The Urban Ecosystem Project is located within the School of Education at Iowa State University, and is a supporting program of the ISU 4U Promise program.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
The Urban Ecosystem Project collaborates with the Midwest Center of Excellence in Vector-borne Disease (MCE-VBD) where Dr. Lyric Bartholomay (UEP Principal Investigator) is Director. Dr. Bartholomay and members of her laboratory assist the UEP in many activities, including the 441x Teaching and Learning with Insects Course (primarily taken by ISU undergraduates) and Mosquitoes & Me programing, including the Summer Camp, After School Program, and Club.
UEP preservice teachers, youth participants, and program educators interact directly with entomologists to gain knowledge about mosquitoes through authentic insect science experiences. This collaboration with the MCE-VBD in-turn provides Public Health Entomology Trainees in Wisconsin the opportunity to communicate their scientific knowledge in a new way, through the TriSC³I pedagogy framework.
In addition, the Urban Ecosystem Project is working with the UW-Madison, Global Health Institute to enhance mosquito research and education in Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador.
Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation
The educational staff and participants the Discovery Building in Madison, WI have excitedly implemented and integrated Mosquitoes & Me curriculum across a number of public engagement science programs. Specific programs include:
- Wisconsin Science Festival — in 2020 the WARF educational staff connected with a local nature center to do a live field trip and interactive broadcast with PI Bartholomay and a community of K-12 learners in WI. This live interactive session involved investigating the ecosystem and connections to mosquitoes. The session lead to the opportunity to participate in a statewide BioBlitz as part of the 2020 Wisconsin Science Festival
- Field trips — WARF educational staff continue to build in Mosquitoes & Me connections to their microscopy and nature explorer field trip programs. “The rationale for us is easy; the program has fundamental components of how people learn and connect with science from their personal perspectives. These aspects help us to find easy alignments for inclusion of the resources as part of offerings for educators and the community. More than that the project team has personally connected directly many times to youth groups in field trips. PI Bartholomay and her research team participated with over 14 Wisconsin classrooms of students this past academic year as part of online Field Trip sessions with a Mosquitoes & Me focus.”
Walking Palms Global Health
The Urban Ecosystem project is working with Walking Palms Global Health, an NGO based in Bahía de Caráquez, Manabí Province, Ecuador to provide youth educational programming based on the Mosquitoes & Me Summer Camp curriculum. Working with the director and staff at Walking Palms, Mosquitoes & Me has been adapted into Mosquitos y Yo. The Mosquitos y Yo programming will soon be offered as a summer camp supported by the UW-Madison Global Health Institute and in the future may be expanded into formal education classrooms.
On Campus – Iowa State University
In September 2019, we joined the University Translational Research Network (U-TuRN) at IS
U, an engaged faculty group that aims to “empower communities to build environments and systems conducive to healthy living” (U-TuRN mission statement). Drs. Katherine Richardson Bruna and Lyric Bartholomay lead the Characterizing Community-based Science Learning Through Emotion and Play project, in the Community Outreach and Engagement group of U-TuRN.
Texas K-12 Summer Institute
The K-12 Summer Institute provides professional development in science education and connections between health and the environment to K-12 Educators in Texas. Members of the Urban Ecosystem Project travel to Texas to present and demonstrate the Mosquitoes and Me Science Curriculum to participating inservice teachers. This four day conference is held in Kerrville, Texas and is scheduled to host the 19th Annual conference in July 2020.
