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Welcome NOSB Past Participants

This Alumni Community for NOSB is a vital part of its ongoing viability. Your participation is important and welcomed. We appreciate that you will be registering to participate in the longitudinal study.

Video Profiles of Four NOSB Participants (videos recorded in 2008 and 2009)
Four former students talk about their NOSB participation and the impact it has had on their careers.

August 2012 Update

In the 2011-2012 project year the research study team was asked to provide a final report, detailing the history and findings from the entire longitudinal study period. This report was the focal point for the present year’s research activities and was completed in spring 2012. In addition to the longer summative report a shorter version was also created and this short report is included below.

Other 2011-2012 activities including continuation of the spring survey and career survey, which asked NOSB alumni to inform us of college and career choices. There were 98 respondents to this survey. Of the total, 42 respondents reported that they are currently in the workforce and not continuing formal education. Of those already in careers 33 are currently in clearly defined STEM professional careers.

The researchers were asked to present to select government working groups to promote NOSB and discuss the longitudinal study. The meetings occurred in December and January and the team was successful in conveying the effectiveness of the research study and the benefits of the NOSB program for its participants and stakeholders.

An examination of the database of alumni who registered to participate in the research study showed that there were currently (July 2012) 491 interested alumni. The registered alumni represented all of the regional Bowls.  This is an excellent pool of interested and enthusiastic alumni who have continued to provide solid and encouraging data about the college and career paths of young people who participate in the NOSB.

The following is a summary of the research study from 1999-2011. It provides a brief overview of the various phases of the research that have been conducted by the College of Exploration.  A longer report has been provided to COL.
NOSB Longitudinal Study 1999-2011

The National Ocean Sciences Bowl, sponsored by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, has been a successful competition for high ability secondary students implemented nationally. The NOSB is supported by U.S. federal agencies through NOPP, as well as by corporations, foundations and other non-governmental organizations.  More than 2,000 students and 400 schools now actively take part in the competition each year, with more than 18,000 students having participated in NOSB.
Methodology—Dr. Howard Walters and Dr. Tina Bishop have been contracted to study the NOSB since 1999.  The research has addressed content learning and has examined the program from a systems theory perspective, to ascertain its impact on the community of constituents, and how this competition impacts students’ career decisions.   The study incorporated complex methods including surveys, cognitive tests, interviews, focus groups, video biographies and self-authored narratives from multiple stakeholder groups.

Study Participants—A key task in this study has been the exploration of the link between the NOSB and the education and career paths of participating students as they migrated from high school into college and graduate school or the workforce.  Working with COL and its university sponsors, the researchers identified and registered a sample of 440 student participants in the research.

Benefits—The many thousands of young adults, classroom teachers, scientists and volunteers associated to the NOSB over the years have—certainly—benefitted from this involvement. These benefits are multifaceted, and some of these can be easily overlooked.  Summarizing the written reports from over the years suggests a set of clear benefits for each of the involved stakeholders, to include:
•             For past participants who entered STEM careers:  the research and evaluations have indicated that these individuals were provided meaningful support, mentoring, and career guidance by the coaches who oversaw their years of competition, and enhanced ocean science knowledge.
•             For past participants in general:  The research has been clear that all of the students who participated benefitted from leadership development, team development, and study skills support for detailed and deep science content learning. Additionally, many students reported an enhanced interest in ocean related hobbies and environmental stewardship.
•             For Coaches:  Many classroom teachers reported that working with these high ability students required them to engage in a high degree of self-directed learning in the ocean science fields, in order to prepare to engage with the students at the high content level required by the NOSB.
•             For Second Tier Students: those high school teachers that were responsible for advising and guiding the individual NOSB team from a school—reported that the regularly infused ocean sciences content into the regular course instruction for all of the other students enrolled in their classes. In addition, a number of teachers reported that they eventually created new ocean science courses in their high schools because of NOSB involvement.
•             For Scientists and Institutions: the program allowed for broader impacts work, highlighted institutional capability and education efforts, and supported student recruitment.
•             For the STEM Workforce:  by 2010 in the study process, it became clear that there were increasing numbers of past NOSB participants who had remained in the STEM pipeline and workforce.

