The subtropics is home to a variety of ecosystems, most of which are poorly understood and nested between densely populated and growing urban and agricultural areas. The Institute of Water and Environment (InWE) at Florida International University is home base for research and education programs geared at unraveling the complexity of subtropical socio-ecological systems, particularly in South Florida and the Caribbean. These include the Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (FCE LTER) program, the Center of Research Excellence in Science and Technology focused on Aquatic Chemistry and the Environment, and the Miami-node of the Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network. These programs have long recognized that the future of these regions depends highly on an engaged citizenry that understands and values cultural-wildland dependencies. For this reason, our programs have been dedicated to developing innovative approaches to experiential learning along a pipeline from K-12 to undergraduate and graduate students.
Results/Conclusions
We review our approach and provide examples of activities that engage high school, undergraduate and graduate students as well as their teachers and mentors. We involve high school students directly in field and laboratory research, mentored by faculty and graduate students. We foster the use of FCE LTER data by teachers to generate lesson plans and Data Nuggets that can be then used in their and other classrooms. We have developed discovery-based undergraduate classes to excite students about research and to encourage them to pursue STEM degrees. We engage undergraduate students, particularly focusing on students from underrepresented groups to conduct hands-on research with faculty and graduate student mentors across disciplines ranging from ecology, hydrology, chemistry, environmental policy, economics, landscape design, and computer science. Near-peer mentoring is a hallmark of our programs, and graduate student mentors have formed their own organizational units to collaborate and learn, often including collaborations with science professionals outside of academia. We offer and arrange for specialized training in mentoring, ecological sensing and tool development, data interpretation, urban design and ecosystem management, science advocacy and policy, and use a distributed platform to engage students from other institutions in these activities. An Artists in Residence program offers opportunities for students to learn creative approaches to public engagement. By engaging in scientific networks, our students are also gaining valuable skills in collaboration. We collaborate with our STEM Transformation Institute to develop novel educational methods and techniques for assessment.