Marine ecology as a framework for preparing the next generation of scientific leaders

A dearth of emerging scientific leaders

During this century, the world’s investment in innovation, science, and technology has increased more than investment in any other area. Historically, the United States has been at the forefront of this expansion, with expenditures greater than the next three largest countries combined (National Science Board 2010). Currently, this commitment to science and technology is threatened as an aging workforce is not being replenished. Today, half of the scientific workforce in the United States is over 40 years old. One-quarter of the population is over 50 years old. By age 61, half of all scientists in the United States will no longer work full time but there is not a corresponding increase in degree production to fill future positions (National Science Board 2010). If the United States expects to participate in efforts addressing issues such as climate change, marine resource management, and shrinking energy reserves, more effective strategies are needed to encourage young people to pursue careers in the sciences.

To prepare a scientific workforce, science educators must use new strategies to spark students’ interest in science earlier, hold their interest throughout high school and college, and provide the resources and support they need to prepare for and succeed in college and the workplace. Unfortunately, evidence suggests that the United States is not adequately preparing the majority of its students for postsecondary study and careers in the sciences (National Science Board 2010, OECD 2010).

Scientific content in K–12 education in the United States is often diluted or subsumed in other subjects (Fortner & Mayer 1997) and little opportunity exists for students to connect the material they learn in K–12 science classrooms to larger contexts (Goodenough 2006). In a review of science standards across all 50 states by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, over two-thirds of states received a grade ‘C’ or lower based on the level of clarity, rigor, and connection of individual standards to larger concepts (Finn et al. 2006). As a result, many college students consider science tedious and boring and do not pursue studies past the minimum requirements (Goodenough 2006).

Low performance in science threatens the position of the US in the global economy. Young people in the US perform more poorly on assessments of scientific knowledge compared with students in other countries. For example, the US ranked 17th out of 34 countries in the most recent international comparison of science knowledge among high school students, and had relatively few top performing students and many low performing students (PISA 2009). Overwhelmingly, students in the US are not adequately prepared to pursue college-level work in the sciences during their K–12 education.

Effective strategies to prepare scientific leaders

Fortunately, researchers have identified a number of factors associated with increased student interest and improved student performance in science. These factors include:

Marine ecology as a platform to build our scientific leadership

Ocean science generally, and the marine ecology of the coastal zone in particular, provides an extraordinary vehicle for implementing these strategies to teach science, develop critical skill sets, and equip emerging leaders to face the challenges of tomorrow. Much of this results from the complex and dynamic physical and biological processes of the ocean, but also from the considerable human reliance on and interaction with coastal seas (Talley et al. 2003; Levin & Dayton 2010).

The ocean is a highly dynamic system, operating under forcing from physical to biological processes at a wide variety of spatial and temporal scales. In the coastal ocean, this complexity is compounded, as these forces have both a terrestrial and an aquatic origin. The task of the marine ecologist is to integrate these biotic and abiotic complexities into a predictive, holistic understanding of the ecosystem. Thus, by its very nature, marine ecology provides a platform from which educators can build student understanding of virtually any of the disciplines or sub-disciplines of chemistry, physics, biology, or geology, as well as more broadly honing critical thinking skills.

The intensity with which humans depend upon and interact with the marine ecosystem enhances the ability to use marine ecology as a lens through which to train future leaders. Forty-four percent of the world’s population lives within 100 km of a coastline, and that percentage is increasing annually (http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/es/papers/Coastal_Zone_Pop_Method.pdf). Humans rely on the ocean for transportation, food, and recreation, and interact with the oceans directly (e.g. provision of protein) and indirectly (e.g. global climate change) in countless ways (Costanza et al. 1997; Dayton 1998; Carr et al. 2003). Further, using ocean science as a platform for teaching science capitalizes on the public’s inherent interest in the sea. Engaging students in marine ecology allows educators to involve students more broadly in the interactions between science, policy, and the public on a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Integrating across all of these disciplines requires that students not only develop their scientific skills but also think about policy, community, and leadership, both now and in the future.

Despite these compelling reasons for incorporating ocean science into education, the ocean is largely ignored in K–12 formal and informal curriculum (Cava et al. 2005). If integrated, the study of ocean science provides a compelling forum for students to experience all aspects of science within a locally relevant context, preparing them to pursue careers in a variety of scientific fields.

