The project's grant request and project description:
From the West Side to the West Pacific: Fijian reef conservation through collaborative student action
Posted by dmlcAdmin 83 days ago
Conservation of coral reef ecosystems is most successful when action is both local and global. We will engage American and Fijian youth in the stewardship of reefs through direct involvement in the scientific process, facilitated by real and virtual learning labs in both countries.
Using a combination of WhyReef, web-casting, video blogging, and a customized social networking site (FijiReef) we will connect underserved Chicago youth and youth in Fiji around the issue of environmental conservation. DML research and our own experience has shown that fusing virtual and real experiences, video production, and social networking successfully engages youth in science and civic action.
Core students will participate via a museum-run full semester after-school program. Using directed activities on WhyReef, students in both locations will gain equivalent background knowledge in reef biology and conservation. Activities will be supplemented by direct contact with marine biologists (mentors Drew and Skelton) and guided visits to museums and aquaria (Chicago) and live reefs (Fiji). Core students will exchange blogs and topical videos on the FijiReef site. Links from WhyReef activities will direct interest-driven Whyvillians to the FijiReef site to engage in collaborative activities with the core students. Core and web-only youth will collaborate to solve conservation problems that are common to Fijian reefs.
This project will not only increase the digital media and literacy skills of both the Fijian and Chicago youth, but will also build and maintain a digital lab in Suva, Fiji. Conservation NGOs (Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area and Wildlife Conservation Society Fiji Country Program) have agreed to help facilitate implementation in Fiji. Final evaluation of this project will be real world reef conservation in Fiji spearheaded and implemented by Chicago and Fijian youth, which could range from organizing coral reef clean-ups to developing conservation education materials for the region.
APPLICANT INFORMATION
Name: Joshua Drew
Country: United States
Inst/Org/Co: The Field Museum
Collaborator #1: Posa Skelton, University of the South Pacific
Collaborator #2: Anna Cabral, VOISE Academy High School
Collaborator #3: Mark Westneat, The Field Museum
Collaborator #4: Krystal Villanosa, The Field Museum
Collaborator #5: Beth Sanzenbacher, The Field Museum
Requested Budget Amt: $152,000
Apparently the project has been given a "prestigious award" according to Eureka Alert article.
Public release date: 14-May-2010
Contact: Nancy O'Shea
noshea@fieldmuseum.org
312-665-7103
Field Museum
Field Museum technology project wins prestigious award
Allows students half a world apart to engage in coral reef conservation
CHICAGO, May 14, 2010 – The same digital technology that enables young people to play video games, Tweet and upload videos also can immerse them in a simulated coral reef environment where they participate in science with peers half a world away.
A project led by Field Museum scientists will link students from Chicago's Austin neighborhood to students in Fiji to experience coral reef environments in the Pacific Ocean, engage in the scientific process, and participate in real world conservation.
Students from Chicago and Fiji will collaborate on topics and issues around coral reef ecology and conservation by making and sharing videos, photos, and blogs and uploading them to the web site called "Fiji Reef." Students will get content for these videos from virtual coral reefs, interaction with Field Museum scientists, and trips to real reefs or to Chicago's Shedd Aquarium and Field Museum.
The project was among a small group of winners in a grant competition that attracted more than 800 applications. The 2010 Digital Media and Learning Competition is a HASTAC Initiative supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. (HASTAC stands for Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory.)
"We will combine real life experience with digital technology, letting teens tell their own stories," said Joshua A. Drew, PhD, a Field Museum research scientist and leader of the project. "Teens have their own voices that need to be expressed. They feel marginalized when others speak for them."
"Digital technology is an integral part of teenagers' daily lives," Drew said. "They keep pushing the envelope and exploring new ways to interact and share with one another. We want to direct those interests to involve them in real science, and empower them to affect change both globally and locally."
The project, to launch next year, will engage 50 core students in Chicago and Fiji. The web site "Fiji Reef "will be open to everyone and Drew said he expects that thousands of interest-driven youth will participate, collaborating with the core students and uploading their own content.
The project will build upon WhyReef, an existing virtual coral reef developed by Field Museum researchers that is part of a larger science-oriented site called Whyville.net. The WhyReef simulation invites youth to count and identify sea life, explore coral reef ecology, devise theories about how coral reefs are impacted by human and natural disasters, and to test those theories.
"By collecting data, generating hypotheses and testing them, young people learn how scientists work," said Drew.
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On Wednesday, May 12, Field Museum scientists will join other digital media grant winners in Washington, DC to receive their awards. The award event is aligned with National Lab Day as part of the White House's new Educate to Innovate Initiative.
Note to assignment editors: Students and teachers who will participate are available for comment. Call Joshua Drew at 312-665 7483 or email jdrew@fieldmusem.org
To watch the video that won the grant go to http://www.dmlcompetition.net/pligg/story.php?title=506
To view the WhyReef site: http://reef.whyville.net
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