Monica Hall-Porter and David Pogue extract DNA from strawberries in the new NOVA series Beyond the Elements. Image courtesy of GBH

Reflecting on the Power of Experiential Learning with Biologist Dr. Monica Hall-Porter

“As we think about the best ways to educate students in STEM disciplines, we have to keep in mind that a lot of students have experiences with STEM where they may be discouraged,” says Monica Hall-Porter. “But if we can expose students to hands-on learning throughout their educational process, and give them the ability to explore, to ask questions, to experiment, it really does enhance the outcome!”
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Monica Hall-Porter has dedicated her career to creating a robust pipeline for students who are interested in pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers. As the faculty development coordinator in the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas in Austin, Hall-Porter supports professional development for faculty that centers on improving and enhancing science pedagogy.Throughout her career, Hall-Porter has advocated for best practices in STEM education, specifically methods to promote and sustain student engagement. By creating opportunities for students to have hands-on experiences in laboratory settings, they can see science processes in action.
Take the Freshman Research Initiative (FRI) at the University of Texas. Through this program, first-year students experience the excitement of scientific discovery firsthand. Participants do real-world research, use cutting-edge lab equipment, develop technological innovations, and publish papers in peer-reviewed science journals.In addition to her contributions to the University of Texas, Hall-Porter has mentored students through the <a href="https://oeop.mit.edu/programs/mites/program-details">Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science (MITES) program</a> at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and <a href="https://www.scienceclubforgirls.org/">Science Club for Girls</a> in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In these settings, students have the agency to ask thoughtful questions as they conduct their experiments, and are expected to record and interpret the data, mirroring the work that scientists do.
Though the pandemic has significantly changed approaches to experiential learning with the shift to virtual classrooms, Hall-Porter has found creative ways to model new methods for this type of pedagogy. She recently led a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_zIzWyjWI8">virtual field trip</a> with NOVA Education where she built DNA models with candy and ran a strawberry DNA extraction lab! Using common household items, she showed just how easy it can be to create experiential learning experiences at home. She is also a featured scientist in the new three-part NOVA chemistry series <a href="https://to.pbs.org/3onA806">Beyond the Elements: Life</a>. This event is the first in a series of three virtual field trips highlighting some of the scientists and engineers featured in Beyond the Elements.
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NOVA spoke with Hall-Porter about the impact of experiential learning on her own educational journey—and on students in general—and advice for educators on how to incorporate experiential learning into virtual classrooms during the pandemic.
Kara Norton (KN): What path did you follow into the laboratory research field? What attracted you to this career?
Monica Hall-Porter (MHP): I'm originally from Hawkins, Texas, which is a small town of about 1,330 people in Northeast Texas. I left Hawkins in the fall of 1996 to attend Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. I was a biology major and I was part of a unique scholarship called the Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) Scholars program. One key feature of the scholarship is that every summer MARC scholars were required to do research or engage in research projects in various institutions across the country. So, I interned at NASA through Florida A&amp;M University. I also worked at the University of Washington in a couple of different labs throughout my undergraduate career. I really developed an appreciation for research in a couple of different fields, but mostly research models centered around molecular and cellular biology. After Hampton, I went on to graduate school at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I was a student in a molecular- and cellular-biology-based graduate program that was run out of the pathology department of Wake Forest. During my time as a grad student I received a lot of exposure to a research unit that did work in establishing the molecular link between estrogen and cardiovascular disease, specifically as it relates to the loss of circulating estradiol after menopause. I will say that I received, through my undergraduate education and my graduate education, some of the best education that the country has to offer.
KN: How did those early experiential learning opportunities during your undergraduate and graduate career inform the work that you currently do?
MHP: As we think about the best ways to educate students in STEM disciplines, we have to keep in mind that a lot of students have experiences with STEM where they may be discouraged, or they may not be as curious because of the way that the curriculum is presented. But if we can expose students to hands-on learning throughout their educational process, and give them the ability to explore, to ask questions, to experiment, it really does enhance the outcome!I would say the same is true of my experience. I remember when I interviewed at Wake Forest for the position in the graduate program, one of the remarks that the professors made was that I had the ability to talk about the research I had participated in leading up to that moment. Specifically, to convey how the work that was being done in the laboratories that I worked in was advancing each respective academic field. I think providing chances to do hands-on work coupled with the ability for students to communicate the science is really the key to creating a robust pipeline of students who are interested in pursuing STEM careers.
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KN: I would love to hear more about the work you are doing with Texas Institute for Discovery Education in Science (TIDES).
MHP: TIDES is a dedicated teaching and learning unit that is housed in the College of Natural Sciences (CNS) at the University of Texas at Austin. It is unique in that it provides support in several different ways to teaching and learning in CNS. There is a very exciting program here called the Freshman Research Initiative (FRI). The FRI is the crown gem of experiential learning here. Through this program, students who are freshmen get the opportunity to work on research projects in established research labs at the University of Texas. There is a significant educational structure surrounding students who work in the FRI, and it really does give them a chance to dive into the pursuit of various goals in dedicated research labs.TIDES also has a faculty-facing unit called TIDES Instruct. This is the unit that I'm a part of. We work to support professional development for faculty that centers on science pedagogy. We support all the departments of the CNS in various ways. Course Design Institute, curriculum redesign efforts to ensure that the curricula are student centered and take the best of what is known about teaching in STEM and present it in a way that faculty can readily implement strategies in their course to improve and enhance their teaching.

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<figcaption>Monica Hall-Porter (second from the left) assisting students in the MIT MITES (Minority Introduction to Engineering &amp; Science) genomics course in 2019. Image courtesy of the MIT Office of Engineering Outreach Programs (OEOP)
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KN: Throughout your career how have students responded to experiential learning? Could you describe some of the impacts?
MHP: When I was a graduate student and a postdoc, I had multiple opportunities to support undergraduate students who were completing summer research experiences and internship experiences in the labs where I worked. What I will say is that just like in a traditional classroom, we have what I call ‘light bulb moments' where students really start to connect the dots regarding biological processes or phenomena that they're learning about. Not only are students learning about a process, but then they also have the ability to get hands-on experience with the process, and it really does help to solidify learning in a lot of ways.With the Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science (MITES) program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), I just saw students come alive in the lab! One example was with a genomics course I was teaching in conjunction with the MITES program. In this course, students do a skin microbiome project where they swab their skin and put it on what we call a bacteriological media plate. They grow the microbes that are on their skin. Through a set of steps, they use bioinformatics and DNA sequencing to identify the microbes present. Students learn about the importance of the skin microbiome and how the organisms that grow on us actually support our body systems, not only on the skin, but also in the gut, and the lungs even, which are also hot areas of research as it relates to the human microbiome. After taking part in hands-on experiences like this one, students are just hooked on STEM! Again, the experiences that are provided don't have to be grand in scope. They can be entire unit exercises or they can be small experiences, but anything we can do to get students in a hands-on experience, again, enriches their future in STEM careers.

