The Alabama Water Institute recently participated in the Scientific Research and Education Network, or SciREN.
Marine science graduate students created SciREN to share their research with school children. Since its founding, the network has spread to multiple institutions and states, including The University of Alabama.
SciREN converts the work of researchers into K-12 lesson plans that local teachers can utilize. AWI’s table featured a lesson plan centered around watershed science for middle schoolers, created by Zach Krauss, AWI’s director of research institute communications. AWI-affiliated faculty, Dr. Emily Elliot, shared a lesson about rising sea levels.
“This networking event is a wonderful way to provide educators with tools and lesson plans they can use in their classrooms. What I like about SciREN is that it is not taking the research and forcing it onto educators to figure out and apply on their own,” said Lanna Nations, AWI’s director of education and outreach. “There’s a whole conversation between the educators and the researchers beforehand to determine what the needs in the classroom truly are, and then our researchers work to apply what they’ve learned through those conversations and provide something tangible for students.”
The event began with a workshop to translate research to a K-12 student audience. Participants then had the option to work alone or in teams to create the plan. Finally, educators from across the state visited to learn more about the research and created lesson plans.