The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts’ Research in the Park program won the National Consortium of Secondary Stem Schools Innovative Partnership of the Year Award.
The award celebrates unique student programs engaging students in STEM that are planned and executed by NCSSS institutional member schools. ASMSA was one of four finalists for the award, which was announced on Nov. 8 during at the organization’s Professional Conference in Seattle.
NCSSS was established in 1988 to provide a forum for specialized secondary schools focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics to exchange information and program ideas. It now includes more than 75 member schools, many “ranked” as the best in the country, along with several associate, affiliate and corporate members comprised of colleges, universities, summer programs, foundations and corporations.
Research in the Park began in 2014 with an agreement between ASMSA and Hot Springs National Park. The agreement provides students an easier path to receive permits to conduct research throughout the park. Park administrators have the opportunity to suggest projects that would be beneficial to the National Park Service. Students may suggest their own ideas for projects, and many projects are continued from year to year by a new class of students.
The agreement made doing research vital to the park much easier. In past years, students would have research ideas that involved the park. Without an agreement between the school and the Park Service, getting permits to conduct research in the park were hard to obtain.
Drs. Lindsey Waddell, a geoscience and chemistry instructor, and Dr. Jon Ruehle, a biology instructor, were the faculty members who started the program by approaching ASMSA’s administration and the Park Service with the idea. The initial program goal was to introduce juniors to research methods quickly enough that they could use their fall RIP projects in the spring science fair competition.
Ruehle said in notes for the NCSSS award that “RIP was founded on the principle that it is never too soon for students to begin serious research and that every student can do so when inspired and given the necessary support.”
Hot Springs National Park benefitted from the agreement as well, Ruehle said in a 2017 article in the school’s Tangents magazine. Many of the research projects provide the Park Service vital data it would not otherwise have the time or the financial resources to gather itself.
“Because our students go into a (research) project doing hard science, they follow the scientific method and get real data and measure it in a scientific way for the park. We’re not collecting weird, random things. (The students) can’t just muddle around in the park and have fun. They have to come up with something that brings something back to the park that may not have been there before,” Ruehle said in the article.
The program proved successful enough to use the model for other courses and eventually leading to a change in ASMSA’s capstone project model. In addition to RIP, the capstone program now includes research areas in mathematical modeling, physical sciences seminar, integrated computer science, entrepreneurship, life sciences, intro to engineering design, fine art and design, humanities as a discipline, music theory and creative writing.
RIP also earned national recognition within the National Park Service. ASMSA and the program were awarded the national George and Helen Hartzog Award for Outstanding Youth Volunteer Service Group in 2017. The award recognized the students’ efforts for fiscal year 2016 during with they totaled 1,133 hours of service time for Hot Springs National Park.
Waddell said the additional recognition for the program from NCSSS confirmed the value of the program.
“When Research in the Park received the Hartzog Award in 2016, it became clear that the National Park Service found the service aspect of our program to be valuable,” Waddell said. “To also be recognized as an Innovative Program among our peer STEM institutions is a tremendous honor. When Research in the Park got off of the ground in 2014, the consensus was that we should take greater advantage of our school's location in the middle of Hot Springs National Park. It is common to undervalue the resources in your own backyard, and it seemed like a missed opportunity to bring students to Hot Springs from across the state and have them graduate two years later without gaining any knowledge of the natural resources directly outside the school's doors.
“The questions that students choose to investigate for their research projects are sometimes inspired by their own personal interests, sometimes by the natural resource challenges of the national park, and, now that we have been operating the course for several years, more and more from the results of previous Research in the Park projects. Receiving this award is a great morale-booster at a time when our junior Research in the Park class is undertaking the difficult work of honing their project proposals and beginning field work, right as the weather is turning colder. It is a reminder of the great results that this program has produced for both our national park and our students over the years.”
To be recognized by NCSSS as a model for other institutions is recognition of the hard work by Waddell and Reuhle, said Corey Alderdice, director of ASMSA.
“Research in the Park is a defining example of ASMSA’s commitment to authentic student inquiry, service learning and community stewardship,” Alderdice said. “No other school like ASMSA has a natural resource and learning lab like Hot Springs National Park within walking distance of their campus.
“Drs. Waddell and Ruehle are to be congratulated for their leadership in developing the partnership, which serves as a model for how America’s national parks can engage and inspire the next generation of stewards who conserve our natural resources.”
In the prepared notes about the program for the NCSSS award, Ruehle said that the lack of a national park nearby doesn’t mean other schools can’t have success in following RIP’s model.
“Not every school has a national park, but every setting provides significant challenges, especially regarding the environmental, that can be broken into discrete questions suitable for student investigation,” he said.