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NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique (2010)

Chapter: 4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs

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Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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4
Overview and Critique of NOAA’s Education Programs

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) supports a wide array of education activities and products that serve K-12 and higher education students as well as the public. The agency’s activities and products range from hands-on learning experiences, to teacher training initiatives, to a spherical data visualization tool, to literacy frameworks. They are implemented in formal and informal learning environments and address the range of scientific and stewardship issues at the heart of the agency’s mission. NOAA has created these activities and products in partnership with other federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, industry, state, and local education agencies, and other groups. In this chapter we provide an overview of how the education programs are organized, describe and critique the education programs, and discuss cross-cutting issues, including addressing core science and engineering principles, the quality of NOAA education websites, and portfolio balance.

Table 4.1 lists the education programs supported by five line offices and the Office of Education. Some programs are the result of the efforts of more than one office. Also, education programs are being carried out at multiple levels: that is, education is supported by line office managers, as well as by offices within the line offices, such as the National Sea Grant College Program Office and the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. The majority of NOAA staff, offices, and sites are located in a coastal region (see Figure 4.1), and most education programs are supported or run by education staff at these offices and sites (a few programs are national in scope and not tied to a specific region). Thus, the majority of the education initiatives serve students, teachers, and the public residing in coastal regions.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

TABLE 4.1 Education Programs and Supporting Offices

Education Program

Supporting Office

Ocean Exploration and Research’s Ocean Hall

Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

Climate Program

Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

Sea Grant

Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

Ocean Exploration and Research’s Ocean Explorer

Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

National Ocean Service

Coral Reef Conservation Program

Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

National Marine Fisheries Service

National Environmental Satellite, Data, & Information Services

National Ocean Service

Teacher at Sea

National Marine Fisheries Service

National Ocean Service’s National Marine Sanctuaries

Storm/Tsunami Ready

National Weather Service

Cooperative Institutes

Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

National Marine Fisheries Service

National Weather Service

National Environmental Satellite, Data, & Information Services

National Marine Sanctuaries

National Ocean Service

National Estuarine Research Reserve System

National Ocean Service

Environmental Literacy Grants

Office of Education

Bay-Watershed Education and Training

Office of Education

National Ocean Service’s National Marine Sanctuaries and National Estuarine Research Reserve System

National Ocean Service’s Coastal Service Center

Educational Partnership Program

Office of Education

Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program

Office of Education

JASON Project

Office of Education

Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship Program

Office of Education

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×
FIGURE 4.1 NOAA offices and sites around the country

FIGURE 4.1 NOAA offices and sites around the country

NOTES: CRCP = Coral Reef Conservation Program; ELG = Environmental Literacy Grants; EPP = Educational Partnership Pro gram; NERRS = National Estuarine Research Reserve System; NESDIS = National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service; NMFS = National Marine Fishery Service; NWS = National Weather Service.

SOURCE: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

Table 4.2 summarizes the education activities of each program, although there is some ambiguity in determining which programs conduct which type of activities. Some programs run many different initiatives, and others focus significant effort on just a few. There is large variation in the number of initiatives and amount of funding across programs. For example, both the National Sea Grant College Program and the National Marine Fisheries Service conduct various types of education activities and have multiple local sites. Yet the Sea Grant Program is very large and has produced large amounts of curricular materials, conducts several large fellowship initiatives,1 and supports many outreach initiatives. In contrast, the Fisheries Service has a very small education budget that supports one curriculum, one fellowship program, the Teacher at Sea Program, and several small outreach initiatives. Thus, the differences between these programs cannot be captured by a yes or no. It is likely that NOAA is having trouble categorizing the education activities under each line and program office. A clearer table that organizes education programs by focus, goals, and scope would be a useful piece of the implementation plan that is currently under development.

The programs could be grouped in various ways, and we chose to group them into four main categories by focus: (1) place-based education that supports local education efforts, (2) place-based education that occurs at NOAA managed sites, (3) nationwide curricula and teacher professional development, and (4) higher education.

COMMITTEE REVIEW

Information was collected on each program through presentations to the committee, phone interviews and e-mails with the education staff, site visits, and review of online materials. Further details on most programs can be found at their websites (listed in Appendix C).

Place-Based Education That Supports Local Education Efforts

Bay-Watershed Education and Training

The Bay-Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) Program is an environmental education effort promoting locally relevant, experiential learning for K-12 students and teachers. The program aims to develop a well-informed citizenry involved in decision making that positively impacts coastal, marine, and watershed ecosystems. B-WET is based on the idea that firsthand experience, in the context of one’s community and culture,

1

A complete list of fellowship, scholarship, and internship opportunities at NOAA is found at http://www.oesd.noaa.gov/noaa_student_opps.html [accessed May 2010].

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

TABLE 4.2 Education Program Activities

Program

Grants for External Education

NOAA On-Site Education

Web-Based Education

Locally- Based

Curriculum Development

Teacher Professional Development

Fellowships for Higher Education

Informal Education Outreach

B-WET

 

 

 

 

Coral Reef Conservation

 

 

Storm/Tsunami Ready

 

 

 

 

 

Estuary Research Reserves

 

Fisheries Service

 

Marine Sanctuaries

 

 

Environmental Literacy Grants

 

 

 

 

JASON

 

 

 

 

Ocean Explorer

 

 

 

Teacher at Sea/in Air

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cooperative Institutes

 

 

Educational Partnerships

 

 

 

 

Hollings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foster

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sea Grant

 

Climate Change Program

 

 

 

Ocean Hall

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Weather Service

 

 

 

 

 

National Ocean Service

 

 

 

 

 

NOTE: A circle in the box indicates that the program has at least one initiative in an area.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

B-WET Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—Watershed ecosystems and conservation

Audience—Primarily K-12 students and teachers

Format—Grants primarily for education activities and professional development

Education Budget—$4.2M in fiscal year (FY) 2007

Supporting Office—Office of Education

is an important element in fostering environmental stewardship. B-WET is an Office of Education program that has been administered by regional program offices (e.g., the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office, and the Pacific Services Center) since 2002. The program expanded to three additional regional offices in 2008 (Gulf Coast, New England, and Pacific Northwest).

B-WET provides competitive funding ($4.2 million in 2007) from regional program offices to local grantees that promote what it calls Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences. Such an experience “integrates field experiences in a watershed with multidisciplinary classroom activities and instruction. Students then share their discoveries about the watershed with local schools and communities, both orally and in written form” (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2009). To date 353 grants have been funded by B-WET for a total of $20 million. The grants typically provide partial funding for education activities, with matching or additional funding coming from other agencies or private-sector organizations. These grants have supported programs that reached about 18,000 teachers, 1,000 other adults, and 160,000 students. Grant recipients include K-12 public and independent schools and school systems, institutions of higher education, commercial and nonprofit organizations, community organizations, and state and local governments. B-WET is currently implementing a programwide evaluation plan that will provide a common framework for evaluation across regions.

Impact: Evaluations of local B-WET activities, which included control groups, have shown the program to be successful in increasing teachers’ confidence in their ability and intentions to implement Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences. Students gained knowledge about environmental stewardship and watershed and marine sanctuaries and seemed to enjoy learning about and protecting the ocean. Program-supported activities also increased student and teacher understanding about preventing pollution.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×
Coral Reef Conservation Program

The Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP), established by the 2000 Coral Reef Conservation Act, is a partnership between the National Ocean Service, the National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. It brings together expertise from across NOAA for a multidisciplinary approach to understanding coral reef ecosystems and supporting education activities. The program facilitates and supports partnerships with scientific, private, government, and nongovernment groups at local, state, federal, and international levels.

