DataLit Teacher Institute

June 23–28, 2019

Location: MDI Biological Laboratory (travel information)

Overview
Faculty
Learning
Schedule
Housing
Funding

2019 DataLit Flyer

MDI Biological Laboratory and Dartmouth College, in collaboration with multiple partners in Maine and New Hampshire are leading an NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) project called: “Data to Action: A secondary school-based citizen science project to address arsenic contamination of well water”.

We are seeking high school and middle school science teachers from Maine and New Hampshire who are interested in engaging their students as citizen scientists by integrating well water monitoring into their science curriculum.

Our overall goal is to provide teachers and students with the tools, skills and support to make sense of well water data so that their analyses can inform actions at the community level, resulting in positive public health outcomes.

Teachers are required to participate in at least one DataLit Institute at MDI Biological Laboratory before initiating classroom projects. Apply now for participation during the 2019-2020 school year. Please contact the Education Director at MDI Biological Laboratory if you have not previously been in contact regarding participation in this project.

The DataLit Institute will provide time to engage in developing research and data literacy skills as well as developing a groundwater curriculum with a focus on arsenic monitoring.

As part of their experience at the Institute, teachers will have the opportunity to collect water samples, run water quality tests in the laboratory, and learn about quality assurance/quality control of data, and responsible conduct of research. They also will hone their data visualization and data analysis skills using Excel and Tuva data literacy software with data literacy experts from Tuva.

After completion of the DataLit Institute, Maine and New Hampshire teachers will implement arsenic monitoring projects in their classrooms, with support from local scientist-partners.

Teachers will integrate monitoring well water for arsenic into new or existing watershed or other curriculum.
Students will collect well water from their tap and/or distribute project information and water collection containers to community members. Teachers will ship samples to the Trace Element Analysis Core at Dartmouth and receive data in return.
Anonymous data will be uploaded into our online data portal, Anecdata.org. Parents/community members will access their data reports via the project website: All About Arsenic.
Students will learn to use Tuva data literacy software to interpret and display data for sharing with their communities.
Teachers and students will host a public meeting and share data with parents and community members.

Tuition

Teachers receive a $500.00 stipend for the week, housing on campus and all meals. There is no tuition charged.

Partner

Workshop Directors

Jane E. Disney, Ph.D.

Senior Staff Scientist; Director of Education; Director, Community Environmental Health Laboratory

MDI Biological Laboratory

Workshop Leaders

Cait Bailey

Software Developer, Webmaster

MDI Biological Laboratory
Anna Farrell

SEPA Program Coordinator

MDI Biological Laboratory
Molly Schauffler, Ph.D.

Science Coordinator

University of Maine

Why focus on arsenic?

Exposure to arsenic is one of the most pressing public health issues in both Maine and New Hampshire. Most residents in these states derive their drinking water from private wells, which often, due to bedrock composition, are contaminated with arsenic, in many cases far exceeding the EPA limit of 10 ppb. Addressing this issue in secondary science classrooms in these two states provides context for students to engage in scientific inquiry, and motivation for them to construct knowledge and meaning through the process of discovery. The following information is highly relevant for students involved in the proposed project:

Maine and New Hampshire have among the highest per capita reliance on private wells for drinking water in the U.S. at 56% and 40% respectively.
This represents approximately 725,000 individuals on private well water in Maine and 536,000 in New Hampshire.
Private domestic wells are largely unregulated and the burden is solely on homeowners to test their well water and mitigate any health hazards.
Lab testing of private wells is uncommon in both Maine and New Hampshire and standard assays do not test for arsenic. The vast majority of well owners are not aware of the arsenic problem or the level of arsenic in their water.

These facts are especially problematic since numerous studies associate exposure to inorganic arsenic with health effects. Long term exposure to water with arsenic can cause numerous severe health problems, including cancer of the bladder, lung, liver, prostate, and skin; diabetes; heart disease; reproductive and developmental problems; and cardiovascular, pulmonary, immunological, neurological, reproductive, and endocrine problems.

Subject to change

Time	Activity	Instructor	Location
Day 1 – Sunday, June 23
4:00 – 5:00pm	Arrival & Check in	Wolf	Dining Hall
5:00 – 6:00pm	Cocktail Social Hour Introductions to Scientist Partners, Year 1 Teachers provide quick overviews of their projects and public meetings	Teachers/ Scientist Partners/ Project Leaders	Maren Conference Center Dahlgen Hall
6:00 – 7:00pm	Dinner		Dining Hall
Day 2 – Monday, June 24
6:00 – 9:00am	Self-Serve Breakfast		Dining Hall
9:00 –10:15am	Lecture “Update on Arsenic” “SEPA Project to Date”	Stanton Disney	MCBI Classroom
10:15-10:30am	Break		MCBI Break Room
10:30 –12:00pm	Lab Activities for Teachers with Scientist-Partners Experiments: bioassays Duckweed à removing toxins from water Daphnia à studying heartbeats/minute under varying conditions Organizing Data for Analysis	Disney Farrell Schauffler	MCBI Training Lab
12:00 – 1:00pm	Lunch for Teachers and Scientist-Partners		Dining Hall
1:00 – 3:00pm	Website Activities Overview and exploration of All About Arsenic; Anecdata and TUVA websites How do they relate?	Disney Farrell Bailey Schauffler	MCBI Classroom
3:30 – 3:45pm	Coffee break	Snacks & beverages	MCBI Break Room
3:45 – 6:00pm	Data Activities Exploring TUVA; working with existing datasets; what kinds of questions can we ask about the emerging arsenic dataset?	Schauffler	MCBI Training Lab
6:00 – 7:00pm	Dinner		Dining Hall
7:00 – 8:00pm	Discussion Citizen Science and Responsible Conduct of Research	Disney	Dahlgren Hall