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<figcaption>Monica Hall-Porter examining a synthetic cadaver as part of an anatomy and physiology laboratory class she taught at Lasell University. Image courtesy of Monica Hall-Porter
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KN: Is this something that could be adapted to high school students and not just university students?
MHP: Absolutely! I believe there's always a way to infuse hands-on learning into the experience. I'd love to see more of that across the country. Look at the virtual field trip that we are doing, experiences like this make science accessible. I've done science outreach with students who are as young as five years old. There is joy in that experience, not only for the student, but also for the educator.There's an organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that is near and dear to my heart. It's called the Science Club for Girls. When I was a postdoc at Tufts University, one of my very good friends invited me to the club. I went with her and ended up being a volunteer and mentor scientist. During one of those sessions with the young ladies, we actually dissected cow hearts. Now fast forward several years, that was a foundational experience for one of those girls who was there because now she's a senior neuroscience major getting ready to graduate from Harvard University and I believe go on to medical school. She cherishes that experience as this moment where she realized that not only is a STEM career possible, but she also knows people who are doing this work and they support her.
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"She was really able to develop not only an appreciation for science, but a sense of belonging in STEM, which is very important as it relates to fostering students to go on to pursue careers in science."
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<figcaption>Monica Hall-Porter (left) instructs middle school participants to hold hands to demonstrate the different types of chemical bonds during an event with the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. Image courtesy of Monica Hall-Porter
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KN: Would you say that being able to provide these experiences is one of the most rewarding aspects of your work?
MHP: The work really did follow me straight from my office in a university setting to the community where I facilitated hands-on science experiences for young folks. It definitely is one of the more rewarding aspects of my career because I do get to see students really come alive with regard to their love of STEM. But conversely, the other side of that is the ability to help faculty to facilitate their experiences in their own classroom that promote the best practices in STEM education. It's also very rewarding because it tells me that I have the ability to communicate scientifically important messages to a lot of different audiences. I believe that that's a very important skill to have, one that moves the work of promoting best practices in science education. I can't help but be proud of that. So those are the two things that I'm most proud of with regard to how my career has progressed.
KN: Thinking about how the pandemic has affected experiential learning opportunities, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how educators might adapt.
MHP: As we engage virtually, I would encourage educators to still pursue experiential learning, but do it on a micro scale. Keep it simple. Take advantage of resources that you already have that are readily available. For example, on our virtual field trip we are going to extract DNA with household materials. Not anything grand and ornate, but enough to keep interest stimulated; it's really important, and it’s something that can be done easily. Additionally, at all levels, whether it's during an unprecedented pandemic or a time that we would consider more normal, take advantage of opportunities that come your way. If you are in the position to ask for an enrichment activity or something that you want to do, don't hesitate to ask. My son's teacher has this activity that she uses called “fast finishers.” If students finish their work before everyone else, then they have this packet that they can go to that provides enrichment, or an activity for them to try to work on while they're waiting for the class to progress.Whether educators are resource endowed or not, throughout this pandemic I have been absolutely floored and inspired by the work that educators at the K-12 level, and also higher ed, are doing to facilitate learning in the pandemic. I don't think we can say enough about what our teachers and professors are doing at this time. For a lot of students, it is providing a perpetual beacon of hope, one that they can achieve, and will achieve. And I don't think we can appreciate that enough!
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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<figcaption>For more at-home science ideas, watch Monica Hall-Porter’s virtual field trip!
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The pandemic has significantly changed approaches to experiential learning with the shift to virtual classrooms. Monica Hall-Porter has found creative ways to model new methods for this type of pedagogy.

Ice and snow cover plants in the Texas Hill Country on February 15, 2021. Winter storm Uri brought historic cold weather, power outages, and traffic accidents to Texas as it swept across 26 states with a mix of freezing temperatures and precipitation. Image Credit: Sarika Khanwilkar

Why Texas was not prepared for Winter Storm Uri

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Imagine millions of people stranded in the cold without electricity, heat, or running water. Infrastructure has been crippled. Families are huddling for warmth in parked cars, and boiling water in their homes to ensure it is safe to drink. This may sound like the plot of a post-apocalyptic film, but it was very much a reality for millions of people across Texas last month.The week of February 13-17, a<a href="https://bit.ly/3lgFH0n"> record-setting winter storm</a> named Uri engulfed the state of Texas and brought with it plunging temperatures.Nearly 50% of Texas is powered by natural gas, 20% by coal, another 20% by wind and solar, and 10% by nuclear energy, according to the <a href="https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=TX">U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)</a>. With summer temperatures regularly soaring above 90 F, Texas energy systems safeguard against heat. The state’s power plants and natural gas system are not optimized for freezing conditions. Although Texas experienced a <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-blackout-preventable/">similar energy crisis 10 years ago</a>, and investigations concluded that Texas energy producers needed to insulate and winterize their systems for extreme cold, most systems remain poorly insulated.
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As weather conditions worsened and temperatures dropped in February, much of the state’s infrastructure for producing and delivering electricity simply froze, says Michael Webber, an energy resources professor at the University of Texas at Austin.Webber notes that several coal plants turned off because of frozen equipment at the plants. Along with some snow-covered solar panels and frozen wind turbines, there were a series of outages throughout the system. These outages turned off electricity in different parts of the state, including sections of the natural gas system that are electrically operated, such as pumps and antifreeze injection systems. This led to the shutdown of even more power plants, producing a perfect storm of power failures.All the while, Texas residents were turning up the heat, leading to a surge in demand.As a result of the freezing conditions and rapid surge in energy usage, the state’s power grid began to malfunction, leading to cascading failures in the system and widespread blackouts. The infrastructure failure was then compounded by Texas' energy grid independence and lack of resilience, because most of Texas does not have the option of channeling energy from other states.During the storm, at least<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/22/texas-power-grid-extreme-weather/"> 4.5 million</a> electricity customers in Texas lost power, an estimated<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/15/texas-winter-storm-deaths/"> 57 people died</a> due to hypothermia, and about<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/17/texas-winter-storm-power-outage-ercot/"> 12 million people</a> received “boil notices” because of water quality issues, the Texas Tribune reported.“So we have a water problem—freezing water, become a gas problem, become a power problem, become a bigger gas problem, become a bigger power problem, become a water problem and a humanitarian crisis,” says Webber.

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<figcaption>Nearly 12 million people in the state of Texas were told to boil tap water before consuming it after Winter Storm Uri caused power blackouts at water treatment facilities.
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One resident who found herself without power for three nights was Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. Prior to the storm, Hidalgo<a href="https://twitter.com/HarrisCoJudge/status/1360659242781392897?s=20"> warned her county’s nearly 5 million residents</a> about the impending winter storm, but this did not spare her from the ferocity of the blizzard or the lack of preparation by utility companies.“It’s worth asking the question: Who set up this system and who perpetuated it knowing that the right regulation was not in place?” <a href="https://bit.ly/3vXSsSI">Hidalgo told the Associated Press</a>. “Those questions are going to have to be asked and I hope that changes will come. The community deserves answers.”In the aftermath of the Texas energy crisis, many are asking questions. How did this happen? Who is to blame? What role did natural gas, coal, and renewable energy play in the crisis? And how can we prevent a similar disaster from happening again?
To answer these questions, one must understand America’s energy grid and how power is distributed.When it comes to its grid, Texas is an island. In the United States, there are three grids: east, west and Texas. Texas has an independent grid, which allows it to be untethered by <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-set-stage-its-energy-crisis-more-80-years-ago-n1258341">federal regulation</a>, and unlike most other states, it can generate enough electricity within its borders to be self-sufficient.

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<figcaption>A view of the ERCOT Grid Control Center at their headquarters in Taylor, TX. Controllers route electricity through over 37,000 circuit miles of high-voltage transmission wires, and serve 26 million energy customers in Texas. Image courtesy of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)
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However, this also means that if something goes wrong, the state has difficulty importing power from neighboring states, leaving infrastructure vulnerable should extreme weather events cripple the system, says Webber.“So what happened in Texas, it’s not just about Texas,” says environmental engineer Greeshma Gadikota. “It’s about the need to rethink our energy infrastructure, the need to build in resilience in response to a changing climate in many, many different parts of the world. The risks 20, 30, 40 years ago are different from the risks that we face now.”According to Webber, we’re building our infrastructure for yesterday’s weather, not tomorrow’s weather.“The next hundred years will be different,” says Webber. “We know this, that the weather events will be more extreme and more frequent, which means hotter and colder, wetter and drier. So we have to deal with this and design for that.”
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<h3>The role of renewable energy in the Texas energy crisis</h3>
 As power started to come back online following the storm,<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/texas-wind-turbines-frozen/"> false information began to circulate</a> regarding renewable energy and its connection to the energy crisis, reports The Texas Tribune. Some even identified <a href="https://bit.ly/399PFfl">frozen wind turbines</a> in West Texas as the root of the state’s energy supply problem. In reality, wind power makes up<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/natural-gas-power-storm/"> only a fraction</a> of the energy generated during the winter in Texas.“Texas is a gas state,” says Webber.Yet, some misleadingly attributed the power outages to frozen wind turbines.“This is what happens when you force the grid to rely in part on wind as a power source,” U.S. Rep. <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/directory/dan-crenshaw/">Dan Crenshaw</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/RepDanCrenshaw/status/1361792727097212929">tweeted in mid-February.</a> “When weather conditions get bad as they did this week, intermittent renewable energy like wind isn’t there when you need it.”“We should never build another wind turbine in Texas,” read a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MillerForTexas/posts/we-should-never-build-another-wind-turbine-in-texas-the-experiment-failed-big-ti/3103832863172197/">Facebook post</a> from Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. “The experiment failed big time.”However, malfunctions in natural gas, coal, and nuclear energy systems were to blame for nearly<a href="https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/ercot-update-press-conference-on-texas-power-outages-february-17"> twice as many outages</a> as frozen wind turbines and solar panels, stated the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which runs the state’s power grid, during a press conference in February.The world’s energy consumption is predicted to grow by 56% in the next 25 years, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). As the demand for energy swells, the stores of fossil fuels we currently depend on are dwindling and becoming more costly to obtain. The burning of these fossil fuels also discharges carbon, which has long-lasting negative effects on the environment—contributing to greenhouse gases that warm the planet and contribute to climate change.With demand for energy swelling, the Texas energy crisis serves as a wake-up call which exposes “<a href="https://grist.org/energy/texas-repeatedly-failed-to-protect-its-power-grid-against-extreme-weather/">cascading failures</a>” in the infrastructure of the U.S. electric system. It also reveals that these systems may not be ready to absorb the frenetic<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/one-texas-storm-exposed-energy-grid-unprepared-climate-change-rcna289"> climate-related spikes</a> in demand for power that Winter Storm Uri produced, reports NBC News.
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“If the most energy-abundant region of the world can run short on energy, it can happen anywhere,” says Webber. “So climate science can be integrated into our energy planning to make the energy systems perform better. That’s what we need to do.”
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As we continue to develop our renewable energy sources, electric grid regulators say the U.S. will need to develop<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/one-texas-storm-exposed-energy-grid-unprepared-climate-change-rcna289"> vast supplies of power storage</a>, such as gigantic batteries, which rely heavily on innovative technologies.As we grow more dependent on infrastructure to remain resilient during extreme fluctuations in temperature and weather conditions, we have to prepare ourselves and educate students on how communities will need to develop different renewable energy sources and energy storage technologies to meet their unique needs and environmental contexts. One helpful resource is the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/lab/energy/">NOVA Energy Lab,</a> where students investigate what energy is, how it can be converted into useful forms, and why some sources are running low. It also allows students to compete to see whose renewable energy system designs can produce the most power. Below are examples of other NOVA resources that address these topics:

