As part of a multi-year internship at a natural history museum,
high school interns met weekly during the summer at their local
beach to monitor the abundance and
distribution of sand crabs, Emerita analoga, and their
parasite Profilicollis altmani. As part of a 14+ year
partnership with the Long-term Monitoring Program and
Experiential Training for Students (LiMPETS), interns from the museum have
been monitoring sites along a 3.5 mile span of Northern
California coast. Monitoring included taking sand samples along a
ten meter transect and recording the number, sizes, and genders
of the crabs in each sample. Interns also gathered 30 large crabs
and brought them back to the museum to dissect and count the
number of parasites in each crab. A sub-set of interns uploaded
the crab and parasite data to the LiMPETS online
database, and developed a question to ask of the larger
LiMPETS database. Working into the fall, they selected and
cleaned data to answer their question, graphed and analyzed their
results, and prepared a poster and presentation to share their
findings at several local scientific conferences including one
large international conference.
Species or system studied: Sand crabs and their parasites
Interns documented the abundance and distribution of sand
crabs, Emerita analoga and their
parasites, Profilicollis altmani, at beaches in California.
Research site: Sandy beach
Interns collected data from their local beach and conducted
analysis from that beach and additional beaches along the
California Coast.
Participants: High school interns
30-35 high school-age youth from communities traditionally
underrepresented in science. Youth joined the museum internship
in 10th or 11th grade and participated for 2-3 years until they
graduated from high school. They participated in many different
activities including LiMPETS summer monitoring. A group of 5-7
youth take on more in-depth and longer term involvement.
Structure: Museum-based
During the summer, youth interns collected at a public beach and
submitted data once a week from computers at the museum. During
the fall, the continuing interns met once a week to prepare their
poster for the local conferences. In the summer, activities took
place on weekdays and in the fall, activities took place after
school and on the weekends.
Duration: 4-23 weeks
During the summer, 30-35 interns participated once a week for at
least four weeks. A group of 5-7 returning interns led monitoring
and participated weekly for eight weeks. A subset of this
leadership group continued analysis and presentation work in the
fall for an additional 15 weeks.
Institution: Museum
A regional natural history museum housed the internship program
and partnered with LiMPETS, which provided protocol, permits,
database, and some scientific mentorship, and which uses the data
to inform management of marine protected areas. The internship
program manager supported the interns during summer monitoring
and fall analysis and presentation activities.
Other activities:
As part of a 2-3 year internship, interns had three main areas of
work: learning science together with guest speakers and program
leaders, teaching science to others through presenting on the
museum’s public floor, and conducting scientific research.
Interns’ participation in LiMPETS was one of the main activities
for conducting scientific research.
Through in-depth case studies of diverse YCCS projects,
we have documented youth-centered key practices that
are effective in promoting learning and environmental
science agency. Click the headers below to learn more about what
those key practices look like in this particular case.
Sharing Findings with Outside Audiences
A variety of opportunities – including an international
scientific conference — build confidence, and develop leadership
and communication skills.
Presenting findings to outside audiences was part of the
culture of the internship and the summer group knew that a small
subset of them would carry forward a question to analyze and
present findings at a large international scientific conference.
Throughout the summer, the leadership group of interns frequently
discussed possible questions to ask of the LiMPETS database for
their research, eventually settling on the relationship between
sand crabs and the prevalence of its parasite. During the fall,
the educators prepared students to field questions from a
scientific audience, and created opportunities to practice public
speaking, having interns practice “lightning
talks”, first about familiar topics and later about their
research. In the weeks leading up to the conference, interns also
practiced their presentations in front of their peers, other
museum educators, and scientists from the museum.
During the fall, three interns worked together to analyze and
interpret the data and develop a research poster and presentation
that they presented alongside other high school students and
hundreds of professional scientists. The presentation lasted for
three and a half hours, with a diversity of visitors including
professional scientists, conference staff, and other youth. All
three interns saw the conference as an important chance to grow
by becoming experts and part of scientific communities. For
example, one intern reflected on how presenting for him was not
only about science, but also about personal development: “I’ve
never really presented at conference before, so doing the
conference will be like a huge big step for me…the group is more
than just creating a research poster…it’s also building
character…because like you’re going to have to tell speeches.”
The confidence he gained practicing and presenting at the
conference carried into other parts of his life at school and
home.
Though only three young people presented at that conference, many
other interns presented their work to other audiences including
passers-by on the beach, peers and program donors at the end of
summer showcase, and other youth at a regional youth-focused
scientific research conference. For example, every week during
the summer, at least one member of the public would stop the
interns to inquire about what they were up to, giving the interns
a chance to share their work with LiMPETS. These opportunities
helped all the interns see their scientific contributions as
important not only to natural resource managers but also to
community members.
Ensuring High Data Quality
Participation over multiple years allows youth to grow
their knowledge and take responsibility for ensuring rigorous
data collection.
