Working Groups

Postsecondary Working Group

Overview

The Postsecondary Working Group is interested in the diverse disciplines across higher education that incorporate FEW Education into their teaching and curriculum. So far, our working group has engaged scholars representing disciplines that include biology, chemistry, physics, psychology and educational psychology, science education research, anthropology, ecology, and interdisciplinary degree programs such as sustainability, geography, resilience, environmental studies and environmental sciences, tourism and outdoor recreation, biological systems engineering and environmental sociology. We also include all types of higher education institutions, including 2-year colleges, small liberal arts colleges, teaching-focused universities, and research-intensive universities.

The working group has a paper in the first round of revisions at Nature Humanities and Social Sciences titled "Implementing Interdisciplinary Sustainability Education With the Food-Energy-Water Nexus" that we hope to be able to share with the community soon! In the meantime, members will be attending several conferences this year (2024) to deliver presentations and workshops about FEW Education Research, and we hope to see you at theAmerican Association of Geographers,Ecological Society of America, and Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences conferences!

Goal

The goal of the postsecondary education working group is to leverage the FEW-Nexus to understand and strengthen approaches to interdisciplinary STEM/FANH education amongst postsecondary students.

Team Members

• Shamili Ajgaonkar, College of DuPage
• Craig Allen, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Jenny Dauer, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Marizvikuru Mwale, University of Venda
• Chelsie Romulo (Chair), Northern Colorado University
• Bhawani Venkataraman, The New School

PK-12 Working Group

Overview

The PK-12 Working Group seeks to better understand FEW-Nexus educational research and practice within the context of formal settings (e.g., classrooms, after-school programs) from preschool to primary to secondary education. The team developed a set of shared commitments that guide its work:

1. Centering equity and justice; 
2. Considering intersections, tensions, and practices of substance ontologies of Western dualistic science and process and relational ontologies (e.g., Indigenous ontologies) that take into account the dynamism of interconnected systems like those of NC-FEW; 
3. Recognizing sovereignty in connection to multiplicity/pluralism and place-based approaches to NC-FEW; 
4. Positioning NC-FEW as transdisciplinary (new ways of knowing brought about by integration across disciplinary knowledge and practices); 
5. Situating NC-FEW K-12 science/STEM education as part of the 'practice-turn' for learners – "that positions learning activities as engaging in the epistemic practices of the disciplines toward achieving specific, localized transdisciplinary purposes . . . " (Mejias et al., 2021, p. 225); and 
6. Centering students' and teachers' agency within their learning communities and their communities outside of the classroom context. Focusing on agency facilitates students and teachers to collaborate within their local, regional, and global communities to sustain, grow, and thrive in the face of current crises impacting FEW security, such as the climate crisis.

The working group developed STEM Teaching Tools Policy Brief #96, which we hope is a useful resource to better understand teaching and learning within the FEW nexus. The brief also provides useful tips for how to better incorporate integrated FEW topics into the PK-12 classroom.

Goal

The goal of the PK-12 education group is to foreground the FEW-Nexus as central to scientific literacy for children and adolescent learners that is supportive of a sustainable future and necessary for responsible citizenship.

Team Members

• Shondricka Burrell, Morgan State University
• Todd Campbell, University of Connecticut
• Xavier Fazio, Brock University
• Sarah Fick, Amplify Education, Inc.
• Imogen Herrick, University of Kansas
• Doug Lombardi (Chair), University of Maryland
• Veronica Cassone McGowan, University of Washington

Informal/Non-formal Working Group

Overview

Goal

The goal of the in/non-formal education working group is to identify and share emerging possibilities for FEW-Nexus education and communication in informal and nonformal settings in service to science learning, environmental justice, and sustainability.

Team Members

• Anil Kumar Chaudhary (Chair), Penn State
• Laurie Giarratani, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
• Gregory D. Goins, NC A&T State University
• Christine Li, University of Missouri
• Jamie Loizzo, University of Florida
• Mary Van De Kerkhof, Two Roads Consulting