Tag Archives: STEM

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Citizen Science: Gardenroots

green and red plants inside greenhouse
Photo by Brianna Martinez on Pexels.com

We are big fans of citizen science! Of course, science is always cool, and STEM/STEAM projects are an increasing part of everyone’s work and school experiences. So understanding how science works is not just fun, but a good way to understand what is going on in the world around us all.

So we are sharing some neat science you can do, contributing toward large projects, and learning new things. Maybe you can use this today; maybe you will save it for later. As long as you enjoy some exploration and learning new things – citizen science is for you! And it is definitely something you can use to bring some good programming to your library.

This week we are looking at the Gardenroots program!

“In partnership with community members, Gardenroots aims to: Evaluate environmental quality and the potential exposure to contaminants of concern (COC) near active or legacy resource extraction and hazardous waste sites; Successfully communicate the study results to all participating individuals and families; Disseminate the results broadly in order to appropriately influence community prevention practices and environmental decision-making.”

“So what’s the challenge?

Gardens have been shown to be vulnerable to external stressors. With pollution, drought, and climate change representing an ever-increasing problem, environmental impacts to gardens from air and water represent a widespread concern. Soils can be a repository for society’s waste; a collection point for surface runoff and airborne deposition. Community revitalization and public health efforts could be diminished if gardens are unknowingly cultivated in environmentally compromised spaces.

Living in Environmentally Compromised Spaces, the truth hurts

One in four Americans lives within three miles of a hazardous waste site,1 of which there are roughly 355,000 in the U.S.2 Furthermore, the U.S. is home to more than 450,000 brownfieldssites, or former industrial properties deemed unsuitable for active use without reclamation and cleanup efforts.4 As if these numbers weren’t bleak enough, the U.S. is also home to approximately 550,000 abandoned mining sites, with more than 80,000 abandoned mines4 in Arizona alone. U.S. mining sites are linked to the generation of 45 billion tons of waste and are often encountered in arid and semiarid regions, such as Arizona. The dry and arid conditions of the Southwest drive dust emissions and can result in the long-range transport of metal-contaminated aerosols unearthed by historical mining operations, such as arsenic, cadmium, and lead.5, 6

Let us put two and two together

When the U.S. has community gardens plus hazardous waste and legacy mining sites, what do we get? A potential comingling of the two where some communities may be gardening in brownfield sites and near environmentally comprised areas.8,9,10 Hence, efforts are needed to investigate and evaluate the potential risks associated with growing food within the impact zone of resource extraction sites, as well as to balance the health benefits associated with eating affordable, available, locally grown food.

Citizen Science and Community Engaged Research

These types of environmental health issues are intricate and require capacity building, culturally sensitive strategies, and a trained population of scientists working at the local level. Representation is required for underserved communities if the decision-making process and lasting solutions are to be adequately shaped and developed. This type of local representation can be accomplished through a citizen science approach to research. Citizen Science is also recognized as an active conduit to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math education (STEM) and is spurring the next generation of STEM leaders. President Obama’s call to action to create a “Nation of Makers” reflects these observations. In June 2015, the White House celebrated a “Week of Making” recognizing individuals who are using new tools and techniques to launch businesses, learning vital skills in STEM, and leading grassroots Do-It-Yourself initiatives.”

What can you do to bring this project into your library?

  • Bring out a display of books on plants, vegetables, flowers – anything that grows in a garden
  • Let students draw or paint some plants and flowers
  • Plan out a garden for the library or for your own backyard. Do you have flowers, vegetables, herbs? What plants will go well together? Annuals or perennials?
  • Look the EPA website to find out about hazardous waste sites in your area. What kinds of chemicals are in the ground near your library?
  • Pull up a map of your state, or the area where you live. Where are the mines located? What types of mines are in your state? Are there mines that are operating as mines? Any operating as tourist attractions?
  • Bring in some containers and dirt and seeds. Let students plant some seeds to make their own indoor container gardens.
  • Get some soil testing kits, and test the soil near the library. Would it be safe to plant and eat vegetables from that soil?
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Citizen Science: Landslide Reporter

cold glacier snow landscape
Photo by knoMe on Pexels.com

We are big fans of citizen science! Of course, science is always cool, and STEM/STEAM projects are an increasing part of everyone’s work and school experiences. So understanding how science works is not just fun, but a good way to understand what is going on in the world around us all.

So we are sharing some neat science you can do, contributing toward large projects, and learning new things. Maybe you can use this today; maybe you will save it for later. As long as you enjoy some exploration and learning new things – citizen science is for you! And it is definitely something you can use to bring some good programming to your library.

