Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:We targeted high school students in rural New Mexico and were successful in recruiting 10 students from the following rural counties: Six (6) students from Las Vegas, NM in San Miguel County Two (2) from Santa Fe, NM in Sante Fe County One (1) students from Sapello, NM in San Miguel County One (1) students from Santa Rosa, NM in Guadalupe County One (1) student from Mora, NM in Mora County Changes/Problems:The 2024 Summer Field Experience (SFE) was the second year of this program, and several steps were taken to address and mitigate challenges in the first year. These changes were well received and will be further reinforced in the third year of the program. In this final year of implementation, we will take the following steps to ensure the best possible experiences for our student participants: Teenage-appropriate life skills development in the form of a workshop "professional exploration, mental health and choosing a college major" was very well received. Students' response to the yoga class was mixed - some welcomed the quiet and pause from the frenetic pace of the two-week program, while others felt out of their comfort zone Proposed changes: Expand 1-2 additional workshops on life skills development so it becomes a larger and more consistent component within the program Daily assignments were added to guide connections between learning, hands-on activities (doing) and how this relates to real life natural resources management (NRM) challenges. Proposed changes: Retain daily assignments and expand reflection questions to connect to life skills workshops. This would strengthen the connection between professional and personal growth. First Aid training was a welcome addition in 2024 and provided good stage-setting at the start of the program to emphasize situational awareness and field safety. The instructor, however, implemented a truncated lesson than what was originally booked Proposed changes: contract an alternative instructor and refine curriculum instruction to match with student experiences during the two-week program (i.e., what are scenarios that student may encounter during the two-week program) The $300 student stipends were helpful in providing incentives for student participation, but recruitment was still lower than we had hoped Proposed changes: increase student stipends to $500 per student A new activity from 2024 incorporated recreation (fly fishing) with bioindicators of water quality (macroinvertebrate sampling, water quality assessment for trout habitat) to connect students' own recreational experiences with ecology, habitat conservation and careers with New Mexico Game & Fish. Proposed changes: retaining this day as is, and adding a day with a NM Highlands University professor combining recreation (hiking, collecting medicinal plants), botany (plant identification, and preparing plant samples for a professional herbarium collection), plant names (English, Latin, Spanish) and making traditional salves or remedios, which utilizes natural plant properties. The herbarium collection will be included in the final student project, along with the remedios that the students prepare. The following changes implemented in 2024 worked well and will be retained for 2025: Students were housed in a field site with yurt-dorms to provide a contained and supervised overnight setting, while retaining the residential aspect of the program. This change resulted in strong cohort building and more focused educational outcomes. Doubling the number of chaperones by including two teachers in addition to graduate student mentors resulted in improved group dynamics, engaged interactions with educational professionals, timely completion of academic and professional development assignments, demonstrated time management skills, college-level final presentation assignments, improved professional development experiences for graduate student mentors, expandedprofessional networks for teacher chaperonesamong NRM professionals and outdoor educators. Increased the number of professional partners to add more variety of activities and consolidated the group into a single cohort and added team-building activities. Additional structure was incorporated into the program including clearly defined behavioral expectations, and built-in time for daily tasks (adulting, cleaning up after self, practicing time management, etc.) Students matured noticeably during the course of the two-week program. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? A custom workshop on "professional exploration, mental health and choosing a college major" was developed for high school audiences. Student participants were introduced to ArcGIS' StoryMaps and used StoryMaps as the basis of their final community presentations, demonstrating proficiency in this geospatial tool and associated features. A lesson on fire modeling using the SIMtable was incorporated into the program. Students learned how to use Excel to enter data and create figures, and how to choose the right figure to illustrate different types of data most effectively. Students learned, practiced and demonstrated their oral presentation skills. Students were assigned to lead one short written assignment each to various NRM professional to express gratitude and to detail lessons learned from each day of instruction. Students completred daily assignments to demonstrate comprehension and understanding; plus submission of daily tasks that contributed towards their final assignment. Students received First Aid training, an important life skill. Both graduate students participated in STEM Teaching and Research (STAR) Leadership Program that was offered through another USDA-funded grant. Graduate students received on-the-job experience in navigating youth dynamics through the partnership with a high school science teacher and social worker. NRM staff gained experience in communicating science to a high school aged audience. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?At the end of the Summer Field Experience, student participants showcased their efforts publicly to community members through a final presentation. Each student received guiding prompts and mentorship on their final product. Student final presentation utilized the ArcGis platform, StoryMaps, which was a compilation of long-form narrative, graphical and mathematical figures, and visuals through photos, video and StoryMap features. Students also created a zine as a final reflection product during the community showcase. