EEA's Eco-Engineering Challenges

Research shows that students who are least likely to major or become employed in STEM fields - girls (at an intersection with children of color) - are more engaged and likely to persist in STEM learning that is focused on solutions to environmental or social problems, rather than robotics, rocketry, or technological gadgets for the consumer market. 

The problem statement:

How can we increase gender equity in the STEM field by creating learning activities that are authentic, engaging, and relevant for girls, causing them to persist in STEM learning and careers?

Here are the key research findings that informed the design of EEA's EcoEngineering Challenges, which include outdoor learning and field studies; solving of authentic, local environmental problems; and use of the iterative design process in STEM learning units that can be taught in standards-based K-12 STEM or science classrooms:

"Girls and women are systemically tracked away from science and math throughout their education, limiting their access, preparation, and opportunities to go into these fields as adults. Women make up only 28% of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and men vastly outnumber women majoring in most STEM fields in college. The gender gaps are particularly high in some of the fastest-growing and highest-paid jobs of the future, like computer science and engineering."            Closing the STEM Gap - American Association of University Womenhttps://www.aauw.org/resources...

At early ages, girls and children of color are highly interested in STEM learning, though less well-represented in the STEM field as they age. STEM projects that focus on real-world environmental and social justice outcomes engage and retain girls and children of color in STEM learning. 
Ebony McGee, "The Equity Ethic: Black and Latinx Students Re-engineer their Careers toward Justice," 2018.

Children of color and all girls are underrepresented in STEM college majors and career paths. Yet "girls and underrepresented youth feel strongly about creating impact to serve their communities and the wider world. This means that recruiting should focus on marketing the impact that girls can have through STEM first, with less focus on gadgets and technical toys." Sammet, K. & Kekelis, L., 2016. Changing the Game for Girls in STEM: Findings on High Impact Programs and System-Building Strategies

Misalignment between learners' lived experiences and how environmental education is taught can result in passivity and detachment. 
Albert Zyer and Elin Kelsey, "Environmental Education in a Cultural Context," International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education (pp.206-212), 2013.

Girls who spent just 6-10 days learning outside were more likely to keep their science grades up and understand how science works than girls who learned indoors.   Kathryn T. Stevenson, Rachel E. Szczytko, Sarah J. Carrier & M. Nils Peterson (2021) How outdoor science education can help girls stay engaged with science, International Journal of Science Education

Project-based learning (PBL) can positively affect attitudes; foster competence. Students said PBL helped them gain confidence solving problems and contributed to "permanent learning."  Murat Ginc, "The Project-based Learning Approach in Environmental Education," International Research in Geographical & Environmental Education 24:105-117, Dec 2014

Childhood experiences exploring "wild" nature as well as hiking, camping, hunting and gardening, had the highest correlation to pro-environmental behaviors and attitudes in adulthood. School-based environmental education had no correlation to pro-environmental attitudes or behaviors.
Nancy Wells and Kristi Lekies, "Nature and the Lifecourse: Pathways from Childhood Nature Experiences to Adult Environmentalism" 2006.

There is more than one path to becoming an adult who cares about the environment. Childhood exposure to toxins, hazardous waste dumps, and pollution near home - or hope for environmental justice - can inspire pro-environmental behaviors and attitudes.
from Dorceta Taylor's seminal research in Race, Class, Gender and Environmentalism  

Students who learn about environmental problems - while being given a chance to contribute to their solutions - are less likely to become depressed about the state of the world and subsequently disengaged. Bite-sized, local problems can provide authentic, graduated challenges that enable girls to gain STEM skills and confidence in problem-solving (self-efficacy) contributing to their belief that they can make a difference in the world. 

The Eco-Engineering Challenges curriculum is a set of learning experiences designed to combine the iterative design process - which is central to STEM learning - with solving of real-world, environmental problems, while using field studies and outdoor learning to focus on local relevance and emphasize authenticity. This approach is intended to attract and keep girls engaged in STEM as students, as lifelong learners (whether or not they major in a STEM field in college), and/or as adults who choose STEM careers or become STEM educators. 

The pilot set of EcoEngineering Challenges will be expanded to include additional challenges that relate to real-world problems and are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards at various grade levels. The Challenges will be available to any K-12 or non-formal educator for free, and offer a more engaging and innovative way to teach required standards, rather than merely extra-curricular activities.

