Experiential learning has been a key component of educational activities at El Verde Field Station (EVFS), an ecosystem research center in eastern Puerto Rico that hosts the Luquillo Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) and the Luquillo Critical Zone Observatory (LCZO) Programs. Experiential activities at the station can be aligned along an educational pipeline from middle school to graduate studies. We explore the development of these activities at El Verde as a guide to others wishing to establish similar educational programs at their ecosystem research centers. We also explore the role of student mentorship in reinforcing the education pipeline and discuss the need for metrics as a tool to guide further development.
Results/Conclusions
We review four programs at EVFS that involve middle school students, high school students, Research Experience for Undergraduates (REUs), and recent graduates working as research interns (RIs). Journey to El Yunque (JTEY) is a web-based program that utilizes Luquillo LTER results to teach the principles of ecological dynamics to middle school students. In the Schoolyard LTER (SLTER) we have begun using data jams to draw teachers to the program. In the data jams, conducted in collaboration with the LCZO, teachers support students to graphically explore stream discharge and other meteorological data from long-term databases and creatively present the results of their investigations. The data jam is followed by one-day field exercises in a dedicated demonstration plot where teachers are instructed in methodologies to implement long-term monitoring at their schools. Both JTEY and SLTER expose students and teachers to the importance of information management (IM) tools in LTER, an aspect that has been reinforced via workshops devoted to the topic. Students in the REU program conduct individualized studies, bolstered by instruction in research methods and data analysis. RIs conduct much data gathering for the LTER and learn field protocols, species ID, and IM as part of their internships. REUs have gone on to become RIs and many RIs go on to graduate school and, eventually, the professoriate. Students at all levels are frequently mentored in the field by senior students, for example, graduate students often (co)-mentor REUs. We find it is an important motivational tool for young students. REU has strong metrics of success but other programs lag in this area because of a lack of bureaucratic enforcement and funding.