The education strategy seeks to deliver two messages. First, coral reefs are valuable resources. Second, the health of coral reef ecosystems is at serious risk from a variety of human activities. The goals of the education program are to raise public awareness and appreciation for coral reef ecosystems, incorporate coral reef issues in education programs, increase assessments and monitoring of coral reef habitats, and support local education initiatives through grants. The program has developed a suite of educational and professional development resources for teachers wanting to explore coral reef ecosystem science in their classrooms. These include online discovery kits, an educational resources CD, professional development workshops, and a coral reef and satellites curriculum. There have been several local CRCP outreach activities, including media outreach, environmental expos, and other communication efforts.

CRCP Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—Coral reef ecosystems and conservation

Audience—General public, K-12 educators

Format—Varied, grants for local initiatives, some curriculum development and teacher professional development

Education Budget—$.9M in FY2007

Supporting Offices—Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Environmental Satellite, Data, & Information Services, National Ocean Service

Impact: The committee did not have access to assessments of local CRCP education initiatives, and no national education products have been evaluated. It is therefore challenging to determine how effective

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

CRCP has been in reaching its educational goals. It is clear that program leveraged funds and partnerships to enhance local efforts in coral reef conservation outreach. A seven-member expert external panel review commissioned by NOAA to inform the 2009-2011 CRCP strategic plan made one recommendation related to education: the CRCP’s potential would be more likely to be fulfilled if it provided “better general education and outreach on the threats to coral reefs, the likely social and economic consequences of their loss, and the measures that can be taken to ensure their continued survival and productivity. NOAA’s role in this should be clearly defined and should include use of existing and development of new products, provision of expert information, and development of partnerships explicitly for communication” (Coral Reef Conservation Program, 2007, pp. 5-6).

National Weather Service

The National Weather Service (NWS) provides a variety of education resources to classrooms and the public, although it does not have a concerted education program. Most activities are informal, like the NOAA/American Meteorological Service WeatherFest, an interactive science festival for the public. The festival includes a teacher training workshop as well as hands-on activities run by teachers and scientists on weather and climate topics, drawing approximately 3,000 visitors per year. NWS has supported formal education activities, such as the creation of the Xtreme Weather CD. It was created by the Illinois Education Association and the NWS as one of several partners on the project. In addition, NWS field office staff make approximately 2,400 school visits each year.

NWS Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—Weather and meteorology

Audience—K-12 students and teachers

Format—classroom visits, informal activities, and online education materials

Education Budget—$3.4M in FY2007

Line Office—National Weather Service

Since 1999, the NWS has supported StormReady and TsunamiReady—nationwide community preparedness programs that use a grassroots approach to help communities develop plans to handle severe weather (e.g., thunderstorms, tornados, hurricanes) and tsunamis. StormReady and TsunamiReady help community leaders and emergency managers strengthen

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

their local hazardous weather operations, supplying them with targeted publications about severe weather safety, related statistics, relevant presentations, and brochures and requiring that community seminars are held to promote the importance of public readiness.

Impact: Overall, NWS is responsive to requests for visits by schools and teachers and has carried out a large number of education activities in relation to the level of staff and budget available for education purposes. This results in sporadic use of resources. In the absence of specific evaluations, a first-principles approach suggests that such efforts would be more efficient in terms of human and financial resources if the staff at NWS field offices were better coordinated. As of February 2009, there were 1,411 StormReady sites in 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Guam and 63 TsunamiReady sites in 10 states, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

TsunamiReady is a relatively new program with a more robust educational and outreach presence than StormReady. StormReady is focused on providing informational resources but does not provide many education activities for communities and does not seem to be reaching individuals who are not already interested in weather, especially those from underserved populations. The program could increase its reach by increasing its engagement with underserved communities.

Place-Based Education That Occurs Primarily at NOAA Sites

National Estuarine Research Reserve System

The National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) is a network of 27 protected areas in the National Ocean Service, established by the 1972 Coastal Zone Management Act to promote long-term research, education, and stewardship. This program requires partnerships between NOAA and the coastal states where the estuaries exist. NOAA provides partial funding (70 percent from NOAA, 30 percent from state agencies), national guidance, and technical assistance. Each reserve is managed on a

NERRS Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—Estuary ecosystems and conservation

Audience—Primarily K-12 students and teachers

Format—Varied, many informal programs plus some curriculum, professional development, and graduate fellowships

Education Budget—$1.1M in FY2007

Line Office—National Ocean Service

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

daily basis by a lead state agency, nonprofit organization, or university with input from local partners. The reserves take a local approach to national priorities. Land use and population growth, water quality degradation, habitat loss and alteration, and changes in biological communities are the core topics for science education and training.

The goals of NERRS education activities are to enhance public awareness and understanding of estuarine areas and provide suitable opportunities for public education and interpretation. With the support of NOAA, state agencies, and other partners, the reserves run approximately 3,000 K-12 programs. Approximately 3,500 teachers have participated in reserve professional development, and 700,000 people have watched an EstuaryLive program (the NERRS online education tool, which includes teacher professional development resources, an estuary curriculum, and classroom activities). Graduate students are served by the Graduate Research Fellowship Program, which awards stipends to 54 master’s and doctoral students per year. Other initiatives are locally based and include professional teacher training programs, K-12 student programs, and community outreach and educational programs.

Impact: A 2003 review of NERRS education found that there had been little formal evaluation of the K-12 and teacher professional development programs and that local reserves have focused their evaluations on the number of people participating rather than changes in their knowledge, intentions, or actions (Pandion Systems, 2003). Since 2003, NERRS has improved its evaluation strategy and now implements performance measurements and more frequently implements pre-post participant surveys, site-based evaluations, evaluations of national programs (i.e., EstuaryLive), and program reviews (the most recent education program review report was released in 2003). Through these mechanisms NERRS has become better at measuring participants’ knowledge, intentions, and actions.

It is important that NERRS continue with this enhanced evaluation strategy for its various information reporting requirements and needs. EstuaryLive has been evaluated and shown to be effective at holding student interest and increasing their estuary content knowledge (Pandion Systems, 2005, 2006). Surveys did not attempt to measure excitement for science, intentions, or behavioral changes, which might have better captured the stewardship potential of the program. With the assistance of a nonprofit educational research and development firm, NERRS developed the Estuaries 101 curriculum based on the needs of teachers and schools, and aligned it with big ideas in science and ocean and climate literacy (Hammerman, 2007). Organizationally, NERRS is extremely decentralized, but staff from each site meet yearly. Overall, the program has made changes to improve evaluation practices, and positive impacts of the program have been documented.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×
Office of National Marine Sanctuaries

The Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act established the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS) Program in 1972. The sanctuaries are responsible for promoting public understanding of national marine sanctuaries, national marine heritage, and the marine environment. The National Marine Sanctuaries Act explicitly mandates that the sanctuaries support education and outreach activities. Today, 13 marine sanctuaries and the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument promote public understanding of marine sanctuaries and the marine environment.

Each site has outreach and education functions related to common themes, which are generally handled by one or more education coordinators or specialists. The national office also supports large- and small-scale national education activities, including OceansLive and Data in the Classroom. Educational materials for students and teachers are provided online, and hands-on education experiences are available at each sanctuary. A wide range of formal and informal education and outreach activities are supported, including naturalist volunteer programs, adult education, museum exhibits, community college courses, teacher professional development, summer camps, ocean literacy partnerships, student field days, art contests, and curriculum. In addition, each site has either a visitor center or multiple permanent sanctuary exhibits displayed at partner facilities. An internal mini-grants program, led by the national education coordinator, encourages local sanctuaries to collaborate with each other and develop new educational and outreach programs. This coordinator also leads an Education Executive Council, comprised of a site representative from each of the four regions, which works on systemwide education policy issues.

