CRDG continued its work with the National Science Foundation-funded GK-12 project this year with 11 fellows working in 10 schools throughout the state. This partnership with Ecology Evolution and Conservation Biology (EECB) program at UH Mānoa works to upgrade fellows’ communication skills, provide teachers with content knowledge about cutting-edge research on Hawai‘i’s unique environment, and reduce the time between the generation of new scientific knowledge and its impact on student learning. CRDG provides the education component of the fellows’ preparation, teaching them how to engage students and teachers in inquiry investigations related to their research.
Among this year’s fellows are Aaron Hebshi, working with several schools on Kaua‘i to monitor wedgetail shearwater colonies, Kanesa Duncan, working with students at Castle High School while conducting research on hammerhead shark bioenergetics at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology, and Chela Zabin, working with students at ELS to catalog and monitor intertidal biodiversity.