I am currently supporting the Pathways into the Earth, Ocean, Polar, and Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences (GEOPAths) NSF funded grant (CUSP: Connecting Underserved Students to Polar STEM). This grant works to develop a consortium between the University of Maine, Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP), and Department of Education-funded Upward Bound Programs from across the United States. The specific goals are to: 1) increase awareness of career possibilities in Polar STEM fields at the high school level; 2) foster a solid foundation of Polar Earth systems science concepts; and 3) strengthen STEM communication skills. This will be completed by working with students in and outside the field throughout the academic year and by working with current high school STEM educators to develop Polar STEM curriculum for in-classroom activities during the academic year. My role in the GEOPAths projects focuses on survey development for students and teachers, data collection, analysis, and co-teaching curriculum over the next three years. I am also in the process of developing workshop material for Polar STEM educators for a two weeklong summer workshop beginning in Summer 2024.
Upward Bound 2019
I co-developed a week long climate education program for Maine Upward Bound. During the week, students learned about different fields of climate research at the University of Maine from workshops designed and taught by the University of Maine School of Earth and Climate Science and Climate Change Institute graduate students. While teaching about ice core research in these workshops, I also co-taught the students how to use the University of Maine Climate Reanalyzer, downloading, analyzing, and interpreting data. Upward Bound is Department of education funded program which supports low-income high school students and high school students who will be first-generation college students.