Throughout 2016, Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab Satellite Network will launch an educational project called Nearby Nature that will enable middle- and high-school students in Pennsylvania and West Virginia to study scientific phenomena in almost any outdoor space, in both built and natural settings.
Sponsored by the Benedum Foundation with additional funding from Chevron, Nearby Nature will provide tools that empower students to measure otherwise invisible aspects of their surroundings, such as fine particulates in the air and dissolved solids in water.
Teacher training will be developed and provided by the CREATE Lab Satellites, including West Liberty University and Marshall University’s June Harless Center for Rural Educational Research and Development, as well as through Intermediate Unit 1 in Coal Center, Pennsylvania, and Regional Educational Service Area (RESA) 3 in Dunbar, West Virginia.
The project will develop curriculum and classroom kits for inquiry-based learning, with both indoor and outdoor activities. Kits will include technology from the CREATE Lab and the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program that will be available through a lending library for schools teachers and students.
“Students perform genuine science and not worksheets that are discarded after completion,” said Rick Sharpe, an earth science teacher at Huntington High School and a certified GLOBE trainer. “Students are more engaged because the learning is hands‐on and relevant.”
The project is part of a larger effort of the Robotics Institute’s CREATE Lab at the CMU School of Computer Science to push for environmental education through technology innovation and social empowerment.
The CREATE Lab Satellite Network engages educators and local communities in the development and dissemination of cutting edge technologies, and innovative approaches to learning and teaching.
The Satellite Network is a partnership of CREATE Lab with four colleges of education (Marshall, West Liberty, Carlow and West Virginia universities), Penn State New Kensington, and ASSET STEM Education.
For more information or to learn how to get involved, contact Ryan Hoffman, the Nearby Nature project coordinator, at ryan@cmucreatelab.org.