Equally as important as effective, innovative free curriculum is teacher preparation. Engaging students outdoors and facilitating project-based STEM learning is not an intuitive process, nor is it something that most education majors are exposed to in college. And centering girls in real-world problem solving related to environmental and social justice is not a traditional STEM learning approach. 

Professional development will focus on translating research on the STEM gender gap into practice. Teachers who participate in the EcoEngineering Challenges workshops and online, self-paced courses will gain skills, tools and instructional strategies for engaging girls in ways that are place-based, relevant, and compelling. 

There are four primary target populations for our work, which is based on research referenced above: 

1. Girls, who are less likely than boys to persist in STEM studies and careers
2. Children of color - both boys and girls - who are similarly impacted in terms of lack of persistence in STEM studies and careers
3. Teachers and non-formal educators who have opportunities to engage students in Eco-Engineering Challenges, thereby improving their chances of success and their engagement in STEM studies and careers 
4. Society and the planet as a whole, which are deprived of the innovative solutions that girls can bring to the table when engaged meaningfully in STEM challenges that matter to them

All of the target populations will partner with us to design and refine the expansion and scaling of EcoEngineering Challenges through evaluations, surveys, and focus groups. Funds will be sought to provide incentives for respondents to participate in critiquing the EcoEngineering Challenges and their experiences with implementation.

The anticipated impacts of project on these target populations include the following:

• Girls will become more engaged and persistent STEM learners, who are more confident of their abilities to make a difference in solving real world problems they care about
• Children of color - who face similar equity gaps as girls in general - will experience similar increases in STEM learning engagement and persistence
• Teachers will improve their skills in facilitating student-directed learning; reduce unconscious bias; understand research findings regarding the gender gap in STEM; become experienced in drawing on student "funds of knowledge," cultural perspectives, and lived experiences as valuable sources of evidence and inspiration for problem-solving
• Society and the planet will benefit from increased involvement of girls and women in STEM fields - whether as learners, professionals, or community members who are effective in analyzing impacts and considering solutions to local environmental and social justice problems

As the backbone organization for environmental and outdoor learning in Georgia, EEA has internal leadership and external partnerships with under-represented communities and populations relevant to solving the STEM equity gap. 

EEA is also positioned to implement the EcoEngineering Challenges solution because of these experiences: 

• convenes BIPOC-led organizations through the Beloved Outdoor Learning Directorate (BOLD) and find grant funds for collaborative projects,
• successfully advocates for state funds for schools and environmental non-profits, 
• conducts an annual "landscape analysis" survey and provides the results through free tools including a dashboard and interactive map that identifies assets and gaps in opportunities throughout the state, 
• hosts an environmental education CEO Roundtable where input about statewide priorities is solicited, 
• serves as a member organization of the Georgia Science Teachers Association and Georgia Science Supervisors Association, 
• administers grants for schools and non-profit educational organizations to get students involved in outdoor learning real-world problem solving,
• operates a nationally-accredited certification program for educators on environmental and outdoor learning,
• delivers professional learning to school districts, non-profit organizations, and public agencies,
• is designated as the only Guidelines for Excellence Training Institute in GA,
• has earned the trust of K-12 and non-formal educators throughout the state, 
• created the initial EcoEngineering Challenges in response to research on the gender gap in STEM learning and careers

In the past 2 years, EEA has created an initial collection of EcoEngineering Challenges and piloted them in Georgia:

• Dalton City School District: 25 ms and hs teachers (3125+ students)
• Gwinnett County Schools: 40 elem teachers (1000+ students)
• Fulton County Schools: 25 elem teachers (625 students)
• Atlanta Public Schools:  20 hs teachers (2500+ students)
• Clayton County Schools: 17 ms and hs teachers (2,125+ students)
• Total: 127 K-12 teachers (9,375 students)

2700 people have visited our web site and explored some of the pilot versions of EcoEngineering Challenges. 

Recently, state environmental education alliances in ten states and a province in Canada, as well as affiliates of the Keep Georgia Beautiful program, have partnered with EEA to access the EcoEngineering Challenges, become trained in their use with girls and children of color, and pilot these learning activities in their areas. 

