1. + Carol C Johnston (Mount St. Mary's College, Los Angeles) Manisha Javeri (California State University, Los Angeles) Creating an online community supporting Environmental Issues in Diverse Curricula

2. + Grant Project PI’s ■ Dr. Carol C Johnston (Mount St. Mary's College, Los Angeles) ■ Dr. Irene Osisioma (California State University, Long Beach ■ Dr. Manisha Javeri (California State University, Los Angeles)

3. + Grant received from South California Gas Company (2013) This grant proposal was to build a learning community that would include educators formal (K- 15) and non-formal (museums, parks, zoos, community gardens, sustainable housing etc.), and non-profit organizations, in California who are all working in the area of a service learning and environmental & energy education.

4. + Goals of Building a Learning Community The primary goals of building this learning community are to 1. generate awareness and civic responsibility toward environmental education and sustainable energy solutions and how they impact urban environment in particular. 2. provide training (tools, assessment, resources and strategies) and opportunities to create collaborative partnerships among formal and non- formal environmental and energy educators in California.

5. + Ways to build the learning community 1. Face to face workshops for all the members of the learning community. 2. Develop an online social networking platform for workshop participants to continue the community building process and networking

6. + Building a Learning Community via face to face workshops 1. A total of 4 face to face workshops ■ Two with participants from science, engineering and math ■ Two with mixed participants from arts, humanities, science, engineering and math, non-profits from Los Angeles 2. Participants: faculty from higher ed, K-12 teachers and non- profits 3. Content for the workshops: General environmental ed topics, energy, ecosystems, use of technology tools and resources 4. Activities: Case studies, sharing of best practices, discussions, presentations, networking

7. + Groundwork of the planning and development Process 1. Weekly face to face meetings of PI’s with 3 three graduate student interns (a web designer, and two research assistants from Educational Technology) 2. Using Google Cloud as a database for all the project files, discussions, resources, videos, workshops materials etc 3. Online communications via Skype and Elluminate Live

8. + Building a Learning Community via social web portal A companion social networking portal to complement the face to face training workshops was developed by a CSULA graduate student intern 1. Have all the stakeholders (higher ed, K-12, non-profits) sign up and be able to personalize their page, post blogs, start groups, create discussion boards, post best practice examples. 2. Construct interactivity within the site for collaboration, sharing files and documents, and community building social tools (like Wiki, Facebook, Twitter, android and i-phone applications etc) 3. Host grant materials and resources for EEE training workshops as well as links to organizations etc.

9. + Prototypes of two social web portals

10. + Successes 1. The workshops allowed not only the participants but also the EE team to build social and professional connections with other like-minded environmental educators. 2. Connections were made with faculty working on the same campus that one would have never met of known about. 3. This started a process of forming small interests groups of faculty at various campuses coming together and writing other grants, collaborating on classes and serving as resource in each other’s curriculum development process. 4. Collaboration between Academia and non-profits (from theory into action)

11. + Challenges ■ Participants last minute canceling the workshops ■ Hosting of web portal (lack of support from the CSULA ITS) ■ 3 Months spend in meeting CSULA web requirements ■ Section 508 (ADA) compliancy ■ Server capabilities did not allow for hosting big video files to any kind of interactivity among member of the online community ■ Server did not have back end database ■ After 3 months switched to an open source site ■ Lost the momentum with the member participants ■ Site was spammed

12. + Current Grant Work in 2014 ■ Four more workshops (May, July and Aug) ■ Include STEM students from California Academies ■ Collect data on the workshops ■ A training on signing up and use of the online learning community ■ Developing mobile apps and face book page etc ■ Explore Other grant Opportunities ■ Collecting data on the web portal from the participants (effectiveness of integration of EE education into their content area)

13. + Current Website

14. + Video

15. + Using Environmental Issues in a Pre-Service Elementary Science Methods Course to Model Inquiry Teaching and Reduce Fears of Teaching Science Carol C Johnston, PhD Mount Saint Mary’s College, Los Angeles C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

16. + The Issue ■Pre-service teachers face many fears about their abilities to teach science ■Hispanic-Serving college in large urban area ■Many enter course with negative experiences from their own K- 12 science education and have poor attitudes about science ■Attitudes toward science is an important influence on how much science will be taught (Smith & Gess-Newsome, 2004) C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

17. + Using Environmental Issues ■Links between environmental education and inquiry teaching ■Forbes & Zint (2011) found that elementary teachers believed it was important to teach students about environmental issues—and how to act on them. However, this did not lead to more time spent on science (or environmental issues) ■Bamburger & Tal (2009) attributed museum visits to helping students to make connections through cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, and concrete experiences. C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

18. + Research Questions ■How do pre-service elementary teachers respond to environmentally-based science activities? ■In what ways do the use of environmental activities to model inquiry lessons lead pre-service teachers to be able to incorporate environmental issues into their own standards-based science lesson plans? C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

