Monday, 9/15
Workshop #1: Inclusive by Nature: Building Equitable Field Stations for All
Full-day workshop with breaks, 25 max participants, in-person
Description:
This immersive, full-day workshop will support participants in transforming their field stations into spaces of belonging, equity, and accessibility. Drawing from Parker McMullen Bushman’s extensive work in field stations, environmental justice, and inclusive leadership, this session will provide participants with foundational knowledge and practical strategies to integrate Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) into the heart of field station work.
Using the “Four I’s of Oppression” framework, we’ll examine how systems of exclusion show up across institutions—from ideas and interpersonal interactions to internalized norms and institutional structures. We’ll explore environmental justice histories, current challenges, and the intersections of identity in outdoor spaces. The afternoon will be dedicated to applied, collaborative work—reflecting on your own field station, identifying barriers, and envisioning change.
Participants will:
- Explore the historical and current intersections of environmental justice and outdoor access
- Analyze barriers to inclusion through a systems-thinking lens
- Engage in peer learning and breakout discussions
- Develop actionable steps to apply at their home station and within the OBFS network
Note: This is a full-day session designed as a single experience (not two separate half-day workshops). Breaks and reflection time will be built in, and participants will leave with concrete tools and a renewed sense of purpose.
Workshop #2 & #3: Expand Your FSML Horizons with The Virtual Field
25 max participants, Available in two independent parts:
- Part one (hybrid): (Monday morning, 9:30 – noon): Virtual Field Orientation and Discussion
- Part two (in person): (Monday afternoon, 1:30-4:00): Virtual Field Hands-On Training
The Virtual Field (www.thevirtualfield.org) is an NSF-funded project that creates and shares virtual teaching materials and events from field stations and marine laboratories (FSML) with educators around the world. Participation is open to all OBFS field stations and marine laboratories. Benefits include: (1) a global audience for your field station, (2) increased awareness of your FSML by home institutions, community members and donors, (3) creation of pre-field trip activities for your field site that deepen in-person learning experiences, (4) expansion of support for your on-site researchers, and (5) connections with FSML and faculty educators.
This workshop is an exploration of virtual technology and how it is being used to broaden student-learning at FSMLs. We will start with an overview of TVF projects, plug you in to 3D virtual environments, and lead you through a series of fun exercises that get you started making your own virtual experiences for visitors. We will show you how you can use smartphones, 360-degree video cameras, and virtual headsets to expand your educational programs. We leave time for a discussion of how we might as a community be able to use these technologies to raise awareness of the value of FSMLs.
Whether you just want to know more, get your toe in the water, or are ready to jump in, this workshop will get you up to date and participating in The Virtual Field.
Workshop #4: Best Practices for Small Boat Operations at Field Stations
1:30 – 4:00 pm, 20 max participants, hybrid
This workshop is an initiative of the Small Boat Safety Network (SBSN), which is a new effort to gather information on the (1) types of small vessels used by academic research personnel, (2) manner in which small vessels are used, and (3) training/certification requirements for small vessel users at academic institutions. The immediate goal of the SBSN is to establish voluntary best practices in the management of small vessel programs, particularly at small field stations that do not have a marine operations department or USCG-licensed boat captains. At the workshop, we will begin to outline best practices that are adaptable to the wide variety of circumstances found at FSMLs.
Friday 9/19
Workshop #5: SCRREE: A new tool for designing and evaluating effective public engagement with science
9:30 – Noon, 30 max participants, hybrid
The value of engaging with community members and other public audiences about scientific topics has been widely articulated, and there is a growing literature devoted to the theory and practice of public engagement with science. However, as a group of professionals concerned with how public engagement is understood and practiced in the fields of ecology and environmental science, we see a need for accessible guidance for scientists who want to engage effectively, and for scientific leaders who want to support effective public engagement programs in their institutions.
In this proposed ½-day workshop, we will introduce OBFS field station directors, scientists, and outreach leads to a public engagement framework designed to help scientists make effective communication choices. Specifically, the SCRREE framework was designed to help ensure that science communication activities are Strategic, Cumulative, Reflexive, Reciprocal, Equitable, and Evidence-based. These are synthetic concepts that draw on research and practice of multiple fields, including science communication, informal science learning, transdisciplinary science, and engaged scholarship. Over decades of collective experience developing, leading, evaluating, and researching public engagement with science programs, our team of workshop leaders has come to view these six attributes as the foundations of effective public engagement practice. The SCRREE framework was specifically designed for work with Long Term Ecological Research projects, and it is hoped that the framework can support similar efforts at field stations.
During the workshop, we will introduce the framework, and participants will apply it to current or envisioned public engagement activities. Part I of the workshop will ask participants to think through how their current and potential engagement activities could be strengthened by having concrete, long-term goals (strategic and cumulative), as well as meaningful evidence about what works (evidence-based). They will put a specific focus on helping workshop participants think through how to ensure that engagement activities reflect a sustained vision for impact.
Part II of the workshop will encourage participants to consider how their current and potential engagement activities could benefit from being based on ongoing and intentional evaluation (reflexive) and built around a deep understanding of context (reflexive, reciprocal, and equitable). Specific focus will be put on the value of ensuring that both scientists and their priority audiences benefit from engagement activities to ensure long-term viability of communication efforts.
This interactive workshop will emphasize improving public engagement activities. The workshop facilitators include a combination of social science researchers and practitioners and OBFS members with deep experience around public engagement and informal science education in the context of ecological research. Participants will walk away with “practice briefs” and a (soon to be published) pa
Workshop #6: Get Your FSML Grant Reviewed Before You Submit It
9:30 – Noon, 25 max participants, in-person
Field Station and Marine Lab grants are available from NSF to develop infrastructure for field stations. In this workshop, you submit your completed proposal to a panel of OBFS members who have reviewed or received NSF FSML grants before and we will provide a friendly review and then work with you on how to improve the proposals. Typically, you would submit your proposal, wait six months for reviews to come back, and then resubmit if not funded. We hope to shorten that timeline by providing pre-review that you can respond to and then you can submit a revised proposal in October. This is NOT an official NSF review panel, but we will run it like one. Our goals for the workshop are to help our members submit more mature proposals to increase their chance of funding and to help increase the number of FSML proposals received by NSF so they can continue to justify the program. Help us help you get to YES on your proposal. If you don’t have a proposal and you want to attend the workshop to see the process, that’s fine. If you do have a proposal, contact Skip Van Bloem ASAP skipvb@clemson.edu and have it ready by September 1 so we can send to mock reviewers and then work with you on it at the meeting.