Case study: a program to build young leaders in marine ecology

The Ocean Discovery Institute (ODI), a non-profit organization based in San Diego, California, USA, has developed Ocean Leaders, a model program that integrates the strategies described above in order to empower young people to pursue higher education and careers in science. Ocean Leaders annually engages middle school, high school, and college age young people in a series of interconnected after-school and summer programs and support services. This initiative offers a pathway for underrepresented students to progress from secondary school through university to careers in science and conservation. Ocean Leaders provides these students with a comprehensive ocean science experience over multiple years. It includes programmatic components and support services to ensure that each student participant has the interest and capabilities to move forward in their education and career.

A critical aspect of Ocean Leaders is an 18-week intensive, research-focused education experience for high school students which takes place in San Diego, California, US, and Bahía de los Angeles, Baja California, Mexico. Students work alongside scientists to conduct marine science-focused field research in Bahía de los Angeles. This area has long been recognized as important for marine ecology research and has recently been declared a biosphere reserve because of its high biodiversity (Case & Cody 1983; Danemann & Ezcurra 2008.

Questions guiding this investigation

Ocean Leaders is in the 5th year of ongoing evaluation and modification. Given the findings to date, we ask what we can learn about empowering youth to pursue careers in the marine sciences. Specifically, how does the program affect participants’ (i) interest in science and (ii) performance in science; and whether and how does this work (iii) contribute to the field of marine ecology?

Program design

Ocean Leaders seeks to engage and empower those underrepresented young people least likely to enter the sciences, including individuals who are of color, are of low socioeconomic status, and/or do not speak English as their first language. Economists have concluded that one of the most promising strategies to increase the size and quality of the scientific workforce in the US is to attract members of these groups (Chantilly 2001; George et al. 2001).

Students in Ocean Leaders spend several weeks in San Diego preparing for an intensive research experience. They study ocean science concepts and develop skills in the classroom, lab, and field. Following this preparation, the students spend 5 weeks at a field research station on the Sea of Cortez in Bahía de los Angeles, where they conduct marine science research projects alongside scientists from universities and government agencies. The students then return to San Diego, where they spend 3 weeks preparing presentations and posters that they present at community and professional scientific forums.

Each year, three major research projects are conducted. During 2010, these included an examination of the effects of wetland plant diversity on faunal community stability in the face of climate change; an analysis of the effectiveness of bycatch-reduction techniques in gillnet fisheries; and a study of the spatial scale and mechanisms of spatial trophic subsidy on food webs (Fig. 1).

In addition to science education experiences, students are provided with academic and personal support services throughout their middle school, high school, and college experiences that help ensure their progress toward post-secondary education and science-based careers. Because students of color from low socioeconomic status communities face multiple barriers, the support structure is extensive and includes services that promote academic success, college preparation, career exploration, and personal success (Fig. 2).

Because of the intensive resources provided to each participant, the program is designed to serve a small number of students and result in highly transformative impacts. A total of 56 students have participated in the Ocean Leaders high school research program during the past 5 years. Thirty-nine of these students participated for more than 1 year.

Evaluation design

To assess the effects of the program on individual students and identify potential improvements, evaluation is conducted annually. Before and after the program, each student takes a written science exam, completes a written survey, and participates in a one-on-one interview.

Research methods

We examined evaluation data across the 5 years of the program including scores on the pre- and post-written science exams, responses on pre- and post-written surveys, and in-depth qualitative analysis of pre- and post-one-on-one interviews. We also tracked information on high school performance, scores on standardized tests, and college attendance and declared major. Data were analyzed to assess student interest in science, interest in science and conservation careers, and understanding of scientific concepts and reasoning. To better understand the contribution of this model to the field of marine ecology, we looked at all data that were collected over the 5 years and tracked publications and presentations.

Interest in science

Overall interest in science was maintained, with 100% of students expressing interest before and after the program during each of the 5 years.

During the 5-year period, students demonstrated increases and decreases in science career interest with an overall trend of increased understanding and interest in a greater breadth of science careers. In 2006, 67% of participants reported an interest in a science career before and after the program and there were no changes in students’ career choices or awareness. In 2007, students reporting career interests in science grew from 52 to 81%, with the increased interest exclusively in marine biology. In 2008, there was a decrease in the number of students reporting career interests in the sciences, with 90% interest pre-program and 75% interest post-program. However, 60% of the students who reported not being interested in science careers did not recognize their career interests (medicine and engineering) as science fields. In 2009, students’ career interests in science increased from 71% of students reporting interest in science careers pre-program to 86% post-program. In addition, 50% of students expressed interest in wider diversity of science careers in the post-interview. In 2010, 100% of students expressed interest in science careers both before and after the program. Sixty-four percent of these students demonstrated a greater understanding of science careers and the breadth of opportunities, expressing interest in a diversity of fields including ecology, geology, biomechanics, molecular biology, bioengineering, and nuclear science (Table 1).

