Welcome to our video about the Schoolyard LTER program in Puerto Rico. If you don't know Spanish, you can turn on the English Closed Captioning to get subtitles. This video gives a small taste of the students' and teachers' resolve in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

We would love to hear from others who are engaged in STEM outreach in Puerto Rico. 

We would also love to hear from folks who are studying how to support students in engaging in authentic investigations of the natural world and supporting them in rich analyses of complex, long-term datasets.

Students ' opportunity to work directly with Yunque scientists and the forest's natural spaces provide a unique experience of learning from the source. Students experiment with the collection of primary data, scientific research in processes and data management. A great experience for all of them.

La oportunidad de los estudiantes de trabajar directamente con los científicos del Yunque y los espacios naturales del bosque proveen una experiencia única de aprender desde la fuente. Los estudiantes experimentan con la recolección de datos primarios, investigaciones científicas en procesos y manejo de datos. En definitiva, una gran experiencia para ellos.

The video shows how students can become engaged in something as simple (and often boring to students of this age!) as measuring tree diameter at breast height if it is embedded in a compelling context. In the Climate Lab project (https://www.manomet.org/project/climate-lab/) we also had students connect data they had collected with longer-term datasets.  One of our goals was for them to "see" patterns in the long-term data, so we asked them to look first at a data subset, then a larger set so that what looked like noise at first became part of a pattern.  With dramatic differences in before and after a hurricane, I wonder if the data will make patterns immediately obvious to students.  I'm curious how the project balances the (valuable) time spent in the field with the time demands of learning prescribed content?  That has been a challenge for us.

This project provides an opportunity for students to see the rainforest in a dramatically new way. Despite the negative media reports about the destruction of El Yunque, students got a front row seat to the intricate ways that El Yunque is adapted to hurricane disturbance. The students surveyed which trees in the demonstration plot were knocked down and which survived. Also the students worked in protocols around decomposition of the dead trees, re-greening of the survival trees, and tracking of new stems. 

Congratulations!

This is an interesting project. Can you say a little bit about the professional development that you provide the participating teachers? Also, you mention that "These experiences culminate with the annual Schoolyard Symposium in which students share the results of their research with fellow students and with scientists in the Luquillo Long-Term Ecological Research program." Do family and community engage in these symposia? If so, are you collecting any data about the change in their knowledge about the rainforest disturbance and resilience? Thank you!

Hi Catherine, 

Thanks for watching our video and sharing your great work! Yes, we provide PD for teachers.  Our workshops focus on hydrology long-term data exploration and analysis and field work techniques and protocols on the following topics: vegetation dynamics, soil characterization and aquatic ecosystems. Yes, the families engage and often are part of the student symposium. 

Hi Gillian, 

Thanks for your nice comment! I am looking forward to learn more about your program! 

Our video focus on the field works aspect of the program although, associate with the field component we offer a strong data entry and analysis component to the field effort. That way the students learned about the process of gathering data, entering data to generate graphs and data interpretations.  I have to said that teachers have the magic key to extrapolate the concepts we provide to their classroom. Yes, it demands an extra effort on their parts. We provide opportunities for PD as well.    

 Hi Catherine, 

Thanks for watching our video and sharing your great work! Yes, we provide PD for teachers.  Our workshops focus on hydrology long-term data exploration and analysis and field work techniques and protocols on the following topics: vegetation dynamics, soil characterization and aquatic ecosystems. Yes, the families engage and often are part of the student symposium. 

Hi Noelia, 

The only video I viewed that showed students engaging with the science and practical activities. I know this will help them learn to understand and appreciate the forest, and how it changes.  Glad the students were enjoying themselves.  Well done.

I congratulate this group of professionals who give their time to our students.  Making them empathic with our nature and strengthen their commitment as good citizens.

It's great to see the way you & the youth are taking advantage of this remarkable opportunity to wath recovery in action — something that will be only more interesting to see as things unfold over the years (You are no doubt aware of the work at the Harvard Forest in Massachusetts, where much interesting research has been done to understand how the forest has recovered/is still recovering from the destructive hurricane of 1938). At some point, your team might want to be in touch with their team to think in parallel...

   I know you can't put everything into one video but I am wondering if kids are participating in monitoring other taxa, like butterflies or birds or epiphytes? 

Hi Brian, 

Thanks so much for taking the time to watch our video! Indeed, this is a great opportunity to be able to capture the changes in the forest as it will recovered from such a dramatic event. We are oriented our effort to have our students gathering some of the vegetation and soil data from their demonstration plot established in 2009.  We had long term vegetation data as baseline.  We do not collected butterflies, birds or epiphytes but I do not discard that possibility. I do know the great work from the ED folks in Harvard Forest. I had the change to visited 5 years ago.  It is a place I will love to get back and bring some students and perhaps start thinking of ways to do more cross site experiences.   

I really like that this project has taken what many people would view as a disaster and turned it into an extended "teachable moment." I would like to learn more about the details of how the students are engaged in the research projects. What is the time frame for involvement - several days continously, one day a week, a few days a month, a couple of days each month over an extended period of time? What is the balance between time spent in the field collecting data and time spent in the "classroom" analyzing data?

 I love the hard hats and proud smiles! Such an inspiration for us. 

Are the students involved in field studies on your site the same students that participate in your Data Jam program? If so, does the field work help them feel more knowledgeable about or connected to the data?

This is wonderful! Camila's words "nada nos vence" is epic. Thanks for sharing.

This work is doing so much more than building students' knowledge, agency and appreciation for science. It seems quite clear that it is also empowering students to take control of their own lives, no matter the challenges they face. School age students are often left feeling helpless in the wake of large-scale crises in their lives. The world seems big and they are small, This project arms them with knowledge to make sense of what is happening in their world, and providing them with ways to have a positive impact on their environment. I am curious if their is any component of the research that is specifically examining how students sense of themselves within their world, is being documented.

Delighted to support and participate in this Schoolyard project for many years.... Resilience has been and will continue to be important in our lives... We need to continue to develop in students and teachers their analytical capabilities for the benefit of Puerto Rico's environmental and socioeconomic future.... We are grateful for NSF's support and for our collaboration opportunity with The Learning Partnership!

Alexis

Hi, Your project speaks to the issues of resilience that have been on my mind lately. I think it is helpful to pay attention to all these aspects of a learning experience--competence with data, biological monitoring techniques, and the impact on a sense of agency. As you develop assessments, surveys, and interviews to show how participation in authentic science can give students a sense of agency, I hope you'll share them on informal science.org. This question has come up related to the students and early career filmmakers whose choices are being impacted by their participation in iSWOOP. To date we have done some retrospective interviewing, but not much more (happy to share those questions with you, if you like). 

If you have a chance, I'll be curious to hear if you identify other synergies with the iSWOOP project. 

https://stemforall2019.videohall.com/presentations/1347.html

This is a fantastic project. To me, it is a perfect example of culturally responsive teaching through a project-based learning unit. Well done!

What a great project. The youth are so articulate about their learnings--it's impressive. I am a big fan of place based learning, so your approach really makes sense to me. I also think it's so important to get kids out in nature. Finally, your video is beautifully shot. Kudos all around! 

A great video! Congratulations!