Our education outreach programs focus primarily on urban ecology and urban sustainability. The objectives of these programs are to link the community with on-going research projects at the Global Institute of Sustainability. These programs and the education components are:
Through interdisciplinary projects integrating natural sciences, social science, and engineering, Central Arizona—Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) examines the effects of urbanization on a desert ecosystem and vice versa. We have several education initiatives associated with this project:
This Center studies the decision processes used to plan and manage water resources and urbanization. The education and outreach components of this project include several items which have been completed and we are currently developing teaching material at the high school and community college level for DCDC products:
This project engages female and minority youth traditionally under-represented in IT/STEM fields in multi-year out-of school technological design and problem solving experiences. It is a partnership between several Arizona State University programs and community partners. One of the urban sustainability projects will challenge students to design structures to mitigate the urban heat island.
This project examines long-term socioecological processes that shaped Mediterranean landscapes from the beginning of farming to the beginning of complex civilization. The education component will focus on sustainability in the past and the future.
This project traces the effects of the introduction, spread, and abandonment of agriculture at six long-term ecological research sites. Education components of this project were developed by Phoenix-area teachers for elementary and middle school children.
