The BioDiversity Project is an internship program with the tri-part goal to: 1) increase K-12 student interest in environmental science, 2) provide environmental science workforce training for UArizona students, and 3) increase the diversity of voices involved in environmental and sustainability decision-making. Their diverse cohort of interns come from various majors and backgrounds and receive mentorship and training in environmental education, translational science communication, culturally-responsive pedagogy development, diversity and inclusion in environmental fields and organizations, and resilience-based leadership development. Interns are then responsible for compiling and creating educational materials for K-12 partner teachers in local Title 1 schools.
As the program seeks to expand, the Campus Sustainability Fund is providing funding to support their personnel to provide even further leadership development, workforce readiness, and equity training components to undergraduate interns.
Over the 2023–2025 academic years, the Bio/Diversity Project hired and mentored 64 undergraduate interns, including eight annual lead mentors and three AmeriCorps Environmental Literacy Corps Fellows. Interns contributed over 11,170 hours toward classroom instruction, outreach education, and professional development, including 580+ hours of classroom teaching and over 70 training seminars, field trips, and guest speaker events. Interns reached over 1,550 youth across fourteen schools, supported more than 13 K–12 teachers, and expanded programming to new schools and partners. Partners include speakers from Saguaro National Park, the Desert Museum, the Sierra Club, Tucson Audubon Society, Sky Island Alliance, and more.
The program has enhanced efforts to integrate Spanish language instruction as well as further incorporation of math and data science into the environmental education curriculum, and continued to improve culturally responsive environmental education access and engagement for middle and high school students.
Notably, 97% of interns felt that the Bio/Diversity Project helped them achieve their academic or professional goals and 93% felt confident in their leadership ability after participating in the program.
Please keep up with the program by checking out their annual reports, resources, and achievements on their webpage.