Of the program participants now enrolled in 4-year universities who have declared a major, 73% (22 of 30) have selected a major in the fields of science or conservation.

Performance in science

In each year of the 5-year period, students increased their performance on objective science tests from the beginning to the end of the program by an average of 20.5% (Fig. 4). After 2006, each year of the program included a minimum of 6% and maximum of 79% returning students.

In 2008, a pilot interview question asked students to describe their research as an additional method of measuring understanding of science. In response, 61% of students (11 of 18) spoke proficiently about the scientific process. However, responses were almost identical between students, suggesting rote memorization rather than true understanding. In 2009, after implementing program enhancements to address this issue, students were presented with a novel scenario during interviews to test their understanding of the scientific process beyond rote memorization. Based on these responses, 79% of students (11 of 14) completed the program with increased understanding of the scientific process.

In 2009, we also began tracking the standardized science test scores of participating students and comparing them with non-participating students at the same high school. Eighty percent of Ocean Leaders students scored at ‘proficient’ or ‘advanced’ on standardized tests of life science knowledge compared with 16% of non-participants of the same cohort ( = 11.3, P < 0.01). In all, 38% of Ocean Leaders students scored at ‘proficient’ or ‘advanced’ on standardized tests of general science knowledge compared with 11% of peers from the same cohort ( = 5.3, P < 0.05).

Contributions to marine ecology

Much of the fieldwork these students have performed relates to the earlier work of Polis et al. (1997) and Huxel et al. (2002). This research was started by Polis in Bahía de los Angeles in the late 1980s, focusing on understanding the effects of spatial subsidies on food web dynamics. With Polis’ death in 2000, this research program, and the long-term dataset that it generated, would have been discontinued after work was completed for the last funded grant. Instead, because of the added personnel, funding, and coordination through Ocean Leaders, data collection and new experiments have continued (Fig. 5). Through this program, we have been able to observe the impacts of marine trophic subsidy on insular ecosystems through multiple ENSO events, providing us with valuable information about the dynamics of the pathways and their effects on species diversity (F. Sanchez-Piñero, G. Huxel, D.M. Talley, S. Fisler, unpublished data), develop fisheries bycatch deterrents (Wang et al. 2010), and test questions about feedback loops in the land–sea food webs.

This collaboration has provided us not only with years of additional data and experiments, but also with 10 publications (e.g.Fisler & Talley 2006; Talley et al. 2006; Wang et al. 2010), additional publications in preparation, more than 30 presentations at scientific conferences, and opportunities to provide input and interact with some of the leaders in the field of marine science. Our student-collected data were used by the Mexican government to support the establishment of the almost 400,000-hectare Bahía de los Angeles Biosphere Reserve in 2007 (Morzaria-Luna & Danemann 2008). Additionally, engaging in outreach and education has opened up avenues for funding (e.g. NSF Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences, PADI Foundation, Marisla Foundation) that would not otherwise be available, and has helped scientists improve their ability to incorporate substantial ‘broader impacts’ in their science-based proposals.

Building scientific leadership

The Ocean Leaders program has consistently developed students’ ability to implement research methods reliably and gain confidence through conducting field research. However, findings suggest that if this interest is to be translated into further study and be connected to pursuing science as a career, it is important that program elements incorporate experiences that go beyond implementing methods and equip students for higher level scientific thinking.

Building marine ecology

Engaging youth in marine science is a mutualistic activity, as the field of marine ecology benefits as well. Scientists receive tangible rewards including increased productivity, access to a broader range of funding, and an increased diversity of views and insights, as well as less quantifiable benefits such as psychological well-being (see Anik et al. 2009 and references therein). In this case study, young scholars have provided each of these benefits.

This is not to say that it is either easy or obvious how to effectively engage students in one’s research. Although there are some scientists who have the capacity to carefully and coherently integrate large numbers of students into their work, most probably cannot. This project has benefited greatly from the close partnership between academics and a science education non-profit organization, as well as support from the community, from the University of San Diego (at all levels), and from myriad donors and collaborators. Where that is possible, we would urge similar close ties, particularly those between professional educators and scientists. We nonetheless argue that even smaller-scale efforts to integrate individual students into research programs are not only possible but beneficial, both to the scientist and the public.