Impact: ONMS has been proactive in increasing the quality of its education evaluations. It is encouraging that it is working to identify objectives and student outcomes for all of its education initiatives. It is especially important that the office is studying how current evaluations, which fall short of measuring these outcomes, can be improved. While this work is ongoing, a complete program evaluation is not available. Existing evaluations, however, are very positive. Several teacher professional development

ONMS Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—Marine sanctuary ecology and conservation

Audience—K-12 students and teachers, general public

Format—Varied, informal and formal

Education Budget—$2M in FY2007

Line Office—National Ocean Service

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

workshops, including Dive into Education (Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, 2004), the LiMPETS Workshop (Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, 2005a), and the Hawaii Field Study Workshop (Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, 2005b), were evaluated and found to be highly successful. Teachers ranked the workshops as among the best they had attended, stating that they were more likely to teach ocean science after attending. The Hawaii Field Study was successful in promoting teaching and behavioral changes among participants (Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, 2005b).

National Marine Fisheries Service

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), founded in 1871, is responsible for the management, conservation, and protection of living marine resources and their habitat within the United States’ Exclusive Economic Zone (waters 3-200 miles offshore). The office supports a large number of extension programs and outreach for professionals in the fishing industry as well as policy makers.

The NMFS education program was established in 2008,2 and recently the position of national education coordinator was created to coordinate efforts across the science centers and to develop national programs. NMFS outreach and education activities aim to align their goals with NOAA’s overall strategic education plan. Although it has limited budget and staff dedicated to education and outreach, a variety of education initiatives are carried out by regional science centers, including internship programs, workshops and science festivals, presentations to community members or students, teacher professional development, and curriculum development. Many of the initiatives are informal and combine outreach and education. NMFS makes extensive use of partnerships with schools, other NOAA offices, aquariums, and other community and environmental groups. In addition, many NMFS research grants include funding for undergraduate and graduate students.

Impact: There are no evaluations of NMFS education activities. The activities run by the NMFS are highly decentralized, and there is a great diversity in programming among the centers. Some of the variation stems from the amount of staff dedicated to education at each center, which ranges from a scientist authorized to spend less than 30 percent of his or her time on education to one full-time staff position. Almost all education initiatives are run by scientists with little education background or training. It is commendable that so many scientists volunteer their time to participate in the education initiatives, yet having an effective education program also requires a dedicated education

2

In FY2008 NMFS received funding specifically for education. Information regarding the amount of education funding received was not available early enough to be included in this report.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

NMFS Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—Ocean and environmental science

Audience—Varied

Format—Varied, mostly informal

Education Budget—$1.1M in FY2007 for outreach, no education-specific funding

Line Office—National Marine Fisheries Service

staff. The new national education coordinator can be a first step in producing a cohesive education program with clear goals and outcomes.

Nationwide Curriculum Development or Teacher Professional Development Programs

Environmental Literacy Grants

Environmental Literacy Grants (ELG) from the Office of Education provide funding for K-12 environmental literacy education initiatives, both formal and informal. The grants aim to fund initiatives that will catalyze change in K-12 education through development of new programs and materials or by supporting transformative methods. Approximately five to seven new grants are made per year totaling $4 million for FY2009 and FY2010. Individual grantees can receive $200,000-750,000. Institutions of higher education, for-profit and nonprofit organizations, state, local, and Indian tribal governments, K-12 public and independent schools, science centers, and museums are eligible to receive grants.

Initiatives are encouraged to incorporate NOAA data, data visualizations, and resources and to partner with NOAA entities or connect to previously funded grantees. In general, ELG initiatives have focused on the education of preservice teachers or the professional development of inservice teachers, and the development of K-12 curricula and related instructional materials. Priorities of the program have changed since its inception in 2005. ELG has been used to expand the reach of the Environmental Literacy Framework and to augment NOAA’s research and technological advances for education efforts, including Science on a Sphere (see Box 4.1 for information on how this technology originally developed as a research tool is now used as an innovative education technology).

Impact: ELG is a relatively new program, and there is currently no programwide evaluation. The Office of Education is currently working to determine programwide metrics that can be used to compare outcomes across initiatives. Each initiative receiving grant funds is required to conduct

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

BOX 4.1

Science On a Sphere

Science On a Sphere (SOS), a large globe-shaped visualization system that uses computers and video projectors to display animated data onto the outside of a sphere, was invented by Alexander MacDonald, director of the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. He came up with the concept in 1995 as an outgrowth of other visualization initiatives he was directing in the predecessor Forecast Systems Laboratory. An early prototype was built in 1995 and a patent was awarded to NOAA for SOS in 2005. It can display dynamic, animated images of the atmosphere, oceans, and land of a planet. While SOS was originally developed as a research tool, NOAA has adapted it as an education and outreach tool to describe the environmental processes of the Earth and increase earth science literacy among museum and science center visitors.

NOAA has invested money primarily through the Environmental Literacy Grants program to expand the use of SOS to 28 museums and science centers. SOS is used in a wide variety of exhibit formats. Auto-play mode is the most popular format, which many institutions augment with docents to help deliver content. There is also some work being done to allow visitors to interactively control the content shown on the sphere, including selecting and rotating content. The Orlando Science Center will feature SOS as part of their upcoming Global Decision Room exhibit, which will have visitors make decisions on behalf of the global population and then see the results of their decisions played out on the sphere. While many exhibits use SOS primarily to highlight global-scale phenomena, such as in the Sant Ocean Hall, some exhibits feature content designed to highlight local phenomena. For example, the Bishop Museum has a program that uses SOS to explain why Hawaii has such a favorable climate.

The ability to insert graphic media into three windows on the sphere allows for a powerful connectivity from global scale phenomena to regional and local phenomena that can also be captured in specific exhibits outside the SOS. For example, the Ocean Explorium at the New Bedford (Massachusetts) Seaport uses SOS to highlight global issues of potential and real ocean acidification impacts on coral reefs and shellfish as a result of modification of ocean carbonate chemistry and connects this phenomenon with exhibits of living coral reefs and shellfish.

SOS has been received very positively. In a formative evaluation at the Maryland Science Center, visitors almost unanimously (98 percent) rated SOS as excellent or very good. A series of evaluations of the entire SOS program are being conducted in partnership with the Institute for Learning Innovation, the first being “Nature and Range of Impact,” scheduled for completion in late 2009.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

ELG Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—Environmental and earth science

Audience—Formal and informal educational institutions

Format—Grants

Education Budget—$5.5M in FY2007

Line Office—Office of Education

its own evaluation, but implementation varies widely, from reporting the numbers of participants, to measures of student knowledge, to achievement over an academic year. Many individual initiatives have been very successful at increasing interest in science among participants and increasing teacher knowledge about and ability to teach environmental science. Without a programwide evaluation, however, it is impossible to determine whether ELG is efficiently allocating money to the most successful initiatives. The ELG proposal rating rubric is designed to rate proposals that include the use of NOAA scientific data, findings, and expertise higher than those that plan to use scientific data, findings, and expertise from other sources. This practice unnecessarily limits the range of scientific data, findings, and expertise that grantees can use. The demand for NOAA expertise and data does not exist in all of its education grant programs. The committee is concerned that the emphasis on internal NOAA expertise and data ignores much valuable knowledge and information from the wider scientific and engineering community.

