Filling an empty niche: How academia can help find educational solutions to environmental problems

Public education can help bridge the gap between ecological research and community-based restoration.  We have partnered with Student and Landowner Education and Watershed Stewardship (SLEWS) to create a standards-based interdisciplinary high school curriculum about invasive species.  Invasive species are of interest both to researchers and to restoration efforts, and are a major reason that many terrestrial restorations fail.  Invasive species are also an ideal interdisciplinary focus for environmental education, since full understanding of the issues involved requires teaching about ecology, history, and policy, all of which are included in our curriculum.  SLEWS pairs high school classes with landowners on riparian monitoring and restoration projects, providing the students with hands-on research experience and a sense of investment in local conservation issues.  We have used our scientific training, and funding from our Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program, to create up-to-date classroom content that will complement and enhance the outdoor experiences provided by SLEWS.  Our experience has shown that partnerships between researchers and schoolteachers can provide students with valuable and accurate scientific information, and provides a powerful incentive for researchers to make their work interesting, relevant, and intelligible to non-scientists.