20-000000630: Enhancing STEM educational experience in marine science and technology with a novel at-sea program
Abstract
This project will initiate a partnership between Stanford University, Naval Postgraduate School (NPSWFF) to develop and implement an at-sea STEM educational program oriented to marine and atmospheric sciences for secondary and postsd facilitate direct interactions between Navy personnel(active-duty and civilian) scientists, educators, and students. It will be bmunities that are traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields and provide an educational experience aligned with Naval interests that will inspire the next generation Department of Navy workforce in STEM. Educational experiences will center on at-sea activities involving NPS faculty and staff who actively work in Navy-relevant research and on mentorship from NPS graduate students (primarily active-duty officers) in areas of science and engineering relevant to Naval interests. Participating teachers and students will be exposed to state-of-the-art and emerging marine technologies through hands-on activities that utilize research-grade instrumentation on the vessel for ocean and atmospheric sensing with relevant data collection, processing, and visualization. NPS personnel will directly contribute to the Stanford-WFF goal of building a STEM Exploration-Learning Program based on classroom and hands-on activities.This project has three major objectives: (1) development of a STEM experiential learning program aligned with Naval priorities in maritime research, (2) professional development for high school and post-secondary teachers and informal science educators, and (3) promotion of Naval educational and career opportunities. For the first thrust, Western Flyer operations will support two types of STEM programs: (a) inquiry-based learning experiences, which are shortduration (1 day on the vessel) programs meant to expose a classroom to a specific topic through in-class and at-sea programming; and (b) project-based learning experiences, which are extensive studies involving several days on the vessel with participants developing original questions, objectives, and research goals to be carried out using instrumentation on the Western Flyer. Data collected as part of these efforts will be maintained in a public repository. As part of the second thrust, professional development workshops will be organized for participating teachers and will include an at-sea component aboard the Western Flyer for project-based leaders. These workshops will provide in-depth and contextualized didactic material on marine science. The third thrust will be achieved through Navy-led instruction and mentorship for participating students, involving NPS faculty, staff, and graduate students. In the early development stages, we will work with a total of 10 Monterey area teachers, representing ~200 high school and community college students. Once fully operational, we anticipate vessel operations on Monterey Bay (September - February) to include at least 100 days of inquiry-based and 25 days of project-based learning activities, thereby supporting over 2,700 students and 100 teachers. While this pilot program is initially focused on the Monterey Baycommunity, we hope to bring this experiential programming to other US west coast sites and Naval partners (March June). Results of student project-based research will be maintained on the WFF website and classes will be encouraged to present their work at local and regional science venues, including Discover NPS Day in Monterey. Collaborating NPS personnel and graduate students will also be involved in WFF outreach at major regional science events, such as the Bay Area Science Festival-Discovery Day in San Francisco.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 05, 2021
- Source ID
- N000142112439
Entities
People
- William Gilly
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Stanford University
- United States Navy