Category: Research Project

For professors:

Heartlands Conservancy is a nonprofit community organization located in Belleville, Illinois. Founded in 1989, it has been their mission to conserve water and other natural resources in order to ensure that they are still around for generations to come. By partnering with local landowners and sponsoring volunteer events in the community, Heartlands continues to push for public engagement in the same issues that they fight for. One such volunteer event is the Jingle Hike Challenge, which was a hiking event that took volunteers through several local trails that many people might not have known about beforehand. There are also several stewardships held by Heartlands, where volunteers from the community help restore specific locations, such as native prairie lands or the Exploration Garden. 

Beyond their work in the community, Heartlands also partners with other groups or organizations, such as the CODES program. CODES, which stands for Community Oriented Digital Engagement Scholars, is a program at SIUE that works towards bettering environmental issues, such as water equity, in local communities. CODES is a growing program at this university, yet there is more work to be done with Heartlands outside of this program. Heartlands already supports schools outside of SIUE, such as those who send their students to sites such as the Signal Hill Outdoor Classroom. This site, located in Belleville, is commonly used by local high schools for environmental learning activities. Projects like these are only possible because of the dedicated team of people working at Heartlands, like Anna, who works directly with the CODES program to offer advice and feedback on their projects. 

Student engagement is a massive part of Heartlands’ mission, and it goes without saying that expanding the number of programs they partner with is in their interest. The list of ways in which they can impact the learning of students is long, which is why a potential partnership with SIUE would be beneficial for every student interested in environmental conservation. 

For Heartlands:

My research project this semester has been to connect students at SIUE to Heartlands through the professors who teach there. To divide the instructors who might be interested in water conservation from those who might not, I found 40 professors who teach courses related to ecology, environmental science, or general science. These professors, along with the courses they teach, are listed below. The department chairs of these subjects are also listed in order to allow for opportunities to connect with even more professors. These professors were sent a survey regarding their experiences and opinions on community organizations. Most of the professors showed little to no experience with community organizations, yet many were open to the opportunity to collaborate with organizations like Heartlands. Four out of five of those who did have prior experience showed an interest to allow Heartlands to either give a lecture in class or network with students. This list of professors and department chairs can allow for Heartlands to connect with professors outside of CODES, especially those who were a part of the survey I had sent out. 