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<h3>Build a better grid with energy resources from NOVA</h3>
 <a href="https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvel.sci.int.energy/energy-lab-interactive/">The Energy Lab Interactive</a> Use scientific data to design renewable energy systems for cities across the U.S. in this interactive from the NOVA Energy Lab. In the research challenge, students investigate what energy is, how it can be converted into useful forms, and why some sources are running low. Students will also have the chance to compete with others to see whose designs can produce the most power.
<a href="https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvel.sci.tech.growapp/growing-appetites-limited-resources/">Growing Appetites, Limited Resources</a> In this video from NOVA’s Energy Lab, learn about the growing demand for energy and the impacts of energy use. Currently, the majority of the world’s energy comes from fossil fuels, which are limited resources. The burning of fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that pollutes the atmosphere and affects Earth's climate. Share with your students how a sustainable future depends on finding alternative energy sources and developing new technologies that can support increasing energy demand and minimize environmental impacts.
<a href="https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvel.sci.tech.wind/wind-power/">Wind Power</a> In this video from NOVA’s Energy Lab, learn about the benefits and limitations of wind power technologies. Modern wind turbines transform wind energy into electrical energy by capturing wind to turn an electrical generator. Wind farms that produce electricity using wind turbines are environmentally friendly, but they are not yet in widespread use. Some of the issues that limit the potential of wind power include energy storage, location, and cost.
<a href="https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvsb-sci-gridstorage/wgbh-nova-search-for-the-super-battery-comparing-grid-energy-storage-solutions/">Search for the Super Battery | Comparing Grid Energy Storage Solutions</a> With the means to currently store just 2% of its generating capacity, the United States is searching for efficient and economical energy-storage solutions. Using <a href="https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvsb-sci-gridstorage/wgbh-nova-search-for-the-super-battery-comparing-grid-energy-storage-solutions/">this resource</a> from NOVA: Search for the Super Battery, students can examine three different technologies to store energy from renewable or conventional power sources for later use on an electrical grid.
<a href="https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvel.sci.tech.smart/toward-a-smarter-grid/">Toward A Smarter Grid</a> The infrastructure of the U.S. electric power grid is over 100 years old and ill-equipped to handle the increasing demand for electricity and new power sources. A smarter power grid with an automated system to monitor problems and control the distribution of electricity could make the grid more efficient, balance energy demands, and lower the cost of electricity. Using this resource, students will learn how upgrading the power grid could be a key step toward a sustainable energy future.
<a href="https://lsintspl3.wgbh.org/en-us/lesson/ilwgbh17-nvtoe-ilenergyfuture/1">Deciding Your City’s Energy Future</a> In this interactive, students play the role of a director of the fictional Greenville Light &amp; Power Department where they oversee the city’s power grid, the network of power lines and other equipment used to deliver electricity from suppliers to customers. Students must evaluate fossil fuel and renewable energy sources to decide which type of energy should be used to power the city’s electric grid in the coming decades as Greenville grows — evaluating the availability, cost, reliability, and environmental impact of different energy sources.
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The February storm left dozens of Texans dead and millions without power—and exposed an aging energy grid unprepared for a changing climate. Can we build something better?

A satellite image showing a cone on the edge of the  Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano near Tonga before its massive  eruption on January 15. Image Credit: Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Why Tonga’s volcanic eruption was so destructive

When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted under the waters of the Pacific Ocean on January 15, its roar was heard nearly <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2022/01/17/the-eruption-near-tonga-was-so-powerful-you-could-hear-it-in-alaska/">6,000 miles away in Alaska</a>. Satellites captured not only huge clouds of ash, but also an atmospheric shockwave that radiated from the volcano at nearly the speed of sound. Located on the seismically active <a href="https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/buac17-35-sci-ess-oceanvolcanoes/deep-ocean-volcanoes/">Ring of Fire</a>, the eruption severed a crucial undersea communications cable and triggered tsunami warnings across the Pacific Ocean.
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The volcano, which previously erupted in 2009 and 2014, had been simmering for about a month. However, those earlier eruptions were not nearly as destructive as the one in January. Volcanologists believe that when the volcanic rock began to rupture, the pressure release caused the gasses within the magma to expand quickly, blasting it into the air. With the caldera (a large depression formed when a volcano erupts and collapses) 650 feet below the sea surface, the volcano is at a “Goldilocks depth for a big explosion,” Shane Cronin, a volcanology professor at the University of Auckland told the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/experts-explain-why-tonga-eruption-was-so-big">Associated Press</a>. Had the eruption occurred any deeper, the pressure of the water would have helped stifle the explosion, said Cronin.When the Hunga volcano erupted in the past, magma slowly entered the sea water. This generated a thin layer of steam between the magma and the water, which allowed the surface of the magma to cool. In the case of the January eruption, magma blasted straight into the water with no time for cooling. When the super hot magma reached the 68-degree seawater it sparked an extremely violent blast similar to a weapons-grade explosion, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-tonga-eruption-was-so-violent-and-what-to-expect-next/">Scientific American reported</a>.

