With decades of experience providing research, evaluation, large-scale data analysis, assessment, technical assistance, and professional development, WestEd supports educational reform that expands innovative learning opportunities for all learners, especially those with diverse interests or facing multiple challenges to success. It aims to identify and disseminate strategies that foster academic achievement, deep engagement in learning, social-emotional development, 21st Century skills, career readiness, postsecondary transitions, and economic self-sufficiency. It also supports the development of systems that enable Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) and other industry professionals to engage effectively with education to provide deeper and more authentic learning experiences for students.
Pursuant to a large study in California on “work-based learning”, since 2010 WestEd has committed to developing hands-on, “real world” learning in STEM through the GLOBE program. WestEd focuses on partnership development, research and evaluation, and students' career preparation, and works closely with UC Berkeley to recruit and engage teachers in underserved communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, to implement GLOBE protocols, activities, and projects. Through the NASA-funded GLOBE Mission Earth program and other collaborations, it is also spreading the work beyond the Bay Area.
Training, professional learning and other activities are offered in partnership with UC Berkeley's Department of Chemistry, Atmospheric Sciences. UCB has been working over the past 12 years to increase educational opportunities to engage K-12 educators and their students in field-based data collection in order to gain a better understanding of the Earth around them. UCB's GLOBE program provides in-classroom student support, teacher professional learning, and project-based learning tools and lessons. UCB and the partnership actively support the implementation of the GLOBE Pacific Regional Student Research Symposium, both in-person and virtually. UCB has an in-house GLOBE Mentor Trainer, Tracy Ostrom, who is also a former high school science teacher with 13 years of industry experience in environmental management. This combined expertise has been used to expand and deepen scientific understanding in K-12 schools who serve students underrepresented in STEM.
For more information on our involvement with GLOBE Mission Earth, visit our webpage.
