LB 8-75 - Building the San Francisco Bay Research Coordination Network for Student Opportunities in Avian Research (SOAR) to enhance STEM education

Background/Question/Methods:

The Student Opportunities in Avian Research (SOAR) network is a new and growing collaboration between two research and education institutions (Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve (JRBP) and the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory (SFBBO)) and several colleges, universities, and NGOs in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. The mission of this project coalesced around the manifest need to help learners from diverse backgrounds build their skills and confidence in safe outdoor spaces in a way that will highlight and strengthen their connections to each other and the natural world. SOAR has three overarching goals: (1) provide experiential and inquiry-based learning centered on ornithological research that incorporates field settings (especially JRBP and SFBBO’s Coyote Creek Field Station); (2) involve students in real-world science from hypothesis development to data collection and analysis to data-based debate and presentations; and (3) provide these STEM opportunities with a focus on enhancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Meeting these goals will expand career options for students, help diversify the face of environmental stewardship, and build community and collaboration among researchers, educators, and students in our region.

Results/Conclusions:

From Fall 2020-Fall 2021, the incubator SOAR team brought faculty, students, and volunteers together in a workshop series to design a learning and research program focused on study of birds and their habitats. Our research network grew to 27 people, across two community colleges, two private universities, two public universities, three NGOs, and a museum. After defining overall goals for the RCN, we developed a logic model to guide activities, and identified three unifying research questions, such as study of bird population dynamics in this part of the Pacific Flyway. During the incubator phase, seven education modules were prototyped, ranging from observing bird behavior in lower-division courses to dataset crunching and genomic analyses in upper-division courses. Community outreach was facilitated with the launch of our website, and a student internship program was piloted; our full NSF RCN-UBE proposal was submitted January 2022. New courses/modules continue to be developed, research collaborations between different institutions have blossomed, and students from the 2021 pilot programs have presented research at scientific conferences. With SOAR, we aspire to deepen our collaborative relationships as we use our field-based inquiry approach as a vehicle for enhancing ecological and ornithological understanding among students from a diversity of backgrounds.