A Framework for NEON Education and Public Engagement

NEON Education is the interface between scientific data and user communities. In this capacity, NEON Education provides tools and facilitates learning experiences that engage users with different levels of knowledge, experience and skills. These tools and learning experiences are aimed at awareness, mastery and leadership levels (see Figure). This approach enables users to self-define their interests and abilities regardless of their affiliations (i.e., K-12 teacher, citizen scientist, family).

NEON will serve as a model for transforming science education from passively disseminating information to actively engaging learners in “doing science.” As individuals take more responsibility for their own learning, it is critical that NEON facilitate ample free-choice learning opportunities where individuals can easily access, use and contribute to NEON products to meet their needs and interests. NEON Education, in partnership with stakeholder communities, will employ a variety of approaches and tools to engage individuals in the scientific process, including social media, online learning modules, citizen science projects, workshops, and informal education programs.

Planned Education Capabilities

NEON will include numerous physical and virtual capabilities to enable educational and public use of the facility, including:

• A citizen science program and web portal to increase awareness and educate citizen scientists about the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on continental-scale ecological processes as well as expand NEON data collection capacity by enabling laypersons to collect, enter, analyze and visualize geographically distributed data;
  
• A central web portal to introduce users to NEON and provide online learning experiences, including tailored access to real data, focused on the fundamental ecological concepts associated with NEON;
  
• A web portal that provides tools for decision makers to use NEON data to make scientifically-based decisions related to climate change;
  
• A web portal that provides (1) content and learning experiences for educators to master continental-scale ecological concepts, and (2) activity modules, tools and resources to support educators as they engage students in ecological learning experiences using NEON data;
  
• Professional development opportunities to prepare educators to use NEON data and Education tools, provide opportunities for educators to contribute to Education product development (i.e., activity modules for web portal), and facilitate community collaboration and investment in effective ecology education;
  
• Research and internship opportunities for undergraduates to prepare future generations of ecological scientists and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals to use NEON and other continental-scale data, and broaden participation in STEM experiences by traditionally under-represented groups;
  
• Museum projects that are designed to increase public awareness of continental-scale ecological issues, educate visitors about scientific strategies for researching and forecasting ecological change, and engage visitors in scientific discovery using sensors, computer modules and other NEON-inspired tools;
  
• Workshops, seminars and courses to provide training and learning experiences for individuals to more effectively use and contribute to NEON data, tools and learning experiences;
  
• A NEON User Data Base to track and better understand the NEON user community, allow for ongoing assessment of NEON data and educational products, and enable educational research.

Partnerships

Successful implementation of NEON products depends on NEON’s ability to develop strong partnerships. The framework for developing NEON Education products requires significant input and collaboration with stakeholder and user communities. NEON will invest considerable effort up front in building partnerships with many complementary organizations and groups (including professional societies, federal and state agencies, formal and informal educational institutions, innovative technology developers, NSF biological synthesis centers, and community organizations) to promote broad ecological literacy and the education of the next generation of environmental scientists. With active input from partners, NEON Education can define the best opportunities and resources available and enable partners to define the programs and products that most effectively use NEON resources.