Education

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Bringing Hands-On Science Education To Your Living Room

Friday, October 2nd, 2020

by Isabella Eclipse

Young boy standing beside hand-drawn river ottre poster.

Charlie Schmidt, a student in SERC’s virtual river otter class, poses with his poster presentation. (Photo courtesy of the Schmidt Family)

In spring, the SERC campus comes alive. Snow thaws, peeper frogs start calling, and troops of schoolchildren descend on campus to get their hands dirty and experience science in the field. For some, this could be the first time they’ve seen the Chesapeake Bay, walked through a forest or spent time in nature.

This year, the pandemic forced schools to close and SERC had to cancel all its spring and summer programs. However, thanks to the efforts of the SERC education team, the pandemic hasn’t stopped science education, just changed it. Karen McDonald, SERC’s education specialist, is working with her staff, interns and a dedicated volunteer team to develop virtual programs that bring SERC science into the homes of eager learners, from elementary students to adults.

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Sharks Debut on SERC Field Trip Menu

Friday, July 12th, 2019

by Kristen Minogue

Woman standing with stuffed shark, holding out plastic bits.

SERC education coordinator Karen McDonald shows the contents in a stuffed shark stomach: bits of bone, a toy turtle and plastic. (Credit: Kristen Minogue/SERC)

Move over, blue crabs. There’s a new predator in the education department. Sharks are making waves as the latest addition to field trips and engineering programs at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC).

This spring, SERC added sharks as another station in its “Shoreline Connections” and “Exploring Nature” field trips. The education staff also created a day-long program that lets students think like scientists by planning a shark tagging expedition and designing their own shark tags.

“Most of the students and teachers and even parents don’t realize that there are sharks and rays in the Chesapeake Bay,” said Karen McDonald, director of SERC’s education center. “So this is new to them. And typically the organisms are vilified. So this is a chance for us to show their importance in the ecosystem.” Click to continue »

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High School Students Program Robot to Help Environmental Literacy

Monday, May 6th, 2019

by Stephanie Fox

Standing in a nearly empty classroom, three students crowded around a massive cardboard box, removing padding and clearing the way for the robot inside. Within minutes, they had extracted and turned on the robot, whose abilities they will test and manipulate this spring.

A high school boy examines a white robot

Joe Lewis turns Pepper on for the first time since removing it from the box. (Stephanie Fox/Northwestern University)

South River High School juniors John Hair, Jacob Haley and Joe Lewis partnered with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) to develop a program for the robot that improves environmental literacy.

The robot they’re programming is just one of 12 “Pepper” robots SoftBank Robotics donated to the Smithsonian in February 2018.

“It was a pilot project trying to see if these Pepper robots could be used in an educational museum or research setting,” said Cosette Larash, a public engagement program assistant at SERC. Click to continue »

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Volunteer Spotlight: Bruce Birdsell, Educator For All Ages

Monday, November 19th, 2018

by Sara Richmond

Volunteers Bruce Birdsell (right) and Joe Hasuly teach students how to seine for fish in the Rhode River.
(Credit: SERC)

When Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) volunteer Bruce Birdsell was retiring, he attended a SERC Open House and learned about volunteer opportunities. Eventually, he signed on with SERC’s education program, where he has been a volunteer for the past six years.

According to Bruce, volunteering aided the transition into retirement. In addition to helping fill a newly open schedule, it was refreshing to work outdoors after a career in corporate management.

As an education volunteer, Bruce assists with several activities in the Shorelines Connections program, a field trip for third- through 12^th-graders. This program gives students hands-on experience in watershed modeling, exploring oyster reefs, using seining nets to catch fish and invertebrates, and examining plankton under microscopes. He also leads canoe trips, guiding students along Muddy Creek and the Rhode River as they look for wildlife and discuss SERC research.

“The real reward is when you get the ‘aha moment’ from the kids,” he says. When this happens, their excitement over seining or other activities becomes visible. “You can see in their reaction that a lightbulb has gone off.” Click to continue »

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Student Spotlight: Not Your Average High School Science Experiment

Monday, October 29th, 2018

by Anika Mittu, student contributor

Girl giving two thumbs up in front of an orchid poster.

High school sophomore Nia Zagami and her classmates collected data on conserving threatened pink pink orchids, which brought her in front of an audience of scientists at the Native Orchid Conference this year. (Credit: Tony Zagami)

While preparing two students to speak at the 2018 Native Orchid Conference held at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center this summer, citizen science coordinator Alison Cawood assured them that their presentation on pine pink orchids would be low stress.

Sitting in the back of the conference room and smoothing over their dresses, the students felt otherwise.

“I feared that I would not be smart enough to share the data, and that I would mess up or look clueless,” said Nia Zagami, a sophomore at Sherwood High School and presenter at the conference. “Knowing that I was just a high schooler who was expected to speak in front of scientists and orchid enthusiasts really made me nervous.”

The nerves didn’t fade until Zagami, joined by fellow Sherwood sophomore and presentation collaborator Sudha Sudhaker, walked to the front of the conference room and adjusted her microphone multiple times. And then, the pair eased into their normal student voices to explain their own data and what citizen science means to them. An audience of blank stares began grinning.