In final analysis:  the NOSB is much more than an academic competition.  It is a social community which directly benefits multiple stakeholder groups.  As an interactive hub for these stakeholders, it provides a platform for a complex cross-section of ocean-concerned agencies and individuals, allowing each to meet multiple levels and types of goals—in the immediate context of directly supporting secondary students.  In this, it seems highly effective and beneficial, ultimately, to its host organization, the COL, to these students and their teachers, to the constellation of federal and state science agencies, and to the nation.

August 2011 Update

In the 2010-2011 project year we continued to track NOSB past participants in their college and career pathways. AS in past years we accomplished this through two email surveys, one sent in fall 2010 and one in spring 2011.  At the end of August 2011, there were nearly 500 past participants registered in the database. There was a large new group of past participants who registered in 2011 due to an increased effort by COL in reaching out to new alumni. In addition in 2011 we surveyed coaches to ascertain the second tier effect of their NOSB participation on students other than NOSB team members and on schools and curriculum.

Fall 2010 Email Survey
In keeping with procedures used over the past decade of this tracking study, the NOSB Past Participants who registered for the longitudinal study by August 31, 2010, were surveyed electronically via email from September 15 through October 15, 2010, to ascertain enrollment in post-secondary education activities related to STEM careers to include college coursework, internships or cooperative education programs (co-ops), or graduate school.  The questions for the fall 2010 survey were retained from fall 2009 and spring 2010 with respect to the expanded demographic items.  The questions these students were asked to answer pertained to their previous two semesters (summer and fall 2009) and were:

• Which answer best describes your current educational involvement? (level)
• What is your gender? (voluntary response only)
• What is your ethnicity? (voluntary response only)
• If you are a college student, mark the category (ies) that most closely describe(s) your major?
• Have you taken courses in marine, aquatic or ocean sciences?
• Will your career ultimately include an emphasis on marine, aquatic, or ocean sciences?
• Have you remained in communications with NOSB team members or your high school coach?
• If you were to identify an individual you consider to be an academic mentor, is that person: an undergraduate student, a graduate student, a professor, a parent or guardian, a former high school teacher, or other?
• If you were to identify an individual you consider to be a career mentor, is that person: note same list as above.
• If you are a college or graduate student, please list any courses taken in the last semester or this semester pertaining to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics.

Of a total of approximately 250 active past participants remaining in the study sample, 98 past participants ultimately responded to the request for information—a survey response of 39%. All 98 provided on a voluntary basis, gender and ethnicity. 19% reported themselves to be non-Caucasian. When asked to identify their specific majors, 92% of the respondents indicated an academic field of study associated with one of the traditional STEM areas (a slight increase from 2009). Further, 37% or 36 students indicated that their future careers would include an emphasis on marine, aquatic, or ocean sciences. 

Respondents were asked to list the STEM-related coursework they were taking in the current semester or coursework they may have taken the prior summer.  Of the 65 students providing course lists, every student named a minimum of one STEM course, with increasing complexity of courses observed as the students move beyond core requirements toward major specific or graduate coursework.   As with earlier surveys, these respondents indicated that the largest proportion, 57% of the 98 who responded to the item, had taken a course or courses in marine, aquatic, or ocean sciences.

 In summary, as with previous semester surveys of the past participants, these respondents are overwhelmingly enrolled in STEM related degree programs, either post-secondary or graduate level. As in previous survey reports, many of the students continue to indicate a future career involvement in marine, ocean, or aquatic sciences and are listing courses that pertain to these majors or minors.

The past participants were also asked to describe their experiences and perceptions of the NOSB program.  The first item was “Tell us how the NOSB helped you understand your career and college interests better.”  One important theme that emerged from this narrative, which was observed in earlier NOSB studies, is the way in which NOSB helped these individuals become overall better students through heightened study skills. 

Some select quotes about the NOSB impact on the past participants included:

• The contacts I made were wonderful and I still have many friends from some of the people I met through NOSB.  I picked my college because of NOSB.
• NOSB has helped me by influencing me into a budding career in the marine sciences.  The studying I’ve done for NOSB is similar to the way I study in college.
• Just showed me that hard work could and does pay off.  I still remember everything I learned there.  Also—it showed me a new way to study. 
• Enjoyed studying for the competition so much that it solidified my choice of marine biology as a major that I wanted to pursue.

