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C H A P T E R F O U R
Elect offleATafionalEcological
Observatory ATefwork on fle
Scientific Comm?~nifv. Ed?vcafion.
and Public Outreach
an,
This chapter discusses the potential role of NEON in advancing environmental
science, in interdisciplinary training of graduate and ?~nder~rad?~ate students,
To
in education of precollege students, and in informing the public about
environmental issues.
THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY
Ecology has been evolving from a science dominated by obser-
vation to one that combines experimentation with observation
to generate models, all in the last 30 years. The resulting
advances in our understanding of ecological processes now
need to be extended to regional and continental scales to allow
the accumulated knowledge to be applied to the nation's most
pressing environmental problems. As a first step in extending
the spatial scope of environmental research, the scientific
community has set up such collaborative or integrative pro-
grams as Biodiversity and Ecosystem Processes in Terrestrial
Herbaceous Ecosystems and DIVERSITAS but those pro-
grams provide little, if any, financial support and no research
infrastructure. Centers and programs such as the National
Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, the Global
Climate Observing System and Global Terrestrial Observing
System have been established to facilitate access to environ-
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NEON: ADDRESSING THE NATION'S ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES
mental data over a large geographic range and thus foster empirical
studies on extended spatial scales. However, the data were collected
from fragmented research and monitoring programs designed for disci-
plinary research and regulatory monitoring of specific environments.
The next step in expanding the spatial scope of environmental research
requires concerted experimental and observational efforts on large spatial
and temporal scales. Such studies would require advanced technologies
and standardization of equipment and data analysis. NEON would
Provide the necessary infrastructure to facilitate such an endeavor.
The committee identified three examples that highlight the value of
an integrated, collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to ecological
research:
.
Long-Term Ecological Research (LTERJ. For 20 years, the
National Science Foundation has supported a set of research projects
dedicated to the execution of long-term observations and experiments
that require commitments of resources beyond the timeframe of the
project funding cycle of 3-5 years. LTER sites were established through
a competitive process, and each site has a program of scientific inquiry
that reflects the unique aspects. By establishing a core set of processes
that are studied at each site and by developing a network coordinating
office, the member sites and the participating scientists can potentially
collaborate in cross-site projects. Periodic "all-scientist" meetings
provide a forum for presentation of results and development of new
collaborative thrusts. Thus, LTER has demonstrated the need for.
feasibility of, and potential power of a NEON-like, nationwide network
of sites dedicated to research focused on major environmental challenges.
.
AmeriFlu~c. The development of the eddy covariance technique
for measuring net atmosphere-biosphere exchanges of energy, carbon
dioxide, and other materials has revolutionized the field of ecosystem
studies in the same way as the implementation of watershed-level
experimentation in the 1960s. The value of the method for measuring
carbon exchange and its key role in estimating terrestrial regional and
global carbon budgets have motivated expansion. Although the resulting
68
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Effect of the National Ecological Observatory Network on the Scientific Community, Education, and Public Outreach
distribution and location of towers have not yet been optimized for
continental-scale research, the investigators associated with the sites have
joined in a network caned AmeriFlux to share information on techniques,
compare datasets, and advance the understanding of carbon dynamics in
ecosystems. An organization of AmeriFlux investigators that hosts
annual meetings has evolved. It has a central scientific office for the
dissemination of publications and testing of methods and modeling
approaches. The existence of the network has hastened the development
and application of an important new technology.
.
Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERTJ.
NSF's new IGERT program is relevant to NEON not because of its role
in the organization of research efforts, but because of its interdisciplinary
team approach designed to foster integrated education across standard
disciplines, often at field-station locations. The success of several
IGERT projects suggests that advances in graduate training can occur
when it is carried out in the framework of large, coordinated research
projects. Students in NEON would have similar opportunities.
Although none of those programs offers the large-scale infrastructure
and unified national focus that the committee believes should be central
goals of NEON, they demonstrate that ecology is ready to use fully the
opportunities offered by NEON. NEON would build on those successes
and provide a comprehensive examination of basic science, environ-
mental processes and problems, and their effect on biology on a national
scale. NEON would enable intellectual and scientific development that
is difficult or impossible with the infrastructures available today.
