EPSCoR Welcomes Liz Nysson, Education, Outreach, and Diversity Coordinator

Wyoming EPSCoR is happy to welcome Liz Nysson, the new Education, Outreach, and Diversity (EOD) Project Coordinator for the EPSCoR Research Infrastructure and Improvement Program Track One (RII Track-1).

Liz and her dog Shelby

Originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, Liz attended the University of Wyoming, earning a Bachelor’s of Arts in Humanities & Fine Arts and Women’s Studies, with a minor in Environmental Natural Resources in 2006. After graduating, Liz moved to Missoula, Montana where she worked as an AmeriCorps Team Leader in the Office for Civic Engagement. After finishing her AmeriCorps term, Liz went back to school to earn her Masters of Science in Environmental Policy and Planning at the University of Michigan. After grad school, Liz held a Wyss Fellowship at the Oregon Natural Desert Association in Bend, Oregon to work for a non-profit organization. For Liz, coming back to Laramie is an exciting opportunity and she is very happy to be working for EPSCoR.

 “I was familiar with EPSCoR, and I knew about the projects it had created in the past.  I knew EPSCoR was a program with a lot of success and support from not only the National Science Foundation, but also from the University and the state.”

Liz enjoys her work, and she also strongly believes in the program.

“EPSCoR does so much to support student research opportunities. It is so important to have a program on campus to facilitate and champion undergraduate research,” she says. “As an undergrad, it’s often difficult to find research opportunities. By enabling these opportunities, EPSCoR helps students build their knowledge and work skills, and also improves science education at the University of Wyoming."

As the EOD Coordinator, Liz is in charge of coordination efforts and facilitating different aspects of EPSCoR and its programs.

“You can think of my job as being broken down into three parts,” she says.  “This includes external engagement, workforce development, and diversity.”

Because her position is tied to the RII Track-1 grant, which created the new Wyoming Center for Hydrology and Geophysics (WyCEHG), Liz’s responsibilities are concurrently focused on supporting the establishment of a lasting center of excellence in environmental hydrology and geophysics to support and improve science and watershed management in Wyoming.

In the future, Liz hopes to expand the resources and networks available to students and educators across the state of Wyoming, and to encourage students from underrepresented groups to enter into and stay engaged in science, technology, engineering, and mathematic s fields.

By: Robin Rasmussen
Photo Courtesy of Liz Nysson

Wildlife, field research and education: Wyoming EPSCoR's EOD Coordinator

Earlier this fall we started a series of blogs about the EPSCoR office. The following is part two of the series and features our Education, Outreach and Diversity (EOD) Coordinator, Beth Cable.

Beth Cable is Wyoming EPSCoR's EOD Coordinator

For a wildlife biologist, field research can look like a lot of things. Sometimes it is observing animals in their natural habitats; sometimes it is looking for changes in migration patterns; and sometimes it is bringing the joy of nature to students through field research projects. For Beth Cable, the Education, Outreach and Diversity (EOD) Coordinator for the CI-WATER grant at Wyoming EPSCoR, field research has been all of these things.

Beth has had a varied career, but of all her experiences, field work has been the best part. “The most fun part of my career was doing wildlife research,” Beth says. “It was a carefree environment where my learning curve was high. It was full of great experiences and gave me a chance to see a lot of the country and a lot of amazing natural things happening.”

Science was always Beth’s favorite subject in high school.  After working as a field researcher for several years following her degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from Penn State University, she started working in outdoor schools.

“I missed interacting with people,” Beth says.

The first outdoor school Beth worked at was in California. The yearlong school is part of California’s public school curriculum which aims to get students outside. As the school was located just south of Yosemite National Park, the students and teachers had a great opportunity to explore the park. After teaching in California, Beth came to Wyoming to work at the Teton Science Schools outside of Jackson Hole. The Teton Science Schools also offers courses all year long. In the winter, students studied the winter environment, including the snow. The summer, however, was the best part for Beth, because it focused on field research. She and her students participated in bird banding and vegetation mapping, among other projects.

“One of my favorite things to do is field research projects with high school students,” Beth says. “I loved doing field work and now I love doing it with students.”

