BIORETS

The National Science Foundation has awarded the Bishop Museum and partners in the Hawaiʻi Department of Education (HDOE), ʻIolani’s Community Science program, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa a three-year BIORETS Site award. This BIORETS Site (Research Experiences for Advancing Curriculum on Hawaiian Ecosystem Sciences) award to Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii will support the training of eight teachers each year for seven weeks during the summer and at least two weeks during the academic year.

Cookeconcha hystricella, endemic to Oahu, critically endangered. Photo: Dylan Ressler
Laminella sanguinea, endemic to Oahu, critically endangered. Photo: Ken Hayes
Representative specimens within the Bishop Museum Malacology Collection
Auriculella turritella, endemic to Oahu, vulnerable. Photo: Norine Yeung
A promotional poster for "BIORETS REACHES," highlighting research experiences for advancing Hawaiian ecosystem science curriculum. Logos of various partner organizations are displayed at the bottom.

Download our Biorets Flyer to learn more!

Meet our 2024 Teacher Cohort

BIORETS and addressing shortfalls

Two major impediments to slowing the escalating biodiversity crisis are knowledge shortfalls (e.g., Linnean, Wallacean, Hutchinsonian, and Eltonian) and a lack of resource capacity (financial and human). Effective conservation suffers from large, diverse knowledge gaps that prevent the field from moving beyond merely keeping species from going extinct and toward science-based actions that inform ecosystem restoration and return population to viable levels. Our research aims to address several biodiversity knowledge gaps and capacity shortfalls through immersive research, professional development, and pedagogical training at all levels of the educational pipeline: K-12 – postdoctoral.

Early engagement of students in authentic and locally relevant STEM research-based curriculum increases retention in STEM fields and helps build the human resource capacity needed for a globally trained and locally engaged science workforce. Teachers are responsible for opening educational pipelines and key to building capacity, but too few K-12 science teachers have opportunities to engage with authentic research experiences.

Leveraging ongoing research into land snail conservation, ecology, genomics, taxonomy, and an established teacher training program will provide in-depth, regionally relevant, and immediately translatable research experiences for 18 teachers over three years. REACHES will target teachers from schools serving high percentages of students from PEERs groups (People excluded because of their ethnicity or race) and incorporate students from the UH Mānoa REU and a graduate student for research experiences and curriculum development training with teachers. The seven weeks includes 6-8 field days, 5-10 days of captive rearing training, and hands-on lab research experience. Participants also participate in workshops, including cultural orientation, museum studies, research methodologies, proposal writing, genomics, bioinformatics, community ecology, and curriculum development.

In the summer, teachers will work with scientists to develop a year-long project with captive reared Hawaiian land snails to answer questions from four core research objectives: 1) Develop life history data for endangered Hawaiian snails, 2) Assess snail influence on phyllosphere communities, 3) Characterize microbiome communities in captively reared snail chambers, and 4) Evaluate snail survivorship when fed different diets. Using this research as a foundation, teachers will develop novel curriculum to teach fundamental concepts in ecology, conservation, microbiology, evolution, and Hawaiian ecosystem functions with an emphasis on place-based, relevant examples that will promote retention of students in STEM fields. The authentic, research based curriculum experiences will help increase science literacy for students and teachers, and build a well trained global workforce engaged in helping address locally relevant environmental issues for a sustainable future.

Research experiences will be complemented with multiple workshops, professional development activities, and networking opportunities.

Teachers accepted to the program will receive a stipend for the seven-week summer program. One-third of the stipend will be distributed at the start of the summer program, and another third at the end of the summer, with the final distribution at the conclusion of the year-long program. Teachers will also receive funding for research and classroom support throughout the year. We will be recruiting highly motivated STEM teachers from Hawaiʻi’s public and charter schools , and community colleges across all islands, especially those teaching STEM at schools serving substantial populations of persons excluded because of their race or ethnicity and other underrepresented minorities. Teachers should be eager to translate their research experiences into curricular advancement through teaching modules shared with other teachers across the state. These modules should help teachers enrich the learning environment, deepen student science proficiency and engagement in STEM classes, and inspire students to pursue STEM careers, particularly in biology and conservation related disciplines.

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OPEN DAILY 9 AM – 5 PM

1525 BERNICE STREET
HONOLULU, HAWAI’I 96817

OPEN DAILY 9 AM – 5 PM

1525 BERNICE STREET
HONOLULU, HAWAI’I 96817

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