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WestEd/UC Berkeley Partnership Engages Students in GLOBE Through After School Internships

Feb 13, 2019

Do you have 6-12 schools that your partnership works with? Do these schools have after school programs? Engage students in GLOBE through an after school internship program. The WestEd/UC Berkeley partnership are strategic and support partners in the Exploring Careers and Learning Informally to Prepare for STEM Employment (ECLIPSE program) at two Bay Area high schools: Antioch (Antioch, CA) and Skyline (Oakland, CA).

Students present at Pacific SRS The ECLIPSE program builds capacity for engagement of diverse student populations in the environmental sciences and geosciences and evaluates GLOBE's impacts on student attitudes and learning. This informal learning setting allows for youth-led STEM immersion and career development, as evident in their participation at the 2018 Pacific Student Research Symposium.

Antioch HS intern conducting GLOBE Land Cover protocol. — Antioch HS intern conducting GLOBE
Land Cover protocol.

EarthTeam, a not-for-profit informal environmental education in Northern California, embeds GLOBE and career development experiences into its after school internship program. The incorporation of GLOBE data collection and analysis activities and intentional career development experiences contributes an innovative new component to the program's existing youth development and community engagement activities. Youth not only learn about data and the environment through student-led investigations and contribution to a real international database, but also master STEM practices and become immersed in STEM culture (vocabulary, habits of mind, and tools) through opportunities to develop research projects, interact with scientists, and collaborate with fellow student-researchers. In the process, they develop heightened "21st century skills" such as collaboration and communication; they also develop social-emotionally, with regard to a sense of "belonging" in the world of science, and a sense of self-efficacy and agency about their ability to effect change in the world. Through career exploration using the Green360 tool, career speakers, informational interviews, and metacognitive reflections about their career-related discoveries, in addition to their GLOBE-driven STEM immersion, youth also learn new strategies to attain their career goals.