  A group of 27 past participants were identified based on their responses to prior surveys as having graduated from college or graduate school, ceased formal education (at least temporarily) and having entered the workforce.  These individuals were invited to respond to an additional, brief employment survey, and 15 chose to provide responses.  Of this group, 9 or 60% indicated that they were employed directly in a field that was related to ocean or marine sciences.  The respondents were further asked to provide a basic description of their job duties or responsibilities and they were then asked to provide a description of longer term career aspirations.  Of the approximately 27 college completers who “reported out” of formal education this past spring, 15 past participants now provide clear evidence of employment—and a strong cohort of STEM-employed former NOSB students. It will be important to continue to monitor movement into the workforce of these NOSB past participants and to consider in-depth case studies of these past participants.

Spring 2011 Email Survey
The NOSB past participants who registered for the database from 2006 through 2010  were asked in spring 2011 to answer questions, which pertained to their last two semesters including:

• Which answer best describes your current educational involvement? (level)
• If you are a college student, mark the category(ies) that most closely describe(s) your major (these are delineated later in this report)?
• Have you taken courses in marine, aquatic or ocean sciences?
• Will your career ultimately include an emphasis on marine, aquatic, or ocean sciences?
• Have you remained in communications with NOSB team members or your high school coach?
• If you are a college or graduate student, please list any courses taken in the last semester or this semester pertaining to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics.

Based on interest from the COL education leadership for NOSB, two new questions were added to the spring 2011 survey:  1) Have you returned to the NOSB Regional Competition to serve as a volunteer, and if so, which one? And, 2) Did you find your NOSB preparation activities and competition in high school benefitted you in college in some way?

A total of 90 past participants ultimately responded to the request for information—a survey response of 36%.  An important note is that an enhanced survey item was added to the end of this current survey to solicit interest from among college graduates who are already in the STEM workforce for a potential follow-up case study.  Thirty-three college graduates, now in the STEM workforce, have provided complete contact information and a statement of interest/volunteering for potential future in depth analysis.

For those students currently enrolled in college, 33% (28 individuals) are pursuing a degree in Biological Sciences; an additional 26% (22) are pursuing degrees in physical sciences or engineering; 6% (5) are pursuing degrees in chemistry or biochemistry; 7% (6) are in pre-medicine; and 3% (3) are pursuing degrees in mathematics.  While it is problematic, at the least, to link the NOSB causally to the decisions of these students to continue to formally study science, it is nevertheless evidence that NOSB—at the point these young people were in high school—has developed a recruitment strategy that engages a population that is interested in science and does influence them in measurable ways at that point.

The past participants currently enrolled in college were asked to specify the general category of their major or degree area, and to identify specific courses which they had completed in the immediate past semester. The specific STEM related courses, which the students report from their college or graduate school transcripts during the previous semester, are correlated with the degrees and majors that they report. 53% of the students have taken or are taking courses in marine, aquatic or ocean sciences. 86% of the past participants are currently in contact with former NOSB team members or their high school coach.
For college graduates the researchers solicited identification of degrees completed and universities attended. 36% (16 individuals) obtained degrees with emphasis in marine, aquatic or ocean sciences. The list of universities provided by the respondent graduates contained a significant number of COL partnering institutions.

Additional information regarding current employment, again for those individuals who are post-formal education was requested.  Of the 42 respondents 19 individuals stated an occupation or place of employment that is clearly a STEM related occupation.  These included work on a NOAA research vessel, various state or federal conservation, wildlife, or science related agencies, bench laboratory work, medicine, and research geology for a petroleum corporation.  Additionally these respondents were asked to more specifically describe the nature of their occupations and, again, their responses were consistent with their education backgrounds, degree areas/obtained, stated occupations or employers. 