Beth’s love of field research and working with high school students became the focus of her Master’s thesis at the University of Wyoming. After earning her masters, Beth taught science to 7^th-12^th graders in Rock River, Wyoming, before coming back to UW. Since then, Beth has helped design biology curriculum for UW and coordinated the Wyoming State Science Fair. Today, Beth’s passions and varied experiences guide her work at Wyoming EPSCoR and with Utah universities collaborating with UW on the CI-WATER grant.

“The best part of EPSCoR is the variety of things I get to do,” Beth says. “And I enjoy working with the people in Utah, even though they are far away. I have learned a lot from them.”

Beth’s latest work with Utah has been on toolboxes for K-12 schools in the two states. These toolboxes are designed to teach students about water and encourage them to explore the world of water around them.

“I’m really excited about the toolboxes,” Beth says.

The toolboxes are the result of hard work, collaboration and dedication by Beth and her partners at the Natural History Museum of Utah. Beth’s experiences with teaching and curriculum planning, with real-world science and learning in the outdoors have greatly informed the toolboxes. She is looking forward to piloting them and sending them around the state.

Outside of science and her work at EPSCoR, Beth is an avid trail runner and skate skier.

By Kali S. McCrackin
Photo courtesy of Beth Cable

CI-WATER K-12 Toolboxes will bring the science of water to Utah and Wyoming classrooms

Wyoming EPSCoR, in association with Utah EPSCoR, Utah Universities and the Natural History Museum of Utah, is part of a grant called CI-WATER. Like all EPSCoR grants, education, outreach and diversity are key elements of CI-WATER. As part of the education work, CI-WATER is aiming to bring water research and awareness to K-12 classrooms in Wyoming and Utah. This week, Wyoming EPSCoR’s Beth Cable is in Utah working on the construction of toolboxes which will do just that. 

“I see the most valuable aspect of the toolboxes is that they offer a huge variety of ideas, curriculum and tools,” says Cable. “My hope is that any individual teacher can find his or her comfort level in working with them, and take them away - for a day, a week or (hopefully) a year.”

Cable is the Education, Outreach and Diversity project director for Wyoming EPSCoR. Along with Heather Paulsen of the Natural History Museum of Utah, she has been working on these toolboxes designed to stimulate interest and thought about water. By studying local water resources and utilizing a variety of tools, students will address the effects of climate, population and land use changes on water systems.  The toolboxes are based on four main ideas which build on one another:  1. Properties of water, 2. Water in the environment, 3. Human use and impact, and 4. What do I do now?

“We designed the box to be flexible enough for teachers to use as an entire unit, building on itself to deepen and broaden understanding, but also where each lesson or tool could be used independently to explore one topic,” says Paulsen. “We also hope that it enables and inspires teachers to go outside and engage students in authentic research in their own environment. That connectedness to place is necessary for people.”

Along with field tools and reading materials, the toolboxes provide hands-on activity ideas, games and research project materials. These types of activities aim to encourage students and teachers to examine water use in their own lives, schools and communities.  From these explorations, students and teachers will be encouraged to share their discoveries and extend their interest into their communities through art and advocacy projects. Cable and Paulsen are hoping that through the toolboxes, students will become interested in, and actively engaged with, the world of water around them.

“If I can imagine anything, I imagine a classroom community of scientists studying water,” says Cable. “Activities done indoors, outdoors, individually and in groups.  I love to imagine a classroom learning and growing together, walking and reflecting along a stream, and fostering a love of science.”

In addition to the scientific content and activities, the toolboxes are prefaced with inclusive background information.  This information is designed to help teachers by bringing new resources into their classrooms and providing new avenues for scientific exploration.

“I think the most valuable aspect is being able to supply resources to teachers that they don’t have the ability to acquire because they don’t have the time, resources, or both,” says Paulsen. “I think the toolboxes provide an authentic experience for both the teacher and students, enabling a community of learners in the classroom. Also, I think that water issues are among the most important that face us as people, and are only going to become more important. Being able to help teachers raise awareness, understanding, and engagement in this topic is imperative.” 

The provided materials will not only supplement teachers with additional contextual content, but also suggested techniques for effectively implementing the toolboxes in their classroom and facilitating outdoor activities with students.  All toolbox instruction is based around an initial brainstorm of how we use water, what uses water, and how water affects the Earth.

As the initial toolboxes near completion, they will be piloted at local Utah and Wyoming K-12 schools.  Following the testing and adjusting, two toolboxes will live and be outsourced in Wyoming, and three in Utah. 

