Building Coastal Community Resilience through STEM Education and Engagement

Rising sea levels have affected human communities around the world, particularly those in atolls and low-lying islands. Several recent studies show that the atolls in Micronesia may lose their fresh water lens as sea levels rise over the next 30 years, a catastrophic impact that could render them uninhabitable. Indeed, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) declared national states of emergency in 2008, 2013, and 2016 due to freshwater shortages from the combined effects of droughts and king tides. It is thus vital to understand the risks posed by sea-level rise to local communities, to allow these communities to anticipate, mitigate, and build resilience. Small projects that engage communities on topics such as sea-level rise offer great value at relatively low cost, and they allow local populations and stakeholders to build trust and lay the foundation necessary to confront future challenges.

In the summer of 2019, three cadets and midshipmen from the U.S. Naval and Coast Guard Academies joined education professionals, local RMI and Guamanian teachers, humanitarian responders, and partners from the University of Hawaii on Kwajalein Atoll. As part of the Pacific Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES) program, they united to address issues like climate change, rising sea-levels, human security, humanitarian aid and disaster relief, and they did so through the vehicle of STEM education. The ALLIES team engaged RMI and local authorities, traditional leadership and the local community throughout Kwajalein Atoll, as well as government personnel from the U.S. Army Garrison Kwajalein Atoll. One of the main education components of Pacific ALLIES was the Ebeye Spartan Camp, which the team facilitated over the course of 4 weeks. About 80 RMI high school students participated in camp modules to (a) raise their awareness in computer technology, (b) learn to apply GPS, cartography, and demographics to problems like sea-level rise, and (c) think about complex issues from perspectives of both the sciences and humanities. Another core activity in the camp incorporated aspects of human security such as food and water scarcity, healthcare and sanitation, all of which are expected to be severely impacted as a result of rising sea levels.

Results from the 2019 Pacific ALLIES program will be presented here. The goal of this study is to incorporate these results into programs that would benefit local communities as we confront future challenges associated with climate change. Lessons learnt from the program will be shared in order to improve the execution of future iterations of Pacific ALLIES and similar STEM outreach programs.