Jennifer T. Mokos
Justice, values, and ethics are core components of my approach to the interface of sustainability, culture, and the environment.
I strive to foster a strong concept of diversity that respects difference through scholarship integrated with community engagement. In addition to my current research which involves twelve months of embedded ethnographic fieldwork with people living in river bottom homeless encampments, I draw on over six years of experience as an environmental educator in the New York City area.
HORRY COUNTY RISING
Community group established with the goal to promote civic engagement around local issues related to flooding, growth, development, and quality of life.
BUSHWICK FOOD ASSESSMENT
A participatory GIS project with 10th graders from Bushwick, Brooklyn who evaluated the availability and affordability of healthy food in their neighborhood; presented their research at a conference at Columbia University; and gained summer employment with the New York City Department of Health. Funding awarded by the Citizens Committee for New York City Better Neighborhood Grant.
WAVE HILL SALAMANDER PROJECT
6th grade students from MS 80 and MS 280 in the Bronx monitored red-backed salamanders in Riverdale Park; data contributed to a longitudinal dataset compiled by ecologists at New York City Parks Department. Program worked with students in active conflict with each other and integrated peer mediation, communication skills, and team building into scientific data collection activities.
MARSH PROJECT
3rd grade students from the Foxfire School in Yonkers collected data on wetland functions and values, and assisted with the restoration of a disturbed tidal marsh.
GARBAGE GAUGE EXHIBIT
A partnership with a local occupational training program for high school students with autism created a permanent exhibit to educate the public about stormwater pollution in the Hudson River.
HUDSON RIVER PUBLIC MONITORING PROJECT
Installed real-time water quality and weather monitoring sensors in the Hudson River; configured a web-based interface to make data available to the public; wrote newsletter articles and held free workshops for members of the public on how to interpret water quality and river functioning from the data.
ANSWER WITH ACTION
Year-long service-learning program with high school students in Bedford-Stuyvesant; students created three short-form video documentaries on violence in their neighborhood; also created spoken word and artwork on the effect of school safety officers and metal detectors on the educational environment of their school.
UPWARD BOUND
Instruction of Saturday biology and earth science courses for the Upward Bound program at Columbia University, which provides resources and support to first-generation, low-income public high school students.
STALKING SCIENCE IN THE ADIRONDACKS
As a graduate assistant at SUNY ESF, I co-taught field biology to in-service science teachers at the college’s field station in the Adirondacks. Participants earned graduate credit for the course.