Select responses to this item included:

• I run professional development workshops for science-based professionals, helping them improve their communication skills when dealing with the general public. 
• I work with microbial loop grazing experiments with fluorescent and radioactive bacteria fed to heterotrophic nanoflagellates.  My career goal is to continue to be employed in the marine sciences.
• Laboratory research primarily in mouse retina systems.  PhD in 3 years, then either post doc work or a med school for opthamology.
• Currently I do animal research in collaboration with the pediatrics department to study the same disease.  I will be attending graduate school for public health and hope to work to improve health for communities across the globe.
• I study the seasonal hypoxic zone off the Oregon coast, using an ROV to observe invertebrate communities.

Respondents were asked to delineate or describe the ways in which participation in NOSB in high school may have prepared them for college.  Content analysis applied to the lengthy and rich responses to this item reveals a set of 5 themes or clusters around which many of the responses focused.  These clusters are:

1. Participation in NOSB enhanced my science content knowledge.
2. Participation in NOSB prepared me for success in college.
3. Participation in NOSB exposed me to career information and helped guide career choices.
4. Participation in NOSB taught me to work effectively on a team to solve problems.
5. Participation in NOSB enhanced my study skills.

A final extended response item on the survey solicited an overall, reflective analysis of how NOSB has contributed overall to the individuals’ education and career paths.  The answers were rich, and encompassed all of the five clusters or themes of responses in the question specific to college preparation reported above.    Select and typical responses included:

• NOSB was my first experience in extracurricular learning.  I developed curiosity, a little discipline, and most of all, the knowledge that there is always an answer out there and the determination and skills to find it.  These skills have helped me to become very good at scientific bench work.  They also were the driving force to take classes part time while working, and to get into medical school.
• My participation in NOSB made me realize a love for science and teamwork that I’d never used before.  My major was a science-based degree and my minor was in Oceanography based on my enjoyment of learning about marine-related topics.
• I was always tempted to take a class in marine sciences or pursue it further but I ended up not doing so.  It contributed to my great appreciation for the natural world and to an interest in environmental law and science.  I work on an environmental law journal and do some environmental law work in my career.
• The National Ocean Sciences Bowl was my first exposure to marine science.  Previous to my participation, I had no particular interest in the subject.  In fact, I was certain I would hate it.  After participating, I began considering a career in marine science.  NOSB changed my life by introducing me to the passion that now drives my career.

It seems clear, from the responses of students still in college or graduate school, and from the responses of those past participants who are now in their careers, that they have a perception of NOSB as a highly positive contribution to their background and content knowledge, to the study and life skills that they have acquired and utilize, and to specific cognitive and social tasks required for successful engagement in higher education.  Many of these 90 individuals who have responded to this call for input to the NOSB program have continued in the STEM pipeline.  Whether this is because of the NOSB or whether they joined NOSB because of other compelling motivations in this direction, regardless: NOSB was an important touch point in their developmental years.  NOSB continues, though long after they have ceased formal engagement (except for those who have continued to volunteer at the regional level), to serve as a key social community for the largest majority of these respondents—as evidenced by the substantive number of those who continue to interact with former team members and teachers.  It also seems clear that NOSB was an important element in the communication of career information for many of these individuals, whether they ultimately selected from among the ocean, marine, or aquatic fields, or even from the broader STEM areas. 

Given these observations, the researchers perceive that an opportunity exists to more deeply explore the developmental contributions to the subset of these respondents who have been tracked from high school participation, through college and graduate school, and now into the STEM workforce. 

Coaches Survey of Second Tier Effects
In 2011, the research team and the NOSB administration determined that it would be beneficial to reengage the high school teachers/NOSB coaches during late spring and summer 2011 to gather information regarding the impact of the NOSB program on participants, and importantly, the impact of the NOSB program at the second tier level on other students within participating high schools across the country. Through this survey we hoped to learn how the process of NOSB participation had extended beyond the few team members, with broader infusion into schools, benefitting greater numbers of students and teachers.   In this vein, a survey was constructed utilizing the previous 2003 impact study coach survey, infusing information gained over the last decade about the NOSB program from the follow-up tracking.  This new instrument was disseminated by the COL staff directly, through the regional coordinator structure, to the high school coaches nationally. 