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<img alt="Map of Tonga (Google Earth + USGS)" class="richtext-image full-width" src="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/media/images/Map_of_Tonga_Google_Earth__USGS.width-990_ICJYtzb.png"/>
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<div class="credit">The eruption rocked the Kingdom of Tonga, an archipelago just 40 miles from the volcano, and a little over 1,400 miles from New Zealand. Image Credit: U.S. Geological Survey (left) and Google Earth (right)</div>
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“This is a preliminary estimate, but we think the amount of energy released by the eruption was equivalent to somewhere between 4 to 18 megatons of TNT,” Jim Garvin, chief scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, told <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/tonga-volcano-blast-hundreds-powerful-hiroshima-nasa-says-rcna13445">NBC News</a>. “That number is based on how much was removed, how resistant the rock was, and how high the eruption cloud was blown into the atmosphere at a range of velocities.”The South Pacific nation of Tonga has a population of just over 105,000 people, according to the World Bank. Earlier this month, the Tongan government estimated that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/02/tsunami-hit-tonga-goes-into-lockdown-after-workers-helping-deliver-aid-catch-covid">84% of the nation's residents</a> had been affected by both the eruption’s 300-mile ash cloud and resulting tsunami. On some islands, every single home was leveled by the tsunami.The <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/01/1110162">UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)</a> reported that there are still serious concerns about access to safe drinking water and groundwater. Tonga’s agricultural sector, which includes crops, livestock, and fisheries, has “suffered substantially” as a result of the eruption. OCHA estimates that 60%-70% of livestock-raising households have lost animals, had their land damaged, or had water supplies contaminated.On the main island of Tongatapu, five communities have suffered “significant damage” to households along the coast. On Nomuka Island, almost all structures were covered in ash, and 260 structures were damaged, destroyed, or flooded, according to the <a href="https://bit.ly/3rXs5uV">United Nations Satellite Center.</a>"This disaster has shaken the people of Tonga like nothing we have seen in our lifetime," Sione Taumoefolau, secretary general of Tonga Red Cross, said in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/relief-efforts-ramping-up-tonga-more-aid-arrives-2022-01-26/">a statement</a>. "The tsunami has wiped out homes and villages, but we are already rebuilding amid the ashes."As the Tongan government works to relocate the citizens who lost their homes, international phone coverage and wi-fi connectivity was eventually restored, <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/460881/tonga-eruption-seasonal-workers-hit-hard-report">Radio New Zealand reported on February 4.</a>.
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When it comes to forecasting future eruptions of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, Cronin believes there are two possible scenarios.“The first is that it has exhausted itself for now and will go quiet for the next 10 to 20 years as magma slowly returns,” Cronin told the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/experts-explain-why-tonga-eruption-was-so-big">Associated Press</a>. “A second scenario is that new magma rises up quickly to replace that which exploded, in which case there might be ongoing eruptions.”However, Cronin explained that due to the cracks and rifts caused by the January eruption, more gas is able to escape, meaning future eruptions will not be as big in the near future. He says there needs to be increased monitoring of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai and Tonga’s other nearby volcanoes to predict future eruptions.To learn more about the risks and benefits of living near a volcano, the science behind underwater volcanoes, how tsunamis are created, and the effect ash has on Earth’s atmosphere, explore these NOVA resources:<a href="https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/buac17-35-sci-ess-oceanvolcanoes/deep-ocean-volcanoes/">Deep Ocean Volcanoes</a> Learn about underwater volcanoes like Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, and the discovery of the erupting deep-ocean volcano West Mata. Students can view an animation of the ocean floor as well as footage of the eruption of West Mata.<a href="https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvvof-sci-co2/protecting-people-from-a-hidden-hazard-of-volcanoes-volcano-on-fire-and-volcano-on-the-brink/">Protecting People from a Hidden Hazard of Volcanoes</a> Use these resources from NOVA: Volcano on Fire and Volcano on the Brink to explore how scientists study and track the emission of carbon dioxide, a byproduct of volcanic activity. Learn how scientists are trying to protect people living in the Democratic Republic of Congo from the dangers of this and other harmful gases found in high concentrations both on land and underwater throughout the region.<a href="https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvvotb-sci-livingnrvolcano/risks-and-benefits-of-living-near-a-volcano-volcano-on-the-brink/">Risks and Benefits of Living Near a Volcano</a> Learn how fluoride contamination of the drinking water caused by volcanic activity leads to health problems for the population surrounding Mt. Nyamuragira in the Democratic Republic of Congo, while nutrients from lava create rich soil and productive farmland, in this video from NOVA: Volcano on the Brink.<a href="https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvkv-sci-ash/wgbh-nova-killer-volcanoes-ash-distribution-in-earths-atmosphere/">Ash Distribution in Earth's Atmosphere</a> Scientists use chemical evidence from ice cores and atmospheric circulation patterns to locate a monster volcano that erupted in 1257 in this video from NOVA: Killer Volcanoes. Geologist Nelia Dunbar studies the chemical composition of a layer of volcanic ash deposited in Greenland. Its contents provide a unique signature that can be used to match it to its source. The discovery of identical evidence in an ice core taken from Antarctica suggests the same ash cloud blanketed the entire planet. Based on satellite data and computer modeling of ash clouds in Earth’s atmosphere, climatologist Michael Mills narrows down the possible eruption location to somewhere near the equator.<a href="https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvkq.vid.earth.tsunami/birth-of-a-tsunami/">Birth of a Tsunami</a> Discover how an earthquake on the ocean floor or a violent volcanic eruption like Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai can cause an enormous wave—a tsunami. When the Earth’s tectonic plates move and grind against each other, pressure that builds up is released in the form of an earthquake. That earthquake displaces the seafloor and zillions of gallons of water above it, creating a tsunami that races away from the center and can be deadly when it reaches land.
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Explore these NOVA resources to better understand the volcanology behind Tonga’s massive undersea eruption in January.

No images or monuments of Onesimus exist in the public record, yet his contributions, and those of Africans across the diaspora expanded medical knowledge. Image Credit: Jean Baptiste Debret/slaveryimages.org/CC BY-NC 4.0

How African Indigenous knowledge helped shape modern medicine

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In 1721, the <a href="https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/special-edition-on-infectious-disease/2014/the-fight-over-inoculation-during-the-1721-boston-smallpox-epidemic/">smallpox virus</a> was spreading rapidly through Boston, ultimately infecting nearly half of the city’s 11,000 inhabitants and claiming the lives of some 850 people. Many Bostonians survived the deadly virus thanks to <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/smallpox/history/history.html">variolation</a>, a method of deliberately infecting individuals with small amounts of smallpox pus through cuts in the skin or nasal inhalation.While the New England preacher Cotton Mather, a prominent figure in the Salem witch trials, has largely been credited with introducing the process of variolation to the colonies, it was actually an enslaved West African man named Onesiumus who instructed Mather on this procedure. Although Onesiumus was not credited with the discovery publicly, Mather disclosed in a diary entry that it was in fact Onesimus who first suggested this method. Variolated against the virus in West Africa, Onesmius shared the knowledge that intentionally infecting a healthy person with a small amount of smallpox pus from an infected patient was a common practice that helped stave off a deadly infection as the body built a resistance to the disease. Onesimus’s knowledge of smallpox led to one of the first known inoculation campaigns in American history, according to a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1758062/pdf/v013p00082.pdf">journal article</a> in BMJ Quality &amp; Safety.Successful variolation treatments had also been achieved in<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1758062/pdf/v013p00082.pdf"> Turkey, China and India</a> by 1721. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftLFaJGzTqw&amp;t=314s">Lady Mary Wortley Montague</a> is largely credited for bringing smallpox variolation to Great Britain after she learned of the medical therapy in Turkey.

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<img alt="An advertisement from 1760 announces the sale of Africans from the Upper Guinea Coast region, and stresses they are free of smallpox, a common disease on the Atlantic crossing" class="richtext-image full-width" src="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/media/images/smallpox_advertisement_resized.width-990_WECWx2i.png"/>
<figcaption>An advertisement from 1760 announces the sale of Africans from the Upper Guinea Coast region, and stresses they are free of smallpox, a common disease on the Atlantic crossing. Image Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-10293
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Although Onesimus’s medical experience saved countless lives during the Boston epidemic, he was omitted from medical history for centuries. In 1932, during a speech to the <a href="https://www.massmed.org/About/MMS-Leadership/History/The-Story-of-Smallpox-in-Massachusetts/#.YCRjqhNKjvX">Massachusetts Medical Society</a>, Dr. Samuel Bayard Woodward announced that the idea of variolation “came then from Cotton Mather and from Cotton Mather only.”Today, there is a movement among historians of science to confront the erasure of these contributions — especially among historians of color who have long fought to correct public understanding.“I would say that one thing to learn from Onesimus's story is that medicine advances thanks to the knowledge, labor, and experience of people that often go unrecognized due to racial and other biases,” Reed College history professor Margot Minardi told <a href="https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/how-an-enslaved-man-helped-boston-battle-a-devastating-disease-300-years-ago/2300728/">NBC Boston</a>.While Onesimus introduced the process of variolation to the Americas, many students are not aware of the history of Onesimus, or the role that enslaved Africans played in shaping early modern science in the Americas.In contrast to math and reading, there are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/08/28/what-do-students-learn-about-slavery-it-depends-where-they-live/">no nationally agreed upon content standards</a> for teaching social studies and United States history. That means that every state teaches the history of slavery differently, and what public school students do learn is largely influenced by where they grow up.“One of the things that I hear frequently from undergraduate students is that they feel lied to,” says Carolyn Roberts, a professor and historian at Yale University who researches medicine and slavery in the Atlantic world. “They want to know why they didn’t learn about this history earlier, and the different influences and people who contributed to science.”In an effort to develop a baseline understanding of how slavery is taught and what is learned in the United States, the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/news/2018/01/31/splc-report-us-education-american-slavery-sorely-lacking">Southern Poverty Law Center</a> examined 12 widely used U.S. history books and conducted surveys with more than 1,700 history teachers and 1,000 high school seniors. Their findings revealed that many educators are not sufficiently equipped to teach the history of American slavery, with over 50% reporting that their textbook’s coverage of of the topic was inadequate.“The best textbooks maybe have 20 pages, and that’s in an 800-page textbook,” <a href="https://www.tolerance.org/author/maureen-costello">Maureen Costello</a>, director of Teaching Tolerance, a program at the Southern Poverty Law Center that promotes diversity education, told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/19/magazine/slavery-american-schools.html">The New York Times Magazine</a>. “At its best, slavery is taught because we have to explain the Civil War. We tend to teach it like a Southern problem and a backward economic institution.”Onesimus’s story raises an important question about our understanding of the history of science in the United States: What kinds of medical and botanical knowledge did African and African-descended people possess, and how did they contribute to early modern science? Even as they were brutally forced from their homelands, enslaved Africans passed on valuable medical knowledge in Britain, Europe, and the Americas.“African Indigenous medicine is one of the most well developed medical systems in the world, along with India and China,” says Roberts. “People don't know this when they think about Africa, they think of medical humanitarianism, but<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/herbal-medicines#:~:text=Herbal%20medicine%20has%20been%20used,and%20as%20alternative%2Fcomplementary%20medicine."> 80% of people around the world</a> use traditional medicine.” (Indigenous medicine <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolefisher/2020/11/29/7-native-american-inventions-that-revolutionized-medicine-and-public-health/?sh=4426c35f1e73">in the Americas</a> has also had a significant influence on global medical knowledge.)
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According to <a href="https://royalsociety.org/blog/2021/10/west-african-medical-knowledge/">documents sent to the Royal Society</a>, a “Mr. Floyd” and a “Mr. John Smyth” served as ministers at Cape Coast Castle in what is now Ghana, overseeing the enslaved people who were held in dungeons prior to being transported to the Americas. As the life expectancy for Royal African Company employees was just four to five years, the ministers were also searching for traditional methods to minimize deaths and improve the health of employees, while also searching for new botanicals for commercial drugs.