Office of Ocean Exploration and Research

The Office of Ocean Exploration and Research (OER), founded in 2001, is part of the office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). Called Ocean Explorer, it coordinates NOAA’s exploration efforts and facilitates research expeditions, committing at least 10 percent of its annual operating budget to education and outreach. In partnership with the National Ocean Service, OER directs and maintains the official website for these explorations, which serves as a public archive of the exploration program, chronicling many of the missions with detailed daily logs, background essays, multimedia offerings, and over 130 hands-on lesson plans and a curriculum based on the explorations. In addition, OER supports the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer, which travels around the globe to map the seafloor and characterize largely unknown areas of the ocean, supporting education activities through use of real-time broadband satellite communications to connect the ship and its discoveries live with audiences ashore.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

OER Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—Deep ocean science

Audience—5-12 students and teachers, website is for general public

Format—Curriculum, professional development, and web-based media

Education Budget—$.9M in FY2007

Line Office—Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

The OER education activities are intended to highlight the value of ocean exploration discovery and research in enhancing awareness, understanding, and stewardship of the intricate ocean system and its importance to life on Earth. The Ocean Explorer website offers near real-time access to a series of multidisciplinary ocean explorations through imagery, video, webcast and web chats, and topical essays. The site also includes lesson plans, curricula, and professional development opportunities. OER uses partnerships with local aquariums and science centers to provide one-day workshops for teachers and other educators on the use of the Ocean Explorer curriculum and to introduce participants to ocean scientists and explorers and their research. OceanAGE Careers allows users to interact with explorers and scientists who study the ocean world through live interviews, profiles, and mission logs.

Impact: The Ocean Explorer professional development institutes were recently evaluated by an outside evaluator (Day-Miller and Payne, 2009). Participants were very positive about their experience at the institutes and afterward 68 percent reported using the Ocean Explorer curriculum in their classroom, all of whom reported that their students enjoyed the curriculum. Participants also indicated increased enthusiasm for teaching ocean science. Scientists who participated in Ocean Exploration signature expeditions and teacher professional development institutes were also positive about their experience (Lovelace, 2006); however, no information on the impact of the scientists’ contribution was assessed. It is encouraging that OER has sought to link together its many lesson plans into a coherent curriculum, yet it is unclear what aspects of environmental literacy the curriculum was designed to support or what impact it has had on student learning or teacher practices.

Teacher at Sea

The mission of the Teacher at Sea Program, managed by NMFS,3 is to give teachers clearer insight into the ocean and a greater understanding of

3

The management of the Teacher at Sea Program was recently transferred to NMFS. Previously it was managed by the Office of Marine and Aviations Operations.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

maritime work and studies and to increase their level of environmental literacy by fostering an interdisciplinary research experience. In addition, scientists, NOAA Corps officers, and crew gain motivated volunteers to help carry out their initiatives. Since 1990 the program has provided opportunities for kindergarten through college-level teachers to participate in research at sea aboard research and survey ships under the tutelage of NOAA scientists and crew. An offshoot, the Teacher in the Air program, was first piloted in 2004. It has enabled teacher participants to observe research activities and interact with scientists while on board NOAA aircraft.

After their experience at sea or in the air, participants create a lesson plan that addresses the science and research and a lesson plan, activity, or similar document (e.g., brochure, flyer) that addresses ocean careers. After teaching their newly developed lesson plan, teachers must create and administer a test that measures students’ knowledge of the lesson’s subject matter as appropriate to grade level. Finally, teachers prepare an article for publication or conduct a presentation about the mission at an educators’ conference or for colleagues. Depending on funding, 20-30 educators are chosen through a competitive grant process to participate each year. Over 525 teachers have participated in Teacher at Sea from 48 states, American Samoa, Argentina, Chile, and Puerto Rico.

Impact: Teacher at Sea is currently undergoing outside evaluation. There is considerable anecdotal evidence that it provides a key experience for teachers that enhances their excitement for teaching science and provides them with knowledge of scientific careers. While the high cost of the program per teacher presents a question as to its scalability, not all programs need to be scalable. It is valuable for NOAA to support some programs that have deep, long-lasting impact with a smaller audience. Currently lesson plans produced by participants are used only by the individual participants with their students. Collecting the lesson plans and making them available to the wider public might increase the reach and scope of the program without affecting the impact of the program on the participating teachers.

Teacher at Sea Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—Ocean science

Audience—K-12 and undergraduate teachers

Format—Teacher professional development

Education Budget—$.2M in FY2007

Line Office—National Marine Fisheries Service

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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BOX 4.2

Initiatives Focused on Diversity

B-WET-California provided guidance to all project coordinators on adapting programs to multicultural audiences at its recent annual conference. One of its initiatives that focuses specifically on multicultural audiences is Project Watershed by Reaching Out to Communities and Kids with Science in San Francisco. Project Watershed brings together 15 urban students in grades 9-12 to design and implement a year-long study of watershed water quality on San Francisco’s east side. The program is designed to provide high school students interested in earth and environmental science with a long-term research study experience. Students learn all required skills to participate in the program, collect and analyze water samples, complete analysis of data, and discuss the implications. Students present their results with a poster at a major scientific conference.

Environmental Literacy Grants fund the Multicultural Students at Sea Together (MAST) Program, which is a multidisciplinary program that engages students in NOAA-related marine research and explores marine policy, the heritage of African Americans and Native Americans in the coastal environment, and seamanship. MAST students use the Chesapeake Bay to understand efforts to protect, restore, and manage the use of coastal and ocean resources through an ecosystem approach to management. Hampton University, which conceived of and runs the program, partners with NOAA, university labs, the Environmental Protection Agency, museums, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and the Menhaden fishing industry to expose students to diverse aspects of marine research and policy.

National Marine Sanctuary Program and B-WET are working to broaden participation to diverse groups through the Multicultural Education for Resource Issues Threatening Oceans (MERITO) Program. MERITO is an emerging multicultural education and outreach initiative aiming to build and engage a conscious and culturally inclusive constituency for ocean protection nationwide. Currently it operates at Monterey Bay and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuaries, offering adult

Programs Primarily Focused on Higher Education

Educational Partnership Program

The Educational Partnership Program (EPP), established by the Office of Education in 2001, promotes environmental literacy and develops a future science, technology, and engineering workforce, particularly from underrepresented communities. It is the largest program with a specific focus on broadening participation in the fields related to NOAA’s mission (see Box 4.2 for descriptions of other initiatives that focus on broadening participation and interest).

The program has four components. First, the Graduate Sciences Program trains minority and women candidates in NOAA-related disciplines

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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and youth education programs, family field experiences, professional development for teachers and youth leaders, teaching resources, bilingual outreach, internships, and career mentoring, all geared for diverse multicultural communities. The program has been designed to encourage better public understanding of specific ocean-related issues within sanctuaries and their connections to inland human activities. It promotes community participation to address these issues and motivates culturally diverse students to pursue careers in marine sciences and resource protection.

Broadening participation also includes increasing the representation of girls and women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The University of Southern California Sea Grant Program runs a summer science program for middle school girls, which aims to provide students with an introduction to oceanography through a series of hands-on experiences and scientific simulations. It demonstrates the effect that humans have on a delicate ecosystem through the study of marine biology and oceanography. The University of Southern California (USC) offers this program in conjunction with the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies and the Sea Grant Program. Sea Grant developed the program and scientists from the Wrigley Institute and the Sea Grant Program are the camp instructors and staff. This field-oriented program challenges students to explore ecological and biological principles through an interactive approach to learning, which includes field and laboratory research, self-guided experiments, and educational simulations. Science is integrated with cultural and social studies to offer a well-rounded view of an island ecosystem. A community of scientists is built through team activities, instructional and recreational activities, and mentoring programs. Students interact with faculty and graduates who are studying various aspects of science. Students also explore diverse careers in environmental, biological, and physical sciences.

and has paid for 21 graduate students’ tuition, housing and other expenses, and 16 weeks of NOAA work experience per year. Second, EPP supports an undergraduate scholarship program that has provided NOAA internships and one-on-one mentoring to 66 students from underrepresented communities graduating with degrees in fields integral to NOAA’s mission. Each scholar receives approximately $28,000 for two academic years to cover the costs of tuition and other expenses. Third, EPP has established five Cooperative Science Centers at minority-serving institutions. The aim is to build sustainable capacity via improved curricula and degree programs, increased laboratory facilities, enhanced national reputation, and a pipeline of students trained in science and engineering. The final component, the Environmental Entrepreneurship Program, provides competitive awards to minority-serving institutions to run initiatives geared to entrepreneurial or pipeline goals.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

EPP Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—All NOAA critical disciplines

Audience—Undergraduate and graduate students at minority-serving institutions

Format—Scholarships, grants, and Cooperative Science Centers

Education Budget—$14.2M in FY2007

Line Office—Office of Education

Funds are used to either engage students and faculty in collaborative, field-based learning experiences to develop to business opportunities in their local communities, or to increase high school students’ understanding of concepts related to NOAA’s mission. The program has awarded $15 million to support 51 initiatives involving 1,460 students since its inception.

