SUPPORTING UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING AND LEARNING ABOUT SOCIO-HYDROLOGICAL CHALLENGES THROUGH DATA-DRIVEN MODELING IN THE FANH SCIENCES

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: OTHER GRANTS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1027670
• Grant No.: 2020-70003-35995
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $272,173.97
• Proposal No.: 2021-11563
• Project Start Date: Sep 1, 2021
• Project End Date: Aug 31, 2024
• Grant Year: 2021
• Program Code: [ER]- Higher Ed Challenge

Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON
400 S CORN ST
ARLINGTON,TX 76019

Performing Department
Curriculum and Instruction

Non Technical Summary
The proposed 3-year CG1 project will support the development, implementation, and evaluation of a new postsecondary curriculum module grounded in an innovative, online, data-driven tool - HydroLearn - through which undergraduate students use national water datasets to explore, explain, reason, and make decisions about contemporary socio-hydrological challenges in the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus (FEW-Nexus). The pilot-tested, research-based instructional module will then be disseminated to 50 FANH science faculty members nationwide (Year 3) in the form of faculty development workshops, designed around core tenets of effective undergraduate STEM instruction, to support their implementation of these new resources in their own undergraduate courses. The goals of the project, which will be rigorously evaluated through discipline-based education research, are to enhance a) students' reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making about socio-hydrological systems through the use of data-driven water systems modeling tools and b) capacity of FANH faculty members to implement data-driven water systems modeling tools to support students reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making about socio-hydrological systems in undergraduate FANH courses. The proposed project leverages prior Federal investments in FEW-Nexus educational innovation, is directly aligned with USDA-NIFA's HEC Grants Program goals, and is grounded in state, national, and international STEM/FANH science education reform efforts. The project will impact undergraduate students across the United States, provide integrated, multidisciplinary, learner-centered instruction in the FEW-Nexus with an emphasis on socio-hydrological challenges, and will contribute to growth of a self-sustaining community of practice for instructional innovation through the HydroLearn platform and National Collaborative for Food, Energy, & Water Education.

Animal Health Component

80%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

20%

Applied

80%

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
903	0210	3020	100%

Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
0210 - Water resources;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;

Keywords

computational models

decision-making

systems thinking

undergraduate

water

Goals / Objectives
Table 1: Project SMART GoalsObjectives Measureable Impacts#1Enhance students' reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making about socio-hydrological systems through the use of data-driven water systems modeling toolsStatistically-significant increase in students' socio-hydrological reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making about SHIs#2Enhance capacity of FANH faculty members to implement data-driven water systems modeling tools in undergraduate FANH science coursesProvide training to 50 FANH faculty members who will implement the module in their undergraduate FANH science courses25% increase in FANH faculty members' knowledge and self-efficacy for teaching about SHIs

Project Methods
HydroLearn - HydroLearn is a web-based platform that promotes the development and adoption of active-learning resources for teaching and learning about water. HydroLearn uses modern web technologies to provide wide access to learning resources and enable educators to collaboratively develop, customize, and share innovative and rich learning material. Using the HydroLearn platform, educators can access real world hydrologic data and modeling tools, customize existing learning modules, build new lessons and learning activities, and share with students as course assignments. Students can also use the platform and access the existing content for independent, self-paced learning. We propose to expand HydroLearn in this project to serve the needs of the FANH science community. First, we will build upon HydroLearn's current capabilities to refine customized tools for developing learning goals and associated assessments (Figure 4). Second, we will further develop an internal FEW Web Application (App) that provides interactive access to water-food datasets at the watershed spatial scale and that builds upon a previously developed Energy-Water App (Figure 5; Habib et al., 2017-a).Figure 4: HydroLearn Tool for Building Student Learning Outcomes.Figure 5: HydroViz Energy-Water App.We will focus this module on Food-Water systems and their human dimensions grounded in an overarching concept of regional water balance. This perspective foregrounds water resource use for agricultural applications using both surface and subsurface water data from national datasets. This will allow users from across the U.S. to explore and investigate FEW-Nexus questions that are relevant and applicable to their local contexts. The new App will enable ongoing refinement and customization using the same data resources. This will significantly enhance the dissemination of our module and increase its implementation by a wider user group of FANH science faculty members in project Year 3 and beyond.The project will largely occur in two stages. First, in Year 1-2, the project team will develop, implement, test, and refine the HydroLearn-based module in the SCIL 109 course. Second, beginning in Year 2, we will shift focus onto development and implementation of the faculty development workshops, which will largely comprise Year 3. Project evaluation data will be collected in spring, 2020 and 2021 in conjunction with the SCIL 109 course, as well as throughout Year 3 in conjunction with the faculty workshops. Data analysis and dissemination will occur throughout the project period beginning in spring, 2020. We anticipating holding advisory board meetings each summer of the project in conjunction with annual project reporting. Project dissemination will occur throughout the project period. The project team will meet regularly (at least monthly) via Zoom throughout the project period, including regular instructor meetings associated with SCIL 109 during the spring, 2020 and 2021 semesters.Evaluation Plan - The project team will employ a variety of evaluation components to ensure both formative and summative evaluation of project activities and progress toward goals in Table 1. To inform formative evaluation throughout the project period, we will actively solicit feedback on project activities through the use of anonymous evaluation forms, comment cards, and focus group interviews with individual students and faculty. We have also assembled an advisory board comprised of individuals with expertise related to the project, which includes: (1) Jerad Bales, Ph.D., Executive Director, CUAHSI; (2) Jenny Dauer, Ph.D., Associate Professor, UNL; (3) Trenton Franz, Ph.D., Associate Professor, UNL; and (4) Hannah Scherer, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech. The advisory board will play a crucial role in providing formative feedback on project activities and evaluation throughout the project period. We will hold annual advisory board meetings to review and discuss project implementation and evidence related to the three project objectives (Table 1). Individual board members will also be consulted informally by the project team throughout the project period for feedback as needed.Summative evaluation involves classroom-based educational research to address project objectives. These procedures will be approved by the UNL Institutional Review Board to ensure participants are not placed at undue risk, that they give informed consent to their participation, and that their rights and welfare are protected throughout the project.

Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The 3-year CG1 project supported the development, implementation, and evaluation of a new undergraduate curriculum module grounded in an innovative, online, data-driven tool - HydroLearn - through which undergraduate students use national water datasets to explore, explain, reason, and make decisions about contemporary socio-hydrological challenges in the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus (FEW-Nexus). The pilot-tested, research-based instructional module was then disseminated to 50 FANH science faculty members nationwide (Year 3) in the form of faculty development workshops, designed around core tenets of effective undergraduate STEM instruction, to support their implementation of these new resources in their own undergraduate courses. The goals of the project, which will be rigorously evaluated through discipline-based education research, are to enhance a) students' reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making about socio-hydrological systems through the use of data-driven water systems modeling tools and b) capacity of FANH faculty members to implement datadriven water systems modeling tools to support students reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making about sociohydrological systems in undergraduate FANH courses. The proposed project leverages prior Federal investments in FEWNexus educational innovation, is directly aligned with USDA-NIFA's HEC Grants Program goals, and is grounded in state, national, and international STEM/FANH science education reform efforts. The project will impact undergraduate students across the United States, provide integrated, multidisciplinary, learner-centered instruction in the FEW-Nexus with an emphasis on socio-hydrological challenges, and will contribute to growth of a self-sustaining community of practice for instructional innovation through the HydroLearn platform and National Collaborative for Food, Energy, & Water Education. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?See previous response for Goal #2 How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Please see list of publications. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? #1 - We are actively analyzing project data to assess impacts on students' learning and postsecondary faculty. Preliminary results indicate gains in students' reasoning. Current data analysis will eventually provide more insight into the comprehensive set of student outcomes. #2 - We submitted and led 2-hour workshops at 2 conferences held in summer, 2022: the AGU Frontiers in Hydrology meeting and Earth Educators' Rendezvous. Unfortunately, the FIHM workshop was cancelled due to low enrollment. However, we served 20 undergraduate instructors in the EER workshop in July and preliminary evaluation results indicate the workshop was well-received. We also proposed and led a 2-hour virtual workshop for the CUAHSI community, which was attended by over 10 participants. We also organized and led a 2--hour workshop for UTA instructors, which was attended by approximately 10 individuals. Our workshop proposal to the 2023 NACTA conference was not accepted. Results from analysis of the EER workshop indicates very strong increases in participants' self-efficacy but only marginal gains in knowledge.