NEON would provide large-scale equipment and infrastructures that
are beyond the facilities and budgets of single institutions or even a
consortium of universities. Scientists working at NEON observatories
could identify areas where the latest technologies are needed. NEON
observatories could serve as a platform for testing and implementing new
technologies for experimentation and observation. Moreover, NEON
scientists could work with researchers of the Center for Embedded
Network Sensing (CENS; ) an NSF science and
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NEON: ADDRESSING THE NATION'S ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES
technology center to develop sensing systems for large-scare monitoring
and data collection. The use of standardized equipment and data analysis
would facilitate data-sharing and comparative studies. With a network
of infrastructure and an integrated database, NEON could unite scien-
tists across the nation who have common interests and would facilitate
interdisciplinary research by linking genome-sequence, functional,
ecological, climatic, geographic, and temporal data.
NEON would change how environmental and evolutionary biologists
conduct their work by
.
.
Promoting interdisciplinary research.
Making large-scale hypothesis-testing possible.
Allowing comparative ecosystem analysis.
Enabling multiscale research on and monitoring of the propaga-
tion of variability across local, regional, and continental scales.
EDUCATION
As stated in Chapter 2, the National Science Board (NSB) has
recommended that NSF provide the leadership needed to address the
pressing environmental-science education challenges facing the United
States. The Belgrade Charter. adopted bv a UN conference in 1976.
, 1 ~
provides a widely accepted international goal for such an endeavor. The
goal of environmental education is to develop a wo rid population that is
aware of and concerned about the environment and its associated
problems. Moreover, the population should have the knowledge, skills,
attitudes, motivations, and commitment to work individually and collec-
tively toward solutions of current problems and prevention of new ones
(UNESCO-UNEP 1976).
After the Belgrade Charter in 1976, the Tbilisi Declaration the
world's first intergovernment conference on environmental education-
established three broad objectives that still provide the foundation for the
achievement of the above-stated goal (UNESCO 1978~:
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Effect of the National Ecological Observatory Network on the Scientific Community, Education, and Public Outreach
.
To foster clear awareness of and concern about economic, social,
political, and ecological interdependence in urban and rural areas.
.
To provide every person with opportunities to acquire the
knowledge, values, attitudes, commitment, and skids needed to protect
and improve the environment.
.
To create new patterns of behavior of individuals, groups, and
society as a whole toward the environment.
The established goal and accepted objectives apply to all citizens to
different decrees. The level of knowledge and skill required of a scientist
a
is different from that required of an accountant, a teacher, an elementary
school student, or a parent. Yet each citizen is entitled to access and
training that provide the requisite skills, knowledge. and understandings
O. O
necessary for informed decision-making, whether those decisions be in
the laboratory, classroom, home, or university. NEON would provide a
vehicle for such an inclusive education to be fostered and developed.
We suggest some ways in which NEON could address diverse educa-
tional needs.
Undergraduate and Graduate Education
The in] pittance of NEON observatories for the training of under-
graduate and graduate students in interdisciplinary, problem-oriented
research was stressed by the participants in the first workshop held to
provide advice on NEON's formation and roles (NSF 2000a). They
sought programs that would attract graduate students and faculty to
courses on research technique and use and on integration of datasets and
that would encourage the dissemination of methods, materials, and
information into undergraduate and graduate curricula. They could be
programs or courses held in the summer, in the academic year, or even
over several years (NRC 2001~.
Much graduate training is currently centered in relatively narrow,
weD-defined disciplines. Yet the ecologists and biologists of tomorrow
require intensive training and broad knowledge. NEON sites would
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NEON: ADDRESSING THE NATION'S ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES
have graduate students working together who have different early train-
O O
ing in climate, hydrology, biogeochemistry, biodiversity, systematics,
spatial analysis, and information technology. Such integration of hands-
on experiential learning across normaDv disparate fields is now possible
~ 1 1
only on a small scale and only at a few major research universities.