Impact: EPP support to the Cooperative Science Centers has resulted in 489 degrees awarded to students in core sciences related to NOAA’s mission. In addition, EPP significantly increased the number of African American Ph.D. graduates in atmospheric and environmental sciences. In addition, the centers supported 62 new faculty members, over 150 collaborative research initiatives involving NOAA and minority-serving partners, and more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. The data received by the committee do not show number of degrees earned in various subdisciplines of ocean sciences or atmospheric sciences or in other specific subdisciplines related to NOAA’s mission.

Overall, the evaluations found that the Cooperative Science Centers had made progress toward achieving their goals. EPP has demonstrated considerable success at increasing the number of marine and atmospheric science Ph.D.s received by underrepresented minorities. Moreover, it is very encouraging that many of these graduates (33) have gone on to careers as NOAA scientists. Evaluation of the entire EPP program is currently ongoing, yet each of the Cooperative Science Centers was evaluated in 2004 by NOAA and center staff. These evaluations took place in only the second year of the centers’ operation and resulted in a number of recommendations to ensure future success. As described in Chapter 3, it is crucial that minority students have access to high-quality resources, facilities, and mentoring. Access to these resources is more likely when minority-serving institutions partner with majority-serving research universities and institutions. Continued tracking of the impact of the EPP program would be well served by establishing benchmarks and clearly articulated target diversity goals.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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National Sea Grant College Program

The National Sea Grant College Program (NSGCP), established through the National Sea Grant College and Program Act of 1966, has matured into a state-federal partnership with a distinctive role and management structure. It is a nationwide network (housed in the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) of 30 individual Sea Grant programs. The Sea Grant infrastructure is modeled after the Land Grant system and includes partnerships with universities, a performance-based evaluation process, regional networks, and locally based infrastructure. The programs have over 300 state, federal, and industry partners. This network engages in conducting scientific research, education, training, and extension initiatives designed to increase assessment, development, utilization, and conservation of coastal resources by providing assistance to promote responsive research and training activities. In 2007, $53.3 million in Sea Grant awards were distributed: $23.9 million (45 percent) of the funds were for outreach and education, and $5.4 million was education specific.

Education is a key component of the NSGCP. It supports undergraduate and graduate education, teacher education, K-12 curriculum development, and informal education activities. Sea Grant has supported education and training of many marine and Great Lakes scientists, resource managers, and policy specialists through its three fellowship programs, the John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship, the Sea Grant/NOAA Fisheries Graduate Fellowship, and the Sea Grant Industry Fellowship Program. In 2007, over 1,700 undergraduate and graduate students have received fellowships, scholarships, or research assistantships from Sea Grant.

In 2007, there have been 2,726 K-12 teachers and 1,516 informal educators involved in Sea Grant professional development programs through the National Sea Grant Educators Network. During that year the network funded 1,793 camps, programs, activities, and clubs involving 153,146 children and families to improve environmental literacy, and network educators taught 1,446 class field trips involving 139,259 students. These educators

NSGCP Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—Ocean and coastal science

Audience—K-12 students and educators, undergraduate and graduate students, and general public

Format—Varied, formal and informal education, fellowships, professional development, and curricular development

Education Budget—$5.4M in FY2007

Line Office—Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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typically have academic preparation in both science and teaching. Most have advanced science degrees and formal or informal teaching experience. All Sea Grant educators are associated with universities or research institutions. In addition, curricular materials have been developed to promote ocean literacy. Typical Sea Grant curricular materials offer hands-on science lessons, often including new technologies that incorporate real-time data obtained from satellites and offshore monitoring instruments. Sea Grant offers many online resources to students and educators via the Bridge Ocean Sciences Education Teacher Resource Center.4

Impact: The Sea Grant review process provides periodic program assessments of each Sea Grant college, which include a review of education activities. Although many of the education activities are excellent, there is not much coordination among local programs. Better coordination across the Sea Grant network could lead to a greater impact. Evaluations of individual education activities show that most of them are received positively and that expected educational outcomes are being reached. For example, summative and formative evaluations of free-choice learning at the Hatfield Marine Science Visitor Center at Oregon State University led to small changes to exhibits that resulted in big changes in visitor comprehension, illustrating that age was not a barrier to the use of technology (Cammen, 2008). An evaluation of the USC’s Summer Science Programs for Middle and High School Girls’ Involvement showed that the program fosters interest in the environment and science, enthusiasm about what they learn, and higher expectations for classroom performance (Cammen, 2008).

During our Chesapeake Bay area site visit, we visited South Carroll High School in Sykesville, Maryland, where the Maryland Sea Grant (MDSG) has implemented Aquaculture in Action, a program to support aquaculture as a tool for teaching science. Through a partnership with the Carroll County school district, other local school districts, and local science organizations, MDSG provides teacher training, an online data system and teacher networking site, and materials to create an aquaculture laboratory. With support of MDSG and its partners South Carroll High School has created its own aquaculture laboratory (complete with recirculation tank system and computer lab). The program was created and implemented through the initiative of MDSG staff (with no education budget) and the support of its sponsors. The impact of these programs has not been evaluated, in part since there is no money for evaluation, but it is clear that the Aquaculture in Action program has created a sophisticated science classroom and provided teacher training that would not have been available if the program did not exist.

4

See http://web.vims.edu/bridge/svr=www [accessed May 2010].

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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Staff creating, developing, and supporting such efforts with no or a very limited budget seems to be the rule rather than the exception in the programs we visited. There is a need to create a network or process for sharing effective practices in developing programs under these constraints, so that other programs and projects can benefit from the successes and failures of prior efforts.

Cooperative Institutes

NOAA funds 21 Cooperative Institutes (CIs) that conduct research on topics ranging from coastal ecology and fisheries biology to atmospheric chemistry and satellite climatology. The institutes, located at 34 research universities in 17 states, receive funding from NOAA through a competitive grants process to support both their research and their educational missions. Individual line offices manage the awards and oversee each CI’s performance. For NOAA, the purpose of the partnership between research universities and NOAA laboratories is to promote research, education, training, and outreach aligned with NOAA’s mission goals.

Although their primary work is conducting research, CIs also engage in a wide variety of educational activities. For example, the CI for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado at Boulder has a graduate program in environmental sciences, an interdisciplinary outreach program, and online education resources for K-12 school districts, teachers, and students. K-12 education and outreach initiatives include classroom and prospective teacher professional development, volunteer opportunities for scientists, education components for research initiatives, district partnerships, and research mentors for high school students and undergraduates. Also, CIRES runs the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training, which promotes a better understanding of mesoscale meteorology and addresses education and training needs in the atmospheric and related sciences.

CI Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—All NOAA critical disciplines

Audience—Mainly undergraduate and graduate students, some K-12 and general public programs

Format—Competitive grants to universities

Education Budget—Not available

Line Offices—National Environmental Satellite, Data, & Information Services; National Marine Fisheries Service; Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

Impact: In 2004, the NOAA Science Advisory Board conducted a review of agency research activities, which recommended, in part, that NOAA develop an agencywide policy for managing all CIs under a common procedural structure (Moore et al., 2004). We were not able to find out what education activities are supported across the CIs, as the tracking of education activities is inconsistent. Also, there has not been an evaluation of the overall education programs at the CIs, and the committee did not have access to evaluations of individual initiatives.

