Providing links between laboratory and real world understandings of ecology: interactive science programs at Biosphere 2

Background/Question/Methods Environmental understanding, decision making, and management are increasingly important as humans influence ecosystems and the Earth system. Education and outreach programs are often aimed at promoting ecological understanding; however many overlook opportunities that allow the public to confront ecological uncertainty and variability. Focusing on the need for ecological literacy, the University of Arizona Biosphere 2 (B2) facility has initiated several hands-on outreach programs that focus on soil-water-atmosphere-plant interactions and their roles in the impacts and causes of global environmental change and variation. Biosphere 2 functions as a worldwide center for research, outreach, teaching, and life-long learning about the living systems of Earth, and is unique in that it is one of the only research facilities where the public is able to watch research in action, learn what is going on moment to moment in the mesocosm spaces, and participate in hands-on research activities. Results/Conclusions B2 Earthscience, the research component of Biosphere 2, incorporates an array of research methods aimed at understanding the ecological and environmental processes of Earth. Working in close collaboration with the education and outreach component of B2, B2 Earthscience has developed integrated research and outreach programs important for continued science education and sustainability in the face of global environmental change. We will present programs that are currently underway at B2 for the public and the K-12 educational community. These include, (1) a Science and Society Fellows Program which trains graduate students in the translation of research to public audiences; (2) active research that is being conducted inside B2 by undergraduate and graduate students that facilitates the interaction necessary for discussing and communicating their research to the public; (3) a Science Saturday program, a continued public outreach venture, offering science lectures as well as hands-on demonstrations from visiting science departments; (4) Citizen science programs that allow visitors to collect data alongside researchers; and (5) B2 also fosters a strong commitment to science education by establishing itself as a resource and training center that aims to expand the quality and retention of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers in Arizona. We discuss the development of these programs, and also preliminary data that indicates their success in promoting science and environmental literacy among B2 visitors . The B2 philosophy of maintaining itself as a center that tightly integrates research, outreach, and teaching is arguably apparent as the programs offered provide for a more open role for visitors to participate in science.