Greening STEM In Action

The following case studies feature a variety of Greening STEM projects. Each case study is designed to highlight how educator teams have successfully implemented project-based, place-based, student-driven outdoor learning in different and unique contexts.

McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area

This case study highlights the Greening STEM demonstration project sponsored by the Bureau of Land Management. The purpose of the Greening STEM demonstration project was to provide guidance, support, and resources for BLM field sites and their partners to develop and implement Greening STEM education programs that promote conservation, stewardship, and access to BLM lands, equip educators with tools to enhance classroom learning, and expose under-resourced and under-represented students to natural resource careers.

Ewa Forest Reserve

This case study highlights the Greening STEM demonstration project sponsored by the USDA Forest Service. The purpose of the Greening STEM demonstration project is to provide guidance, support, and resources for USDA Forest Service field sites and their partners to develop and implement Greening STEM education programs that promote conservation, stewardship, and access to USDA Forest Service lands; equip educators with tools to enhance classroom learning; and expose under-resourced and under-represented students to natural resource careers.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Students investigate impacts of acid deposition and air pollution at Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The park staff, in conjunction with local teachers, designed the community-science projects to provide the park with long-term monitoring information. In this video, a National Park Service Ranger speaks about the value of hands-on engagement citizen science requires.

As part of the program’s STEM objectives students learned how to utilize various forms of technology to collect data while in the park. The projects included monitoring: water quality, lichens, salamanders, terrestrial invertebrates and conducting ozone bio-monitoring. Each data set was then entered into corresponding long-term monitoring databases housed on the Hands on the Land website.

Visual Aids

Saguaro National Monument

Students assist the park in finding five species of small carnivores not documented in ten years at Saguaro National Monument.

During the project, classes were divided into research teams and assigned a lost species. Students set cameras in the park and at school, to collect data that would help determine management strategies at the park. In this video, an NPS Ranger describes the history of community science at Saguaro national park.