Ernest F. Hollings Scholarship Program

The Hollings Scholarship Program, run by the Office of Education, provides undergraduate students with awards that include academic assistance (up to a maximum of $8,000 per year) during the 9-month academic year; a 10-week, full-time internship position ($650/week) during the summer at a NOAA facility; and, if reappointed, academic assistance (up to a maximum of $8,000) for a second 9-month academic year. The purpose of the internship after the first year of the award is to provide scholars with hands-on educational training experience in NOAA-related science, research, technology, policy, management, and education activities. Awards also include travel funds to attend a mandatory Hollings Scholarship Program orientation, conferences at which students present a paper or poster, and a housing subsidy for scholars who do not reside at home during the summer internship.

Hollings Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—All NOAA critical disciplines

Audience—Undergraduates

Format—Scholarships

Education Budget—$3.9M in FY2007

Line Office—Office of Education

Impact: Since its inception, in 2005, scholarships have been awarded to 434 students. Several former Hollings scholars have been hired by NOAA.

Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program

The Dr. Nancy Foster Scholarship Program, authorized in the 2000 reauthorization of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, recognizes outstanding scholarship and encourages independent graduate-level research—

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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particularly by female and minority students—in oceanography, marine biology, and maritime archaeology. The program is administered through NOAA’s Office of Education and funded annually with 1 percent of the amount appropriated each fiscal year to carry out the National Marine Sanctuaries Act. A maximum of $84,000 may be provided to master’s students and up to $168,000 may be provided to doctoral students. Recipients are required to participate in a research collaboration at a NOAA facility. The research collaboration opportunity is designed to allow scholars to conduct their research at a NOAA facility and on NOAA mission research for four to six weeks. There were nine recipients of the Foster scholarship in 2008.

Foster Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—Oceanography, marine biology, and maritime archaeology

Audience—Graduate students

Format—Fellowships

Education Budget—$300,000 in FY2007

Line Office—Office of Education

Impact: A total of 30 students have received funding since the scholarship program’s inception in 2000.

Additional Education Initiatives

Climate Communication and Education Program

Situated in the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, the Climate Program Office conducts the Climate Communication and Education Program (CCEP), whose mission is to improve public climate science literacy and to raise public awareness and understanding of and engagement with NOAA’s climate science and services programs. CCEP was formed in 2008 and embarked on a multipronged new initiative to produce and distribute a range of products, conduct programs, and collaborate in partnerships designed to help NOAA fulfill its climate mission. It seeks to engage many segments of society, including policy makers, scientists, educators, and the public, to improve climate literacy. CCEP and its many partner agencies and organizations developed the Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Science framework to guide the development of formal and informal climate science education curricula and supporting educational professional development.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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CCEP Quick Facts

Scientific Focus—Climate science

Audience—K-12 students and educators and general public

Format—Varied, literacy principles, curricular materials, web resources

Education Budget—$4.6M in FY2007 for climate mission goal

Line Office—Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

Impact: Most CCEP initiatives and products are still in the development phase, so it is too early to evaluate their effectiveness. The climate literacy principles provide an important framework for future curriculum development and formal education efforts.

Interagency Collaborations

NOAA is a sponsor of several interagency education initiatives. It contributes partial support to the National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE) network. This network was developed to promote a better understanding of the key role the ocean plays in global environmental cycles and processes. The network is comprised of 12 thematic and regional centers and a central coordinating office. The centers strive to foster the integration of ocean research into educational materials, enable ocean researchers to gain a better understanding of educational organizations and pedagogy, enhance educators’ capacity to teach ocean science, and promote deeper understanding of the ocean and its influence on quality of life and national prosperity.

NOAA is one of eight sponsors and partners of the JASON Project. A nonprofit subsidiary of the National Geographic Society, the JASON Project uses the research of NOAA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to create science curricula on such topics as ecosystems and extreme weather. JASON attempts to use educational telepresence to create a “being there” experience for students to work side by side with scientists and researchers on real-world missions. A multiyear evaluation (Center for Children and Technology, 2003) found that JASON has had a positive impact on students’ and teachers’ understanding of science concepts and that it positively influenced students’ perceptions of scientists and of becoming scientists.

NOAA is also a cochair of the Interagency Working Group on Ocean Education, established by the Interagency Committee on Ocean Science

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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and Resource Management Integration. The working group is tasked to implement recommendations of the U.S. Ocean Action Plan to collaborate across federal agencies in order to increase ocean literacy and build a future workforce. Formally established in 2006, the working group has been meeting regularly to compare agency-funded programs and identify common priorities. The group is particularly focused on coordinating formal and informal education programs, developing a coordinated ocean message, promoting the use of ocean observation data in education, and attracting a future workforce to marine science, technology, and management.

NOAA has worked collaboratively with the National Geographic Society, the Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence, and the National Marine Educators Association to create Ocean Literacy Principles, a document that defines ocean literacy. It is a resource developed to redress the lack of ocean-related content in state and national science education standards, instructional materials, and assessments. NOAA also co-funded a similar framework with NSF on atmospheric science literacy. In addition, NOAA collaborated with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the North American Association of Environmental Education on the National Environmental Literacy Assessment Project to create a national measure of environmental literacy.

The Sant Ocean Hall, a collaborative effort of NOAA and the Smithsonian Institution, combines 674 marine specimens and models, high-definition video experiences, exhibits, and new technology, enabling visitors to explore the ocean’s past, present, and future. NOAA invested $12 million in FY2006. The museum expected 7 million visitors in its first year. The hall contains 10 galleries, with exhibits on marine diversity, ocean exploration, ocean conservation, salmon and people, global ocean systems, and ocean evolution. There is also a Science on a Sphere exhibit and an Ocean Today kiosk, an interactive exhibit developed by NOAA specifically for the Sant Ocean Hall.

CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES

The program descriptions above illustrate that NOAA’s education activities are as varied as the offices that implement them. The impact of the majority of programs is unknown due to the lack of reliable evaluation data. For programs for which reliable evaluation data of specific projects exist—such as the Educational Partnership Program, the National Estuarine Research Reserve System, B-WET, Environmental Literacy Grants, and the National Sea Grant Program—the results have been positive. Although it is impossible to simply summarize whether the combined efforts of the projects within any program have been successful or whether the combined

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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efforts of the all programs are effectively reaching the agency’s education goals, some general observations can be made about the education portfolio. Below we summarize our observations in discussing three cross-cutting issues: core ideas, web-based resources, and portfolio balance.

Core Ideas

The instructional activities in the NOAA education programs are generally focused on smaller scale concepts (i.e., the impact of harmful algae blooms) or environmental stewardship principles. Rarely did the instructional activities reviewed connect to big ideas in science or engineering or essential principles described in the oceanic, earth, climate, or atmospheric science literacy documents. For example, the Ocean Explorer instructional activity The Sea with No Shores is focused on the Sargasso Sea and has the following stated learning objectives:

  • Students will be able to infer why the brown alga, Sargassum, is likely to be home to many marine organisms.

  • Students can infer that the populations of organisms in the Sargassum are dependent on each other for survival (Ocean Explorer, 2002).

This activity for grades five and six could be aligned to larger scale science learning objectives, such as systems, diversity, or adaptation. Learning activities that have objectives that are clearly focused on big ideas in science provide the tools for student to apply these concepts across many other applications. For example, the systems concept could be applied by students to better understand economic, political, or social systems. The concepts of diversity and adaptation are the beginning of a scaffold for students to later understand concepts of evolution.