19. + Course and Study Design ■8-week course ■Mostly undergraduate liberal studies majors in their junior or senior year ■Course examines science concepts and theories and their application in teaching. ■Constructivist teaching ■Inquiry-based ■Qualitative, naturalistic approach ■Reflection-oriented documents ■Teacher reactions to use of environmental education activities C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

20. + Introducing Environmental Science

21. + Science as Inquiry ■Field Trip Experiences ■Natural History Museum ■California Science Center C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

22. + Analysis ■Data Sources ■DAST ■Timeline ■Entrance Essay (Relationship to People, Animals, Nature) ■Lesson Plans ■Mini-lessons ■Final Reflective Essay ■All documents coded with emerging themes… ■Connecting science to everyday life ■Attitudes toward teaching and learning science ■Conceptual understanding of science ■Intentions for future teaching C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

23. + Draw a Scientist Test (DAST) ■Chambers, 1983 C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

24. + Findings: DAST NameDAST AracelyEinstein CindyEinstein FrancescaEinstein MariaFemale (alone in lab) OctaviaEinstein PiaMale ReginaEinstein SelenaBill Nye ValerieMale C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

25. Attitudes Timeline 2 6 10 14 Outdoor Experiences Science Camp and Book Experiments Fun Teacher and group Activities Bad Grade in Course Liked Physics, not Biology Failed Course in Environmental Science C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

26. + Findings: Timeline NameTimeline: Elementary—Secondary—College Aracely+- (Except dissection)0 Cindy+++ (except low bio grade ) Francesca++0 Maria00Up/down Octavia++- (failed environ. sci.) Pia0+-(low test scores) Regina+Liked dissection+ Selena+Liked dissection- Valerie++- (low test scores) C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

27. + Findings: Essay NamePeopleAnimalsNature Aracelystrongfear *Recycling clubs CindystrongfearBeauty and responsibility Francescastrong Responsibility to natural world MariaN/A OctaviastrongfearEnjoys trees and plants Piastrong Care for Earth, using less energy ReginaN/AN/A*N/A Selenastrongneutral*Care for Earth, beach clean-up Valeriestrong Concern to not damage C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

28. + Lesson Plans: Connections to Everyday Life ■Strong ■Aracely—Recycling ■Pia—Water Cycle ■Moderate ■Cindy—Ecosystems ■Francesca—Rocks and minerals ■Maria—Atoms and molecules ■Selena—Food chain ■Valerie—Bones of the Body ■Minimal ■Octavia—Chemical and physical properties and Weathering ■Regina—Mixtures and solutions C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

29. + Lesson Plans: Connections to Environmental Issues ■Aracely—Recycling ■Octavia and Selena had some mention of outdoor environments, but no explicit connections Aracely’s lesson plan for recycling included a field trip to the Ecosystems displays at the California Science Center as an extension activity. “The field trip would allow the students to connect their learning to science.” C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

30. + Lesson Plans: Science Conceptual Understanding ■Weak(Minimal) ■Aracely- Missed opportunities for connections to ecosystems—field trip extension not fully incorporated. (too much assumed) ■Regina—minimal connections to CA state standards (focused on activity over learning outcomes) C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

31. + Summary ■Aracely the only one to choose a science topic directly related to environmental science ■Strong connections to environment and everyday life, but unable to explicitly include science content or processes. ■Missed opportunities to relate to Investigation and Experimentation Standards ■Francesca had a very strong lesson with regards to scientific concepts and processes. However, despite the connections to ecosystems, no explicit connections were made to environmental issues. ■Selena also had a missed opportunity with a lesson that did include some appreciation of the outdoors, but no explicit connections to environmental issues. ■Octavia struggled with content and tried to include too much with chemical vs. physical properties and weathering. C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

32. + Conclusions ■How do pre-service elementary teachers respond to environmentally- based science activities? ■Response to museum visits and pre-/post- activities was positive. Many reported that they intended to use them in their future teaching. ■Essays indicated a slight shift toward more positive attitudes about teaching science ■Remaining fears of own capabilities ■In what ways do the use of environmental activities to model inquiry lessons lead pre-service teachers to be able to incorporate environmental issues into their own standards-based lesson plans? ■Students best able to use lessons when explicitly given the connections between the activities and the science concepts. C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s

33. + Recommendations and Implications ■Pre-service elementary teacher candidates need more explicit instruction for connecting environmental issues, museum activities, and standards-based science concepts. ■While they agree that science concepts should be connected to daily life and that environmental issues may help, they lack the confidence (and possibly the content knowledge) to proceed. ■Candidates requested example lesson plans that included these connections. ■Use of Environmental Issues could be included in pre-requisite science courses C Johnston Mount Saint Mary’s