This week we are looking at landslides. It is a project from NASA! “Landslides affect nearly all countries, but we still don’t have a clear worldwide picture on where and when landslides occur. Citizen scientists like you can help NASA scientists to build the largest open global landslide catalog, the Cooperative Open Online Landslide Repository (COOLR), using our web application Landslide Reporter.

Our goal is to open access to and quantity of landslide data on a global scale to save lives and property. Your reports are key towards guiding awareness of landslide hazards for improving scientific modeling and emergency response.”

From NASA’s website:

“Collect Landslides and Advance NASA Science

Landslides cause billions of dollars in infrastructural damage and thousands of deaths every year worldwide. Data on past landslide events guides future disaster prevention, but to date we do not have a global picture of exactly when and where landslides occur. NASA is building the biggest open global landslide inventory to address this problem, and the only way we can do this is with the help of citizen scientists like you!

The Cooperative Open Online Landslide Repository, or COOLR, is an open platform where scientists and citizen scientists can share landslide reports. See all landslide data from COOLR with other scientific data using the Landslide Viewer application. Want to contribute? Add to COOLR using our citizen science application, Landslide Reporter.

With more hands and your help, we can complete the global picture of landslides to prepare for and protect against future disasters.”

“Why are citizen scientists needed?

Our team at NASA has been collecting landslides around the world since 2007 in the Global Landslide Catalog (GLC). The GLC provides new insight into landslide hazards around the world, but it has been a manual and very time consuming process that is hard to maintain. In fact, if we sum up all the hours it has taken over the past 10 years to compile this inventory it would total over 140 days, 84 work weeks, or 1.6 years of straight landslide cataloging! The inventory is also challenged by biases affecting where and when landslide information is available (for more details please see the Publications).

We are appealing to the global citizen science community to help advance our knowledge of where and when landslides are happening around the world by adding reports to fill in the gaps in our data, creating the Cooperative Open Online Landslide Repository (COOLR). Citizen scientists are people like you who can use their knowledge to advance scientific research and grow our collective understanding of this pervasive hazard. Citizen science can help:

  1. Find information from many different sources, and with as little bias as possible, including local first-hand accounts, reports in other languages, and points from other inventories for a robust landslide repository
  2. Collect recent landslides and keep the repository up-to-date
  3. Create more awareness and education about landslides as a natural process and natural/man-made hazard

With the help of citizen scientists like you, we can improve both the quantity and quality of open landslide data to provide a clearer picture of how landslides are shaping our world.”

This would be interesting to bring into your library, and share with your school. Working on a project with NASA could help to spur the interest of kids in all sorts of STEM work!

What could you do to build interest from your library? We have a few ideas to help you get started:

  • Set up a display of natural science books, or other books with geology, rocks, mountains, or similar topics
  • Have students look up the risk factors for landslides. If one happens near you, what should you do? Spend some time talking about safety and first aid skills.
  • Are there landslides in your area? Where are the closest landslides to you? Give students the materials to make maps of landslides.
  • What kinds of materials are often found in landslides? Bring some materials on geology, so people can work on identifying different kinds of rocks and other materials.
  • Use cameras to take pictures of different rocks, or other things in nature (plants, insects, etc.), or use colored pencils or other materials to draw rocks and other natural materials students can find outside.
  • Look at the online maps created in this project. What other online maps can you find, with different kinds of information? How can you evaluate whether or not an online map is providing the best information on a subject?
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Citizen Science: NOVA Polar Lab Lesson Plan

colorful polar lights over snowy mountain
Photo by Tobias Bjørkli on Pexels.com

We are big fans of citizen science! Of course, science is always cool, and STEM/STEAM projects are an increasing part of everyone’s work and school experiences. So understanding how science works is not just fun, but a good way to understand what is going on in the world around us all.

So we are sharing some neat science you can do, contributing toward large projects, and learning new things. Maybe you can use this today; maybe you will save it for later. As long as you enjoy some exploration and learning new things – citizen science is for you! And it is definitely something you can use to bring some good programming to your library.

As Minnesotans, we are pretty familiar with cold weather and snow. But of course, there are even colder places – including at the poles! Check out some of this material, and explore their website for even more good things to share.

“Explore the fascinating natural history of Earth’s poles in NOVA’s Polar Lab. First, students consider and discuss the types of evidence scientists use to reconstruct past environments. Students are then introduced to the natural cycle between “hot house” and “ice house” that Earth has experienced throughout its history. Next, students use claims, evidence, and reasoning in a discussion of what the evidence about the poles from Earth’s past can tell us about its future. Discussion questions and video quizzes allow educators to assess student understanding.

