CCS Our Forests

Our Forests

Overview

The Youth Community Action and Science in Our Forests (“Our Forests”) research-practice project trained and supported participating 3rd-5th grade teachers as they worked with their students, local environmental scientists, and community organizations to study local forests and fire risk in Nevada County, California. Through direct engagement such as taking measurements for plant diversity and learning how to interpret and present the data, students are able to utilize their knowledge and understanding to help inform local land managers and scientists on how to manage our forests.

 

Dedicated Project Website

We have launched a comprehensive Our Forests website supporting educators, practitioners, and scientists who can benefit from the resources and findings resulting from this project. Explore here!

 

 

Highlighted Practitioner Products

What does it take to do place-based Youth Community and Citizen Science (YCCS) with students and teachers? The “Guide for Designing Environmental Community Science Programs with Schools” shares what we have learned about this over five years of intensive research, development, and implementation. This guide is essential to anyone implementing the Our Forests curriculum, but is also aimed at a much wider audience of teachers and practitioners pursuing community-based citizen science programs in elementary schools.

 

 

Highlighted Research Products

We examined how participation in forest monitoring, in partnership with local forest managers, might help elementary students better understand and connect with their own forests and communities as socio-ecological systems (SES). Overall, we saw a strong link between the development of systems thinking skills and the understanding of the SES for these students.

More research products coming soon!

 

 

Background

In partnership with the Nevada County Superintendent of Schools and the Sierra Streams Institute, the Center received a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study youth learning through environmental science research surrounding the community-identified issue of forest health. This was done through Our Forests, an extensive YCCS project in Nevada County that equipped and trained teachers with guided curriculums that allowed students to learn, understand, and communicate effectively about a variety of forest health issues and biodiversity topics.

Beginning in 2019, the Center and its partners collaborated with teachers and ecologists over five years to design materials and connect youth learning with forest health. Building from years of research studying YCCS, we conducted education research examining the impacts of three key features of citizen science—collecting, analyzing and sharing data—on student environmental science learning and agency over several design cycles, with a goal of creating a replicable model of science standards-aligned, school-based community and citizen science surrounding forest health that can be used in classrooms beyond Nevada County. 

Project Duration

2019-2024

Location

Nevada County, California

Funder

National Science Foundation

Partners

Nevada County Superintendent of Schools, Sierra Streams Institute 

Blog entry

New Resources for Community Science in Schools

Sierra Streams Institute and the UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science are pleased to announce the launch of final products from the Our Forests project, all available on a comprehensive website for teachers, school administrators, education practitioners and the general public at large.

Blog entry Heidi Ballard Shulong Yan

Project Update: Elementary Students Connected to Forest Managers through Data

After 4+ years of collaboration and intensive project work, the Our Forests Project is entering a phase of analysis, product development, and sharing with a wide range of audiences. Our Forests is an NSF DRK-12-funded Youth-focused Community and Citizen Science (YCCS) collaborative project between our center and our community partner – Sierra Streams Institute.

Blog entry Heidi Ballard Sol Henson

Designing for Science Learning in Schools by Leveraging Participation and the Power of Place through Community and Citizen Science

This post was originally featured as a part of the Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education’s project spotlights. This Spotlight features DRK-12 collaborative projects, provides insight into the affordances and challenges of partnering with multiple organizations, and offers advice for those considering a collaborative proposal. Click here to visit the project Spotlight.

Blog entry

Listen to a radio interview about “Our Forests”

In early November 2019, KVMR’s Educationally Speaking program invited ​Sol Henson, the Educational Co-Director at Sierra Streams Institute, and our own Erin Bird to discuss the Youth Community Action and Science in Our Forests (“Our Forests”) project, now getting underway in Nevada County. The Our Forests project will train and support participating 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teachers as they work with their students, local environmental scientists and community organizations to study local forests and fire risk.