Day 3 – Tuesday, June 25
6:00 – 9:00am	Self-Serve Breakfast		Dining Hall
9:00 –9:30am	Discussion Recap of Monday Plan for Tuesday Creating a project on Anecdata	All	MCBI Classroom
9:30 –12:00pm	Field Activities Water Quality Monitoring: pH temp dissolved oxygen turbidity transparency phytoplankton collection Field Sheets Using Anecdata mobile app	Disney Farrell Wolf	Emery Cove/Hamilton Pond
12:00 – 1:00pm	Lunch		Dining Hall
1:00 – 3:00pm	Lab Activities Dissolved oxygen titrations Using meters Counting plankton Using the Arsenic test kit Using Anecdata website Downloading csv files from Anecdata and uploading to Tuva	Disney Farrell Bailey	MCBI Training Lab and Classroom
3:30 – 4:00pm	Coffee break	Snacks & beverages	MCBI Break Room
4:00 – 6:00pm	Data Activities Analyzing Data Making Graph choices Quantitative Communication: How to talk about data	Schauffler Disney Farrell	MCBI Classroom
6:00 – 7:00pm	Dinner		Dining Hall
7:00 – 8:00pm	Curriculum/NGSS Brainstorm	Teachers	Dahlgren Hall
Day 4 – Wednesday, June 26
6:00 – 9:00am	Self-Serve Breakfast		Dining Hall
9:00 –11:00am	Monitoring Well Water from Start to Finish Using All About Arsenic as a guide: We will go through the entire project process from instructions to students; water sample collection; water sample registration; packing and mailing samples; What to do when results are in; how to communicate with parents; Looking up data results; communicating next steps	All	MCBI Classroom
11:00 –12:00pm	Public Health Implications of Data Why it is important to deal with data immediately?	CDC? Disney	MCBI Classroom
12:00 – 1:00pm	Lunch		Dining Hall
1:00 – 3:00pm	Curriculum Activities from A to Z-How does arsenic monitoring fit in? · Physical Science Group · Biological Science Group	Lead Teachers	MCBI Classroom
3:00 – 3:15pm	Coffee break	Snacks & beverages	MCBI Break Room
3:15 – 4:00pm	Share Activities · Physical Science Group · Biological Science Group	Lead Teachers	MCBI Training Lab
4:00 – 6:00pm	Free Time		Campus/Town/ANP
6:00 – 7:00pm	Dinner		Dining Hall
Day 5- Thursday, June 27
6:00 – 9:00am	Self-Serve Breakfast		Dining Hall
9:00 –10:30am	Public Meetings · What to share · Who to involve · Resources · Coordinator roles · Success stories/Challenges from Year 1	TBD Linda Silka Kate Buckman? Ruth? Deb Kimball? Brenda Mitchell? Jane White?	MCBI Classroom
10:30-10:45	Break		MCBI Break Room
11:00-12:00pm	How to get students ready for public meetings	Dartmouth Outreach Core Kate Buckman? Experienced Teachers	MCBI Classroom
12:00 – 1:00pm	Lunch		Dining Hall
1:00 – 3:30pm	Working with Scientist-Partners What did we learn this year? How can we improve relationships?	Experienced Teachers Experienced Partners (Liz Marnik; Jane Disney; Sarah Hall)	MCBI Classroom
3:30 – 4:00pm	Coffee break	Snacks & beverages	MCBI Break Room
4:00 – 6:00pm	Project Feedback and Evaluation and Debrief on Institute Expectations and requirements of teachers; walk-through of quarterly reporting process; their role in student-teacher-scientist partnership; things they can expect from project leaders/evaluators; questions and answers Pack up materials for people leaving early.	Disney Smith Skype with Karen Bieluch	MCBI Classroom
6:00 – 7:00pm	Dinner		Dining Hall

Day 6 – Friday, June 28
6:00 – 9:00am	Self-Serve Breakfast; Clear out of Rooms; bring luggage to Dining Hall		Dining Hall
9:00 –10:00am	Course Evaluation	All	MCBI Classroom
10:00am	Departure

Teachers reside in shared cottages on campus.

Funded by the NIH SEPA grant, grant number 1R25GM129796-01.
Project title: Data to Action: A Secondary School-based Citizen Science Project to Address Arsenic Contamination of Well Water.