How Do You Sample a Frozen River? Increasing K–12 STEM Engagement Through Real-World Problem Solving and Scientific Research

Abstract

Through the Sediment, Ice, & Learning on the Tanana (SILT) project, a team of university scientists engaged two middle school student groups in testing innovative environmental research technologies to measure sediment flowing underneath river ice. The culturally responsive, place-based pilot program tests these technologies as a strategy to increase students’ science interest and science self-efficacy. Over a series of three workshops, 39 students built and deployed low-cost turbidity sensors to measure sediment flowing underneath river ice and designed model payload attachment systems to attach the sensors to drones for measuring sediment fluxes during spring river ice breakup. Students’ changes in science interest and self-efficacy were measured using both a true pre- and post-program survey and a retrospective pre-program survey.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Citizen science
• place-based learning
• science interest

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank J. Stone, B. Gerald, and their students for their participation in the SILT project. We would also like to thank Lillian Cooper (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) for assembling workshop materials, Emily Sousa (University of Alaska Fairbanks) for assisting in geospatial learning components of the project, Adrian Heath (Oregon State University) for assistance in running our third workshop, and Tohru Saito (University of Alaska Fairbanks) for arranging youth travel for the workshops.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ANS 2153778. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.