Tracy Wacker

The Student Portfolio: A History and Future of Water StoryMap part of STEM Futures:Product Elements
Description of the portfolio students develop for the History and Future of Water course. Specifically, students will develop a portfolio presented as a StoryMap (a digital product combining prose and visuals) describing what was learned in class and connecting it to student's cultural knowledge of water. Portfolios in StoryMap include activities that are scaffolded across learning outcomes to the culminating assignment where students reflect on these connections to their lives. The StoryMap project is designed to incorporate evidence of all student activities and their learning progression in the course. Each activity will address one or more learning outcomes so that the student has evidence of all learning outcomes by the time they write their culminating reflection.

A Course Scaffold for Integrating Science and Culture: A Water Example part of STEM Futures:Products
The History and Future of Water integrates the sciences and humanities. This course will engage students with different perspectives (e.g, economics, geological, hydrological, societal) on the history of water and guide students to integrate these with their own perspectives based on personal and cultural beliefs. This integrated understanding will lead students to a STEM-informed and culturally-informed approach for thinking about water sustainability and resiliency. Students create a digital portfolio over the entirety of the course that showcases this integrated learning for them as an individual to be shared with other students, thereby learning from one another's cultural backgrounds and experiences. Instructors can easily adapt this course to fit their disciplinary expertise and specific group of students!