A number of the big ideas in science and engineering that are referred to in the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996) and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993) are related to NOAA’s mission. Concepts such as systems (e.g., the Earth as a system, atmospheric systems, oceanic systems, ecosystems), change (e.g., tides, weather, shoreline erosion), structure and function (the webbed feet of frogs living in estuaries, the long legs of wading birds, the bills of plovers), and matter and energy (e.g., carbon cycles and the ocean, El Niño) are just a few examples of big ideas in science. The Earth, oceanic, climate, and atmospheric science literacy documents also describe a set of important concepts in disciplines related to NOAA’s mission. The literacy documents are useful tools; however, most teachers are not familiar with them, nor have they been widely adopted by school districts. The literacy documents define

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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essential principles in specific areas of scientific literacy, rather than a set of core principles or ideas that are central across scientific disciplines. Thus, the literacy documents may be useful in informing decisions on what oceanic, earth, climate, or atmospheric science should be included in state science standards.

Connecting science education activities to core scientific concepts is key because that allows for instructional sequences that build students’ understanding in a progressively complex fashion, enabling creative links to be made between disciplines (National Research Council, 1999, 2007). Thus, learning activities with instructional objectives that are clearly focused on big ideas in science or engineering can give students the ability to apply these concepts across many other applications, such as understanding desert, forest, or estuary ecosystems. Connecting to big ideas is a critical step in creating coherence across NOAA’s educational materials, which cover a broad range of scientific areas. The agency’s contributions to the oceanic, climate, and atmospheric science literacy documents are a promising first step in developing coherence.

Developing materials that align with core ideas is not easily accomplished. NOAA will need to seriously consider what steps can be taken to achieve this goal from a wide range of options, including creating new materials, adapting existing materials or providing professional development for teachers to better understand how to link existing materials to core ideas. Decisions on core ideas should be driven by the intersection of the agency’s internal priorities and the educational needs of the nation. They should be guided by existing documents that describe core principles, such as the National Science Education Standards, the Benchmarks for Science Literacy, and the earth, oceanic, climate, and atmospheric literacy frameworks.

Web-Based Resources

An in-depth analysis of the agency’s use of web-based technology was not possible given the vast array of project websites and electronic resources and paucity of information about their impact. It was apparent that many NOAA offices post educational materials on the web. For example, the Office of Education website includes links for students, teachers, and the public.5 The links lead to websites with educational content on such topics as climate change, oceans and coasts, weather, and satellites and space. Almost all of the line offices include similar links to NOAA and other materials. In addition to outside links, the National Ocean Service has developed its own suite of online educational resources for students and teachers in partnership with the

5

See http://www.education.noaa.gov/students.html [accessed May 2010].

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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National Science Teachers Association. Offerings focus on different aspects of oceans, corals, estuaries, and other marine topics and include tutorials, games, lesson plans, and teacher professional development.

Some programs have developed more sophisticated websites and online materials that allow students and teachers to engage with NOAA datasets and scientists in the field. Data on the impact of these sites were not available. However, the potential impact of these types of resources is great, because they have the potential to engage students and teachers in scientific explorations in meaningful and engaging ways. In addition, the development of well-designed web-based resources can expand the reach of NOAA education efforts. The potential impacts of these resources are more likely to be achieved if they are developed and implemented in connection with experts on these technologies and if research findings on effective use of these resources are implemented. It seems that NOAA has taken steps to connect with appropriate experts in some cases, but these connections do not seem to be consistent across programs.

The educational web presence of the agency can be improved. Website design is inconsistent across offices, many sites are low-tech, resources are difficult to locate, and some are redundant across offices. A well-designed suite of sites would allow for more effective browsing by activity and should include a robust search function (across NOAA offices) for easy navigation. The National Ocean Service website has the most materials and is also the easiest to navigate. Seeking guidance from website development experts inside and outside NOAA could greatly improve the accessibility and appeal of the agency’s education websites.

Partnerships

NOAA education programs engage in a variety of partnerships. The two most common approaches observed were direct service partnerships and grants-based partnerships. Direct service partnerships typically occur when a unit of NOAA is responsible for organizing and presenting an education program. The term partners in this context refers to other education service providers (which might be other NOAA education programs, regional and local nonprofits, or education organizations) that may be called on to assist in the delivery of the program and the schools and organizations that send students (K-12 or adult) to participate in the education program. Grant-based partnerships were observed when a unit of NOAA solicits proposals from outside organizations that conform to the goals of the education program. The recipients of these grants and the participants in the resulting sponsored activity were also referred to as partners. Many of NOAA’s education programs seem to pursue a mixed portfolio of direct service and grant-based partnerships.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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NOAA has recognized the importance of partnerships as a means for achieving its strategic goals. This is an outgrowth of two factors: (1) the key role that the agency plays in the advancement and dissemination of NOAA-related sciences, and (2) the relatively small size of NOAA education programs compared with the needs for science education in the nation. Partnerships have been an important implementation strategy discussed in both the 2004 and the 2008 strategic plan.

However, NOAA has not yet developed criteria for guiding individual education programs in considering the types of partnerships that are likely to be effective for pursuing key strategic goals. Such decisions seem difficult to reach given the current organizational structure of its education programs, wherein each program operates relatively independently and has unique managerial structures, goals, and designs.

Nor have the programs developed guidance for the common challenges associated with implementing policy through partnerships. Partnerships often encounter a myriad of difficulties in practice that are often unanticipated by those who provide sponsorship, resources, and administration to the collaboration as well as by the collaborating agencies themselves (Bardach and Lesser, 1996; Hassett and Austin, 1997) especially when sponsors, administrators, and participants do not clearly understand the motivations and interests of participants (Hill and Lynn, 2003). Thus, as NOAA increases the level of coordination between its line offices and its internal and external partnerships, it needs to clearly define the goals and objectives of these partnerships.

When creating partnerships, NOAA should also follow practices for effective strategies for organizing partnerships, including identifying shared goals, designing experiences around issues of local relevance, supporting participants’ patterns of participation (e.g., family structure, modes of discourse), and designing experiences that satisfy the values and norms and reflect the practices of all partners (National Research Council, 2009).

Portfolio Balance

As a federal agency with a mission that is not primarily related to education, NOAA cannot comprehensively address the nation’s educational needs in areas related to its mission. Instead, the agency needs to balance how it makes use of assets to address national needs as well as its own. Thus, a balanced portfolio is not necessarily one that gives equal attention to all the critical factors listed below, but rather reflects intentional decisions on what critical factors to focus on. To make these decisions, NOAA will need to consider the needs of the audiences, its resources to address these needs, and the efforts of other agencies and organizations.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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FIGURE 4.2 Portfolio balance.

FIGURE 4.2 Portfolio balance.

The current portfolio balance is depicted in Figure 4.2. Three aspects of portfolio programs are displayed in two concentric circles. The inner circle represents programs that NOAA conducts internally. The relative amount of funding for each program is reflected in the size of its icon. The figure shows that the majority of NOAA programs focus on environmental literacy. Only a few programs focus on workforce development. Also, more programs focus on oceanic than on atmospheric science.

The number of internal programs is about equal to the number of external programs. However, programs vary greatly in budget and constituents served, so that the number of programs in a given area is not a reliable metric of balance, because it does not account for scope. For example, workforce development programs have large budgets compared with literacy programs. NOAA provides partial funding to many of the external programs it supports, and many of these programs also receive support

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

from nonprofit organizations, foundations, and other federal agencies. NOAA is developing a system to collect more detailed information on its education portfolio that will make it possible to better understand its balance. However, the current portfolio does not seem to reflect any strategic portfolio-wide decisions regarding balance.

