National Collaborative for Food, Energy, and Water Education (NC-FEW)

Project Overview
Worldwide, there has been growing interest in research, education, and discourse around the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus (FEW-Nexus), which serves as a framework to describe and aid in addressing complex coupled human-natural systems and the most significant global challenges of today and tomorrow.  These challenges provide a rationale for sustained, systemic, and interdisciplinary educational efforts focused on food, energy, and water systems in a wide array of educational contexts.   The National Collaborative for Food, Energy, and Water Education (NC-FEW) is an emergent, transdisciplinary community of educators and education researchers from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences (FANH) fields. The project – INFEWS/T3 RCN: Cultivating a National Collaborative for Research on Food, Energy, and Water Education (NC-FEW; NSF-1856040) is co-funded through the Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy and Water Systems (INFEWS) program and education core research program (ECR) through Education and Human Resources (EHR). Through community-building activities, NC-FEW promotes cross-fertilization between participants from diverse disciplinary and departmental backgrounds through sustained network- and capacity-building over multiple years. This community-building endeavor is grounded in the fundamental assumption that NC-FEW can intentionally emerge as a networked improvement community through which to systemically foster and understand STEM and FANH teaching and learning about the FEW-Nexus. NC-FEW’s current phase of work builds upon earlier endeavors supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award #1006539 and #2017-06281, the Network of STEM Education Centers/APLU (NSEC), the Agricultural Research Division at the University of Nebraska, and Virginia Tech in the National Capital Region (NCR).

  • $750,000 NSF, Innovations in the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus (INFEWS) Research Coordination Network (INFEWS/T3 RCN BCS #1856040, awarded August, 2019)
  • $300,000 in charitable gifts from external stakeholders
  • $150,000 UNL ARD Strategic Initiatives Fund
  • $79,200 USDA-NIFA subcontract
  • $49,300 UNL CASNR and Extension
  • $30,000 from USDA-NIFA Higher Education Challenge Grant (HEC)
  • $12,000 Multistate Research/UNL ARD
  • $10,500 from National STEM Education Centers (NSEC) network/APLU
  • $10,000 Big Ideas Seed Grant, UNL Office of Research and Economic Development
  • $10,000 Virginia Tech National Capitol Region

Project Publications

Scherer, H. H., Forbes, C. T., Sintov, N., & Wang, H.-H. (2020). The Food-Energy-Water-Nexus: A new way to help students think about resource management in AFNR education. The Agricultural Education Magazine, 92(5), 5-8. 

Teasdale, R., Scherer, H., Holder, L., Boger, R., & Forbes, C.T. (2018). Research on teaching about Earth in the context of societal problems. In K. St. John (Ed.), Community Framework for Geoscience Education Research (pgs. 49-60). National Association of Geoscience Teachers. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.25885/ger_framework/5.

Project Presentations

Forbes, C.T. (invited, 2020, August).  Sustainability Education in the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus.  Invited presentation at Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Webinar Series. (Virtual presentation due to COVID-19)

Forbes, C.T. (invited, 2020, April).  Research on education in the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus: Opportunities and challenges for STEM educators and education researchers.  Invited presentation at the Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Teacher Development, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY.  (COVID-19 related cancellation)

Forbes, C.T. (invited, 2020, April).  Education research in the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus: Transdisciplinary opportunities for geography education.  Invited presentation at the 2020 meeting of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) session Transformative Research in Geography Education.  (COVID-19 related cancellation)

Forbes, C.T., Campbell, T., & Roehrig, G. (2020, January).  Educator preparation in the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus: Building capacity for research through transdisciplinary networks.  Presentation at the annual meeting of the Association for Science Teacher Education (ASTE), San Antonio, TX. 

Forbes, C.T., Scherer, H., Wang, H-H., & Sintov, N. (invited, 2020, June).  A national collaborative for food, energy, & water education.  Virtual presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Network of STEM Education Centers (NSEC).  (Virtual presentation due to COVID-19)

Forbes, C.T., Scherer, H., Sintov, N., & Wang, H-H. (2020, April).  A national collaborative for research food, energy, & water education.  Poster presented at annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers (AAG), Denver, CO.  (COVID-19 related cancellation of conference)

Forbes, C.T., Scherer, H., Sintov, N., & Wang, H-H. (2019, October).  A national collaborative for research food, energy, & water education.  Poster presented at annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Phoenix, AZ. 

Forbes, C.T., Scherer, H., Wang, H-H., Millenbah, K., Sintov, N., & Li, C. (invited, 2018, June).  A national collaborative for food, energy, & water education.  Poster presented at the 2018 annual meeting of the National Network of STEM Education Centers (NSEC). 

Forbes, C.T., Scherer, H., Li, C., Millenbah, K., Sintov, N., & Wang, H-H. (2018, July).  Building a National Collaborative for Food, Energy, and Water Education (NC-FEW): Insights from a national conference.  Poster presented at the Earth Educators Rendezvous (EER), Lawrence, KS.

Huyck Orr, C., Scherer, H.H., Forbes, C.T., & Bruckner, M.Z. (2018, December). Teaching about food, water, and energy in the context of sustainability: Opportunities and connections with the InTeGrate STEP center. Poster presented at the 2018 annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Washington, DC.

Forbes, C.T. (invited, 2017, June).  A national collaborative for food, energy, & water education: Opportunities and strategic visioning.  Invited presentation at the 2017 annual meeting of the National Network of STEM Education Centers (NSEC). 

Forbes, C.T. & Li, C. (accepted).  A national collaborative for food, energy, and water education.  Symposium to be presented at the 2017 annual meeting of the North American Association of Environmental Education, San Juan, PR.  CONFERENCE CANCELLED

Forbes, C.T. & Scherer, H. (2017, July).  Education in the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus: A transdisciplinary community.  Paper presented at the 2017 Earth Educators’ Rendezvous, Albuquerque, NM. 

Forbes, C.T., Foster, D., Millenbah, K., Scherer, H., & Wang, H-H. (2017, June).  A national collaborative for food, energy, and water education.  Poster presented at the 2017 annual meeting of the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA), West Lafayette, IN.

Forbes, C.T. (invited, 2016, April). Cultivating science literacy in the nexus: Multidisciplinary STEM education across food, energy, and water. Invited presentation at 2016 Annual Symposium of the Global Food Security Consortium, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.