Course Number	Course Name	Course Description	Professor
ANTH-340	Environmental Anthropology	Surveys the relationship between humans and their environments from an anthropological perspective, including changes through time and cross-cultural comparisons.	Chad M. Huddleston
BIOL 464/ENSC 450	Applied Ecology	Applying ecological concepts and principles for solving, predicting and managing current important ecological problems, such as global climate change, conservation, wetland restoration, and environmental remediation.	Zhiqing Lin
BIOL 472	Topics in Plant Physiology	Examination of plant cells, tissues, and morphology. Two lectures and two labs per week.	Darron R. Luesse
BIOL 150	Introduction to Biological Sciences I	First of a two-course sequence, introduction to biochemistry, molecular genetics, cell structure and function, and evolution. Lab required.	Elizabeth J. Esselman
BIOL 151	Introduction to Biological Sciences II	Second of a two-course sequence, introduction to major taxonomic groups with emphasis on evolutionary relationships and ecological principles. Lab required.	Danielle N. Lee
BIOL 327	Evolution	Evolutionary change as shown in heredity, population genetics, speciation, adaptation, natural selection, development, behavior, geographical distribution, and the origin of life.	Christopher W. Theodorakis
CE 380	Environmental Engineering	Application of principles of chemistry, physics, biology, and mathematics to engineered systems for water purification, wastewater treatment, air pollution control, and solid waste management. Requires completion of stated prerequisite or consent of instructor.	Jianpeng Zhou
CE 482	Water Resources Engineering and Management	Excessive water use has adverse impacts on environment and natural water resources. Sustainable management is a necessity. Course focuses on demand analysis and management of water resources for different use.	Rohan M. Benjankar
ENSC 111	Intro to Physical Geology & Geography	Physical geology and geography of the solid earth. Hydrologic system, weathering, soils, landforms, sedimentary rocks. Tectonic system, magmatism, igneous rocks, crustal deformation, metamorphism.	Susannah Oettle
ENSC 111	Intro to Physical Geology & Geography	Physical geology and geography of the solid earth. Hydrologic system, weathering, soils, landforms, sedimentary rocks. Tectonic system, magmatism, igneous rocks, crustal deformation, metamorphism.	Deirdre Smith
ENSC 125	Topics of Environmental Health and Toxicology	Naturally occurring and anthropogenic toxicants can cause adverse environmental impacts. Provides the fundamental information concerning the effects of environmental toxicants on living organisms.	Kyong-Sup Yoon
ENSC 210	Applied Research Methods	Research methods for the analysis of environmental problems. Survey research and other data collection techniques. Collection, interpretation, and critical evaluation of data.	Sanoar Rahman
ENSC 401	Environmental Policy	Relationship between political processes and policy outcomes; correlation of environmental politics and science; balancing trade-offs between legal, economics, social and environmental goals, including service learning.	Nicholas P. Guehlstorf
ENSC 436	Environmental Epidemiology	Environmental epidemiology, the study of how environmental factors (e.g., pollution, climate, geography) influence human health. Includes advanced training in data management and analysis using spreadsheets.	Joseph Kusi
ENSC 440	Sustainable Environment Practices	Practices that meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.	Nathaniel Adegboyega
GEOG 202	Natural Resource Management and Sustainability	Examines the management, use, and sustainability of natural resources, including biodiversity, water, food, soil, and energy sources. Also considers issues in pollution and environmental degradation.	Shannon McCarragher
GEOG 211	Meteorology	Introduction to weather controls and elements; and their relationship to human activities and human health; analysis and use of weather maps and forecasts.	Alan Black
GEOG 403	Advanced Urban Geography	Selected topics in spatial patterns and processes of urbanization. Topics may include: planning, transportation, sustainability, society and culture, health, housing, global cities, and economic functions.	Emily R. Calderon
GEOG 418	Geographic Information Systems	Concepts, basic theory, and principles of GIS using both Raster and Vector data models in a PC environment.	Tianyu Li
GEOG 424	Vector Based Geographic Information Systems (GIS)	Examination of vector topology, digital map transformation, manipulation, analysis, and composition.	Shunfu Hu
SCI 241B	Foundations of Science: Physics, Earth Science and Inquiry Projects	General background in science. Laboratory emphasis on process skills, hands-on activities, and projects suitable for children in grades K-8. (b) physics, earth science, and inquiry projects.	Mary J. Kaemmerer
BIOL 111	Contemporary Biology	Contributions of biology to understanding ourselves and our world. Development, nature and human implications of cell theory, heredity, the modern synthetic theory of evolution, population dynamics, ecology and environmental problems.	Thomas Anderson
BIOL 220	Genetics	Introduction to transmission, molecular and population genetics with applications to all organisms.	Thomas James Fowler
BIOL 250	Bacteriology	Structure, nutrition, and genetics of bacteria; control of microbial growth; comparison of medically important bacteria and viruses; host response to infectious disease.	Christine Simmons
BIOL 319	Cell and Molecular Biology	Introduction to cellular processes including gene expression, protein and vesicular trafficking, and cell signaling. Differentiation between eukaryotes and prokaryotes.	Faith L.W. Liebl
BIOL 340	Physiology	Function and regulation of major organ systems in vertebrates, neural responsiveness and integration, homeostasis of body fluids, circulation, respiration, organic maintenance, and hormonal control.	Jason Williams
BIOL 350	Microbiology	Structure, metabolism, and genetics of bacteria and bacteriophages. Role of bacteria in disease, biotechnology, and the environment.	Susanne DiSalvo
CHEM 113	Introduction to Chemistry	Preparation for University Chemistry. Mathematical techniques, problem solving, chemical terms, concepts, and laws.	Leanne J. Boyer
CHEM 120B	General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry	Primarily for students planning careers in Nursing and Allied Health professions. Not for Chemistry majors. Organic and biological Chemistry	Lawrence P. Norcio
CHEM 121A	General Chemistry	University-level modern chemistry for science and engineering students, atomic structure, molecular bonding, structure, stoichiometry, chemical change, equilibrium, and qualitative analysis.	Richard Edward Finger
CHEM 121B	General Chemistry	University-level modern chemistry for science and engineering students. Atomic structure, molecular bonding, structure, stoichiometry, chemical change, equilibrium, and qualitative analysis.	Thomas Holovics
CHEM 241A	Organic Chemistry	Structural types of organic compounds correlated with chemical and physical properties; bonding, reaction dynamics, reaction types, stereochemistry, functional groups, spectroscopic methods.	Yun Lu
CHEM 351	Basic Biochemistry I	Topics will include the structure and function of biologically important macromolecules including: nucleic acids, proteins, carbohydrates, as well as regulation of metabolism, biosynthesis, and degradation of biological molecules.	Robert P. Dixon
CHEM 352	Basic Biochemistry II	Topics will include the structure and function of biologically important macromolecules including: carbohydrates and lipids, as well as regulation of metabolism, biosynthesis, and degradation of biological molecules.	Chin-Chuan Wei
CHEM 361B	Physical Chemistry	Mathematical models of chemical behavior and its underlying causes. Experimental foundations of models, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, kinetics, quantum mechanics, and spectroscopy with applications.	Debanjana Ghosh
CHEM 444	Organic Reaction	Emphasis on mono-functional compounds. Topics not covered in elementary courses.	Sarah Luesse
CHEM 455	Experimental Methods in Biochemistry	Current practice in enzyme isolation and assessment. Microcomputer-assisted data treatment, graphics, statistical methods, and data acquisition.	Mina Sumita
CHEM 482	BioProcessing Chemistry and Biochemistry	Covers the intermediate principles of the historical, scientific, technological, and cultural aspects of fermentation of chemistry and biofuels, fermented beverages, and food production.	Jie Dong
CHEM 439	Advanced Topics in Analytical Chemistry	Selected advanced topics.	Edward C. Navarre
CHEM 241B	Organic Chemistry	Structural types of organic compounds correlated with chemical and physical properties; bonding, reaction dynamics, reaction types, stereochemistry, functional groups, and spectroscopic methods.	Lynne Ann Miller

