Education and Outreach Overview
Diversity Initiatives | Community Outreach/Collaboration | Education and Training
NCEAS' education and outreach vision is integral to all its activities. NCEAS scientists and staff members participate in dozens of meetings around the world to promote synthesis, analysis, and ecoinformatics, and to assist in the development of other synthesis activities and centers. NCEAS scientists meet with local, state and federal agencies, policy makers, and non-governmental organizations to provide scientific evidence about ecological issues, ecosystem-based resource management, and conservation issues. Training is offered at all levels of sophistication, from elementary school through graduate training and continuing education of professionals. Many opportunities to gain experience in providing outreach activities are available to resident scientists.
NCEAS is committed to increasing the public understanding of science, fostering interest in ecology and technology professions, particularly among underrepresented groups, and contributing to the local community. The Center offers resources and activities to scientists and the public to meet these goals.
The Public Understanding of Science
NCEAS communication initiatives address the need to explain ecological issues, research, and solutions to the public, policy makers, and resource managers to foster informed decision making at all levels.
NCEAS provides media training for our scientists, publicizes our scientists' research to the press, and collaborates with other organizations, such as The Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science , COMPASS, and the California Ocean Communicators Alliance to promote similar initiatives.
Journalists from National Public Radio, the Aldo Leopold Institute, Wired Magazine, and local media present talks on how the media works, how to conduct interviews and how to prepare clear, accessible, media-ready messages.
Press and Publications
NCEAS works in collaboration with the University of California, Santa Barbara, Public Affairs Office and other organizations to issue press releases announcing new research to newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the web.
Press Kit 
Listen Online
About the Center
The Impact of NCEAS
NCEAS Summary
NCEAS News Archive
Featured Research Underway
Conservation and Resource Management Projects
Ecoinformatics Research Projects
NCEAS Scientific Publications
NCEAS Annual Reports
Ecology Fact sheets
Background on ecology topics
from the Ecological Society of America
Press Visits and Interviews
Our Outreach/Communications staff is available to link journalists with resident scientists and the hundreds of scientists a year who participate at NCEAS. Journalists are welcome to visit the Center.
Contact: To arrange a visit, to request an interview or comments from any of our scientists, or to be added to the NCEAS press list, please contact connors [at] nceas [dot] ucsb [dot] edu (Margaret Connors), Outreach/Communications Coordinator.
805-892-4728
Diversity Initiatives
NCEAS works in partnership with other scientific organizations to develop ideas for increasing awareness of careers in ecology among underrepresented students. NCEAS scientists and outreach staff introduce students to careers in ecology and informatics through conference presentations, seminars offered by our Postdoctoral Associates at Historically Minority Institutions and Minority Serving Institutions, and local work at the K-12 level.
For the past two years NCEAS has cosponsored activities at the annual conference of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). These activities, designed to promote careers in ecology and evolution, include scientific symposia, a career panel, film and discussion nights, mentoring sessions, and a field trip.
The 2007 field trip to the University of Kansas Natural History Museum & Biodiversity Research Center included a behind the scenes presentation by Director Jorge Soberon.
NCEAS designed its Distributed Graduate Seminar program to insure the inclusion of underrepresented groups. Our expectation for Working Groups is that each will include a diversity of participants, including women and members of underrepresented communities.
Community Outreach/Collaboration
The Center and its scientists participate in the broader community by:
- Giving talks and seminars
- Sponsoring an NCEAS Ecology Award at the annual Santa Barbara County Science Fair.
- Partnering with local organizations such as the Santa Barbara Educators' Roundtable and the Santa Barbara Elementary School District
- Offering elementary school students hands-on experiences in science
- Sponsoring community events such as the monthly Ecolunch series and the annual Kids do Ecology Poster Session
Education and Training
One of the major benefits of a synthesis center is the engagement of thousands of scientists and students. Graduate students have participated as interns at NCEAS and as part of working groups. NCEAS has trained more than 700 graduate students through a program of simultaneous Distributed Graduate Seminars.
The Postdoctoral Associates program offers many training opportunities including professional development programming.
NCEAS continues to emphasize technical training for all NCEAS participants. NCEAS Ecoinformatics Program staff members train hundreds of scientists at the Center to use the latest ecoinformatics tools. NCEAS also participates in ecoinformatics training of junior and senior scientists in workshops with external collaborators such as the LTER Network Office.
Kids do Ecology
NCEAS' Kids Do Ecology (KDE) program has been our primary means of outreach to K-12 students since 1995. KDE includes two major initiatives:
Kids do Ecology Classroom Project
- A classroom program in which NCEAS scientists work locally with 5th grade classes to provide inquiry-based instruction in the scientific method as applied to ecological questions. This experiential approach to learning provides a perfect complement to the educational goals of NCEAS. The classroom program continues to be very successful.
- A nationally recognized, educational, participatory, bilingual (Spanish/English) website. Our website has received numerous commendations and is linked from educational sites throughout the world.
