Over 50% of the global human population resides in urban areas. Although built for humans, cities also provide animal habitat, and thus serve as unique interfaces for human-wildlife interactions. The Urban Wildlife Information Network (UWIN) is a research collaborative that focuses on uncovering the ecological processes that shape life in cities for people and animals alike. Though UWIN was originally founded to generate a multi-city, long term dataset, members found that coordinated efforts related to education and outreach were also possible. The UWIN is unique in that members are from diverse organizational affiliations, ranging from academia to city government, and all stakeholders play a role in generating and analyzing data. This poster will explore what a collaborative, multi-institutional project can contribute to urban ecological education and outreach that goes beyond what single entities can accomplish. The UWIN formed an education committee with the aim of sharing ideas, materials, and lesson plans across the membership.
Results/Conclusions
UWIN partner Lincoln Park Zoo’s “Partners in Fieldwork” trains teachers in the network’s data collection methods, allowing them to engage middle and high school students in collecting quality data. Partners in Fieldwork has thus far engaged 50 schools. At the university level, UWIN partners have created a six-week CURE (course-based undergraduate research experience) that allows undergraduate students to collect and analyze data from their cities. Over 2000 students have participated in this CURE. They have demonstrated greater self-efficacy and data interpretation ability compared to a similar sample of students who took a non-CURE version of the course. Academics in the network mentor graduate students to perform data collection and research on the multicity dataset the network produces. Currently, UWIN has 13 graduate students across North America contributing to the network. Salt Lake City’s Wasatch Wildlife Watch engages nearly 450 community members each year in its camera trapping efforts. Pre-post surveys of 2nd-year and 1st-year participants indicate community science training and education leads to long-term increases in knowledge of both local ecology and field protocols. Finally, UWIN has begun to actively engage urban planners and land-use policy makers in data collection , analysis, and utility in decision making processes related to land management and conservation. UWIN held a meeting in 2019 that was attended by 30 urban planners and 50 ecological scientists. The breadth of stakeholders and the sharing of resources across cities, has allowed UWIN to quickly develop high impact projects in education and outreach.