CCS Science and Environmental Learning
Global Collabinar: Building Career Pathways & Networks for Underrepresented STEM Students
June 11th, 2019
We hope you can join us online or in-person next week for another CCS Collabinar—
Building Career Pathways and
Networks for Underrepresented STEM Students
Tuesday, June 11th
From 1:00pm-3:00pm PST
At this Collabinar, we will be hearing from Melissa B. Wilson, who will share her experiences working in St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Our discussion will focus on ways to engage underrepresented students in STEM careers.
Collabinar: SciStarter Education
May 17th, 2019
We have enjoyed continuing our Collabinar series this spring! On Friday, May 17th we had the fascinating opportunity to learn more about—
Sci Starter Education: a new, pilot, Ed-Tech platform to integrate facilitator-led citizen science in schools through district- and school-wide approaches
Many may have heard of SciStarter, which helps people
find, join, and contribute to citizen science through its
database of thousands of citizen science projects taking place
all over the world. In this event, we learned about a new
SciStarter initiative that points to possibilities for scaled up
integration of citizen science in the classroom.
Engaging Educators in the City Nature Challenge
The Center collaborated with the California Naturalist Program, educators in the Woodland Joint Unified School District, and a variety of local nature centers and reserves to encourage participation in the Sacramento City Nature Challenge. Despite being its first year participating in this global competition (as one of more than 160 cities worldwide), over 500 people in the Sacramento region logged 9,798 observations of over 1,200 unique species using iNaturalist.
3-Day Institute prepares educators for real science in the garden with students.
We are still glowing from our three days of shared learning, planning, and camaraderie with local partners, teachers, after-school educators, school garden coordinators. With thanks to our partner, Yolo Farm to Fork, who developed the article below, we offer some initial insights from this workshop, with more to come in the near future!
Reflecting on our Woolman Center workshop
Named after a mythical land from a novela when the Spanish first arrived, California was said to be paradise on Earth. However, times have changed since the Spanish first laid their eyes on the place we now call home. Social activists have spoken openly about the disasters of environmental change and many, from the top of California’s government to grassroots organizations are beginning to create much more systematic and widespread awareness and change with initiatives.
New Paper: A Framework for Teachers to Design and Facilitate Citizen Science Activities
A new paper by
recently graduated Emily Harris and the Center’s Faculty
Director, Heidi Ballard, provides a framework for educators to
design and implement citizen science projects in the classroom to
facilitate meaningful student learning. This publication adds an
important component to our suite of materials aimed at
helping educators use Youth-focused Community and Citizen Science
in their work.
Youth-focused Community and Citizen Science
This blog post, authored by Ryan Meyer, Heidi Ballard, and Lila Higgins, originally appeared on the Blue Sky Funders Forum blog.
When do experiences with science lead young people to create change in their lives, landscapes, and communities? Consider this reflection from Rachel Anne Arias, a 12-year-old living in La Crescenta in Southern California:
What works in YCCS?
We asked our partners – expert researchers and practitioners — what it looks like when youth participate in community and citizen science. The resulting video speaks to the tremendous potential of youth-focused community and citizen science (YCCS) in the classroom, in the field, in a science museum, or anywhere in between.
