ED23B-0862
Immersion in a Hudson Valley Tidal Marsh and Climate Research Community - Lamont-Doherty’s Secondary School Field Research Program

Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Dorothy M Peteet1, Robert Newton2, Susan Vincent2, Raymond Sambrotto3, Benjamin C Bostick4, Peter Schlosser5 and J Elizabeth Corbett1, (1)NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, United States, (2)Columbia University of New York, Palisades, NY, United States, (3)Columbia Univ, Palisades, NY, United States, (4)Columbia University, Palisades, NY, United States, (5)Columbia University, Dept. of Earth and Environmental Engineering and Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, New York, NY, United States
Abstract:
A primary advantage of place-based research is the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research that can be applied to a single locale, with a depth of continued study through time. Through the last decade, Lamont-Doherty’s Secondary School Field Research Program (SSFRP) has promoted scientific inquiry, mostly among groups under-represented in STEM fields, in Piermont Marsh, a federally protected marsh in the Hudson estuary. At the same time, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) scientists have become more involved, through mentoring by researchers, postdocs and graduate students, often paired with high school teachers. The sustained engagement of high school students in a natural environment, experiencing the Hudson River and its tidal cycles, protection of coastline, water quality improvement, native and invasive plant communities, is fundamental to their understanding of the importance of wetlands with their many ecosystem services. In addition, the Program has come to see “place” as inclusive of the Observatory itself. The students’ work at Lamont expands their understanding of educational opportunities and career possibilities. Immersing students in a research atmosphere brings a level of serious inquiry and study to their lives and provides them with concrete contributions that they make to team efforts. Students select existing projects ranging from water quality to Phragmites removal, read papers weekly, take field measurements, produce lab results, and present their research at the end of six weeks. Ongoing results build from year to year in studies of fish populations, nutrients, and carbon sequestration, and the students have presented at professional scientific meetings. Through the Program students gain a sense of ownership over both their natural and the academic environments. Challenges include sustained funding of the program; segmenting the research for reproducible, robust results; fitting the projects to PIs’ research goals, time management, and institutionalization.