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<img alt="This engraving shows the top plan of Cape Coast Castle and other features surrounding the castle, e.g., the town, various paths." class="richtext-image full-width" src="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/media/images/Cape_Coast_Castle_Resized.width-990_Lm1cgeH.png"/>
<figcaption> Throughout the 18th century, Cape Coast Castle in present-day Ghana operated as Britain’s slave trading headquarters in West Africa. Illustration credit: Thomas Astley/CC BY-NC 4.0 
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Henry Oldenburg, a scientific correspondent for the society was particularly interested in the “diseases ye Inhabitants are most subject to” and what medicines they used to treat these illnesses, according to Roberts. He also wanted to know what poisons and antidotes West African healers used, and what tree bark kept their teeth healthy and white.Roberts has chronicled how John Smyth observed the anti-inflammatory properties of the “unnena plant” which could be boiled and then applied to swollen body parts to decrease water retention. Both palm oil and palm wine were used for a variety of purposes. Palm wine could be mixed with boiled unnena plants to ease constipation, and ointments could be derived from pounding the plant’s leaves and mixing them with palm oil to treat sores and wounds. It was from the enslaved Africans that Smyth also procured a treatment for dysentery by pounding, drying, baking, and consuming the “pocumma plant.” Treatments for stomach aches, smallpox, worms, venereal disease, toothaches, scurvy and hemorrhaging were among the lengthy list of cures Smyth learned from West African experts. However, the names of the West African botanical and medical experts who informed the minister’s correspondence are absent from these accounts to the Royal Society.The flow of Indigenous knowledge from Cape Coast Castle to the Royal Society would continue for more than a century, noted Roberts. West African medical practices were of primary importance to James Phipps, chief merchant at Cape Coast Castle, in his writings to his London employers: “We should be glad to have the assistance of an able Gardener, one that is well acquainted with Herbs, as we believe there may be many Simples found here, of very great benefit, being observed to be made use of by the Natives in Pharmacy, as well as Surgery and who succeed in many good Cures in both.”“The violent trafficking of millions of African people to the Americas has left our world with legacies we are reckoning with today,” Roberts wrote in a blog post for the <a href="https://royalsociety.org/blog/2021/10/west-african-medical-knowledge/">Royal Society</a>. “One such legacy is the lack of historical acknowledgement of West African people as scientists, botanical experts and medical practitioners, despite their presence in the archives.”In the book “Bitter Roots” Abena Dove Osseo-Asare describes how for over a century, conflicts over rights to medicinal plants found in African countries have existed between healers and scientists.“Specifically new medications made from rosy periwinkle, Asiatic pennywort, grains of paradise, Strophanthus Crytolepis, and hoodia,” writes Osseo-Asare. “Some of the pharmaceuticals have been profitable, most have led to patents, and all have resulted in controversies among the many people who have claimed rights to the plants and their biochemical constituents.”

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<img alt="Pink hoodia plant and thorns growing in the Kalahari Desert" class="richtext-image full-width" src="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/media/images/hoodia_resized.width-990_rjthxWR.png"/>
<figcaption>The Hoodia gordonii plant (known locally as Xhoba) grows wild in the vast Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa. Used by the San people to suppress appetite during long hunting excursions and times of famine, extracts from this plant are now used in weight loss supplements. Image Credit: Flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
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While past historians neglected the stories of enslaved people like Onesimus and the West African botanical and medical experts of Cape Coast Castle, there has been an increase in journal articles and news coverage around Onesimus’s contributions, with Boston Magazine naming him one of the <a href="https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2016/01/05/100-best-bostonians/">100 best Bostonians of all time</a>.“I think that educators can begin teaching these histories from a very young age, and talk about stories like Onesimus’ so that children will be able to see themselves as scientists,” says Roberts. “One of the ways that can happen is by understanding that they, the Black students, are part of a long legacy of healers.”
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In the 1700s, an enslaved man named Onesimus shared a novel way to stave off smallpox during the Boston epidemic. Here’s his little-told story, and how the Atlantic slave trade and Indigenous medicine influenced early modern science.

A landscape photo of the Cap Cod beach ecosystem where students walk in a single file line between the dunes.

Students in Nancy Gifford’s 7th grade science class participate in an annual field trip to Cape Cod National Seashore where they spend the day investigating sea-level rise, salt marsh carbon sequestration, and the changing diversity of species found in New England. Image Credit: Nancy Gifford