A strongly representative sample of 109 high school teachers, comprising 109 different high schools and teams participated in this study, providing detailed demographic and extended narrative feedback to the response items. The teachers who responded to the survey were distributed across 23 states and the District of Columbia, with 38% reporting that they teach some type of marine, ocean or aquatic science courses in their schools, ranging from marine biology, introduction to oceanography, marine ecology, marine science, and aquatic biology.

One key element of this survey was to identify the increased spread of ocean and marine education to the broader student body in the schools beyond the 5 students generally attached to the school NOSB team.  The teachers Strongly Agreed (29 or 27%) or Agreed (46 or 43%) that participating as a coach of an NOSB team has resulted in an increase in the infusion of ocean sciences in their classrooms.  Only 10 individuals Disagreed or Strongly Disagreed with this statement.
These responses suggested that the NOSB program, through the efforts of the coaches, is resulting in enhanced ocean and marine education opportunities for a substantively larger group of secondary students than is accounted for simply by counting the NOSB direct participants. 

A related item asked teachers whether participation in NOSB increased students’ interest in science generally.  For this item, 87 or 80% of the respondents Strongly Agreed or Agreed that this had in fact occurred.  Additionally, 54 or 51% of responding teachers indicated that because of the NOSB program in their school, marine science has been emphasized more as an academic discipline within the school curriculum.  Finally, the teachers were asked—beyond the NOSB team—how many individual students had been engaged with ocean or marine content because the school houses an NOSB team.  Only 34 or 31% of teachers indicated no additional students, suggesting that for nearly 70% of schools housing an NOSB team, additional, uncounted students were engaged in these content areas. 

A third theme or cluster of responses that emerged was that NOSB had resulted in formal changes to the curriculum in the school, either with units or project-based instructional modules added to other courses, or with new courses created. 
A further extended response item asked teachers whether their school had adopted an ocean sciences or marine-related course as a result of participation in NOSB, and to describe or discuss any such courses.  Of the 90 responses, 19 or 21% indicated that their school and/or district had in fact created or adopted/offered new course(s) in aquatic, marine or ocean sciences at the high school level directly because of the NOSB competition/team.
 
The teachers were asked to describe how their participating in the NOSB program had influenced their own professional development activities. The first theme to emerge was that NOSB had provided connections or opportunities for these coaches to engage with numerous regional and national education opportunities in the ocean and science communities. The second theme that emerged from this set of responses was that NOSB had encouraged directly or indirectly these teachers to continue their formal education in marine, ocean, and/or aquatic education through advanced degrees or coursework.  The third theme that emerged from the teacher responses to this item is that NOSB is a strong motivator for these teachers to engage in self-directed, informal and non-formal learning about science and the oceans. 

The first career question asked teachers if they had provided college and career information to their NOSB students, and the second, follow-up question asked the teachers specifically “what career information related to ocean sciences have you provided to student NOSB participants, and what was the source of that information?”  Of the 95 responses to these items, only 13 or 14% of this total had not provided college and career-path information to the students

In the follow-up career question, teachers were queried to describe the primary sources of the career information they are using.  Beyond the ubiquity of the web, several other clusters of information emerge.  Select teacher responses that illustrate three sources of information that has been a focus for most of these 92 respondents.  First, a number of universities clearly use the NOSB regional partnerships and programs to provide recruitment information to these high ability students. A second source of information related to careers that has been provided to the students is associated to the materials located on the NOSB web site. 

Following the career questions, teachers were asked “what academic and/or life skills do students acquire as a result of participating in the NOSB?”  Four sets of skills emerged from their responses: Team Related Skills, Personal Academic Related Skills, Personal Social and Personality Constructs, and Professional and Work Place skills. 

From this data the researchers find compelling evidence that the NOSB has reached well beyond the few thousand students who directly participate regionally and nationally, and the few hundred teachers who coach them.  Because of NOSB programs at local high schools across the country, many thousands and potentially tens of thousands of students have received an enhanced exposure to ocean education at the second-tier (non-funded) level.  This second-tier should appropriately be considered as a leveraging and expansion of the impact of the funding used by COL to implement NOSB at its primary level.

Previous Yearly Reports

We thank all of you who have registered to be part of this study and of the ongoing NOSB community! We are also grateful to those of you who filled in our survey and who have kept us apprised of your current courses and majors in your university program.