Publications

• Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. J., & Forbes, C. T. (in press). Faculty development program about the Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Supporting facultys adoption of a curricular module and program evaluation. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.
• Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. J., & Forbes, C. T. (in press). Faculty development program about the Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Supporting facultys adoption of a curricular module and program evaluation. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S.J., Mott, B.C., White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (in press). Towards water literacy: Analysis of standards for teaching and learning about water and humans. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research (DISER).
• Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. J., & Forbes, C. T. (in press). Faculty development program about the Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Supporting facultys adoption of a curricular module and program evaluation. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S.J., Mott, B.C., White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (in press). Towards water literacy: Analysis of standards for teaching and learning about water and humans. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research (DISER). Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. J., White, H. C., & Forbes, C. T. (in press). The Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Assessing undergraduate students decision making about complex socio-hydrologic issues supported by Hydroviz. Journal of Geoscience Education.
• Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. J., & Forbes, C. T. (in press). Faculty development program about the Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Supporting facultys adoption of a curricular module and program evaluation. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S.J., Mott, B.C., White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (in press). Towards water literacy: Analysis of standards for teaching and learning about water and humans. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research (DISER). Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. J., White, H. C., & Forbes, C. T. (in press). The Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Assessing undergraduate students decision making about complex socio-hydrologic issues supported by Hydroviz. Journal of Geoscience Education. Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S.J., Mott, B.C., White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (2023). Towards water literacy: Analysis of standards for teaching and learning about water on Earth. Journal of Geoscience Education, 71(2), 192-207.
• Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. J., & Forbes, C. T. (in press). Faculty development program about the Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Supporting facultys adoption of a curricular module and program evaluation. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S.J., Mott, B.C., White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (in press). Towards water literacy: Analysis of standards for teaching and learning about water and humans. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research (DISER). Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. J., White, H. C., & Forbes, C. T. (in press). The Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Assessing undergraduate students decision making about complex socio-hydrologic issues supported by Hydroviz. Journal of Geoscience Education. Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S.J., Mott, B.C., White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (2023). Towards water literacy: Analysis of standards for teaching and learning about water on Earth. Journal of Geoscience Education, 71(2), 192-207. Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (2023). An investigation of undergraduate students spatial thinking about groundwater. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 70(1), 101-113.
• Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. J., & Forbes, C. T. (in press). Faculty development program about the Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Supporting facultys adoption of a curricular module and program evaluation. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S.J., Mott, B.C., White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (in press). Towards water literacy: Analysis of standards for teaching and learning about water and humans. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research (DISER). Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. J., White, H. C., & Forbes, C. T. (in press). The Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Assessing undergraduate students decision making about complex socio-hydrologic issues supported by Hydroviz. Journal of Geoscience Education. Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S.J., Mott, B.C., White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (2023). Towards water literacy: Analysis of standards for teaching and learning about water on Earth. Journal of Geoscience Education, 71(2), 192-207. Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (2023). An investigation of undergraduate students spatial thinking about groundwater. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 70(1), 101-113. Status: Under Review Year Published: 2024 Citation: 9. Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. -J.*, White, H.*, & Forbes, C.T. (under review). The Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Using Hydroviz to support undergraduate students' systems thinking about complex socio-hydrologic issues.
• Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. J., & Forbes, C. T. (in press). Faculty development program about the Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Supporting facultys adoption of a curricular module and program evaluation. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S.J., Mott, B.C., White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (in press). Towards water literacy: Analysis of standards for teaching and learning about water and humans. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research (DISER). Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. J., White, H. C., & Forbes, C. T. (in press). The Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Assessing undergraduate students decision making about complex socio-hydrologic issues supported by Hydroviz. Journal of Geoscience Education. Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S.J., Mott, B.C., White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (2023). Towards water literacy: Analysis of standards for teaching and learning about water on Earth. Journal of Geoscience Education, 71(2), 192-207. Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (2023). An investigation of undergraduate students spatial thinking about groundwater. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 70(1), 101-113. Status: Under Review Year Published: 2024 Citation: 9. Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. -J.*, White, H.*, & Forbes, C.T. (under review). The Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Using Hydroviz to support undergraduate students' systems thinking about complex socio-hydrologic issues. Status: Under Review Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. J., Raub, K.R., McCay, D. H., & Forbes, C. T. (under review). Instructors' needs for teaching and mentoring undergraduate students in the water sciences.

Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:Postsecondary instructors who teach courses relevant to the FEW-Nexus Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?See previous response for Goal #2 How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We actively worked on two journal publications during the reporting period, which are currently under review. We have 1 more manuscript in preparation. In addition to the workshops, project research was presented at meetings of GSA, AGU, and NARST. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In terms of project objective #1, we are continuing to analyze and disseminate research results. In terms of project objective #2, we plan to reach at least another group of 10-15 faculty and disseminate the project-developed instructional resources to a wider audience, as well as optimize the sample size for research on faculty outcomes. We are actively conducting interviews with faculty served in the faculty development program and have begun preliminary analysis of this data. This data analysis will continue throughout the remaining project period, including the proposed extension. In addition, we need to build out the instructional module in the HydroLearn platform for sharing with potential users and import it into UTA's Canvas platform for archival purposes. We also plan to hold an advisory board meeting and complete project reporting in summer, 2024. The doctoral student who is supported, in part, by this project, is scheduled to complete her dissertation and graduate in summer, 2024. We plan to close out all project activities at this time. In terms of project objective #1, we have collected all student data. In terms of project objective #2, we have served approximately 40 individuals through 3 faculty development workshops in AY 22-23. More broadly, we have fully developed the instructional module in Canvas and used it in the 109 course. We worked extensively with our project team members at UL-L to update HydroViz, incorporate more USDA data into the tool for users, and design student learning experiences (and associated curriculum) around it. The project team has been actively engaged in related research throughout the project period. We collected extensive student-focused data during implementation of the 109 course and instructor-focused data in the initial faculty development workshops. We have been analyzing and disseminating research results at conferences and through journal articles.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? #1 - We are actively analyzing project data to assess impacts on students' learning. Preliminary results indicate gains in students' reasoning. Current data analysis will eventually provide more insight into the comprehensive set of student outcomes. #2 - We submitted and led 2-hour workshops at 2 conferences held in summer, 2022: the AGU Frontiers in Hydrology meeting and Earth Educators' Rendezvous. Unfortunately, the FIHM workshop was cancelled due to low enrollment. However, we served 20 undergraduate instructors in the EER workshop in July and preliminary evaluation results indicate the workshop was well-received. We also proposed and led a 2-hour virtual workshop for the CUAHSI community, which was attended by over 10 participants. We also organized and led a 2--hour workshop for UTA instructors, which was attended by approximately 10 individuals. Our workshop proposal to the 2023 NACTA conference was not accepted. Preliminary results from analysis of the EER workshop indicates very strong increases in participants' self-efficacy but only marginal gains in knowledge. Project research and dissemination is ongoing.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2023 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. -J.*, White, H.*, & Forbes, C.T. (under review). The Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Using Hydroviz to support undergraduate students' systems thinking about complex socio-hydrologic issues.
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Other Year Published: 2023 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. -J.* & Forbes, C.T. (in preparation). A faculty development program to support undergraduate instructors' teaching about socio-hydrologic systems
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2023 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S. -J.*, White, H.*, & Forbes, C.T. (under review). The Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Using Hydroviz to support undergraduate students' decision-making about complex socio-hydrologic issues.

Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Postsecondary instructors who teach courses relevant to the FEW-Nexus Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?https://serc.carleton.edu/earth_rendezvous/2022/program/afternoon_workshops/w4.html How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We had two journal publications during the reporting period. We have 3 or more additional manuscripts in various stages of preparation. In addition to the workshops, project research was presented at meetings of GSA, FIHM, and EER. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?-Plan to offer more workshops as described in the previous section -Continued data analysis and dissemination. The majority of project research is part of Mostacedo's doctoral dissertation. This includes at least 3 additonal publications, at least some of which will be submitted for publication in the upcoming year. We will also submit conference proposals to conferences to disseminate project research.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? #1 - We are actively analyzing project data to assess impacts on students' learning. Preliminary results indicate gains in students' reasoning. Current data analysis will eventually provide more insight into the comprehensive set of student outcomes. #2 - We submitted and had accepted workshop proposals at 2 conferences held in summer, 2022: the AGU Frontiers in Hydrology meeting and Earth Educators' Rendezvous. Unfortunately, the FIHM workshop was cancelled due to low enrollment. However, we served 20 undergraduate instructors in the EER workshop in July and preliminary evaluation results indicate the workshop was well-received. We are currently planning for more workshops in the upcoming year. These include one for the UTA community, one through CUAHSI (for which Forbes serves on the Education & Outreach Committee), and a workshop at the 2023 NACTA conference. We hope through these planned workshops we can ultimately serve 50 or more undergraduate instructors, as planned. Preliminary results from analysis of the EER workshop indicates very strong increases in participants' self-efficacy but only marginal gains in knowledge. Project research and dissemination is ongoing.

Publications

• Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Mostacedo-Marasovic, S.J., Lally, D., Petitt, D.N., White, H., & Forbes, C.T. (2022). Supporting undergraduate students developing water literacy during a global pandemic: A longitudinal study. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research (DISER), 4(7).
• Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: White, H. & Forbes, C.T. (in press). An investigation of undergraduate students spatial thinking about groundwater. Journal of Geography in Higher Education.