How to create local climate change projects with your students

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The mounting impacts of climate change are perhaps the greatest challenge facing our society in the next century. From heat waves and megafires to droughts and more intense storms, the United States is already experiencing a range of effects. At the same time, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/weathering-the-future/">innovative solutions</a> have emerged which draw on new and ancient wisdom as communities across the country are learning how to adapt. In U.S. schools, many teachers are increasingly being confronted with conversations about climate change by their students.According to a <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/teens-know-climate-change-is-real-they-want-schools-to-teach-more-about-it/2022/11">nationwide survey of teenagers by EdWeek Research Center</a>, 79% of high school students believe that climate change is real, and that it is mainly caused by human activity. However, the survey also found that just because students believe that human activity is driving climate change doesn’t mean they fully grasp the science behind it. Furthermore, 76% of teachers <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/students-want-climate-change-education-most-teachers-dont-get-enough-training/2023/01">have not received any professional training or education</a> on how to teach climate change — which affects their ability to accurately convey the scope of the problem and solutions.The United States has not mandated or developed nationwide teaching standards for climate change science in secondary schools. But for teachers who are invested in teaching it, designing <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-32898-6_5">inquiry-based projects</a> about local impacts and solutions can provide an entry point for students to conceptualize climate change concepts.NOVA interviewed three secondary school science teachers who have done this. Here’s how they are creating meaningful learning experiences, and how to apply their best practices to your own classrooms.
<h3>Provide opportunities for students to observe local impacts</h3>
 For Nancy Gifford, a 7th grade science educator in Chatham, Massachusetts, having students observe local climate change impacts helped bridge the gap between the disciplinary content and the real-world implications. One of Gifford’s favorite projects is a field trip to Cape Cod National Seashore that involves local park rangers and experts from the <a href="https://coastalstudies.org/">Center for Coastal Studies</a>. Gifford has been leading this field trip for the past eight years and over the course of the day students break into groups to do hands-on projects. They assess sea-level rise on Eastham Beach by measuring how the shoreline has evolved over time and where it is expected to be in 10-20 years; they collect core samples of marsh sediment to examine carbon sequestration in the marshes; and participate in a fishing activity to explore the changing diversity of species found in New England.“They're finding a lot of southern species moving up into the Cape Cod National Seashore area, and they're also noticing that the lobsters are moving further north,” Gifford says. “So now you don't really find lobsters south of Cape Cod anymore because of where the water is warming due to climate change.”When it comes to understanding how climate change is affecting the fisheries, every student knows someone who might be impacted directly or indirectly, Gifford explains.“They're either serving it on a plate or they're cooking it, or they're actually catching it and processing it,” she says. “That knowledge catches some of the kids that may not have been as interested at first about why this matters, but when you can show them climate change in their backyard, it makes it more real.”While a field trip to Cape Cod National Seashore is not accessible for every class, Gifford encourages educators to reach out to local naturalists and research centers to plan experiences. She also recommends using climate data from national research organizations or science outlets like <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/">NASA</a>, <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections">NOAA</a>, <a href="https://www.need.org/resources/climate-science-materials/">The NEED Project</a>, <a href="https://www.theclimateinitiative.org/">The Climate Initiative</a>, and <a href="https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/nova/t/earth-space-sciences/earth-human-activity/">NOVA</a> to help complement lessons.
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<h3>Transition from personal accountability to collective commitment</h3>
 In Tucson, Arizona, earth science and chemistry teacher Erik Fleming has found that one of the easiest climate resilience concepts for students to connect with is water conservation and usage. Fleming has students start by analyzing their family water bill. On the bill students are able to see things like household water use and how it compares with local water use averages on a graph. Within their household they calculate each individual’s usage and then create a personal plan to save more water.“This is the third time I've run this project with students and they've dialed it in really well,” Fleming says. “They have a good understanding of their own uses and personal contributions, and I try not to deflate them at the end, but they do figure out that they're probably much better at this than they think they are just by virtue of growing up in a desert.”In the 1970s, the city of Tucson was largely dependent on groundwater, but was <a href="https://www.kold.com/story/25862392/tucson-water-hits-a-milestone/">struggling to keep up</a> with the demand of a growing population. One of the water security tactics the city employed was transitioning to a <a href="https://waterinthewest.stanford.edu/news-events/news-press-releases/pricing-water-conservation-using-tiered-water-rates-structures-qa#:~:text=The%20lowest%20price%20block%20or,large%20lawns%20and%20swimming%20pools.">tiered water system</a>, in which customers could consume the amount of water necessary for needs such as for drinking and bathing at a lower price, but paid more as water usage exceeded essential needs, making things like maintaining lawns and swimming pools more expensive.“The city water department has been very proactive about education and outreach and also getting people to do more natural landscaping and less swimming pools,” Fleming says. “Because of this kind of community emphasis, to get students to the next level we calculate the entire watershed's water budget, and it does turn out that the city of Tucson and the Tucson Basin use less water than falls from the sky.”While Tucson is part of the Sonoran Desert ecosystem, the city can experience higher rainfall in the summer months, particularly August. During this time the city is inundated with several inches of rain.“We can get a couple of inches of rain in a day, which is intense for Tucson, and there's nowhere for it to go,” Fleming says. “So the long-term plan, after students understand their personal water use, is actually figuring out how we can redesign built infrastructure to better manage the flow of water.”
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<img alt="Three male students are filling in groundwater withdrawals diagrams in Erik Fleming's class." class="richtext-image full-width" src="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/media/images/Erik_Fleming_Students.width-990.png"/>
<figcaption>Following the water bill assignment, students in Erik Fleming's earth science class examine groundwater withdrawals to learn about responsible urban growth. Image Credit: Erik Fleming
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<h3>Encourage collaboration across scientific disciplines and state lines</h3>
 For the past 22 years, George Hademenos has been teaching high school physics in Richardson, Texas. “I don't like to just come in and address curricular objectives. What I want to do is make those objectives come to life for my students,” Hademenos says. “Climate change is a serious scientific issue and I want kids to be able to understand what it is, what it means, and how it impacts them.”This dedication to student excellence is what earned Hademenos an engineering education award at the 2023 National Science Teaching Association’s national conference in Atlanta.For Hademenos, climate change has always been an integral component of his physics curriculum to illustrate real-world extensions of concepts taught in class.High school physics students primarily learn about <a href="https://www.nextgenscience.org/sites/default/files/HS%20PS%20topics%20combined%206.12.13.pdf">core concepts</a> such as waves and electromagnetic radiation, energy transfer, forces and interactions, and structure and properties of matter. Hademenos builds on these existing standards by challenging students to apply that knowledge to complex, interdisciplinary problems like climate change.In one project several years ago, students designed, modeled, constructed, tested, and analyzed data from a 3D-printed rover vehicle referred to as <a href="https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1119/1.5084920?journalCode=pte">ROAVEE (Remotely Operated Amphibious Vehicle for Environmental Exploration)</a>. The rover was equipped with sensors to collect data from air and water as the vehicle navigated on solid terrain as well as on water.“Physics is hands-on science. It's not really something to be taught, it's something to be explored with your hands,” Hademenos says. “The overall objective of this project was to work in collaboration with another teacher so that we could do the mechanics part and then we could give it to the AP environmental students who could then use it to get more detailed data.” This year, Hademenos participated in “<a href="https://www.floatboat.org/?fbclid=IwAR3CATWuTYQg87PwX9tjIiheVOYp8-Qx3SzGhoeSFrScDr40AL1Sre2VTCA">Float Your Boat</a>,” a project coordinated by the University of Washington Polar Science Center. It allows students to participate in ongoing research and learn about the circulation of the Arctic Ocean and how its sea-ice cover is changing.
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<img alt="In the Arctic tundra two polar scientists hold up signs for Richardson High School and Shaler Area Elementary and Middle Schools" class="richtext-image full-width" src="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/media/images/Float_Your_BoatRichardson_High_School.width-990.png"/>
<figcaption>Physics students from Richardson High School participated in "Float Your Boat," an international project designed to engage students in polar science, as well as the impact of climate change on polar regions. Image Credit: Sarah Johnson, Ignatius Rigor, and Jim Johnson
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Hademenos’s students decorated 8-inch long wooden boats, each stamped with a number and a web address provided by the Polar Science Center. These boats are then transported to the Arctic Ocean and embedded on an ice floe with a buoy. The buoy will transmit location data and the students can log into a website and track their boats throughout the process.The students will also be communicating with a high school in Utqiagvik—the northernmost town in Alaska—who are working on the same research project to foster collaboration.For Gifford, Fleming, and Hademenos, it’s not enough to just address climate change in the classroom. They strive to help students connect with impacts and solutions in their communities in a variety of ways.“I think when (students) go back to their own beaches, they're seeing that the tides are higher in their neighborhoods,” Gifford says of the students who have participated in the Cape Cod trip. “Areas that are flooding that would only flood during a hurricane or big storm are flooding pretty regularly now, and I think that that probably has the most impact on them because it's real, and they can see it, and we can measure it.”
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Three STEM educators share best practices for tackling climate change in the classroom through project-based learning.

Yanely Espinal, the host of the Financial Lab, is featured in front of a dark blue background. Directly to her right are three illustrations a credit card, graduation cap, and bank institution.

In NOVA's newest lab, practice making financial decisions and examine the behaviors that influence how money is spent, and how these decisions can increase or stall progress toward financial well-being.

