Our tenth season of Collab Labs kicked off last week with a session co-hosted with Adriana Vázquez, Director of Education & Public Programs, and Maisie Buntin, Outreach Programs Coordinator for the Milwaukee Public Museum. Every year, the Milwaukee Public Museum hosts its annual BioBlitz, a 24-hour event where scientists survey the biodiversity in a park or natural area. Our session focused on a nagging issue for Adriana and Maisie– BioBlitzes don’t happen during the school year, so the museum misses opportunities to engage school audiences.
The Museum is working to adapt this big event into smaller, student-driven “mini-BioBlitzes” to be held at schoolyards, community organizations, and more. The Collab Lab provided an opportunity to explore that idea with educators and potential collaborators.
Discussion
Our conversation covered how attendees currently engage with students or community on biodiversity or other environmental topics, and what is missing from that engagement, how MPM mini BioBlitzes might play a role in addressing those gaps, and what’s needed to make that work.
Over the course of the evening, several broad themes emerged.
The need to build hands-on, real-world learning into school culture
- Getting students excited and connected to the content can be a challenge:
- Students need to see illustrate real-word relevance to lessons
- When schools have even just one teacher or admin motivated to provide these hands-on, real-world experiences, students show more interest and excitement
- Giving students the opportunity to work on something real, present their work and ideas to an authentic audience are key motivators, environmental justice and civic engagement– focus on a local park or site, are useful entry points, particularly for those that aren’t (yet?) “Nature Nerds”
- How can we do better to “operationalize” this type of learning – turn it from one person’s project into school culture and expectations?
- Make it easy for teachers to take on the work:
- cover their time to participate in training
- provide funding and resources to implement effectively
- explicitly tie to standards
- engage community resources to support efforts within K-12
- empower older students to support the work of younger peers
- start with the easiest entry points for teachers and build out from there
- Scaffolding – build capabilities to participate across grade levels. As examples, for mini-BioBlitz, kindergarteners do a color walk, elementary might look at various stages of categorization (ex. # insects, # plants, # of birds, etc.), up to high school (working with dichotomous keys, doing biodiversity index, etc.)
- Biodiversity education is largely missing from afterschool/out of school programming. Teens Grow Greens offers a model for how that can be done.
- Make it easy for teachers to take on the work:
Data collection and interpretation is a possible unexplored avenue of BioBlitz engagement
- Using data from mini-BioBlitzes, at different locations, or from MPM full BioBlitz,
- Potential alignment with AP exam topics re: data collection and analysis
- Incorporation of GIS provides could provide additional entry points for exploration
- Tap expertise who may know of similar projects in other parts of the country
- Curate and interpret data as an asset within the school
Integrating technology into this work
- Identify apps/tools like iNaturalist that schools might leverage
- Opportunities for students to create digital tools
- As focal point for conversations around AI and how teachers are being asked to incorporate teaching about it – this could be an avenue to illustrate appropriate use of AI (ie. for species recognition)
Going beyond science
- Tie in the arts (conveniently, the theme for our March Collab Lab)
- Representation/social justice/environmental justice, e.g. how is biodiversity/access to biodiverse habitats correlated with socio-economic status?
- Connect to student identity and background
What’s Next
We’ll have a chance to explore these topics further in our December and April Collab Labs with The Society for Conservation Biology North America (SCBNA), whose 2026 conference will be in Milwaukee. SCBNA has some upcoming webinars exploring the value of scientific assessments to communities and policy makers. You can find the schedule and registration information here.
In November we will take on another project in the works, to explore how TRUE Skool‘s planning for a new campus might serve as through line to connect K-12 students to programming, expertise, and experiences over the course of that effort– from planning and design, through site acquisition and construction.
Thanks
A big thanks to Adriana and Maisie for working with us to pull the session together and facilitate the conversation. Thanks also the MSOE’s STEM Center our host for another season of Collab Labs.
Thanks also to Leah Rosenbaum from STEAM Milwaukee who was able to join us for the session. She notes that STEAM Milwaukee has a number of resources in their lending library for teachers who want to dive deeper into environmental explorations. These include sampling nets (not pictured on the website) as well as 8 microscopes and a set of Vernier probes. Leah also mentioned Dear Data, as offering examples of both the simple ways data can be shared (via hand drawn annotated diagrams on postcards) and the range of ways data might be presented to illuminate an area of focus.
Bernie’s background includes research in developmental ecology and amphibian conservation and positions in nonprofit leadership, community outreach, and science education. Before joining SCBNA, Bernie served as the Director of Science Outreach at Edgewood College in Madison, WI, where he led the development and implementation of community-based science education programs for underrepresented communities across the state. He is also Board Vice President of the Urban Learning Collaborative, a Milwaukee-based nonprofit aimed at training the next generation of K-12 educators. Bernie is passionate about connecting scientists with community leaders, grassroots organizations, and students of all ages through his role at SCBNA, all in an effort to protect our natural world. Bernie received a B.S. in Biology from Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, and an M.S. in Biology from Washington State University. Born and raised in Quito, Ecuador, he now lives and works in Milwaukee, WI with his wife and their cat.
