GEOSPATIAL INSTITUTE FOR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS IN CLIMATE CHANGE – A SOUTH CAROLINA SPACE GRANT WORKFORCE EDUCATION AND PREPARATION PROGRAM

The Geospatial Institute for Students and Teachers in Climate Change program at the College of Charleston was designed to addresses NASA’s workforce development goals through an investigative, collaborative and educational approach examining southeastern climate change impacts. The Institute served as an immersive and integrated multidisciplinary program linking students with research faculty mentors and k-12 teachers from multiple institutions in South Carolina. The program focused on the integration of GIS and remote sensing technologies for climate change research. The lessons learned from this program will be presented along with the teaching tips and pitfalls of research based education.

Undergraduate and graduate students were paired with k-12 teachers and were then chosen by a faculty research mentor to participate as part of multi-disciplinary research teams. The eight week summer program involved a three week intensive classroom education section on climate change science, GIS and remote sensing as it applies to data acquisition and analysis. Research teams spent five weeks performing hands on research with their NASA funded faculty research mentors. The applied geospatial science and research methods used in the three week classroom experience became the platform that all of the research teams used to integrate and disseminate their investigations. The k-12 educators worked with the research students in developing curriculum around the research topics that would integrate within SC state standards.