EEA hopes to become a winner of the MIT Solve Challenge in Gender Equity so that our EcoEngineering Challenges can be refined and scaled for greater impact, by benefitting from:

• a needs assessment of the program, perhaps including focus groups of educators who piloted the program
• partnerships to accelerate and improve our marketing, social media presence, tech platforms build-out and functionality, etc.
• opportunities to learn about effectively scaling up without losing program quality, effectiveness, and personal contact
• coaching for the executive director in navigating and leading the board and advisory groups through organizational change
• participation in a peer-to-peer network 
• raising EEA's profile, credibility, and reputation- resulting in greater access to donations, grants, and needed resources 

The team lead is Executive Director of EEA, who communicates regularly with community leaders in our state and across the country.

Community connections: EEA has invested in strategic partnerships through approaches such as these:

• quarterly convenes a CEO Roundtable of environmental and educational organizations to consider matters of mutual interest 
• collaborates on joint projects and funding proposals
• shares vetted, standards-based resources with educators for free 
• partners with the state to administer grant programs, provide fiscal sponsorships for projects operated by state agencies, etc.
• partners with national and international community science and cultural exchange programs, leading to regular communications with 2000+ classrooms/year (>50,000 students in Canada, the US, and Mexico)
• partnership in a southeastern alliance of similar statewide organizations
• partnership in a North American alliance of similar organizations

We offer a solution to the lack of gender equity in STEM through a) an innovative Eco-Engineering curriculum that focuses on solving authentic environmental and social justice problems, which research shows that girls and children of color find more compelling than robotics and rocketry; and b) professional development for teachers using an online learning management system, which makes teacher training more accessible and scalable than traditional in-person workshops. 

a) Our Eco-Engineering Challenges curriculum is traditional in its use of the iterative design process and innovative by virtue of its focus on local and authentic problems; investigation of observable, real-world phenomena (requiring an outdoor learning component for each challenge); and student-driven solutions that increase confidence in the ability to make a difference in the world. An online platform is leveraged to lead students through the Eco-Engineering Challenges with a storyline that provides relevance and context for the problem to be solved, as well as multiple pathways for customized student learning experiences, and opportunities for student-driven on-the-ground solutions in the schoolyard or community.

b) Professional development, in the past, has largely been delivered through time-consuming workshops offered at certain scheduled "teacher training days" during the school year - but not necessarily when needed. The lack of availability of substitute teachers, which has persisted throughout and after the pandemic, makes in-person workshops less feasible during school hours. And the burden of training during summer vacation, when many teachers have second jobs or child care responsibilities, limits the potential of this approach. But online, on-demand, self-paced training in bite-sized modules is convenient for teachers; can offer a choice of assignments to increase relevance, cultural responsiveness, and engagement; does not require waiting for a scheduled time of year unrelated to need; and can result in earning of micro-credentials that can be "stacked" into specialist certificates.

Together, these innovative approaches to student learning and teacher professional development will result in real world solutions to authentic, local problems and encourage girls (and, coincidentally, children of color) to persist in STEM fields. Instead of planning and building spaghetti towers or coding basketball-dunking robots, students are more likely to be designing and installing rain gardens that restore habitat for urban wildlife or coding underwater devices for filming sources of pollution that disproportionately affect low income black and brown communities. 

Impact Goals for Next Year

1. Build out and expand the Eco-Engineering Challenges, uploading them to the Storylines project-based learning platform

2. Create related professional learning in the form of online course modules for teachers in the Canvas learning management system

3. Conduct pilot training for teachers, obtain feedback from teachers and their students, and adjust the program as needed

Impact Goals for 5 Years

1. Prepare and equip teachers to engage students in Eco-Engineering Challenges

2. Improve students' problem-solving skills, self-efficacy, and belief in their ability to make a difference in the world through completion of Eco-Engineering Challenges

3. Increase the number of girls and children of color who express interest in STEM studies and careers, and persist in them

Quality Education

Target 4.5

By 2030, eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations

Indicators 4.5.1

Parity indices (female/male, rural/urban, bottom/top wealth quintile and others such as disability status, indigenous peoples and conflict-affected, as data become available) for all education indicators on this list that can be disaggregated

