National Collaborative for Research on Food, Energy, and Water Education

(NC-FEW)NC-FEW Webinar

December 13, 2019

WELCOME and THANKS

Introductions: NC-FEW Leadership Team

• Cory Forbes (Director and Lead PI), Ph.D., Associate Professor of Science Education, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

• Hannah Scherer (Co-PI), Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist Teacher and Learning, Virginia Tech, Informal/Non-formal Working Group Lead

• Nicole Sintov (Co-PI), Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Behavior, Decision Making and Sustainability, The Ohio State University, Postsecondary Working Group Lead

• Hui-Hui Wang (Co-PI), Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication, Purdue University, K-12 Working Group Lead

Webinar Logistics

• 30-40-minute presentation• Q&A, moderated by leadership team• Please mute your mic and type questions into the chat box at any

time during the presentation• Webinar slides and recording will be posted on the website later

Rationale

• Greatest challenges of our time are grounded in the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus (FEW-Nexus)

• Growing interest in research, education, and discourse around the FEW-Nexus

• Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences (FANH)

• STEM/FANH literacy = abilities to leverage empirical evidence and negotiate its intersection with social, cultural, and economic values to make science informed decisions about real-world challenges

Need

• No effort currently exists to study strategies, processes, and outcomes of FEW-Nexus-based education efforts

• Little research has been conducted to understand teaching and learning in the FEW-Nexus.

• Sustained, systemic, and interdisciplinary education efforts focused on FEW issues in a wide array of educational contexts

• Transdisciplinary collaborations that transcend the boundaries of established disciplines to both define and innovate in novel conceptual, methodological, and theoretical spaces

NC-FEW - Overview

• National Collaborative for Research on Food, Energy, and Water Education (NC-FEW)

• Hub of innovation for education research on FEW-Nexus educational programming at all levels and in a variety of settings

• An emergent professional community involving a broad array of transdisciplinary collaborators who represent STEM and FANH sciences and span traditional STEM/FANH departments, education, and agricultural and natural resources

NC-FEW – Mission and Goals

• Mission is to establish NC-FEW as a hub for a networked improvement community (NIC) that will advance education research and educational programming grounded in the FEW-Nexus.

• Goals:1. Synthesize current education research on educational programming grounded in

the FEW-Nexus2. Identify and promote best practices in education research on educational

programming grounded in the FEW-Nexus3. Foster collaboration among community members representing diverse disciplines,

fields, expertise, and institutions4. Enhance capacity for extramural funding in support of education research on

educational programming grounded in the FEW-Nexus5. Cultivate a community identity among NC-FEW participants

Prior Activities

• Multistate Research Planning Committee - NCDC231: Collaborative for Research on Food, Energy, and Water Education

• Invited symposium (2017) - Food, energy, and water education: Research, development, extension, and outreach at 2017 Water for Food Global Conference

• Invited conference (2018) - Innovating Teaching and Learning in the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus: Toward a National Collaborative for Food, Energy, & Water Systems Education in DC Metro area

• Dissemination to professional communities

NC-FEW - Funding

• NSF and USDA-NIFA’s collaborative Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, & Water (INFEWS) initiative

• National Science Foundation, Grant No. 1856040 (ECR-EHR Core Research)• U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) – National Institute of Food and

Agriculture (NIFA) Higher Education Challenge Grants Program (Grant No. 2017-06281) Multistate Research Committee, NC1207 (Grant No. 1006539)

• Network of STEM Education Centers/APLU• Agricultural Research Division at the University of Nebraska• Virginia Tech in the National Capital Region (NCR)

FEW-Nexus

• The Food-Energy-Water-Nexus (FEW-Nexus; FAO, 2014)

• Natural systems and their human dimensions

• Fundamental assumption -the FEW-Nexus affords a novel theoretical and analytical lens through which to understand and effectively foster STEM and FANH teaching and learning

STEM/FANH Scientific Literacy

• “An enhanced capacity to understand, analyze, and make effective, STEM/FANH science-informed decisions about complex, real-world challenges in the FEW-Nexus”

• Core disciplinary concepts AND their embeddedness in coupled human-natural systems

• Reasoning, problem-solving, risk assessment, decision-making• Fundamental assumption - STEM/FANH scientific literacy is the

primary outcome of effective teaching and learning about the FEW-Nexus that can be understood and effectively fostered through education research.

Networked Improvement Communities (NICs)

• Group of stakeholders from diverse backgrounds solving problems together through a purposeful cycle of action

• “NICs are highly structured, intentionally formed collaborations among education professionals, researchers, and designers that aim to address a high leverage practical problem” (Russell et al., 2017)

• Fundamental assumption - NC-FEW can intentionally emerge as a NIC through which to systemically foster and understand STEM and FANH teaching and learning about the FEW-Nexus.