NEON would make those opportunities broadly available.
For example, the Biological Collections Institutions envision NEON
having a substantial effect on the next generation of taxonomists, system-
atists, and collection managers. Suggestions include training for the next
generation of taxonomists and for parataxonomists, joint teaching opportu-
nities in systematics and colony" courses, in situ programs for collecting
methods and collection management, and development of needed on-line
identification tools to hasten field and laboratory identification (NSF 2002b).
The links across the science, technology, and mathematics disciplines
are becoming deeper and more extensive. Yet as we point out in Chap-
ter 2, a National Research Council report (2003a) noted that under-
graduate biology education has "changed relatively little during the past
two decades" and that "the ways in which most future biologists are
educated are geared to the biology of the past, rather than to the biology
of the present or future." Such programs as the nationwide Research
Experiences for Undergraduates and the Undergraduate Research
Opportunities Program aimed at minority students begin to address the
need, but the latter program exists at few universities, and both touch the
lives of few students. NEON has the potential to engage undergraduates
in interdisciplinary research on a broad scale.
Laboratories provide the ideal opportunity for undergraduate stu-
dents to experience interdisciplinary research and confront real-world
scientific investigations and problems. In re-examining undergraduate
curricula in light of current research needs, NEON observatories would
lead the way, presenting examples of current research that exemplify how
science consists of unanswered questions and providing extended research-
based opportunities for students to ask questions, make observations,
analyze data, experience teamwork, work with mentors, and obtain a
real-world view of the life of an interdisciplinary researcher (NRC 2003a).
72
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Effect of the National Ecological Observatory Network on the Scientific Community, Education, and Public Outreach
Precollege Education
The National Research Council, the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, the National Science Teacher's Association,
and others recommend inquiry as the technique, method, or process by
which the goals of learning can be addressed. Inquiry is a way of learning
that involves making observations; asking questions; examining informa-
tion to determine what is already known; using tools to gather, analyze,
and interpret data; suggesting answers, explanations and predictions; and
finally communicating results (NRC 1996~. A NEON site is an ideal
environment and location for students to engage in environmental-
science inquiry and to gather, interpret, and analyze data alongside
scientists who are engaged in the same authentic activities.
Starting inquiry-based experiences at the beginning of a student's K-12
education is important for long-term success. In 1997, the National
Research Council released Introducing the National Science Education
Standards, Booklet which emphasizes inquiry-based processes for K-12
students. The standards define what all students should know and be
able to do detail the teaching and professional-develooment strategies
necessary to deliver this high-quality science content, and provide
guidelines for assessing the degree to which the standards have been
achieved (NRC 1997~. The standards provide a roadmap for science
literacy, and each state has developed its own set of statewide science
standards based on the national goals.
Several standards-based, inquiry-driven educational projects now
under way provide models for the NEON sites. For example, the Global
Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment program provides
opportunities for students to conduct valuable scientific work, analyze the
results and use advanced technologies. Students also have the opportunity
to communicate with others nationally and internationally. The work of
the students, teachers, and scientists as they study the global environment
is coordinated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in
partnership with Colorado State University under a cooperative agreement
awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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NEON: ADDRESSING THE NATION'S ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES
Another example is the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long-Term
Ecological Research (CAPETER) project, which engages students and
teachers across the Phoenix metropolitan area in the collection of data on
plants, birds, and insects to determine the effects of urbanization on their
local ecosystem. Project data are entered into the CAPETER database,
thereby vastly expanding its coverage. Since 1999, the program has
involved 77 teachers in 59 schools at grades 4-10. Those schools are
meeting their inquiry-based standards requirements while CAPETER is
receiving data and fulfilling its educational mission. CAPETER also
works with the local school district in summer institutes, workshops, and
mentoring for teachers (NRC 2003b). NEON could use those programs
as examples of K-12 student and teacher education.