Lesson summary

The interactive NOVA Polar Lab uses 360° interactive environments, interviews with scientists, and mini-games to send students on an immersive quest to understand how the poles are key to understanding Earth’s climate—past, present, and future. The Polar Lab, hosted by Caitlin Saks, is made up of three missions:

  • Mission 1, Ellesmere Island, Canada: Students land in the Arctic tundra and are guided through this mission by paleontologists Jim Basinger and Jaelyn Eberle. Players encounter a 360° petrified forest environment and, through videos and interactive mini-games, must piece together fossils from ancient trees and animals to determine what this environment looked like 50 million years ago.
  • Mission 2, Lab Exploration: Students go from the field to the lab. At Minnesota’s National Lacustrine Core Facility, geoscientist Julie Brigham-Grette helps students find clues to the past locked in lake cores. Then, at the NSF Ice Core Facility in Colorado, glaciologist Christo Buizert helps students analyze ancient ice cores to determine the role that carbon dioxide at the poles has played in our planet’s temperature.
  • Mission 3, Greenland and Antarctica: Finally, students are flown to the Jakobshavn Glacier in Greenland with climate scientist David Holland and to Antarctica with ecologist Jay Rotella. They will learn how warming waters are impacting ice at the poles and what that means for the animals that call Antarctica home.

Students will complete the Polar Lab with an understanding of Earth’s natural climactic variations, from hot house to ice house conditions, and of how human activity is currently disrupting that pattern with potentially global consequences. The Polar Lab is an interdisciplinary resource, spanning Earth, life, and physical sciences. Although the missions must be played in order, educators can emphasize certain content areas through the discussions and extensions outlined in this lesson.

Time allotment

  • 1.5 hours to complete three missions; 3 hours for the entire Polar Extremes Lab lesson plan with extensions

The Polar Lab is designed to be implemented in a curricular unit over the course of several class sessions.

Learning objectives

Content Objectives

  • Students will be able to describe the types of evidence scientists use to interpret Earth’s climactic past.
  • Students will be able to explain the evidence for natural variability between global “hot house” and “ice house” climates and glacial and interglacial periods.
  • Students will be able to describe specific effects that our current period of human-caused warming is having on Earth’s systems.

Process Objectives

  • Students will be able to analyze and interpret data related to Earth’s climate history.
  • Students will be able to argue using evidence that our current period of warming is outside of Earth’s natural climate variability.

NGSS Alignment

The NOVA Polar Lab can be used to help meet the following NGSS performance expectations.

Mission 1:

  • MS-ESS1-4. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth’s 4.6-billion-year-old history.
  • MS-LS1-5. Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
  • MS-LS4-1. Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.
  • HS-ESS2-7. Construct an argument based on evidence about the simultaneous coevolution of Earth’s systems and life on Earth.

Mission 2

  • MS-ESS2-2. Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.
  • MS-ESS2-6. Develop and use a model to describe how unequal heating and rotation of the Earth cause patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation that determine regional climates.
  • MS-ESS3-5. Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
  • HS-ESS2-2. Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
  • HS-ESS2-4. Use a model to describe how variations in the flow of energy into and out of Earth’s systems result in changes in climate.
  • HS-ESS2-7. Construct an argument based on evidence about the simultaneous coevolution of Earth’s systems and life on Earth.
  • HS-LS2-2. Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.

Mission 3

  • MS-ESS3-4. Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth’s systems.
  • MS-ESS3-5. Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.
  • MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
  • HS-ESS2-2. Analyze geoscience data to make the claim that one change to Earth’s surface can create feedbacks that cause changes to other Earth systems.
  • HS-ESS3-5. Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.
  • HS-ESS3-6. Use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity.

Prep for teachers

Review the Support Guide prior to playing the Polar Lab to familiarize yourself with the game’s user interface and different sections.

Supplies

  • The Polar Lab is accessible on web browsers that support HTML5.
  • Students should be encouraged to use headphones while playing the Polar Lab due to the number of autoplay videos that appear throughout the game.
  • To access all the different missions and minigames of the Polar Lab, use this Teacher Cheat Sheet link to launch different sections of the missions or to autocomplete a mission.

Students are encouraged to log in via a PBS, Gmail, or Facebook account in order to save their progress. Students can quickly create a PBS account using their email address and a password.

