVID and two CAT 5 storms - I'm going to go all out and complete this with the tools left to give them a better view of what's next in their pathway to higher education at UVI. I also am hoping to have a video competition on sciencecommunication.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We accomplished more than I thought during COVID. The following are some of the highlights accomplished on this project: 1. Increase student participation in STEM activities The program was able to help share the idea that STEM pathways are more than just hard science and include things like writing, video, VR technology, and art, which are not really seen by many as part of STEM. Of the more than 200 youth that benefited from the project, we felt it was vital that we motivate youth to be aware of ways that science and society intertwine and this creates new pathways for careers such as we are seeing at this time. 2. Increase student literacy in Math/Science literacy This was a fun project to include many engineering projects and using math and applied physics to show that we use these skills in everything, not just homework. The fun part of this was that youth became so excited about doing the hands-on projects it actually worked as a way to invite and invest them into the science we were working on but allowed them to be THOUGHT Leaders dealing with real-world problems they had to work to solve. This was not only exciting for the youth and teachers but also for those who observed their efforts. 3. Increase student literacy about water resources and conservation The drought helped us to discuss this and the fires in the US also helped us to understand that we need to work on issues as communities in order to be able to adjust our needs and technology to the culture, ages, and systems they have to use in the world they will inherit. This was important as they were able to work in teams to solve and compare problems and SOLUTIONS!! In doing so, we did a training with teachers where we worked on practical applications for them to work with youth such as oil spills which can be seen from the air, and also ways to clean them up as an in-class lesson. 4. Increase student literacy in water and soil quality This is ongoing. They definitely have the water down but they are not doing as well connecting the pool to food and to better health. I think driving the message that if the soil and water are contaminated, they too would get sick so I think I need to review ways to do more hands-on with soil once we get fully back in classthis next school year. 5. Increase student literacy in health and climate as they relate to food security Weshared with youth how they could plant home gardens and gave out ideas for ways to replant the USVI post storms of 2017 by using rockets to blow seeds into the air. Most agreed that was silly but it did give way to conversations about ways to replant the islands post storms and why we need a secure food source in the USVI. Food security along with water security is vital here and around the world, so this was something we talked about a lot during our sessions. Albeit online was not as engaging, it did have a few ways we were able to get them excited about STEM and rocketry and much of that had to do with finding those in our communities affiliated with NASA and ways to engage them in the classroom talks we delivered online. The students were grateful, excited to learn, and shared a lot about what they thought about rockets, planes and since NASA and SPACE-X are doing so much in news it helped tremendously to share that message of technology and jobs in the 21st Century because we were and are working on rocketry, soil,water and food security in the USVI.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
UVI Hazard Migitation Plan Meeting
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
USVI Governor's Water Task Force
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Progress 08/01/20 to 07/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience of this project is 100 youthin public, private, parochial, and home school. The purpose is to increase at-risk youth interest and understanding of STEM by using rocketry as a way to teach lessons in science, math, and natural resources and to increase their curriculum in both STEM education and the NGSS standards in a fun, hands-on way that is exciting. It provides students with an understanding of their own watershed and how they affect it. It includes lessons on weather and climate, watershed function, the water cycle, human water consumption, the functioning of the weather stations, and aquifers, and it introduces at-risk and underserved youthto learn methodsfor collecting their own observations on the watersheds in which they live. In addition to in-school lessons, students wereintroduced to methods for reporting their own observations using web-based mapping applications set up by using the GeoCAS geographic and map data servers. This has been impacted slightly due to COVID-19, but we are working on that now. Also using rocketry with at-risk, underserved youth helps to introduce them to engineering and design. Changes/Problems:The major problems involved in the project included COVID-19 which limited our in-person meetings. Once the schools were in a shelter in place mode it was difficult to continue so we just ordered supplies and acted as a resource, as much as possible, while teachers worked to collectively handle Zoom delivered teaching and hybrid methods as everyone waited for the vaccine.I think once back in full swing (next Fall) the need for this project will exceed funding and youth will be thrilled to take part in it. I am hopeful that next year we will do: -Teacher/educator training to extend knowledge and include more teachers so we can provide more UVSI youth in the program -Volunteer support training (parents/ UVI youth volunteers) -Purchase more physics kits and robotics kits -Plan a final event that the youthcan take part in via ZOOM (virtual to launch if we can't compete). What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The big things for professional development include the teacher training that was conducted in February of last year, where more than seven (7) teachers and two (2) principals participated. The training focused on ways to incorporate engineering into projects and programs already happening at the school that would or could complement the project including SEAPerch which was canceled due to COVID-19 but allowed us to share information on programming, physics, and also teachers who had experience with those subjects and those who did not, so we could pair them for advance training. This was also helpful for the two (2) paraprofessionals who are also working with the groups to learn more about STEM tools that can be used in the classroom with students as a way to engage them in hands-on learning concepts in STEM with practical applications. The training was a good way to show educators that science and engineering can be used to support physics, chemistry, and robotics in the classroom which is a key output of this project. Youth in St Croix also took part in rocketry competitions in a safe socially distanced capacity but nothing like what could have been done if COVID-19 had not impacted the school year and the youth attending the competitions. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The project has been presented in class, in socially distanced groups, and virtually to the groups of youth who are coming into the grades that were not exposed to it, as well as on social media, which was deemed largely successful due to the number of likes and comments. All of the competitions were canceled as was the travel associated with them and so major media sources or publicity through the media was not and won't really be accessed until the project is more visible in the community post-COVID-19. With vaccines opening up it appears this project will likely be highly successful once we as a society open up again. next year will be better as we will be back in the fall and we can charge ahead with specific goals, related to the project, that were derailed due to COVID-19. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I am hoping the competition(s) on a local level will be able to takeplace in the next school year but we are planning another teacher training to get the information out to teachers along with supplies that we have for them. They should want to be a part of the project and our project team feels this will be a great kickoff to reigniting this project post-COVID-19 which hampered it post two Cat 5 storms which devastated the schools, the economy, and our islands and their infrastructure overall.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The youth took part in a variety of activities including learning about weather stations, reviewing maps where they are located in the USVI, and also how to build rockets using both kits and supplies they have at home. This was successful but limited dueto COVID-19 which impacted some activities. Even before COVID-19 was fully impacting the schools, families were nervous about large group meetings so much of the hands-on activities were either done via groups lessons in class, or on ZOOM. The competitions were scrapped due to COVID-19 but the students did a demonstration of their efforts in the days before the pandemic began to fully ramp up. Youth also took part in working on their rockets, building them, learning to launch them, andalso photographed and videotapedtheir efforts. Some were more successful than others but most worked cohesively to help one another, which was a good indicator that they saw themselves as a group or community of rocket scientists working alongside the likes of major space operations. The biggest thing this project has done over the past year is that it connected youth to youth during a tough and challenging time for most while riding engineering concepts and spreading the message that STEM can be fun and engaging. Physics kits were purchased and used by the youth in the program and that too was a big hit with at-risk and underserved youth. Once we get back in class this project will morph into the exciting project it was intended to be but due to COVID-19, was not as hands-on as possible due to sheltering in place and hybrid classes.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
the Tropical Island Water Futures: Water for People and Ecosystems in the Face of Change Conference from April 12-15, 2021.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
UVI EpSCor Hazard Mitigation Meeting 2021
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