Broadening the Impact of K-12 Science Education Collaborations in a Shifting Education Landscape

For more than 75 years, scientists and educators in New Mexico have provided programs that translate research on dryland ecosystems into broader scientific understanding for the public. Kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12) students and teachers became a primary audience for these programs in the 1990s. Our team from the Jornada Long-Term Ecological Research Program, the US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service Jornada Experimental Range, and the nonprofit Asombro Institute for Science Education navigated changes in K-12 science education to educate more than 200,000 students. The goal of this article is to describe our program's responses to six education trends in order to provide experience-based guidance to others designing and delivering K-12 programs in a shifting science education landscape. We expect our experience will be relevant to others who are trying to scale their outreach programs to larger; more diverse communities while maintaining alignment with changing trends in education at local, state, and federal levels.