Zagami and Sudhaker had recently finished their second semester of Honors Biology under teacher Laura Dinerman. Although Honors Biology is a common science course for underclassmen at Sherwood, Dinerman’s 60 students taking the course during spring 2018 did something decidedly less common: a professional conservation experiment. Dinerman’s class measured the growth of the pine pink orchid (Bletia purpurea). Though common in the tropics, in the continental U.S. the pine pink orchid grows only in Florida, where it’s threatened. The students grew the orchids under different soil nutrient conditions (fungi, fertilizer or unchanged soil) in their classroom, as part of a citizen science project led by the Smithsonian.

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“Orchids In Classrooms” Turns Sixth-Graders Into Citizen Scientists

Monday, July 9th, 2018

By Hannah-Marie Garcia, science writing intern

Think back to your early childhood science classes. Was there
ever a time you had to watch a plant grow? Your first natural sciences teacher may have used plant growth to explain basic concepts of plant biology. The process is a rewarding learning experience for students to observe their hard work pay off as those first few leaves sprout from the soil.

Walker Mill Middle School sixth-grade students and their orchid experiments.
(Credit: Hannah-Marie Garcia/SERC)

Now, imagine the work you did was part of a larger scientific project, with real-world applications. That is exactly what four sixth-grade classes are doing this year at Walker Mill Middle School. Located in a Capitol Heights neighborhood of the Prince George’s County school system, Walker Mill is one of seven schools in the Maryland area working with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) on a project called “Orchids in Classrooms.”

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Meet Pepper, The Android Docent

Tuesday, July 3rd, 2018

by Kristen Minogue

Pepper close up, with blue eyes and tablet displaying options (Tell a Story, Do Something Fun and Need Information) Don’t panic. The new robot greeting visitors at the Reed Education Center isn’t about to stage a technological coup over the SERC campus. But it can pose for selfies, tell people about SERC programs and break out a dance move or two.

The robot goes by the name Pepper. Technically, Pepper has no gender, though most visitors—and a few staff—have taken to calling the robot “she” by default. The Smithsonian received a team of Pepper robots in February from SoftBank Robotics, to test out in their museums and other programs. Two Peppers went to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), where staff and students are programming them to interact with the public. Click to continue »

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Volunteer Spotlight: Steve Myers

Tuesday, October 24th, 2017

SERC volunteer Steve Myers sits at the SERC seining beach, where students from all over the Chesapeake wade into the water to search for fish. (Credit: Sara Richmond)

by Sara Richmond

After Steve Myers retired from a nearly 40-year career in information technology, he decided to try something different. Over the last two years, that “something different” has included teaching students how to use seining nets and paddle canoes, measuring trees at a stream restoration site, banding ospreys, and monitoring mangroves as a citizen science and education volunteer at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC).

With SERC’s education program, Steve leads field trips with visiting students. “One of my favorite parts of volunteering is seeing the reaction on the kids’ faces when they experience something they’ve never done before, especially kids who have grown up in the city,” he says. “Seeing them hold a fish or a crab for a first time—that’s kind of neat.” Occasionally, the students also spot water snakes passing by the seining beach. Steve says some of the kids are tentative about being in the water when snakes are around, but they quickly learn that the snakes won’t bother them. Last year, students named one of the frequently visiting snakes “Bob.” Click to continue »

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Volunteer Spotlight: Dave Norman

Tuesday, April 11th, 2017

by Sara Richmond

SERC citizen scientist Dave Norman stands beside a collection of samples from the bottom of Chesapeake Bay. (Sara Richmond)

SERC citizen scientist Dave Norman stands beside a collection of sediment samples from the bottom of Chesapeake Bay. (Sara Richmond)

Dave Norman’s first visit to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) wasn’t to help with a field trip or assist researchers in the crab lab, as he has done for the past two years. In fact, he knew very little about SERC, but was competing in a triathlon on its campus. The experience stuck with him, and when he retired a year later, he contacted SERC to ask how he could get involved as a volunteer.

The volunteer program offered a mix of science and education opportunities that turned out to be a perfect fit for Dave. He says he was part of the “Jacques Cousteau generation,” who grew up with the explorer’s books and movies, and eventually started college with plans to become a marine biologist. Those plans changed—he would practice law for 30 years before becoming a seventh-grade math teacher—but when he retired, his love of the water brought him back to the field. Click to continue »

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Volunteer Spotlight: Lenore Naranjo

Thursday, January 26th, 2017

Lenore and Dan in the SERC education center.

Lenore Naranjo celebrates 10 years of volunteer, with SERC volunteer coordinator Dan Gustafson. (SERC)

by Sara Richmond, communications volunteer

In 2016, nearly 5,000 students and other visitors learned about the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem firsthand through education programs at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). They ventured on hikes and canoe trips, hauled in fish and invertebrates with seining nets, and studied the anatomy of blue crabs. SERC’s education programs are possible through the help of dozens of volunteers who lead field trips and assist behind the scenes. In the coming months, we’ll highlight the work of some of these volunteers in the SERC newsletter and on our blog.

Lenore Naranjo has been volunteering with SERC for over 13 years. After starting as a volunteer in SERC’s canopy labs, she began working with the education program, leading field study groups that give children a hands-on approach to a variety of marine habitats.

“We set up baskets with oysters, and they stay sitting on the bottom of the river through spring, summer, and fall, where they act as a habitat for fish and small critters,” she explains. During field trips, she pulls the baskets from the river bed and sets them in a tray of water so children can explore the baskets’ contents. “Some kids are very hesitant and don’t want to put their hands in something unfamiliar. But then they watch their friends who aren’t hesitant, and the next thing you know, they’re in there too, pulling out fish and crabs.”

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