Department Chairs: 

Anthropology: Dr. Corey Ragsdale 

Biology: Dr. Jakes Williams 

Environmental Science: Dr. Adrianna Martinez 

Civil Engineering: Nader Panahshahi 

Geography: Dr. Stacey Brown Amilian 

Science: Dr. Susan Hume 

Chemistry: Dr. Erik Voss 

At Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE), I have been researching young adult engagement in local community issues. Together with my CODES (Community Oriented Digital Engagement Scholars) research team and Heartlands Conservancy, I have been looking for ways to involve young adults, ages 18-24, in problems relating to water conservation. My specific region of focus for this project was to focus on connecting Heartlands Conservancy, our community partner, to students at SIUE who may be interested in learning more about their work. Since reaching out to individual students is not an easy feat, I decided to reach out to professors who were scheduled to teach classes like ecology and environmental science the next semester. All of my research regarding this topic is being accumulated into my research team’s project for this semester. The data for my portion of the research project was collected through surveys. The first step in my process was to build a survey on Qualtrics that asked about the professor’s experience with community organizations. I wrote questions that were a mix of short response and multiple choice, with 8 questions in total. The main objective of the survey was to find out how professors at SIUE feel about community organizations and how willing they would be to collaborate with them in future courses. Afterwards, I created a list of teachers that I could email my survey to. This list was mainly composed of science and ecology professors who would be most interested in water conservation issues. In the end, I found 40 SIUE professors that I sent my survey to via email. The main goal of this project was to give Heartlands a list of teachers that they could collaborate with in the future. These collaborations could be in the form of extra credit or even lectures taught by people who work at Heartlands Conservancy. 

After a week of waiting, I had received a little over 10 responses from professors at SIUE. Even though I had received less answers than I originally expected, I did notice some patterns in the responses. While only 3 participants mentioned teaching or planning to teach a course, such as Environmental Anthropology, that would benefit from the input of a community organization, those same participants went on to state that they had prior experience working with a community organization in a classroom setting. Also, only one out of three participants claimed that they had a negative experience with these organizations. A common theme throughout these responses appears to be a positive outlook on community organizations from the professors.  

Figure 1. Professors’ response to community organizations relationships benefiting students

Overall, the majority of the professors seem to believe that the use of community organizations is beneficial for students in and outside of school (Figure 1), with several of them arguing that it gives the students both practical and real-world experience. From the responses, it is obvious that many of these professors are willing to offer lecture time to these organizations as well. When asked what these community organizations can do in a classroom setting, the majority of them suggested either giving lectures or networking with students. 

After asking whether or not students would benefit from collaborating with community organizations in a classroom setting, I went on to ask why the professors chose this answer. The majority of the responses I received suggested that it would offer much real-world experience to those participating in the course. However, there was one response that I decided to take a closer look at. 

Figure 2. Open responses to benefits to students

The last response to this question has highlighted the idea that community organizations can offer both experience and knowledge that college professors cannot provide to their students. While this was only one opinion out of multiple, this specific professor has shown how community organizations can offer input from actual community works, while professors can only show students what to expect. The professor could not provide a specific example for a class that they could teach to contribute, but they are willing to support these efforts regardless. Even if it is difficult for the average professor to help with this issue, we do have people who are willing to do what they can to allow their students to learn from community organizations. 

Q1: How does the complexity of real-world problems affect student engagement when integrated into middle school or elementary school lessons?

Q2: How does the type of classroom activity influence student engagement across grades K-12?

Q3: How do real world challenges, such as access to clean water, affect children’s mental health and school performance?

Q4: How does a parent’s reaction to water equity issues influence how their children react to the same issues?

Q5: How does the use of interactive learning strategies affect student engagement in children with different attention spans?