NCSCE and KQED are partnering on Do Now U, a project that engages undergraduate students in online discussions through social media about current scientific issues.
On August 25, 2016, the National Park Service turned 100. With centennial celebrations and programs still underway, Caroline Kittle, Elizabeth Rovira, Maria Larios, Clara Ben Ayed, Lauren Murray, and Surraya Abbasi, students in Dr. Thomas Wood’s Mysteries of Migration course at George Mason University, debate the human impact on the natural landscape in the latest Do Now U post, “Is Ecotourism Helping or Hurting our National Parks?”
Join the Conversation!
What do you and your students think about the balance between ecotourism and sustainability? Engage them in the online national debate by assigning this Do Now U post as a short in-class or homework assignment. Students can comment directly on the post or share their thoughts on Twitter using the hashtag #DoNowUParks. Encourage them to follow along and see how people respond to their opinions.
[bctt tweet=”Weigh in: Is Ecotourism Helping or Hurting our National Parks? #DoNowUParks @KQEDscience” username=”NCSCE”]
Browse previous Do Now U posts to join conversations about a range of other topics.
Interested in Getting More Involved?
NCSCE and KQED are now accepting applications from professors interested in having their students create Do Now U posts for the Spring 2017 semester. Interested professors will be asked to engage their students in Fall 2016 online discussions in the post comment sections and on Twitter to learn more about the project and how to use posts in the classroom. A course-specific hashtag created by you (for example #Bio210) will be used to identify your students’ contributions.
Selected professors’ Spring 2017 students will create Do Now U posts to be published on KQED’s website. Just like past Do Now U posts, these posts will be used to generate national conversations with other undergraduates, high school students, and the general public.
If selected, professors participating in the Spring 2017 semester will be asked to take part in an online work session in Winter 2016 to receive training on how to implement the creation of posts in their course.
The application can be found here and the deadline has been extended to October 10!
If you have any questions, please contact Andrea Aust at aaust@kqed.org and Hailey Chenevert at hailey.chenevert@ncsce.net for more information.