Education and Engagement

Public education and Science engagement

· Climate Scholars Program, faculty fellow (with A. Hirsch, director, and K. Timm) 2020-present. The Climate Scholar Program at UAF engages undergraduate students in a highly interdisciplinary and action-oriented academic experience that connects the arts, humanities and sciences.

· Fostering Science Program, co-director (with C. Mulder, director, S. Decina, and T. Villano), 2017-present. This program provides a summer outdoor science camp for youth in foster care within the Bonanza Creek LTER.

· Fresh Eyes on Ice, co-PI (with C. Arp , PI, and L. Oxtoby & D. Brown, co-PIs), 2019-present. This program matches community-based observations of freshwater ice thickness to in situ sensors and remote sensing data to better understand changing freshwater ice conditions in Alaska.

· Arctic and Earth SIGNs, co-I (with E. Sparrow, PI, and M. Chase et al.), 2016-present. This program engages community teams and youth in climate change science, adaptation planning, and problem solving through GLOBE environmental monitoring and NASA assets. (29 communities, 384 participants in core program to date)

· Winterberry Citizen Science Project, coordinator and PI (with C. Mulder and E. Sparrow, co-PIs), 2016-present. This project involves adults and K-12 youth from rural and urban Alaska in collecting data on berry ripening and loss during fall and winter. (28 communities, 1090 participants to date)

· Late Bloomers Project, coordinator and Senior Personnel (with P. Diggle, University of Connecticut and C. Mulder), 2017-2020. This project engages rural Alaskan communities in investigating flower bud primordia developmental stages and in reporting late blooming flowers through a collaboration with the LEO network.

· Project BrownDown Citizen Science Project, coordinator and co-director (with C. Mulder), 2014-2016. This project involved adults and K-12 students across Alaska in collecting plant phenological data on timing of leaf senescence for native and non-native species. (5 communities, 862 participants)

· Melibee Citizen Science Project, Coordinator and co-director (with C. Mulder) 2012-2014. This project was created as a part of my PhD and involved citizen scientists from urban and rural Alaska in collecting phenological data on native berry-producing plants and an invasive plant potentially competing for pollinators. (17 communities, 247 participants)

· Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies Programs, coordinator and educator, 2008-2010. I led several ecology education and citizen science programs and supervised a seasonal staff of 7. Programs included 1) the Alaska Coastal Ecology program, a 3-day intertidal and forest ecology immersion trip for youth groups and classrooms to the remote Peterson Bay Field Station or Kasitsna Bay Lab (>2,000 students per year), 2) the CoastWalk Program, a 34 year old community-based monitoring program focused on coastal change and marine debris (500 volunteers per year), and 3) a multitude of classroom visits, natural history tours, youth ecology camps, curriculum development projects, and public science events.

Public lectures and classroom visits

  • Classroom visits - I regularly do classroom visits, in-person or through or video conference, with classrooms or afterschool clubs on a variety of topics. If you are looking for a scientist to come in and work with your students on plants, invasive species, succession, berries, Alaska ecology, outdoor education, feel free to contact me. I love talking with students about science and thinking about data with them.

  • Public lectures - I regularly offer lectures and workshops to public audiences, professional, industry or land management agencies. Topics include: Fire and Invasive Species, Invasive Species Identification and Biology, Public Engagement in Science, Citizen Science and Community-Based Environmental Monitoring, Climate change and Alaskan plant communities, Alaska's Wild Berries.