ED13A-3439:
Facing the Future: Sharing Habitats with Wildlife; A Civic Engagement Partnership between St. Mary's College and Lindsay Wildlife Museum through SENCER-ISE
Monday, 15 December 2014
Alice M Baldridge, St. Mary's College of California, Environmental and Earth Science, Moraga, CA, United States, Steve Bachofer, St. Mary's College of California, Department of Chemistry, Moraga, CA, United States and Weiwei Pan, St. Mary's College of California, Department of Math and Computer Science, Moraga, CA, United States
Abstract:
The phrase “Enter to Learn, Leave to Serve “ is at the heart of St Mary’s College of California’s education philosophy. The community engagement requirement of the core curriculum requires that students leave the classroom and engage with the world “to apply their intellectual experiences to communities beyond [the campus]”. St. Mary’s College actively participates with SENCER-ISE (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities-Informal Science Education), a National Science Foundation program developed to inspire more community engagement science projects in higher education to make science more real, accessible and civically important. Through this program, St. Mary’s College and Lindsay Wildlife Museum have developed the project “Facing the Future: Sharing Habitats with Wildlife”, which explores issues of urban habitats – their ephemerality, and the need for citizens to share responsibility and promote their success. The institutions are (1) studying a San Francisco Bay Area watershed habitat; (2) designing data collection methods, (GIS mapping and mobile app creation) intended to educate children and adults on urban habitats and the need to protect them; and (3) preparing interpretive materials to raise awareness of habitat issues. Here we report on the impact of this work, which is in the first year of a three-year grant and how a durable partnership can be established.
