Worldwide, there has been growing interest in research, education, and discourse around the Food-Energy-Water (FEW)-Nexus, which serves as a framework for coupled human-natural systems and the most significant global challenges of today and tomorrow. Postsecondary institutions must take a leading role in cultivating scientific literacy, including geoscience literacy, as a means of equipping all global citizens to confront and problem-solve these challenges. The National Collaborative for Research on Food, Energy, and Water Education (NC-FEW; http://ncfew.org) is a new transdisciplinary community of educators and education researchers engaged in FEW-Nexus-focused educational programming and research/evaluation. Over the next 5 years, this Research Coordination Network (ECR-EHR Core Research #1856040) will engage a diverse array of educators and education researchers in discourse, networking, and collaboration-building around FEW-Nexus-focused education and education research/evaluation. NC-FEW will emerge as a hub of innovation for education research on FEW-Nexus educational programming at all levels (PK-12, postsecondary, adults) and in a variety of settings (formal, non-formal, informal). The current phase of this work builds upon preliminary work to nucleate NC-FEW begun in 2016. We seek to leverage these early efforts and investments to advance longer-term capacity-building goals, which include expanding this network to include a broad array of transdisciplinary collaborators who represent different disciplines and span traditional departments. The primary mission of NC-FEW is to establish itself as a hub for a networked improvement community (NIC) that will advance education research and educational programming grounded in the FEW-Nexus. In pursuit of this mission, we propose five explicit goals:
- Synthesize current education research on educational programming grounded in the FEW-Nexus
- Identify and promote best practices in education research on educational programming grounded in the FEW-Nexus
- Foster collaboration among community members representing diverse disciplines, fields, expertise, and institutions
- Enhance capacity for extramural funding in support of education research on educational programming grounded in the FEW-Nexus
- Cultivate a community identity among NC-FEW participants
Results/Conclusions
The session leverages a FEW-Nexus-based perspective on ecoscience education and education research, showcasing NC-FEW and related educational programs, theoretical perspectives, and research from ESA community members. In the proposed poster, we provide an opportunity for participants to a) explore FEW-Nexus-focused educational programs and results of related education research; b) identify shared needs, priorities, and goals of the ecological sciences and NC-FEW communities; and c) explore and map research themes and grand challenges shared by both.