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Recruitment continues to be challenging and we had a couple of no-shows on the first day of the program. In response, we are increasing our efforts to reach more students and teachers in our third and final year, expanding the timeframe for recruitment, and increasing our stipends to $500 per student in the final year. Based on lessons learned from the first two years, plus the feedback from student participants and our external evaluator, we are planning to retain our current cohort of natural resources management (NRM) professionals and expand the professional network to include additional partners to strengthen the connection between land stewardship and careers and livelihoods. We are planning to increase our training professional development for student participants, to build their life skills and increase their resilience for college participation and completion.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The Summer Field Experience (SFE) was successfully implemented from June 3-15, 2024, with 11 high school student participants from rural New Mexico counties, specifically San Miguel, Mora, Santa Fe, and Guadalupe. The program provided highly experiential opportunities, job shadowing and emulation, and student participants worked directly alongside local natural resources management (NRM) professionals. We had robust engagement from NRM partner agencies for the 2nd consecutive year, namely: U.S. Forest Service in the Las Vegas/Pecos ranger district, U.S. Forest Service from the Kiowa and Rita Blanca National Grasslands, New Mexico Forestry Division, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Tierra y Montes Soil & Water Conservation District, and New Mexico Highlands University's (NMHU) Forestry Department, Achieving in Research, Math and Science (ARMAS), and HU Cares mental health support services. We engaged new NRM partners inthe 2024 program with the National Park Service at Valles Caldera Nature Preserve, New Mexico Game & Fish, Morphy Lake State Park, Impact Outdoors and Zeigler Geologic Consulting. These additions added new educational programming components related to paleontology, groundwater hydrology, keystone species management, riparian restoration, bioindicators in aquatic ecosystems, and the recreation industry. We strengthened our partnership with New Mexico Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (NM MESA) who developed recruitment materials (flyers, distribution lists, in-person attendance at events to promote SFE, web registration, etc.), coordinated the parent/guardian communications, managed the registration process and documentation, provided travel stipends for students living more than 25 miles from Las Vegas, organized the mid-program rafting trip, and providedt-shirts and sleeping bags for all participants. NM MESA's north regional coordinator attended most of the field course providing added daily support. To incentivize participation, $300 student stipends were offered to boost recruitment efforts. To promote college readinessand demystify the college experience for first generation students, we partnered with the Director of Health & Wellness at HU Cares, to offer a workshop on "professional exploration, mental health and choosing a college major" customized for this high school audience. We also offered a First Aid class at the beginning of the field course to strengthened safety and situational awareness throughout the program, and a yoga class to support focus, concentration and approaches for students to cope with stress and anxiety. SFE provided leadership opportunities to two graduate students who served as mentors, drivers, and near-peer STEM models. Additionally, we contracted two chaperones from local public school districts, including a high school science teacher and a social worker. The additional support resulted in more successful outcomes in managing group dynamics, providing additional structure and student support in completing daily assignments and the final student project. Finally, we successfully worked with the Southwest Outreach Academic Research (SOAR) Evaluation & Policy Center to complete an external evaluation of this second year of program implementation.
Publications
|
Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:We targeted high school students in rural New Mexico and were successful in recruiting 10 students from the following rural counties: Four (4) students from Las Vegas, NM in San Miguel County Two (2) students from Sapello, NM in San Miguel County Two (2) students from Santa Rosa, NM in Guadalupe County One (1) student from Mora, NM in Mora County One (1) student from Ojo Caliente, NM in Rio Arriba County Changes/Problems:The 2023 Summer Field Experience (SFE) was the first year of this program. In a spirit of learning, improving, and creating the best possible experiences for our student participants, detailed below are the challenges and solutions/changes we will be making to the SFE for 2024: Student participants demonstrated lower social skills and coping mechanisms than we anticipated for this age group. We attributed this to losses stemming from the Covid-19 shutdown. Proposed changes: incorporate time for teenage-appropriate life skills development, communicate behavioral expectations clearly and more pronouncedly, build-in time for daily tasks (adulting, cleaning up after self, practicing time management, etc.,), include recreation, mental health, and self-care activities. Periodic assessments indicated that student participants did not always connect real-life world applications to the planned activity with STEM professionals. Proposed changes: Use daily prompts to guide those connections between learning, hands-on activities (doing) and how this relates to real life natural resources management (NRM) challenges. Students navigated classroom spaces and field-based activities on the same day and sometimes found it difficult to switch between the two platforms. Proposed changes: Additional structure for classroom days, separated from field days to provide more consistent daily routine and expectations. Students were separated into 2 cohorts and did not integrate as a larger group. Proposed changes: Increase the number of professional partners to add more variety of activities and consolidate the group into a single cohort; add team-building activities. Students were housed on the college campus in single rooms which provided more independence with the expectation that the students were mature enough to handle this