We will share more information about requesting a toolbox for classroom use as the toolboxes are completed and ready for use.

By Beth Cable and Kali S. McCrackin

SACNAS and AISES conferences give inspiration to students and EPSCoR alike

Participants took a day trip to Matanuska Glacier during AISES.

Increasing diversity in the science fields is one of WyomingEPSCoR’s goals when it comes to outreach and education. Minority populations and women have traditionally been underrepresented in the science fields but this is beginning to change. Organizations such as the Society for Advancement of Chicano and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) work to empower minority students in the science fields through networking, funding and programs to help break down the barriers.

This fall Wyoming EPSCoR accompanied groups of students to both the SACNAS conference in Seattle, Washington October 11^th-14th and the AISES conference in Anchorage, Alaska October 30^th-November 4th. These conferences left a big impression on both the students and EPSCoR.

“It was inspiring to see how motivated and excited the students were at both conferences,” says Beth Cable, Education, Outreach and Diversity Project Coordinator for Wyoming EPSCoR. “In my opinion, the students really went above and beyond what I imagined in terms of networking, interviewing, learning and gleaning information from the break-out sessions. I was extremely pleased.”

SACNAS was founded in 1973 by a small group of Native American and Chicano scientists who were concerned about the lack of minority students in the science fields. Since then, SACNAS has grown to 25,000 members and continues to support Chicano and Native American students and professionals in attaining advanced degrees, careers and positions.

Four upperclassmen from the University of Wyoming attended the SACNAS conference where they joined a diversity of students from minority populations.  The conference focused on how it has expanded since 1973 and how SACNAS is helping students pursue professions in the sciences. For UW’s students, the conference provided a platform for exploring graduate schools, career options and new areas of interest.

“The students at SACNAS were very inspired and dedicated to finding out as much information as they possibly could,” says Lisa Abeyta, Student Research Programs Coordinator for Wyoming EPSCoR. “They attended the breakout sessions that would most benefit their future. We would regroup at the end of each day and they all had more ideas of what they would like to do in the future or where they wanted to attend graduate school.”

During the conference, students had the opportunity to meet and talk with professors and professionals, which they used to make connections and start networking.

“What I was most intrigued by is that the students were not intimidated to talk to professors, other professionals or even the executive director of SACNAS,” Abeyta says.

The conference provided a positive atmosphere that promoted empowerment, productivity and enthusiasm. UW’s students returned to campus rejuvenate and reenergized about their fields and futures.

A few weeks later, Wyoming EPSCoR geared up for the AISES conference in Anchorage. AISES was founded in 1977 and aims to increase the number of Native American and Alaskan Native students in the STEM fields. Its programs are designed for pre-college students, college students and professionals so as to support individuals throughout their scientific careers.

Three students from UW and three students from the WindRiver Indian Reservation attended the conference designed primarily for Native American and Alaska Native students. Like the SACNAS conference, the AISES conference provided students with a venue for exploring their options and networking.

 “What stands out to me most about the conferences is the indigenous people working so hard to better themselves, their tribe and their communities,” Cable says. “They expressed such kindness and love for their research and science, for each other and also for all of us who participated in the conference.  It was a gentle, very encouraging, environment.”

The connections made, the new options to consider and the support structures offered at the conference gave these six students new tools to use in pursuing their education and careers as scientists. It was a success all the way around, including for Wyoming EPSCoR and its programs.

“The conferences fit hugely into EPSCoR’s goals for diversity, outreach and education,” says Cable. “Both of our grants aim to collaborate with the Wind River Indian Reservation and minority populations. I was presented with so much positive, inspiring information, and now it is just finding the time and the means to really dig in and start implementing some of this.”

By Kali S. McCrackin 
Photo courtesy of Beth Cable

Stem with no root bears no fruit: Dr. Chris Emdin challenges instructors to think outside the box

Dr.Chris Emdin, September 5th

How can our education system engage students in science? This is the question Dr. Chris Emdin asked himself when he was in seventh grade and interested in science, but discouraged by the interactions in the classroom. In the years since junior high, Dr. Emdin, among other pursuits, has set out to find a better way to draw students into science, and his journey brought him to hip hop.

“The culture of young people, whether you like it or not, is hip hop,” Dr. Emdin told Utah teachers and researchers on the CI-WATER grant Wednesday night. “Hip hop is a cultural phenomena and it’s not going away.”

