The Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies offers opportunities for K-12 teachers to carry out independent research in ecology during the summer and into the following school year. Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Fellows join the unique Cary Institute research and education community to carry out cutting-edge investigations of their own design, working closely with a mentor scientist. The program emphasizes the community nature of research and education. Fellows have the opportunity to participate in the activities of the Cary Institute's Research Experiences for Undergraduate Program, including seminars, workshops, a case study of a regional environmental issue, and a career forum.

Research Experiences for Teachers participants dedicate the equivalent of 7 weeks. The schedule is flexible to accommodate school calendars and other summer activities. There is a $6,600 stipend for the full program, including an expense budget of $1,000 and a modest travel budget to use in consultation with the mentors and project staff. Inexpensive on site housing is available if needed.

Projects for 2008:

• Hudson River wetlands and tributaries. Dr. Stuart E.G. Findlay, mentor.
  
  The Hudson River has a large number of diverse tidal wetlands along its shores and important vegetated shallow areas. In many cases tributaries deliver their loads of nutrients and sediment into these wetlands and shallows. Although a few sites and streams have been studied extensively there is not a general understanding of how these marshes and littoral areas contribute to food webs, serve as habitat or modify water chemistry. Simple procedures for determining some of these functions could be applied to a range of sites. Or, a teacher might study sediment yields during storm events in various streams differing in land-cover. Aside from the direct benefits of carrying out the field work and lab analyses the teacher could develop materials for the classroom related to water cycle, run-off relationships, frequency of storm events, etc. Some of these materials would be direct products of the research (e.g., hydrographs from different streams) while others could use Web resources such as USGS data on water yield and suspended sediment concentrations.
  
  
• Investigating people's ideas about ecosystems Dr. Alan R. Berkowitz, mentor.
  
  Understanding ecosystems is increasingly vital for decision making and citizenship, yet ecosystem literacy still eludes students, educators and the public. The Cary Institute's Ecosystem Literacy Initiative is developing a "language" of ecosystems for the public - a way of thinking about and understanding the ecosystems we depend upon - that people can use in their day to day lives. To help guide this effort, we are studying how people think about and come to understand ecosystems, with two projects for potential exploration by a Research Experiences for Teachers Fellow. In the Earthworms and Ecosystems project, we are developing an educational web-based resource about the ecological roles of worms. The goal is to build on the public's general interest in earthworms and willingness to think about their effects on ecosystems. Research can be designed by the teacher to reveal what different groups of students and/or teachers know, or think they know, about the ecology of earthworms and to discover where their understandings came from. In the Webs on the Web project, Cary Institute scientists and educators are working with local teachers to build a web-based series of "lessons" that will take students along a learning progression towards a sophisticated understanding of how food webs function in the real world. Research associated with this project can explore the different ways students think about and can conceptualize increasingly complex interactions between species in space and time. The RET Fellows will have access to a diversity of groups for interviews, focus group discussions and/or surveys. This research will make a useful contribution to our understanding of how people develop ideas about ecosystems, and will give the Fellow experience in social science research linked to biological inquiry.

For more information contact:

Alan R. Berkowitz, Ph.D.
Head of Education
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
PO Box R (2917 Sharon Turnpike)
Millbrook, NY 12545
Phone: (845) 677-7600 ext. 311 Fax: (845) 677-6455
Email: berkowitza@ecostudies.org

NOTE: Our ability to run the RET program each year is contingent upon funding. Check back to this webpage for the status of the program in 2009 and beyond.