Meet the Project Team
Kristy Daniel
Dr. Kristy Daniel, Associate Professor of Biology at Texas State University, specializes in studying science communication and education practices to improve public access to biology. Daniel has served as P.I. on a prior NSF Informal Science Education grant, Get OUTSIDE, exploring the how technology can be leveraged to increase access to and learning about nature in an informal, outdoor setting. She is currently a Co-PI on the NSF INCLUDES grant, ACCEYSS, exploring available science education assets to support persistence of underrepresented students in STEM majors. To learn more about ongoing research affiliated with the Daniel Research group please visit the TXSciencePEERS website.
Shelly Forsythe
Dr. Shelly Forsythe is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas State University.
Paula Williamson
Dr. Paula Williamson is a University Distinguished Professor of Biology at Texas State University.
Advisory Board
We wish to thank all of the contributions from our wonderful Advisory Board:
Research Methodology Consultant: Dr. Jill Maroo, Maroo Consulting LLC
Community Partners
Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos
Texas Children in Nature Network
San Marcos Youth Service Bureau
Hays County Master Naturalists
Open Air Laboratories (OPAL). The OPAL network is a UK-wide citizen science initiative that offers participants hands-on experiences collecting data about nature through a series of 11 published surveys, only eight of which are currently active. This project was established in England with support from a Big Lottery Fund Grant in 2007 and later expanded into the remainder of the UK in 2014. Thus far, OPAL activities have been implemented in over 3,900 schools, many from high needs districts, and over 270,000 survey packs have been distributed to the public with over 72,000 surveys submitted, containing 1.5 million data points. This project has led to 37 published scientific papers on the biological data and implementation issues of this citizen science project within the UK. This funded project official ended as of September 2019 and is being transitioned to a new platform that will provide sustainability for the model they have created. We are also working with the Field Studies Council (FSC), an organization that implements OPAL surveys with UK school children to support fidelity of the implementation of our project. The FSC has a long history of assisting with community science data collection and engaging youth in outdoor settings.
David Reider
David Reider, Ed.M., Harvard University, will lead the external evaluation. He is principal partner of Education Design, an educational consulting firm in Boston specializing in program evaluation for K-12 and post-secondary projects in science, technology, and arts education. He has spent much of the past two decades helping program teams understand the impact of STEM learning innovations in schools and districts across the country. Education Design’s current portfolio includes NSF (ITEST, DRK12, STEM+C, ATE, NRT, Noyce, INCLUDES), IMLS and US Dept. of Ed. projects.