  • Optional: Medium-sized poster boards, art supplies, and a printer for lesson plan activities

Alternatively, students can also use PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, or other digital presentation software for the lesson plan activity.

Media

There are several ideas from the NOVA material about trying out some new things. We are adding in a few extra materials to help you get started to bring this STEM exploration into your library:

  • Have students/patrons find videos of the Northern Lights. Discuss their cause, and what people can do to predict seeing them.
  • Find maps of the polar regions over a long period of time. What caused the changes?
  • Find images of the glaciers spreading across the land in the ice ages. What did our area look like at different times? Were we under water? Under ice? Tropical?
  • Have students find histories of different polar explorers. Write up an essay about one of them. What were they looking for? What happened to their expedition?
  • Read about the histories of people who have lived in Arctic regions of the globe. What do they do to stay warm? What do they eat? How do they share their skills with their kids?
  • Talk about cold-weather survival skills: layering clothes, building snow shelters, etc.
  • What are some fun snow sports? Can you bring in skis or snowshoes to the library? If there is snow on the ground, can you go outside and try them out?
  • Find some information about the animals and the plants that live in polar regions. How do they survive?
  • Draw pictures of snowflakes, or cut them out of paper and hang them around the library.
  • Write a story about going outside in the cold and snow, and the adventures that can happen.
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Citizen Science: NOVA Evolution Lab Lesson Plan

green house full of green plants
Photo by Lucas Craig on Pexels.com

We are big fans of citizen science! Of course, science is always cool, and STEM/STEAM projects are an increasing part of everyone’s work and school experiences. So understanding how science works is not just fun, but a good way to understand what is going on in the world around us all.

So we are sharing some neat science you can do, contributing toward large projects, and learning new things. Maybe you can use this today; maybe you will save it for later. As long as you enjoy some exploration and learning new things – citizen science is for you! And it is definitely something you can use to bring some good programming to your library.

Check out Nova’s Evolution Lab Lesson Plan! Here is some information to get you started; all the info and ideas you need are on their website here.

“Explore the evidence for evolution through phylogeny with this lesson plan from NOVA’s Evolution Lab. First, students consider and discuss how we understand and organize the biodiversity that exists on Earth. Students are then introduced to phylogenetic trees and practice building them with the Build a Tree interactive. In Build a Tree, students use both morphology and DNA analysis to identify relationships between species. Next, students explore speciation and shared ancestry with the Deep Tree interactive. As an interactive tree of life, Deep Tree helps students understand evolutionary history on Earth. Discussion questions and video quizzes allow educators to assess student understanding.

Lesson summary

Everywhere you go on this planet – on land, underground, in the air, and in the water – you’ll find life that has been shaped by evolution. In NOVA’s Evolution Lab, students explore the evidence of evolution through the lens of phylogeny, the study of genetic relationships among species. The Evolution Lab contains two main parts:

  • Build A Tree: Students build phylogenetic trees themed around the evidence of evolution including fossils, biogeography, and similarities in DNA. Students use both morphology and analysis of DNA sequences to identify relationships between species and organize species and traits into phylogenetic trees. Along the way, students watch seven videos that introduce the missions and give context for how the theme of each mission helps us understand how evolution has shaped life on Earth. 
  • Deep Tree: Students explore an interactive tree of life and trace the shared ancestry of numerous species. The Deep Tree helps students understand the scope of deep time and the points at which speciation occurred throughout evolutionary history on Earth.

Students will complete the Evolution Lab with an understanding of how to build phylogenetic trees and the evidence for evolution. The Evolution Lab is best used as an introduction to an evolution unit, and students should possess prerequisite knowledge of the structure of DNA in order to complete several of the missions.

Time allotment

1.5 hours for Build A Tree game; 4 hours for entire Evolution Lab lesson plan with worksheets

The Evolution Lab is designed to be implemented in a teaching unit over the course of several class sessions. Teachers should allot about 3 hours to complete both the game and the worksheets. The missions must be completed in chronological order.

NOTE: The Deep Tree is an open-ended activity with no time commitment.

Learning objectives

Content Objectives

  • Students will be able to describe the key mechanisms by which evolution occurs. 
  • Students will be able to explain the evidence for evolution via the fossil record, DNA, and biogeography.
  • Students will be able to describe specific examples of evolution case studies, such as the evolution of birds, whales, and humans.
  • Students will be able to cite applications of phylogeny in health and medicine.

Process Objectives

  • Students will be able to build and analyze phylogenetic trees.
  • Students will be able to identify patterns of shared ancestry via the Deep Tree.

