Deborah Mercy
Bringing Community Research into K-12 Education
We will work with local teachers to develop instructional materials and curricula. We will take the inquiry-based learning approach, in which students are encouraged to pose questions, develop hypotheses and means of testing them, and pursue a deeper understanding of concepts through hands-on engagement; as well as applying model-based reasoning in data analysis and development of explanations of phenomena under investigation.
Activities will incorporate the methods and findings of the POLARIS research into K-12 schools located in rural and coastal communities of Alaska. We will develop inquiry-based activities that prepare teachers and students for data collection and engagement in classroom research projects at their schools. Teachers will be engaged in relevant scientific practices that build their understanding of the system's nature of research. These activities will be adaptable for middle and high school students and disseminated nationally on the POLARIS project website.