_____________

Target 4.7

By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development

Indicators 4.7.1

Extent to which (i) global citizenship education and (ii) education for sustainable development are mainstreamed in (a) national education policies; (b) curricula; (c) teacher education and (d) student assessment

___________

Target 4.c

By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States

Indicators 4.c.1

Proportion of teachers with the minimum required qualifications, by education level

_________

Gender Equality

Target 5.1

End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere

Indicators 5.1.1

Whether or not legal frameworks are in place to promote, enforce and monitor equality and non‑discrimination on the basis of sex

_________

Sustainable Consumption of Natural Resources

Target 12.2

By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources

Indicators 

12.2.1

Material footprint, material footprint per capita, and material footprint per GDP

12.2.2

Domestic material consumption, domestic material consumption per capita, and domestic material consumption per GDP

The Environmental Education Alliance (EEA) is the backbone organization for environmental and outdoor learning in Georgia. EEA envisions a world where every child grows up to be a problem-solver who is connected to nature, knowledgeable about the environment, and empowered to create a just and sustainable future.  

EEA's theory of change is that children cannot be expected to protect the planet before they have a chance to explore, enjoy, and connect with nature. Learning about human impacts on the earth can cause students to become distressed or disengaged. But educators can leverage the power of environmental and outdoor education to spark curiosity, engage children in real-world investigations, and foster problem-solving skills - including STEM design thinking - that provide kids with confidence that they can make a difference in the world. Transformative learning experiences such as these, based on authentic projects and nature connections, can empower children to tackle the environmental challenges of their generation, bringing us closer to a world where people and nature thrive.

Gender equity is a key element in EEA's theory of change. Girls have important perspectives and experiences to bring to environmental and social justice problem-solving, yet their lack of persistence in STEM learning and careers deprives the world of the full effect of the contributions they could make. EcoEngineering Challenges can engage girls in ways that increase the likelihood they will pursue further STEM learning or STEM careers.

EcoEngineering Challenges are based on use of the iterative design process and appropriate technology to solve authentic, place-based environmental problems problems. In the broadest possible sense, technology is the use of science knowledge to serve practical purposes - so applications such as creative upcycling, adaptive re-use, or innovative repair of discarded materials constitutes effective tech-based solutions.

Currently: 1 staff; 2 contractors; numerous board members, advisory groups, volunteers and partners who help organize and present EEA's professional development workshops and courses

2 years

EEA is committed to advancing equity and inclusion in the field of environmental and outdoor education. This includes making outdoor spaces welcoming; creating learning experiences that are culturally sustaining and relevant; and representing diverse perspectives and experts. 

Internally, EEA supports this priority by seeking diverse governing and advisory groups; identifying gaps and needs throughout the state, and providing professional learning for our board, instructors and volunteers; offering a self-paced course on Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion; and regularly convening the BOLD group of environmental education organizations led by people of color.

EEA aspires to provide the Eco-Engineering Challenges curriculum - as well as its related professional development courses for teachers - for free. In the past few years (during the pandemic and beyond) with the rise of standards-based learning, our nation's teachers have become less dependent on textbooks and more dependent on fee-based lesson repositories where educators sell their lessons plans to others. These lessons are neither vetted nor reviewed. This approach disadvantages students in low-income neighborhoods where there is less likely to be funding available for teachers to purchase lessons, and also opens teachers and students up to the possibility of low quality learning materials. 

The revenue model for providing free curriculum and low-cost professional development is realistic because of two key factors:

1. the cost of building out and expanding the curriculum and related training for teachers is front-loaded, and relatively inexpensive to maintain once in place
2. grants are more readily available for one-time development of resources than for operations 

Examples of Grants Received

• The Tides Foundation / Mosaic Momentum initiative for partnering with under-represented communities to advance the field of environmental education
• North American Association for Environmental Education grants for professional development
• National Project for Excellence in Environmental Education grants (4)
• EPA sub-grant for curriculum development of Eco-Engineering Challenges related to Zero Waste
• Pisces Foundation sub-grant for professional development

Examples of Revenue Generated

• Pilot project offering self-paced, online courses with synchronous webinars demonstrated that there is a market for this type of professional development and that individual educators, as well as employers, are willing to pay for inexpensive, on-demand options such as this