Dr. Jennifer Forbey
trialed a new STEM Service-Learning model this spring, called IdahoWatch:
Research in the Sagebrush Steppe Teacher-Researcher Partnership. IdahoWatch is
a unique Service-Learning model to Boise State University. The IdahoWatch: Teacher-Researcher
Partnership provided six 5th
- 12th grade teachers the opportunity to experience an
authentic field research experience focused on a local issue of concern, and
provided Boise State University undergraduate and graduate students the
opportunity to help develop, and guide, the Teacher-Researcher experience.
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| 2014 IdahoWatch: Research in the Sagebrush Steppe |
One teacher
participant explained, “It was non-stop learning! There were in depth
conversations in the vehicles traveling to our site, through amazing sagebrush
country, until we reached our destination at Castle Rock State Park. We
learned how to identify different species of sagebrush by visual, chemical, and
physical characteristics and how herbivores, like sage grouse and pygmy
rabbits, can differentiate the quality of nutrition and cover.
Instructors demonstrated how to assess and manage for quality habitats of pygmy
rabbits, a species of concern. We were trained by Marcella Femgren (grad
student researching sagebrush and sagegrouse) on vegetation surveys using line
transects and Daubenmire plots…I can now design and implement my own research
from the activities learned from the workshop into my classroom.”
 |
| Collecting pygmy rabbit data. |
The experience has
helped 5th –
12th grade teachers gain the confidence needed to
take the next step in implementing field research with their own students,
while forging professional relationships between university STEM research
faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and K-12 teachers.
 |
| In a blind at the sage grouse lek site. |
Participant teachers
received a field tool kit for participation in IdahoWatch, and will receive
continued access to STEM resources and support. The teachers left the
experience excited to implement what they had learned in their classrooms. One
teacher explained, “Next Monday, students are going to do a sagebrush chemistry lab using
samples I collected during the field experience and samples I have collected
since. The following week, they are going to do a concealment activity
using hands-on tools and concealments photos from the thumb drive that we were
given.”
 |
| Using telemetry. |
The joint work of Dr.
Forbey, Boise State University, University of California – Davis, University of
Idaho, and Washington State University is contributing to conservation efforts
for several sagebrush steppe species of concern, including the pygmy rabbit and
greater sage-grouse. Dr. Forbey has received several NSF grants to help fund
her research and outreach programs.
 |
| Running line transects. |
In the Fall, Dr. Ken
Cornell will launch another IdahoWatch: Teacher-Researcher Partnership, focused
on the issue of antibiotic resistances. To find out more about implementing the
IdahoWatch model, contact Kara Brascia, Director Service-Learning, karabrascia@boisestate.edu
.
- Jill K. Hettinger, Boise State University Service-Learning