A new game teaches financial literacy and decision-making

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When purchasing a new vehicle, you can choose many add-ons and customizations. But while a sunroof, heated seats, and built-in GPS may sound appealing, they all come with a cost. Choosing to spend money on extra features could result in the loss of another opportunity, such as the ability to go on a road trip, see your favorite band play, or fulfill a preexisting financial goal. These losses are known as opportunity cost: the lost opportunity when you choose one option over another. It’s one of many subtle concepts that play an important role in personal financial management.Illuminating those kinds of concepts is exactly what NOVA's newest lab is designed to do. The online game, launched in February, lets students practice making financial decisions and examine the behaviors that influence how money is spent. And, ultimately, understand how these decisions can increase or stall progress toward financial well-being.
The <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/lab/financial/">NOVA Financial Lab</a> weaves real world examples into a narrative structure, centering psychology and behavior by design. In contrast to other financial literacy games, the lab focuses on behavioral principles related to spending and saving, and provides context for applying new knowledge to build healthy financial behaviors. The science of spending is broken down into three mini-games that allow players to identify common biases that crop up when we think about money, and allows users to practice strategies for overcoming them by taking care of an imaginary pet.A 2018 study found that teens in Estonia, Finland, Canada, Poland, and Australia all <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/pisa2018/#/finance/intlcompare">scored higher on average</a> than U.S. teens on a financial literacy assessment. These findings are from the financial literacy portion of the <a href="https://www.oecd.org/pisa/">Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)</a>, an international survey that collects data from 15-year old students in 20 education systems around the world. The 2015 PISA survey found that <a href="https://www.oecd.org/daf/fin/financial-education/many-15-year-olds-struggle-with-financial-literacy-according-to-oecd-pisa-report.htm">one in five 15-year-olds in the United States</a> lacks basic financial literacy skills and knowledge of key concepts required to make financial decisions.A potential reason for gaps in financial knowledge is that many students do not learn about finances and money management in the classroom—but rather <a href="https://www.oecd.org/daf/fin/financial-education/PISA-Financial-Literacy-Launch-Summary-Record.pdf">from their parents</a>. Many American students gain <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/14/us-students-scored-behind-estonia-on-this-financial-literacy-exam.html">financial knowledge</a> by observing and learning from their parents, and such financial skills are strongly related to socioeconomic status.
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It’s not all bad news: There has been a push within public schools to equip students with the financial knowledge they will need to take control and plan their future. Today, American teachers have a wider range of out-of-school education programs and activities they can use to teach about financial topics such as debt accrual, credit cards, and investing. And high school students in <a href="https://www.councilforeconed.org/survey-of-the-states-2020/">21 states</a> are now required to complete a personal finance class as a graduation requirement, according to the Council for Economic Education. But there is still a serious knowledge deficit.“The (PISA) study shows that many of our students—roughly one-fifth overall—don’t have the skills they need to make prudent decisions about their personal finances and struggle with everyday tasks, like determining the best value between two products at the market and knowing how to respond to a phishing email that looks like it’s coming from their bank,” Peggy G. Carr, associate commissioner of assessments at the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the test in the U.S., <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/14/us-students-scored-behind-estonia-on-this-financial-literacy-exam.html">told CNBC</a> in 2020.While players of NOVA’s Financial Lab probably will not need to sneak their pets into a concert or draft a retirement plan for them in real life, doing so in an interactive game can help them learn about concepts like budgeting, interest, and debt. “What we hope people start to do is really think ‘What decisions should I make now to make better decisions later?’” says Jonathan Corbin, senior behavioral scientist at the Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University. Here’s a quick preview:
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<img alt="A grey cat is featured in a clothing store trying on clothes. The prices of each item are featured below each item." class="richtext-image full-width" src="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/media/images/Shopportunity_Cost.width-990.png"/>
<figcaption>Shopportunity Cost explores the concept of opportunity cost, the missed opportunity that results from choosing one option and forgoing another.
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Game 1: In Shopportunity Cost, players are getting ready to go to a concert with their pet! But in order to sneak them in, they will need to make sure their pet passes as human. With each item users buy comes a challenge: how to maximize your pet’s happiness while sticking to a budget. This scenario introduces players to an important financial concept known as opportunity cost, the loss of an opportunity that results from choosing one option over another.
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<img alt="A grey cat is featured in a living room. Players must buy essential items for that pet that can include flea and tick meds, a litter box, nail clippers, or dry cat food." class="richtext-image full-width" src="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/media/images/Budget_Buster.width-990.png"/>
<figcaption>Mental accounting is a cognitive bias that explains how humans tend to assign subjective value to finances, depending on how the money was earned, how it was intended to be used, and how it influences wellbeing.
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Game 2: In Budget Buster, players learn about the concept of mental accounting, a behavioral economics concept that explains how humans tend to assign subjective value to finances, depending on how the money was earned, how it was intended to be used, and how it influences wellbeing. In Game 2, users will manage checking, credit, and savings accounts while caring for a pet over a six-month period. Along with purchasing essential and non-essential items to attend to their pet’s basic needs and happiness, players have to contend with unforeseen circumstances like medical emergencies. The game also introduces the 50-30-20 rule, a budgeting concept that involves devoting 50% of income to essentials, 30% to non-essentials, and 20% to savings.
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<img alt='A grey cat is pictured in a garage standing next to a bulletin board with a calendar on it. The date reads 2022. To the right of the cat is a device that has a "time machine" sign on it.' class="richtext-image full-width" src="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/media/images/Exponential_Potential.width-990.png"/>
<figcaption>In this mini game, players must overcome exponential growth bias by grasping the effect of interest rates over time, and strategize the best way to pay off their pet’s long-term debts and invest in retirement savings based on interest rates.
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Game 3: In Exponential Potential, the focus is on longer term financial planning. When players glimpse their pet’s future, the outcome is not looking very good. Luckily, players can go back in time to decide how to pay off debts and make investments to maximize net worth. Players’ success depends on mastering compound interest and using it to their advantage.After each playthrough, players earn a trophy for their pet and a tip for how to apply what they’ve learned to making financial decisions in real life. Managing money is something we all have to contend with. There are many factors that are beyond people’s control, starting with the social and economic situation they are born into. But when it comes to what you can control–your behavior–a little insight and practice overcoming the bad habits that undermine financial health, and which companies try to exploit, can really pay off.<a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/lab/financial/">LAUNCH THE FINANCIAL LAB</a>Visit the <a href="https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/novalabs/t/financial-lab/">Financial Lab collection on PBS LearningMedia</a> which includes a lesson plan, a teaching guide with instructions for navigating the game, and discussion questions for several of the videos in the game.
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How can you identify and overcome biases that hurt you financially? NOVA teamed up with Duke University’s Center for Advanced Hindsight to design the NOVA Financial Lab, a game that breaks down the behavioral science behind financial decision-making.

Confiscated wildlife ends up in the National Wildlife Property Repository, a 22,000 square foot warehouse near Denver, Colorado that houses wildlife items that have been forfeited or abandoned to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Image Credit: Ryan Moehring / USFWS National Digital Library

The 21st Century Threat to Wildlife is "Cyberpoaching"

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In July 2013, Krishnamurthy Ramesh, head of the monitoring program at Panna Tiger Reserve in central India, received a security alert. Someone was attempting to access his email account from a location more than<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131010-poaching-technology-tigers-endangered-animals-science/"> 600 miles away from his office</a>. Sitting in Ramesh’s inbox was an email reporting the encrypted coordinates of an endangered Bengal tiger.
Tigers are considered “walking gold” on the black market. Although leading Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) organizations have <a href="https://bit.ly/3jGDvgg">banned the use of tiger parts</a>, a robust illegal market that values tigers as luxury items—particularly their bones and pelts—still exists.
However, the demand for wildlife products is not limited to tigers. Elephants, rhinos, pangolins, sharks, and many other species are part of this massive illicit trade. The world of wildlife trafficking and poaching is orchestrated by highly organized crime syndicates which rake in profits<a href="https://www.interpol.int/en/Crimes/Environmental-crime/Wildlife-crime"> exceeding $20 billion</a> per year. It is the fourth most profitable illegal enterprise behind<a href="https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/corruption/wildlife-and-forest-crime.html"> narcotics, weapons, and human trafficking</a>, and is considered a significant contributor to the<a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/24/13596"> sixth mass extinction</a>.

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<figcaption>Less than 4,000 tigers remain in the wild. Image courtesy of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) 
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Although the suspicious log-in attempt was thwarted by Ramesh’s server, and the tiger’s exact location was encrypted, the cybersecurity breach exposed the threat of an endangered animal’s GPS coordinates falling into the wrong hands.
Today, emails are encrypted by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6FanLhvsEs">coded email programs</a> to prevent others from reading them. However,<a href="https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvcy-sci-cybercodes/cyber-codes/"> not all online activity is encrypted</a> and in some cases browsing history, text messages, and data from apps can be intercepted. Emails are normally encrypted when they are sent, but can sometimes be decrypted before they reach their recipient. Cybersecurity news often focuses on how hackers access personal information, bank accounts, social media, and government data. But what if “cyberpoachers” started targeting information on the locations of endangered species through their animal tracking data?
<h2>The Rise of Wildlife Cybercrime</h2>
The illegal wildlife trade has transformed with the growth and accessibility of the internet. Animals that used to be sold in physical markets are now sold by <a href="https://www.ifaw.org/press-releases/tech-companies-wildlife-trafficking-online">anonymous online vendors</a>. As a result, a largely<a href="https://www.ifaw.org/journal/hot-on-the-trail-of-cyber-enabled-wildlife-traffickers"> unregulated online market</a> allows criminal enterprises to sell illegally acquired wildlife products, and transport them around the world. The consumer-to-consumer marketplace has made buying shark fins, pangolin scales, and rhino horns as easy as click, pay, ship.