independence. Alas, one student was expelled from the program in the final week and another student received a warning because of uninvited guests in the dorms. Proposed changes: House students in a field site with yurt-dorms to provide a contained and supervised overnight setting, while retaining the residential aspect of the program. In addition to two graduate student mentors, double the number of chaperones by including two teachers. This combination of graduate student-teacher helps graduate students learn how to better navigate group dynamics from educational professionals, while resourcing teachers with summer employment, and expanding the teacher's professional network among NRM professionals and outdoor educators. Student recruitment to attend a regional STEM conference proved to be not feasible, as student participants were geographically dispersed and varied among grade levels. Proposed changes: Utilize student travel support to provide incentive stipends to encourage and increase participation in SFE. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? A custom workshop on"addressing barriers in sciences and developing a science identity" was developed for high school audiences. Student participants were introduced to ArcGIS' StoryMaps and used StoryMaps as the basis of their final community presentations, demonstrating proficiency in this geospatial tool and associated features. A lesson on fire modeling using the SIMtable was incorporated into the program. Students learned to collect field data points and polygons using Field Maps on tablets. Students also learned how to use Excel to enter data and create figures, and how to choose the right figure to illustrate different types of data most effectively. Students learned how to use PowerPoint and practice their oral presentation skills. Students were assigned to interview natural resources management professionals and write a short college-level report summarizing their interviews. Students responded to daily assignments on Padlet to demonstrate comprehension and understanding. One graduate student mentor participated in STEM Teaching and Research (STAR) Leadership Program that was offered through another USDA-funded grant. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?At the end of the Summer Field Experience, student participants showcased their efforts publicly to community members through a final presentation. Each student received guiding prompts and mentorship on their final product. Some students were assigned PowerPoint presentations on a specific natural resources management topic, others presented StoryMaps, and one student opted for a vlog. The variety of formats allowed students to retain creative ownership over their final presentations, and enhanced translatability to the local community. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Recruitment was challenging and we did not serve as many students as originally intended. In response, we are increasing our efforts to reach more students and teachers in our second year. We will also begin recruiting earlier in 2024 than 2023. Based on lessons learned from the first year, plus the feedback from student participants and our external evaluator, we are planning to retain our current cohort of natural resources management (NRM) professionals and expand the professional network to include more agencies and NRM professionals for students to interact with, and to broaden their perspectives on NRM careers. We are also planning to provide STEM Teaching and Research (STAR) Leadership Program training to both graduate student mentors, to better equip them with relevant skills. We are planning to increase our training professional development for student participants, and we are exploring ways to increase life skills development. Additionally, our college readiness and college skills development components will be delivered in a more structured manner to better focus student attention.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The Summer Field Experience (SFE) was successfully implemented from June 5-17, 2023, with 10 high school student participants from rural New Mexico counties, specifically San Miguel, Mora, Rio Arriba, and Guadalupe. The program provided highly experiential opportunities, job shadowing and emulation, and student participants worked directly alongside local natural resources management (NRM) professionals. We had robust engagement from NRM partner agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service in the Las Vegas/Pecos ranger district, U.S. Forest Service from the Kiowa and Rita Blanca National Grasslands, New Mexico State Forestry, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Tierra y Montes Soil & Water Conservation District, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Playa Lakes Joint Venture and New Mexico Highlands University's (NMHU) Forestry Department, Center for Research, Engineering, Science and Technology (CREST), Achieving in Research, Math and Science (ARMAS), Thomas C. Donnelly Library, First-Year Experience and HU Cares mental health and support services. We strengthened our partnership with New Mexico Mathematics, Engineering, and Science Achievement (NM MESA) who developed recruitment materials (flyers, distribution lists, in-person attendance at events to promote SFE, web registration, etc.), coordinated the parent/guardian communications, managed the registration process and documentation, provided travel stipends for students living more than 25 miles from Las Vegas, organized the mid-program rafting trip, and developed t-shirts for all participants. NM MESA's north regional coordinator attended most of the field course providing added daily support. The CREST partnership included $300 student stipends which aided in recruitment efforts. To promote education equity, promote college readiness, and demystify the college experience for first generation students, we partnered with the Director of Health & Wellness at HU Cares, to offer a workshop on"addressing barriers in sciences and developing a science identity" customized for this high school audience.In addition to developing this custom workshop, he also returned for a separate session on mental health support services for undergraduates and the challenges for first-generation students navigating the college experience. First-year experience covered the cohort-building model at NMHU for incoming first-year students. ARMAS met with students to showcase their tutoring services and student STEM community programming.
Publications
|