At the end of a one-hour lesson on desert animal adaptations, a 4th grader tapped an Asombro staff member on the shoulder and said, “This is the best day I’ve had in a really long time.” Thanks to a 26-year partnership between the Jornada Basin LTER and the nonprofit Asombro Institute for Science Education, we deliver great days to more than 20,000 K-12 students in southern New Mexico each year. We aim to increase students’ ecological literacy and decrease their beliefs in stereotypes about scientists and science so they can see themselves in STEM careers in the future.
The value of long-term education programming was obvious this year at the Jornada Basin LTER. In just the last month, we ran into two former program participants. A junior at New Mexico State University fondly recalled the Asombro lessons she participated in through elementary and middle school and said,
“I loved those days!” An NMSU graduate student was volunteering at an Asombro event when he shared vivid memories of a field trip he took to the Jornada in 5th grade. These are the long-term memories we get to create for students in our region.
Being part of the LTER network also provides unique opportunities in K-12 education. For example, in the spring, we pilot-tested a postcard exchange with
5th-grade students associated with five LTERs in New Mexico (JRN), Alaska (NGA), Colorado (NWT), Massachusetts (HFR), and Virginia (VCR). Each class read One Day in the Desert (2017), Jornada’s contribution to the LTER children’s book series. Then, students replicated the main character’s experience by writing to students in different ecosystems. Teachers and students loved the project. One teacher wrote, “Everything worked out well. [I] love the pen pals and exposure to different ecosystems via the activity.” Every single 5th grader wanted to do the project again. When asked what it felt like to have pen pals, they said, “It felt nice to know I had a friend in three other states” and “I felt curious and surprised.” We are excited to continue the Pen Pals project this school year, adding students from Luquillo (Puerto Rico) and giving our students an opportunity to write in English or Spanish.
Third grade students take a guided hike at the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Park as part of their field trip. Field trips, classroom lessons, and a new pen pal project are all part of the Jornada K-12 education program.