Applications open for the 2025 River Field Scholar Program!

Applications due February 5th, 2025: https://qualtrics.nau.edu/jfe/form/SV_e9yaa88qej7jCom

The RIVER Field Studies Network (RIVER) is an NSF Research Coordination Network in Undergraduate Biology Education framed around connecting rivers, people, and science through immersive field-based education. Two central objectives of the network are to build instructor capacity and create interdisciplinary open-source lesson content to be shared across the network. Here is our year in review from 2024.

RIVER is excited to begin recruiting the next cohort for the RIVER Instructor & Curriculum Professional Development (aka “RIVER Scholars”) Program. This program integrates expert instruction and peer mentoring in virtual and field settings to build instructor capacity to develop and lead safe and effective river-based field lessons and courses. Participants will “learn by doing” as they work together to create, practice, and disseminate new open-source content as well as gain knowledge and proficiency in:

In addition, we anticipate participants will develop a greater:

All participant costs will be covered – including travel to the in-person River Rendezvous and training. In addition, each participant will receive a $1,000 stipend upon completing the program and publishing a new QUBES river field lesson. The expectation is that the creation of the lesson involves approximately 40 hours of effort spread over the Spring, Summer, and Fall. The estimated total value of the program is $3,000 per participant.

Learn more this Monday, January 27 from 1-3 pm Pacific/4 – 6 pm Eastern at the 2025 River Field Studies Network virtual Winter Gathering. The winter gathering will feature the new lesson created by the 2024 scholar cohort and a keynote presentation by Dr. Ryan Emmanuel (Duke University). Register here to receive the ZOOM link – https://forms.gle/F8vCMwvG1G63grUQ8

Program Outline

Outcomes will be achieved through a 10-month training and mentoring cycle (March 2025 – January 2026). The training cycle is framed around a series of virtual webinars & activities about river field studies and lesson development in the spring, an in-person field “River Rendezvous” to gain firsthand instruction on place-based lesson development and gain in field expertise in the summer, virtual webinars & activities framed around lesson development, publication, dissemination, and scaling from lessons to courses in the fall, and culminates with a virtual winter symposium to showcase new materials to the network and new cohort.

Participants will work over the program to produce one interdisciplinary field lab that will be published to the RFSN QUBES hub and other online repositories as appropriate. Each participant is expected to create 1 new lesson and support other members in their cohort by providing feedback and peer review to each other. See examples of past lesson at our QUBES resource library.

The successful applicant must be able to commit to the following program:

Spring 2025. Participate in ~6 hours of professional development in the Spring term (~ 1 60 min ZOOM activity per month in March, April, and May plus readings, meeting prep time). Spring will focus on preparing for the in-person River Rendezvous and starting to develop ideas for your own new river field lesson. You’ll bring these ideas to the River Rendezvous where you can share them and “workshop” them with mentors and other participants into fully envisioned lesson plans.

Summer 2025. Attend the River Rendezvous to be held on the Cheat River, WV May 28-June 3, our flagship “in person and on the river” community building and training event. The event will be supported by the professional team at West Virginia University Outdoor Recreation Program, Adventure WV. The Cheat River is a powerful example of environmental restoration. Once severely polluted by acid mine drainage, particularly after the devastating 1994 Muddy Creek blowout, the river has made a remarkable recovery thanks to extensive remediation efforts. These efforts have not only improved water quality and restored vital habitat for fish and other aquatic species, but also revived the river’s recreational value, boosting local economies through tourism. The Cheat’s story serves as a model for restoring waterways impacted by resource extraction, highlighting the effectiveness of various treatment methods and the resilience of natural systems. While challenges remain, the Cheat River offers hope and valuable lessons for achieving lasting environmental recovery through community involvement, scientific research, and persistent effort.

This rendezvous will consist of a base camp and day trips to different sections of river explored by raft, stand-up paddle board, kayak, and canoe. No prior rafting or camping experience or gear is required to participate. In addition to developing community with your cohort and mentors, learning practical field skills, and workshopping your lesson ideas, you will learn from local experts and diverse stakeholders about this historically significant event. July – August following the Rendezvous we do not meet but participants are encouraged to continue their work to develop lesson plans. To get a sense of the feel of a River Rendezvous see this slideshow from 2023 Rendezvous on the San Juan River.

Fall 2025. Participate in ~10 hours of professional development in the fall term (~ 1 60 min ZOOM activity per month September, October, November, plus meeting preparation). In addition, participants will continue to write, test out, revise, and publish lessons to the QUBES hub. The expectation is that each participant would develop a lesson idea that will get workshopped at the River Rendezvous, then they will return to their home watershed and test it out with local students (this could be as part of a class they are teaching, or ad hoc with a handful of “student” volunteers, etc.), then write up and share their draft lessons for feedback from other river scholar peers, incorporate any feedback, publish their lessons to our QUBES lesson library, and present their lesson to the network at the Winter Gathering.

Winter 2025-26. Present new lessons to the network community at the winter virtual workshop. Completion of the program and disbursement of the stipend occurs when lessons have been published and presented. Here is a video of the 2022 cohort presenting their lessons.

This program is open to instructors who already teach or aspire to teach interdisciplinary, immersive field lessons and/or courses focused on riverine ecosystems. Our focal audience is instructors who teach college/university-level STEM content. Still, those serving non-traditional students or teaching in other fields (e.g., Indigenous Knowledge, Experiential Education, etc.) are also encouraged to apply. Participants must be willing to participate in the program activities outlined above to develop a new open-source curriculum module. We are particularly interested in supporting instructors from underrepresented backgrounds or who serve underrepresented populations.

Please complete this application by Monday, February 4th, 2025 to receive full consideration. Please share this opportunity with anyone you think would be interested. Note that selection is likely to be highly competitive. Last year we had > 60 applications and we only have 10 – 12 spaces available. We anticipate < 15% selection rate. Competitive applicants will need to provide well-developed and thought-out responses to application prompts. Given so many great applications – Why should we select you?

Questions can be directed to RFSN membership and DEI committee chair, Denielle Perry (Denielle.Perry@nau.edu) or James Vonesh (jrvonesh@vcu.edu)