For students to understand inquiry, teachers need to be weD-versed
in inquiry-based methods. However, few teachers have the opportunities
to learn science through inquiry or to conduct scientific inquiries them-
selves (NRC 2000~. Immersion has emerged as one of the key strategies
for the professional learning of teachers. Immersion experiences often
occur in laboratories where teachers join scientists to conduct science in a
real-world setting. The outcome of such long-term, in-depth learning is
a change in teachers' conceptions of the very nature of science and an
understanding that science teaching is less a matter of knowledge transfer
and more a process by which knowledge is generated. NEON observa-
tories could provide a venue for science training of K-12 teachers. The
Department of Energy's Teacher Research Associates program is a good
example of an 8-week immersion experience for high school teachers
(L.oucks-Horsley et al. 1998~.
Informal Education
Both NSB and the President's Committee of Advisors on Science
and Technology (PCAST) panel recommend an increased focus on
informal education as an effective tool for increasing environmental
literacy (PCAST 1998, NSB 2000~. PCAST states that informal
education is very cost-effective and people enjoy learning informally
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Effect of the National Ecological Observatory Network on the Scientific Community, Education, and Public Outreach
when they have control over the timing and content. Chicago Wilderness
is given as an example: over 160 agencies, organizations, institutions, and
local governments working together to restore, maintain, and increase
the biodiversity of the Chicago region. The consortium is combining
and integrating its education and research efforts in the member institu-
tions and in coordinated programs for the general public focused on local
natural science. Displays, exhibits, weekend programs, volunteer oppor-
tunities, training, a magazine, and a Web site are some of the informal
coordinated educational efforts targeted to the 8 minion people in the
Chicago metropolitan area (PCAST 1998~. Such an informal coordi-
nated education program should be central to every NEON observatory.
NSB encourages NSF to support many more environmental-
education efforts through informal venues museums, aquariums, zoos,
a
nature centers, television, and other learning modes attractive to the
public, such as radio programs and Web sites. Relating such programs to
citizens' personal, community, and work lives could be a way to increase
the public's ability to deal with complex environmental issues (NSB
2000~. NEON observatories, through their partnerships with other
agencies and with their regional and continental focus, could provide an
ideal opportunity for the successful implementation of the NSF directive.
Informal partners of NEON consortia, especially science and natural-
history museums, constitute rich resources for the public's understanding
of science and ways to build bridges between scientific research and
the public.
PUBLIC OUTREACH AND INVOLVEMENT
Citizen science has become an important involvement and data-
collection strategy in the United States. The Cornell Laboratory of
Ornithology has created a vast citizen-science network for collection of
bird data; adults and students collect and submit volumes of information
on backyard feeders, schoolyard watches, and specific species (such as
house finches, pigeons, and birds of prey). The Illinois Department of
Natural Resources trains citizen-scientists to collect targeted data on
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NEON: ADDRESSING THE NATION'S ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES
wetlands, rivers, prairies, forests, and even urban green spaces through its
EcoWatch Program. The second NEON workshop suggested that such
citizen-science monitoring could be done at NEON observatories.
Participants suggested a host of on-site education programs similar to
those listed above on informal education to increase citizen involvement
and understanding (NSF 2000b). Such a monitoring program would
contribute to collection of information and would increase citizens'
awareness of research programs.
To disseminate and provide access to information synthesized from
research observations, NEON could set up a Web site similar to that of
Earthscope (http.//www.earthscope.orgi). The Web site would provide
not only an overview of NEON programs, but also a summary of key
scientific findings written for a lay audience and access to environmental
data collected by NEON that could be used in a classroom or for making
informed policy decisions.
NEON also presents an excellent opportunity to include under-
represented communities in its outreach and community-involvement
efforts. Members of minority groups, and professionals in journalism,
agriculture, forestry, ranching, and business could all be informed by
targeted outreach. The American Institute of Biological Sciences white
paper on NEON suggests that each NEON observatory have a funded
outreach office to promote such public inclusion. The office would
interact with broadcast and print media, develop articles for press releases
and magazines, promote coverage on radio and television, publish
newsletters, and develop a public Web site. Additional public programs
have been suggested such as tours, open houses, activity days, and docent
and volunteer programs (AlBS 2003~.
76
Representative terms from entire chapter:
public outreach