In thinking about portfolio balance, the context of supporting directives for education as well as the history of education at the agency must be considered. It should also be noted that many individual NOAA programs have their own educational mandates or are funded through congressional appropriations. These factors place constraints on how much NOAA can control the balance of programs in its portfolio. In developing a balanced education portfolio, NOAA must make decisions regarding the focus placed on six critical criteria, described below.

Balancing Environmental Literacy and Workforce Development

Although there are more programs that address environmental literacy, the budget for workforce development programs tends to be larger. The workforce goal is being tackled by a few large programs, whereas the literacy goal is being tackled by many smaller programs. This makes some sense, as the workforce goal is focused on a smaller, more focused audience of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduates, graduates, and those in the pipeline to become undergraduates. However, without better information about the workforce needs of NOAA and the nation, it is impossible to judge whether NOAA is providing enough support for workforce programs, especially since it is likely now and in the future, as it has been in the past, that NOAA’s workforce needs will span the broad range of STEM disciplines, not just oceanic, atmospheric, and climate sciences.

Balancing Oceanic, Atmospheric, and Climate Topics

As Figure 4.2 shows, there is currently a fairly large focus on ocean topics compared with atmospheric and climate topics. This is partly a consequence of the historical roots of NOAA education, with ocean-based programs, such as Sea Grant, NERRS, and the National Marine Sanctuaries, having clear mandates to engage in educational activities from their inception. The fact that NOAA’s physical educational assets, like the national estuaries and marine sanctuaries, are ocean-based also contributes to this focus. However, there is no true dichotomy between oceanic science and atmospheric and climate science. There are clear connections between the ocean, the atmosphere, and climate, and education initiatives can be

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

developed that integrate teaching about them. For example, ocean acidification can be used as an educational tool to make the connection between increases in CO2 emissions in the atmosphere and the impact on the ocean. Such programs would more accurately reflect the true nature of the sciences related to these concepts, making it possible for NOAA to develop initiatives that address all three areas with its limited budget.

In addition, climate education is now a key priority for NOAA and the Obama administration, and funding for climate education in federal agencies is increasing. It is important that expertise be shared across the ocean, climate, and atmospheric disciplines so that new climate programming can benefit from lessons learned from the programs focused on ocean science, reflecting the integrated nature of these sciences.

Support for External Programs Versus Internal Programs

As mentioned earlier, NOAA can fulfill its role in education by using the educational assets it possesses and through collaborations with other agencies, organizations, and institutions. NOAA cannot be expected to house all of the necessary educational expertise to meet its educational objectives, just as it does not house all the nation’s oceanic, atmospheric, and climate science and technology expertise. Even programs that are developed internally and led by NOAA can be aided by partnerships and collaborations with other agencies and organizations that have additional or complementary resources and assets. NOAA must be strategic in how and when to develop its education programs using intra-agency expertise versus supporting outside education programs whose developers may have more expertise in education and program design.

Encouraging Stewardship and Teaching Scientific Concepts

The environmental literacy goal in NOAA’s strategic education plan contains a tension that is not explicitly addressed. NOAA defines environmental literacy as a fundamental understanding of the sciences and phenomena related to its mission and the use of that knowledge to make decisions about environmental issues. However, knowledge, behaviors, and decision making are not always linked. As mentioned earlier, behavior change and environmental decision making also encompass a number of psychological factors, including the belief that a person’s decisions or actions can lead to change. Thus, behavior change will not flow solely from increased knowledge. To reach this goal, NOAA’s education programs can use the effective practices in behavior change outlined in Chapter 3.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
×

NOAA’s focus on environmental literacy and stewardship also implies that education programs will have the goal of improving understanding of relevant STEM concepts, creating behavior change, or both. This presents some challenges. NOAA has not traditionally included behavioral change in evaluations of its programs and may not be well organized to analyze the behavior change of participants. And there is no shared, agencywide understanding of what it means to influence action. Influencing action can range from acknowledged and lauded attempts to influence behavior to enhance public safety (e.g., increasing hurricane preparedness) to advocacy on issues that might be regarded by some as controversial, like climate change.

Formal and Informal Learning Environments

Increasing environmental literacy and developing a STEM workforce both require a mix of programming targeted at the formal school system and informal experiences of young children, K-12 students, and the public. A recent NRC report (2009) highlighted the importance of informal education to inspire scientific interest and increase scientific competence in students, which can then translate into increased success in school settings. In addition, NOAA manages and protects place-based assets, such as the estuary reserves and the marine sanctuaries, which can be used for effective informal programming. Informal education does not mean that schools are ignored. Field trips and teacher professional development programs that occur in informal settings have clear connections to formal education institutions, educators, and students.

As discussed in Chapter 2, the formal education landscape is highly complex. NOAA should think strategically about how it can have a meaningful, positive impact in such a large system. NOAA can positively impact the education system by meaningfully aligning their instructional materials with the education standards of the states in which the programs are delivered. These materials should be supported with professional development that focuses teachers on important concepts from the national, state, and local environmental and science standards.

One interesting model for affecting the formal school system is in the Chesapeake Bay region, where the B-WET program supports informal education providers, yet requires all grantees to connect to a school system to ensure that the informal programs have a broad audience. This requirement is combined with policy work by the B-WET staff to win greater support for requiring outdoor education experiences for all school children among state and local governments. NOAA has a role to play in both the formal and informal sectors, and these sectors should be seen as complementary and intertwined.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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Targeted Audiences Versus Self-Selected Participants

Many NOAA programs use self-selected participants. Data suggest that most programs are well received by these self-selected audiences. However, thought must be given to how to attract participation from traditionally underserved groups. To truly expand participation, interest, and understanding, the needs of multicultural audiences must be met across all education programs. Some efforts in this area, such as the Multicultural Education for Resource Issues Threatening Oceans program of the National Marine Sanctuaries, are promising, but too often broadening participation is not a key concern of the programs because of the self-selected nature of their audience. The vast majority of programs serve individuals who are already interested in the science related to NOAA’s mission or schools that have the resources to support travel to NOAA education activities.

Breadth and Depth

An additional challenge for the education programs is to achieve a balance between projects that achieve a broad reach and those that foster deep engagement with the science and engineering content of the agency. The committee thinks that NOAA has an important role to play in both sorts of activities, which will require very different designs and deployment of resources. The agency’s projects are therefore faced with striking a difficult balance between trying to make a broad impact while still providing meaningful engagement on a smaller scale. This balance can be partially mediated through modern technology, such as the Internet, which can be used as a distribution tool, and through strategic partnering with other federal science agencies and education organizations.

Suggested Citation:"4 Overview and Critique of NOAA's Education Programs." National Research Council. 2010. NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12867.
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There is a national need to educate the public about the ocean, coastal resources, atmosphere and climate. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency responsible for understanding and predicting changes in the Earth's environment and conserving and managing coastal and marine resources to meet the nation's economic, social and environmental needs, has a broad mandate to engage and coordinate education initiatives on these topics. Since its creation in 1970, the NOAA has supported a variety of education projects that cover a range of topics related to the agency's scientific and stewardship mission.

NOAA uses formal and informal learning environments to enhance understanding of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and to advance environmental education. The work of this agency overlaps and compliments the missions of other federal agencies, institutions of higher education, private and nonprofit organizations. Coordination among these agencies and organizations has been challenging. Limited education resources and the inherently global nature of NOAA's mission make strategic partnerships critical in order for the agency to accomplish its goals. Additionally, clear education goals, planning, and strategic use of resources are critical aspects for effective partnerships.

NOAA's Education Program: Review and Critique provides a summary of the national education context for NOAA's role in education which is twofold: first is to advance the environmental literacy of the nation, and second is to promote a diverse workforce in ocean, coastal, Great Lakes, atmospheric and climate sciences. The book also describes the strengths and weaknesses of the education strategic plan, the education evaluation approach of the agency and strategies for improving the evaluation process.

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