The School of Freshwater Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is the largest water focused academic research institute on the Great Lakes and the only North American school of higher education solely dedicated to freshwater issues. The School trains the next generation of freshwater professionals and advances strategic science to inform policy, improve management, and promote the health and sustainability of the Great Lakes and freshwater systems worldwide. Liz has spent her career working to engage and inspire young people through STEM and environmental science education. In 2008 she transitioned into higher education, working as the Assistant Director and STEM Specialist for UWM College for Kids before developing a formal outreach department within the School of Freshwater Sciences with her at the helm.
Chris Young has been teaching biology, environmental history, conservation, and natural history for over 25 years, starting in Minnesota, then Oregon, and now in Milwaukee at Alverno College, the Urban Ecology Center, and most recently at UW-Milwaukee. He is the director of the Conservation and Environmental Science program at UWM. His main project is to explore how people learn to become naturalists, that important space between becoming a scientist and examining our human connection to the natural world. He earned a Ph.D. in the History of Science and Technology from the University of Minnesota.
Maisie is an educator with experience working at museums and science/nature centers. In her role at MPM, she aims to make museum learning accessible to all through travelling outreach programming and strong community partnerships. She believes that bringing MPM to classrooms, community organizations, and community-based events provides more opportunities for authentic learning.
Adriana is an MPS graduate and educator. At MPM, she builds on her experience partnering with museums as a classroom teacher to connect exhibits with curriculum and field trips. She believes museums can uniquely support K–12+ educators while sparking curiosity and excitement in learners of all ages.
Peter teaches 7th and 8th-grade science and high school robotics in the St. Francis School District. Over the past 27 years, he has taught a variety of science and mathematics courses, including Earth and Life Sciences. Graven serves as the lead teacher and mentor for SFROBOTICS, a program that engages students in diverse robotics competitions such as FIRST Tech Challenge, FIRST LEGO League, MATE ROV, and SEAPERCH, as well as in STE(A)M projects with local and global impact, supported by strategic partnerships.
Marissa is an accomplished water engineer, environmental advisor, and plastics-reduction expert who has worked in more than 45 countries. Her work with The Freshwater Collaborative leverages expertise across 13 University of Wisconsin institutions to lead the global community in addressing freshwater challenges, and advance its mission to:
Dr. Lemke is an Anthropological Archaeologist. In addition to her role at UWM, she is the former Chair of the 
A leader of agile software development projects at JCI, Amber is a passionate advocate for building high performance teams that look like and have roots in the communities they work in. The practices she uses to manage uncertainty, build trust and, and foster courageous conversations are central to her work. As the spouse of a high school teacher and with two children in MPS, she recognizes the value those practices can offer to both educators and students looking to take on real-world challenges.
Kelsey is Marquette’s representative for engagement in the community, tasked to explore and promote community-engaged opportunities for Marquette students, faculty and staff. Previously she served as the Director of Innovation at the 707 Hub at Marquette University. There she ran business bootcamps for students and community entrepreneurs and helped to build a social innovation ecosystem in Wisconsin. She is naturally curious and enjoys connecting the dots between people, ideas and resources! She was recognized as one of Milwaukee Business Journal 40 Under 40 winners in 2019.
Mike is an interactive designer and former VP and Creative Director of the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum. He currently splits his time between producing museum exhibits and running a small carpentry business out of his shop in Bayview.
Anamarie is a Multidisciplinary Contemporary artist and artist educator currently based in Milwaukee originally from the deep south . She often intersects social justice, her identity, and interactive education to influence her paintings, installations, sculptures, and performances. With the experiences she has with community and through life itself, she builds her practice to relay that information visually to those interested in learning a variety of topics.
For the past eight years, Jeff has been working in interactive development alongside his business partner Hector Borges, first as the co-founders of Outer Rim, where they produced and released their first game in their first year of school. They operated under the name Outer Rim for four years before rebranding as Foresight Studios. In his role at Foresight Studios, Jeff is focused on creating innovative experiences that leverage new and emerging technologies, including VR, AR, and XR. The company has worked with the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. to create a VR demo and developed “
Dionna is a creative professional with extensive experience planning and executing commercial projects centered on graphic design, including brand identity and logo design initiatives. Developed at an early age, some of her artistic and creative abilities include illustration, painting, photography, and graphic arts. Her extensive background in visual and graphic arts has enabled her to serve in the creative arts industry for over 20 years. Her experience also includes the founding of a children’s book imprint, serving as author, publisher, illustrator, and designer. In addition, Dionna serves at ArtWorks for Milwaukee as Lead Artist to high school interns in the graphic design + mental health advocacy program. (website: 
Cindy is passionate about instilling a love of nature, demonstrating the value of community, and embracing the curiosity and wonder in students. A strong advocate for project based learning, Cindy loves teaching children to communicate with their peers, collaborate on designs and solutions, and look to nature for inspiration. This year, The Riveredge School educators are partnering with the talented art educators at Lynden Sculpture Garden to create an integrated, interdisciplinary curriculum that is nature based and aligns with our science and social studies curriculum for every grade level. The arts integrated framework will enable students to explore the intersection of arts, culture and nature across the curriculum.