Supplies

  • The Evolution Lab is accessible on web and mobile browsers that support HTML5.

Students are encouraged to login via a PBS, Gmail, or Facebook account in order to save their progress. Students can quickly create a PBS account using their email address and a password.

  • Optional: medium sized poster boards, art supplies, and printer for lesson plan activities.

Alternatively, students can also use PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, or other digital presentation software for the lesson plan activity.

Worksheets

These worksheets contain questions for each level and video of the Evolution Lab and provide assessment on topics like cladograms, fossil evidence of evolution, DNA and genetics, biogeography, applications of phylogeny to health, and human evolution. The worksheets are divided into missions and are designed to be completed while playing through the game. The worksheets feature multiple choice questions, short response questions, and cladogram drawings.”

Bring some of the coolness of this project into your library! We can get you started with some ideas for programs:

  • Set up a book display of your science books, especially any about plants and animals
  • Look up material on fossils, read some books about fossils, and if you have any to bring in to show they can be a great display. Talk about how fossils of plants and animals are made, and how old different fossils are.
  • Talk about biodiversity. Have students write up as many different animals as they can name, then go find more types of animals.
  • Make some charts of classifications of kingdoms: Plants, Animals, Protists, Fungi, Archaebacteria, Eubacteria. Find some images of each type. If possible, get a microscope to see the smallest ones.
  • Chart humans from our species up through our domain. Put in some pictures of representative lives at each level of classification.
  • How many different life forms are in each kingdom? Make some charts showing the relative numbers/weights/amounts of each.
  • Make a family tree, using any family – including your own.
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Citizen Science: Craywatch

waterfalls in forest
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

We are big fans of citizen science! Of course, science is always cool, and STEM/STEAM projects are an increasing part of everyone’s work and school experiences. So understanding how science works is not just fun, but a good way to understand what is going on in the world around us all.

So we are sharing some neat science you can do, contributing toward large projects, and learning new things. Maybe you can use this today; maybe you will save it for later. As long as you enjoy some exploration and learning new things – citizen science is for you! And it is definitely something you can use to bring some good programming to your library.

Check out this cool project with Crayfish – just the thing for a state as filled with water as ours! Share with your patrons, and try it out for yourself.

GoalMonitor waters for introduction of invasive crayfish.
TaskTake a picture of crayfish you find and upload to the site.
WhereView map…
DescriptionInvasive self-cloning crayfish are on their way to a stream or lake near you! We need your help to monitor our waterways for the invasion of new species of crayfish. High on our priority list is Marmokrebs, a species that reproduces asexually – making it an extremely successful intruder in pristine ecosystems. Let’s make sure we know exactly where this and many other potentially invasive species are headed! Take pictures of crayfish and tell us where and when you found it. The goal of this project is to help monitor waters for introduction of new and potentially invasive species of crayfish. Invasive crayfish have had devastating effects in many freshwater ecosystems across the world, often driving local fish and invertebrate species to extinction. With your help, we can make sure to prevent this from happening here! Thanks in advance for helping us in this important project!
How to get startedYou will need a Flickr account to upload pictures to the Craywatch group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/craywatch/. A Google account can be used to log into Flickr. (If you use Gmail, you already have a Google account!) If you find a crayfish in a river or stream, take at least two pictures: one of its top (dorsal) side, and one of the bottom (ventral) side, with the tail extended. Make a note of your exact location (name of State, City, Region and specific Waterway, as well as GPS coordinates) and post your pictures to the site. It’s that simple!
Social MediaFollow Craywatch on Twitter Find Craywatch on Facebook Follow the Craywatch
Total expense0.00
Ideal Age GroupElementary school (6 – 10 years), Middle school (11 – 13 years), High school (14 – 17 years), Adults, Families, College, Graduate students,
Spend the timeOutdoors

We have a few ideas you can use to connect this STEM project to the library, and programs you can use to build some STEM fun for patrons!

  • Set up a display of different kinds of water resources, and animals living in water. Think about setting up a salt water section and a fresh water section.
  • Help students think about taking the best pictures of small animals. Work on thinking about framing images, getting clear shots, taking pictures underwater, and other issues.
  • Look up the differences in different types and sizes of crustaceans. What makes different creatures adapted to different types of water?
  • Find some crustacean recipes and maybe videos of different cooking styles.
  • Have students write a paper about invasive species. What invasive species are found in your area?
  • Draw pictures of crayfish after looking at them online or in books.
  • Write a story about finding a crayfish in a lake. What happens next?