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<figcaption>Infographic courtesy of IFAW
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The 2018 International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) report <a href="https://www.ifaw.org/resources/disrupt-wildlife-cybercrime">Disrupt: Wildlife Cybercrime</a> identified more than 5,000 advertisements spread across more than 100 online marketplaces and social media platforms, cataloguing close to 12,000 endangered and threatened specimens worth almost $4 million. These items were completely accessible to the public; the report did not include items advertised in closed or private Facebook groups, password-protected websites, or the hidden part of the internet—the <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/09/the-truth-about-the-dark-web-kumar.htm">dark web</a>.
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“Many of the species preyed upon by wildlife criminals are in danger of approaching a tipping point where their diminishing numbers can no longer sustain their populations,” described Rikkert Reijnen, program director of wildlife crime at IFAW, in the Disrupt report. “Some, such as rhinos, may have already reached that point. Disrupting wildlife cybercrime is a critical component of ensuring the welfare, safety and survival of endangered and threatened animals.”

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<figcaption>A wildlife ranger stands guard as towers of confiscated ivory go up in smoke in Kenya's Nairobi National Park. The country burned 105 tons of ivory in 2016 to send a stern message: Ivory is worthless unless it is on elephants. Image courtesy of IFAW
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Unfortunately, illegal online markets aren’t the only “digital threat” to endangered wildlife. In recent years, hackers have exploited the very systems designed to monitor and protect these animals. By decrypting location data from radio tags and GPS collars, hackers can track down animals or reveal their whereabouts to those who would harm them. (Hacking by nature is not good or bad—it is essentially solving problems in creative and innovative ways. Some hackers use questionable methods of acquiring information, whether with intent to help or harm, while others use hackathons to improve existing security protocols by collaborating as a community to solve complex problems.)
“Being able to put on a map exactly where animals are in space in time, that’s what one needs to exploit them,” wrote Steven J. Cooke, a biology professor at Carleton University in Canada, in an article in the journal <a href="http://www.fecpl.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Cooke_et_al-2017-Conservation_Biology-1.pdf">Conservation Biology</a>.
Cooke pointed out that the animal-tracking data scientists use to safeguard animals could potentially be used to harm them by poachers, commercial fishermen, and even nature lovers looking to photograph them.
Some of the troubling ways radio tags and collars have been used to “locate, disturb, capture, harm, or kill tagged animals,” Cooke pointed out, include<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/14/researcher-threatens-withhold-information-wa-killing-tagged-sharks"> great white sharks</a> that were killed in Western Australia by individuals who had tracked their radio signals to “reduce human-wildlife conflict,” as well as efforts by “wolf persecution” groups to decrypt data on radio collars to allow them to<a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/1913831/out-bounds-death-832f-yellowstones-most-famous-wolf#close"> hunt down and kill wolves</a> in Yellowstone National Park.

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<img alt="" class="richtext-image full-width" src="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/media/images/Wolf_watches_biologists_in_Yellowstone_Nationa.width-990_sdaNMxR.jpg"/>
<figcaption>A wolf watches biologists in Yellowstone National Park after being captured and fitted with a radio collar. Image Credit: William Campbell / USFWS National Digital Library 
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According to wildlife criminologist Monique Sosnowski, there are two primary ways poachers can attempt to access animal tracking data.
“First, they can attempt to bribe corrupt individuals such as anti-poaching entities or game guides charged with locating and protecting these species,” Sosnowski says.
When it comes to infiltrating the tracking systems themselves, Sosnowski notes that this requires more technical skill and is thus more likely attempted by organized criminal networks.
“Cases of this have been reported around the world as poachers have attempted to gain access to GPS data, or capitalize on VHF radio signals,” she says.
Tarah Wheeler, an international security fellow at New America, highlighted a third way “cyberpoachers” can track wild animals. If the location setting on your cell phone is switched on when snapping a photo of an animal, that data is embedded in the photo you post on social media, creating a<a href="https://mass.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvcy-sci-parable/a-cyber-privacy-parable/"> digital roadmap</a> for poachers to track wildlife.
“Because of the way cell phones track your location now, you don’t need to critique someone’s photograph to find out where they were at a given time,” Wheeler told <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/your-safari-selfies-are-cute-they-re-road-map-poachers-n1016031">NBC News</a>. “Metadata, including exact longitude and latitude, is stuck to the background of the photo.”
<h2>Hack the Poacher</h2>
Just as poachers might access animal tracking data through vacation selfies posted from a smartphone, <a href="https://hack-the-planet.io/">Hack the Planet</a> software engineers Tim van Deursen and Thijs Suijten have leveraged mobile phones to create a detection system to turn the tables on poachers.
Van Deursen and Suijten designed the <a href="https://www.hackthepoacher.com/">Hack the Poacher</a> system with the intent to deter poachers from protected areas and aid rangers in their ongoing fight against wildlife crime. The system uses sensors placed throughout the target area to detect poacher’s GSM cell phone signals as well as radio frequencies so rangers that patrol poaching hotspots can be alerted to their presence. Hack the Poacher works with individual parks to tailor their technology to the issues that rangers are seeing on the ground in specific poaching hotspots.

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<img alt="" class="richtext-image full-width" src="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/media/images/Hack_the_Poacher.width-990_v7Tx6LM.png"/>
<figcaption>In Zambia, where the Hack the Poacher system has been tested, poachers rely heavily on their mobile phones and radios for navigation and communication with each other to coordinate and organize extraction of ivory. Illustration courtesy of Hack the Poacher.
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“When your cell phone is on, it's always searching for GSM towers,” Suijten says. “The rangers at the park we are working with in Zambia told us that poachers always have a phone on them. Even if there is no GSM coverage, if their cell phone is on, it will always be searching for a cell phone tower and transmitting a strong signal to connect to service.”
The Hack the Poacher system can monitor up to 300 square kilometers (115 square miles) with just 30-40 sensors. The founders believe this system could eventually work in tandem with other tech tools like automated camera traps, machine learning, and satellite imagery, sending rangers alerts in real time and keeping them steps ahead of poachers.
“Many initiatives in the past focused on optimizing detection of poachers by trying to get eyes on the poacher with, for example, the use of drones, night vision cameras, radar, and satellites,” van Deursen says. “While these techniques can be effective, the costs are often too high to implement on a large scale, or too technologically advanced to be operated by people other than the tech team behind the product.”
Hack the Poacher is powered by three agencies:<a href="https://hack-the-planet.io/"> Hack the Planet</a>,<a href="https://www.q42.nl/en"> Q42</a>, and <a href="https://www.irnas.eu/">Irnas</a>. These strategic technology companies work on creating and implementing pragmatic technologies to tackle humanitarian and sustainability challenges. The Hack the Poacher project has also received support from World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Google, Green Safaris, No Wildlife Crime (NWC), and Smart Parks.
<h2>Using Radical Collaboration to Save Wildlife</h2>
Just as Hack the Poacher is working to stop poaching at its source, IFAW is working alongside the world’s largest e-commerce, technology, and social media companies to shut down online marketplaces that deal in the trade of illegal wildlife.
“Within IFAW, we have a lot of innovative and unique partnerships that we leverage to address cybercrime and analyze data related to wildlife trafficking,” says Danielle Kessler, acting US director of IFAW. “We are working through the <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/coalition-to-end-wildlife-trafficking-online">Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online</a> to collaborate with 36 tech companies across continents, such as eBay, Google, Microsoft and Tencent, to unite the industry and maximize impact for reducing wildlife trafficking online.”

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<figcaption>African elephants are the largest land animals on Earth and could be extinct in the next decade. Poachers kill an estimated 55 elephants a day. Image courtesy of IFAW
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When it comes to finding solutions at the nexus of wildlife crime and cybersecurity, hackathons provide opportunities for students to invent and innovate new technology for the good of the planet. This November, the Department of State is co-hosting<a href="http://www.zoohackathon.com/"> Zoohackathon</a> 2020, a global competition bringing together university students, coders, developers, and wildlife trafficking experts to create innovative solutions that address on-the-ground wildlife trafficking issues. Over the course of two and a half days, participants from five regional areas across the globe will compete virtually to address wildlife trafficking challenges, analyze the connections between wildlife trafficking and zoonotic disease in each region, and discuss locally focused case studies.
For Suijten, a focus on hard skills such as software engineering are critical, but relationship building and the ability to adapt and respond to circumstances in the field have proven to be invaluable to Hack the Poacher’s success.
“It’s amazing how much impact we can have with smart engineers, pragmatic tech, and a bit of duct tape,” Suijten says.
As people’s lives become more intertwined with the internet, the opportunities in cybersecurity continue to expand. To learn more about this growing field, visit the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/lab/cyber/">NOVA Cybersecurity Lab</a> to explore stories of real-world cyber attacks, profiles of cybersecurity experts, and short animated videos that explain the need for cybersecurity, privacy versus security, cryptography (cyber code), and the nature of hacking.
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The growth and accessibility of the internet has transformed the illegal wildlife trade.

Kara Norton

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