CCS GEAR UP

GEAR UP partnership

Overview

Project Duration

2020-2025

Location

Glenn, Colusa, and Tehama counties, California

Background

The GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) STEM Rural Valley Partnership is a federally funded program of the UC Davis School of Education, serving over 1,800 students in 6 school district pathways in the north Sacramento Valley area. Together with the GEAR UP team, we are exploring ways that citizen science professional development for educators and summer programming for students can improve STEM learning and college readiness. 

Thiamine Deficiency Complex (TDC) was first documented in California’s salmon in 2020, when hatchery staff noticed offspring swimming in circles and dying at elevated rates. They traced the condition to a deficiency of thiamine, or vitamin B1, passed on from the returning adults to their offspring. Impacts to naturally spawning populations remain the greatest unknown and could be an unrecognized factor affecting harvest opportunities and impede salmon recovery.

The Aquarium in the Classroom program through the California Department of Fish and Wildlife provides students grades K-12 with salmon eggs to hatch and grow in their classrooms. The team at the Center for Community and Citizen Science, in collaboration with researchers at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Fish and Wildlife are developing an Observation Protocol as part of the Aquariums In the Classroom Program to help gather observation data of salmon during these critical stages of the salmon life cycle.

As a part of our work, the data collected through the Aquarium in the Classroom Program will be sent to support the efforts of the broad coalition of scientists working on figuring out the TDC puzzle. The student data contributions to this project are not only utilizing a citizen science approach to gathering important data, but also developing further research protocols. 

Students will able to learn more about a wide variety of college and career opportunities by connecting directly with the TDC team. Researchers will respond to student questions through their data submission. Classrooms will have the opportunity to connect directly with members of the research team through a guest speaker series. At the end of the observation and study, students will go on a field trip to release salmon back into the river system and be accompanied by researchers and staff from local conservation organizations and agencies.

Funders

UC Davis GEAR UP STEM Rural Valley Partnership

Partners

UC Davis School of Education, UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, California Department of Fish & Wildlife

Resources

Learn more about the UC Department of Education’s GEAR UP grant program here.

Blog entry Sarah Angulo Peggy Harte

Project Update: Connecting Classroom Content in Spinning Salmon Field Trips

“Bye, Spaghetti!” waved one high schooler as a tiny Chinkook salmon, so named Spaghetti, swam out of a plastic cup and into the murky Sacramento River. Across the boat ramp at Riverbend Park in Oroville, students said their farewells to the alevin in their own cups. This was the last chance for students to get an up close of the fish they spent raising in their classroom over the last 6 weeks.

Blog entry Peggy Harte

Spinning Salmon, Year Three: Deepening our Collaboration and Community Connections

Our Center specializes in helping educators and youth work together on real science – youth-focused community and citizen science. An especially powerful aspect of this approach is the opportunity to help youth connect directly with professional scientists, and with local partners in their own communities who are working on environmental challenges. The story of our Spinning Salmon project shows how these connections can evolve over time, as partnerships develop, and new opportunities for collaboration arise. 

Blog entry Sarah Angulo Peggy Harte

Project Update: Field Trips Wrap Up Another Successful Year of GEAR UP Partnership

Starting a collaborative community and citizen science project with high schools is no small feat. Try starting it during the pandemic. That’s what we did with the Center’s collaboration with GEAR UP STEM Rural Valley Partnership Spinning Salmon in the Classroom project. After managing a year of distance learning in 2021 and piloting in-person content in 2022, we had so much we were excited to do this year. 

Blog entry

Project Update: Salmon in the Classroom

As scientists investigate the cause of  thiamine deficiency in California’s Central Valley salmon, high school classrooms in California’s Central Valley were given the unique opportunity to contribute data to this ongoing research.

Blog entry Peggy Harte

Engaging College Opportunity Programs, Researchers and Students through Citizen Science: Reimagining Possibilities of STEM and CTE

In January of 2020, the UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science (CCCS) began a new research practice partnership exploring STEM opportunities and developing teacher professional development with the college opportunity program GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs), serving students across Glenn, Colusa, and Tehama counties.

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