Dr. Emdin’s speech Wednesday night was part of the CI-WATER Symposium in Salt Lake City, Utah September 5^th-6^th. During the day, while researchers, industry leaders and EPSCoR personnel gathered at the Natural History Museum of Utah to discuss particulars of the grant, Dr. Emdin visited local schools to encourage students and instructors alike to reconsider their approach and views on science education. His speech later that night focused on showing how students can be engaged in science through hip hop, social media and the culture of the youth’s generation.

“I am purposely here to challenge,” Dr. Emdin warned his audience, and acknowledged that at some point in his talk he would probably offend everyone. And from there in launched into an anecdote that emphasized the problems our current education system has with engaging students in science. He called into question the practices of classrooms and the purpose of research.

“Why are we talking about this stuff?” Dr. Emdin asked, after telling his audience about a local girl, in a good school, who did not want to be there because she wasn’t engaged in classroom activity. “We’re talking about this stuff because we can do all the science we want to, create the most amazing models that we like, and if we’re sharing those models and those innovative ideas with other people like us, who are able to succeed in school, in spite of school, not because of it, then what’s the point?”

For the researchers on the CI-WATER grant, this question rang home. Part of the grant’s focus is outreach and education, and sharing research findings with the public, from elementary school students all the way up to parents and grandparents.

The purpose of research, Dr. Emdin said, should be to share the passions the researchers have, with students like the girl at the local Utah school, who felt distanced from her science education. Sharing the passions and positive aspects with students is essential.

“The reality is that a lot of people who are successful have been successful not because they are super special and smart,” Dr. Emdin said. “It’s because they’ve had a couple of experiences with a couple of people that allowed them to see themselves as scientists.” Researchers and teachers alike need to encourage these experiences to happen in the classroom.

How can teachers do that though? Through hip hop.

A stem with no root bears no fruit, Dr. Emdin said. Our current science education bears no fruit because it ostracizes creative and artistic minds and it weeds out students who aren’t good at math or who think in different ways. About this, Dr. Emdin asks, “Who is going to innovate? Who is going to be creative? Who is going to be the Einstein with the crazy hair who walks around and just doesn’t care?”

In order to find a root, hands are going to have to get dirty. Teachers and instructors are going to have to change their perceptions about what makes a successful teaching environment. “A quiet class is not necessarily a good class,” Dr. Emdin said. “What I’m telling you is that the most dysfunctional classrooms and the most effective classrooms look very, very similar.”

What’s the difference between a dysfunctional, loud classroom and an effective, loud interactive classroom? The focus of the interactions. This is where hip hop comes in.

Hip hop can help create this root by making science cool. “The general perception of scientists has to shift,” Dr. Emdin said. We have to eliminate the nerd perception and allow students to embrace the scientist within. More than changing the perception of scientists, hip hop offers teachers and researchers four hip hop elements than can drastically change science classrooms.

1. Mc (emcee) - voice inflections, gestures, metaphors and analogy on the part of the teacher; be the rapper and focus on engaging students with body language

2. Gr (graffiti)- graffiti can be a form of art and is a form of visibility, so bring art into science  and fame; give students school wide visibility for their accomplishments in science

3. Br (break dancing) - movement is essential; have students get up and move, even for just 35 seconds

Hip hop dancers preform at the CI-WATER Symposium

4. Dj (deejaying) - let students play with the technology and tools of the science lab; let them play and experiment with the tools before having students use them in an assignment

“I argue that each of these elements has to be part of every single lesson,” Dr. Emdin said. In addition to incorporating these elements into every lesson, Dr. Emdin challenges teachers to reconsider their position in the classroom. “Often times we categorize ourselves based on where we’ve been positioned...(teacher, researcher, scientist, innovator)…We fail to recognize that in order for us to really get to the point where we can disseminate scientific ideas with a kind of passion, we have to be all of those things at the same time.”

In the course of an hour and a half, Dr. Emdin showed teachers and scientists alike ways to improve science education and engage more students in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. He left his audience with his challenge: meet this generation of students on their cultural terms, not the cultural terms of the instructor,

More on Dr. Emdin’s ideas about science education and hip hop can be found in his latest book Urban Science Education for the Hip HopGeneration. 

By Kali S. McCrackin

Photo credits Kali S. McCrackin