Because the internship extended over multiple years, interns had
opportunities to take on increasing leadership roles in data
collection and analysis. Two second-year interns were designated
as the “summer field coordinators” and were responsible for
overseeing 10-15 interns every week during data collection. They
printed and distributed protocols and circulated among first-year
interns to answer questions during data collection. At the end of
the monitoring session, they reviewed all the data collection
sheets, returned them if they needed clarification, and submitted
the data online to LiMPETS. Alice, one field coordinator,
described how she oversaw her peers and would track them down
when they did careless things like forget to include the transect
number, “which is very crucial”. Alice took seriously her
responsibility for the accuracy of the group’s contribution and
took on leadership in the role of quality control.
In the fall, interns also participated in selecting and cleaning
data for analysis. This allowed them to engage more deeply
in scientific practice, as well as take leadership roles in
analysis. For example, the group decided to investigate if
sea-surface temperature contributed to the prevalence of
parasites in crabs, which required bringing in an additional
dataset about sea surface temperature. They had access to two
different databases and had deep discussion about the tradeoffs
of each – one database had daily measurements from space, while
the other measured directly at buoys in the water, but did not
have data for every day. The interns had several discussions
about the merits of each database and through the process of
selecting which to use, they engaged in argumentation, gained
insight into the nature of real scientific work, and developed
expertise around how to select rigorous data.
Interacting with Complex Social Ecological Systems
As youth develop a connection to the study site, they
observe and discuss many interacting social and ecological
processes that influence the context of their study
organism.
Through LiMPETS monitoring, many invisible components and
processes at the beach became visible to interns. For example,
interns reported that, before digging for crabs, they didn’t know
there was life in the sand, and that, through research for their
poster, they realized upwelling was an important process along
the California coast. This learning deepened interns’
understanding of the structure and function of sandy beach and
coastal ecosystems.
Interns also noticed and came to understand human impacts at the
beach. They talked about the pervasive trash on the beach and
rubbish from bonfires. In addition to these surface level issues,
they also observed human management of the complex beach
ecosystem. One day, there was a giant shipwreck on the shore and
interns watched large machines deconstruct the ship. Another day,
interns observed the local management strategy called “beach
nourishment” where bulldozers moved around the sand to prevent
erosion and keep the beach flat for human use. They discussed how
these activities, and other human involvement such as local
pollution, might influence what was happening underneath the sand
with the crabs. One intern described how his participation in
LiMPETS “helps us understand how we as human interact with the
society… ‘cause of toxins, some of that can harm the sand crab
population…and therefore that could affect the whole entire
food chain”. His experience working with a tiny organism at the
beach helped him understand more broadly how humans interact with
complex social and ecological systems.
YCCS Products
Data: Weekly counts of sand crabs and their
parasites
Why: Documenting the abundance and
distribution of sand crabs and their parasites along the
California Coast helps natural resource managers assess how and
why populations are changing and the role of human impact on
beach ecosystems.
Audience: Natural resource managers at
the National Marine Sanctuaries along the California Coast.
Audience: Participating schools are able
to access all of the LiMPETS data as well as data
visualizations through the website.
Impact: Interns added eight monitoring
days to the LiMPETS database.
Impact: LiMPETS uses the data to assess
the impact of beach nourishment management practices on on the
sandy beach ecosystem.
Posters: Posters presented at one
international conference as well as several other small regional
conferences to communicate work to scientific and local
communities.
Why: Presenting the findings from citizen
science research to the broader scientific community.
Audience: Professional scientists,
conference staff, LiMPETS staff, and other high school and
college students
Audience: Future interns at the museum
who review past group posters as examples while they plan for
their project.
Impact: Three interns presented their
work to over 50 visitors, educating them on sand crab /
parasite relationship in the study area
Outcomes & Evaluations
The museum internship has three main components for interns:
learning science, teaching science to others, and conducting
scientific research. The program manager reported that
participation in LiMPETS helped achieve all three goals. Interns
learned science by investigating what a sand crab is, where they
live, and how to use scientific tools like calipers to measure
the crabs. The older interns who had more experience with
monitoring got to teach the first-year interns and all the
interns had opportunities to share their work with passers-by on
the beach. Finally, interns conducted science through their
contribution to data collection for LiMPETS.
The internship also had goals for youth development that were met
through participation in LiMPETS. Data collection provided a
space for interns to collaborate, develop trust in each other,
and bond. In addition, presentation at a national conference
helped meet the goal of giving interns access to science careers.
As the program manager reported “we want to diversify the STEM
workforce at the end of the day and help put youth into this
pipeline that aren’t typically there…this group is instrumental
in helping those youth to identify as scientists and not question
that.” Presenting to outside audiences helped the interns see
themselves as scientists who could pursue future STEM
careers.
