Engaging Middle School Students with Disease Ecology in Place-based STEM Outreach

In this paper, we report on a place-based workshop on disease ecology as part of a nationally-funded project. Our approach to disease ecology is interdisciplinary encompassing elements of ecology, microbiology, medicine, genetics, immunology, entomology, geography, nutrition, and epidemiology. In this paper, we describe how middle school students, participating in a summer camp at a university in the northwestern U.S., engaged with a five-day workshop on disease ecology. We inquired into how the students' engagement with and understanding of disease ecology were enhanced through place-based activities, and which aspects of these activities were meaningful for their learning about disease ecology. We had two sections and a total of 24 students in the workshop. Our participating students consisted of 13 white students, 11 Native American students, and one Hispanic student. Our study utilized two primary sources of data: student interviews and student-generated artifacts. Our analysis of these interviews and artifacts employed a multi-method approach to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the data. Our preliminary findings show that the students found the camp activities engaging and that these activities increased their interest in science and health. The place-based aspect of the activities increased their understanding of science in their local communities and contexts.