Education Research

• Defined by the scientific study of processes, resources, organizations, and institutions that constitute human teaching and learning

• Integration of empirical study and educational interventions• Scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), discipline-based

education research (DBER), design-based education research, etc• Fundamental assumption - education research is essential to

understand and effectively foster STEM and FANH teaching and learning about the FEW-Nexus

Core NC-FEW Themes

• Systems thinking• Argumentation/evidence-based reasoning• Citizen science• Contextualized and localized issues• Equity and environmental justice• Informed decision-making• STEM/FANH science literacy• Civic engagement• Interdisciplinary training• Earth’s climate and global climate change

These are developing and subject to change as the community evolves

NC-FEW – Logic ModelProject Goals

1. Synthesize the current state of education research on educational programming grounded in the FEW-Nexus

2. Identify and promote best practices in education research on educational programming grounded in the FEW-Nexus

3. Foster collaboration among community members representing diverse disciplines, fields, expertise, and institutions

4. Enhance capacity for extramural funding in support of education research on educational programming grounded in the FEW-Nexus

5. Cultivate a community identity among NC-FEW participants

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Outcomes

Short-term

Systemic and robust education research on FEW-Nexus educational programming

Increased # of externally-funded projects

Coherent and sustainable NC-FEW

Long-term

Improve teaching and learning in STEM and FANH sciences

Enhanced STEM and FANH sciences workforce

Foster STEM/FANH science literacy

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Inputs

Conceptual framework

Prior research

Transdisciplinary collaborators

Institutional priorities

Advisory Board

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NC-FEW Activities

National conference

Working groups

FEW-Nexus education research workshops

Engagement with professional communities

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Outputs

NC-FEW mission statement and grand challenges

Research syntheses

Grant proposals

Website and public-facing presence

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Project Research/Evaluation (SERC)

What do we bring?

What are we going to do?

What are we going to deliver?

NC-FEW - Organizational Structure

• Leadership team• Working groups (postsecondary, K-12,

informal/non-formal)• NC-FEW community members• External evaluation • Advisory board

Advisory Board• Lynn Bryan, Ph.D., Professor of Science Education, Director of the Center for Advancing the Teaching and

Learning of STEM (CATALYST), Purdue University, Past President, NARST: A Worldwide Organization for Improving Science Teaching and Learning Through Research

• Henry (Rique) Campa III, Ph.D., Professor, Wildlife Ecology and Associate Dean, Graduate School and Director, MSU CIRTL Steering Committee (SC)

• Charles Henderson, Ph.D., Professor of Physics, Director of the Mallinson Institute for Science Education, co-Founder and co-Director of the Center for Research on Instructional Change in Postsecondary Education (CRICPE), Western Michigan University (WMU), PI, Accelerating Systemic Change Network (ASCN).

• Kacy Redd, Ph.D., Assistant Vice President, Science & Mathematics Education Policy, Association of Public & Land Grant Universities, PI of NSF-funded Network of STEM Education Centers (NSEC)

• Eliza Reilly, Ph.D., Executive Director of the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement, Department of Technology and Society, Stony Brook University, Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER)

• M. Antonio Silas, Ph.D., National Historian, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS), Director of Off-Campus Student Services, University of Maryland Baltimore County

• Martin Storksdieck, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning, Professor, Oregon State College of Education and the School of Public Policy, Co-PI, NSF-funded Center for the Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE)

NC-FEW Evaluation

• Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College• Evaluation questions: Does the capacity-building lead to community-driven evaluative thinking and

progress monitoring? What is the level of engagement of the NC-FEW leaders and community

members? What is the role of working groups and conference events in supporting the

community? What shifts in attitudes occur for those involved in the community? What are other emergent impacts associated with participating in NC-FEW

activities?• Surveys, interviews, and other forms of project documentation

NC-FEW – Initial Activities

• 9/1/2019 official start date• Project website• Start-up and recruitment• Meetings of the leadership team and working groups• Over 150 individuals have submitted the interest form • Over 100 individuals have completed the onboarding survey thus far

NC-FEW’s Online Profile

• Project website - http://ncfew.org/ A description of NC-FEW vision, mission, goals, and

funding List of NC-FEW leadership team and working group

members Individual pages for each working group to

summarize activities, resources, and products, including research summaries A set of resources in support of education research

on FEW-Nexus-based educational programming An archive of webinars and newsletters A blog/news page that will enable dissemination, but

also invited posts NC-FEW participants, stakeholders, and leaders from both public and private sectors

• Twitter - #NCFEW

NC-FEW Participants – Who are they?

NC-FEW Participants – Who are they?

NC-FEW – Primary Activities

• Ongoing dissemination and recruitment• Quarterly meetings (leadership team and working groups)• Invited conferences (Years 2 and 5)• Quarterly webinars and newsletter• ‘Crosswalking’ standards for teaching and learning• Funding proposals for FEW-Nexus-focused programs• Literature reviews/edited book• FEW-Nexus-based ‘teaching tools’• Research training (workshops and online module)• Project website• Evaluation

Webinars and Newsletter

• Quarterly• Highlighting information relevant to the community Theoretical and analytical perspectives and approaches Showcasing individual Nexus-focused educational programs/research Sharing information about relevant funding programs Discussing and soliciting feedback on working groups Community news and events

Invited Conferences

• Year 2 and Year 5• Example activities Keynote speakers Interactive poster sessions Research methods training programs Sharing and synthesis of working groups and community products Fostering collaboration Generating grant proposal ideas Overall community-building

Working Groups

• 3 groups – Postsecondary, K-12, informal/nonformal• Synthesis activities around NC-FEW core themes• Key questions What should learners learn? How should this learning be supported?

• Key activities: Reviewing policy documents and prior research Mapping disciplinary standards onto FEW-Nexus Identifying best practices in education

Products

• Grounded in synthesis activities of the working groups and community activities Literature reviews/edited book Grant proposals FEW-Nexus-based ‘teaching tools’ Training module specific to FEW-Nexus education research

• Opportunities for NC-FEW members to plug in, contribute, and leverage these deliverables for their own work

NC-FEW – How can I engage?

• Become an NC-FEW Affiliate• Participate in webinars and invited events• Receive community newsletters and communications• Contribute to working groups• Share your work and explore opportunities for productive

collaboration• Submit the interest form and complete the onboarding survey.