Witness Tree Workshop Resources 2022

These resources support the Witness Tree (Trees Telling STEM Stories) workshop for teachers held at the Arnold Arboretum as part of their Summer Institute on August 15, 2022. 

Workshop Resources

Slides

Dr. Tim Rademacher – The Big Picture – What is a witness tree and what is its purpose? (slides as a .pdf)
Dr. Tina Grotzer – Project links for younger learners (slides as a .pdf)
Dr. Elisa Margarita – Witness Tree: Ecological Services (slides as a .pdf)

Activities

Workshop Activity Packet

Post-Workshop Honoraria

$100 honoraria are available to workshop attendees who submit, by September 23, 2022:
A written reflection of 250-500 words, about the feasibility of using some element of the Witness Tree project in their classroom or an informal environmental learning setting in the coming year. Those who do find it feasible, please reflect on which elements of the project are most useful, and whether additional supports or resources might help you succeed. Those who do not find it feasible, please reflect on the barriers you foresee and any possible ways we might make the program more accessible/relevant in the future.
These reflections will be used by the project team to improve the Witness Tree project as an educational tool. Please indicate in your reflection whether you give permission for us to share excerpts of your words with funders, potential project partners, and other educators, either with credit to you or anonymously (your choice).
To be eligible for the honorarium, submit your completed reflection statement via email to Clarisse Hart at hart3@fas.harvard.edu by September 23, 2022.
If you have questions about your eligibility to receive an honorarium due to visa or work authorization status, please email HFfinance@fas.harvard.edu before completing a reflection statement.
Please note that an honorarium may be considered taxable income to you.
$250 honoraria are available to educators who attended this workshop and who create or pilot a lesson in their classrooms based on the Witness Tree project. Submit by December 3, 2022:
A brief statement (250-500 words) of how the piloted lesson plan went in your classroom.
A shareable version of the final lesson plan, which will then be shared as an educator resource on our project website (with credit to you as the author(s))
1-3 samples of de-identified student work resulting from the lesson plan, with a note as to whether these samples may be shared with funders, potential project partners, and other educators (but they will not be shared publicly online).
Submit your completed materials via email to Clarisse Hart at hart3@fas.harvard.edu by December 3, 2022.
If you have questions about your eligibility to receive an honorarium due to visa or work authorization status, please email HFfinance@fas.harvard.edu before completing a lesson plan.
Please note that an honorarium may be considered taxable income to you.

Invitation to Participate in an Optional Educational Research Study 

Dear Educator,

We are a group of researchers from Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education working on a research study called Witness Tree Teachers’ Study. The study aims to understand how educators use real time data to help learners think about climate issues in more complex ways and develop pro-environmental behavior and attitudes. We also hope to capture vivid accounts of teaching practices that will inform and inspire educators interested in using real time data in their teaching.

To these ends, we are conducting interviews with educators to learn about their experiences with using real time data from the Witness Trees in their lessons. Your participation in the study is crucial, because your experience will provide greater detail about how real time data could be used effectively to support learners in thinking about climate issues in more complex ways and developing pro-environmental behavior and attitudes.    

Your participation in the study involves answering a series of open-ended, semi-structured questions that invite you to share your experience with designing learning experiences using real time data. There will be a total of two interviews, one conducted in the summer/fall of 2022 and the other in late fall/winter 2022. The interviews will be conducted in a private room at your workplace, and should take no more than 1.5 hours in total. If in-person interviews are not possible, we will conduct them in a password-protected Zoom meeting. You will also be videotaped during the interviews. The videotaping is purely for research purposes, and will only be shared with researchers involved in the study. You may choose to stop the interviews at any time, or decline to answer any question without any reservation whatsoever. There are no foreseeable risks for you being part of the study.

Analyses of the data from the study will be included in various print and online publications, as well as professional development products, to inform the work of educators who are interested in how to design learning experiences that effectively leverage real time data. Your interview responses may be included in such materials, but any references (e.g. name, institution) that could identify you will be removed.

Enclosed you will find a consent form by which you agree to be in the study. We ask you to read it carefully and, if you agree, to return it with your signature to us at the interview.

To express your interest in participating, or to ask questions about this study, contact the study’s Principal Investigator, Flossie Chua (flossie_chua@harvard.edu). Concerns about the study – your rights in this research, questions, concerns, suggestions, or complaints that are not being addressed by the researcher, or research-related harm – may be reported to the Harvard University Area Institutional Review Board (“IRB”). You may talk to them at (617) 496-2847 or cuhs@harvard.edu. Committee on the Use of Human Subjects; Telephone: 617-496-2847; Email: cuhs@harvard.edu.

Other Resources

More about the Witness Tree Social Media project

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Harvard University Climate Change Solutions Fund for their support of our project, this educational research, and this workshop!