Hello! My name is Caroline Nickerson, and I’m passionate about helping people understand climate change.

A Little About Me

I wear a few hats – I am the Executive Director of Florida Community Innovation, a civic tech nonprofit that empowers over 50 youth innovators to build social services technologies, do research, and engage in community service; I am a Program Specialist at SciStarter, the world’s biggest citizen science organization, where I help millions of people from around the world discover real science they can do; and I am a PhD candidate at the University of Florida, where I study climate change communication in the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication.

Here I am presenting about citizen science at a library in California!

The FCI students are my pride and joy. 

The CEE-Change fellowship (CEE stands for “Civics and Environmental Education”) is a program by the North American Association for Environmental Education, meant to support leadership and innovation. Each fellow receives coaching, face-to-face training, and funding for a keynote project. My cohort had a 18 month fellowship period, which ended in December 2024.

Being a CEE-Change fellow has enriched my life immeasurably. Chiefly, I’m grateful for the community NAAEE has given me. 

• On the FCI side (and thank you to generous FCI donors that provided honorariums for the inspiring CEE-Change fellows!), Gloria met with the FCI students to help them with their public education project about gentrification; Jaeydah and Joy spoke to the FCI class; and Ritchie gave the FCI students an experiential learning experience by letting them analyze his website. 
• On the SciStarter side, I was able to join Maggie, Hannah, and Jeff in Easton, PA to talk about citizen science at the Youth Climate Summit, hosted by the Nature Nurture Center.
• And with my PhD hat on, I got advice from countless other CEE-Change fellows (I in particular have to shout out Ashley, Alma, and Hannah for providing environmental education templates) at our week-long meeting in West Virginia, and beyond, that helped me finish my dissertation.

With my CEE-Change friends in Pennsylvania! 

I had to include some of my favorite art pieces from the Nature Nurture Center.

Digital Field Experiences, Thanks to the CEE-Change Fellowship

For my dissertation, I wanted to investigate: could a live webinar from a field site – henceforth dubbed a digital field experience (DFE) – led by a UF/IFAS Extension agent educate people watching online about climate change and a particular climate impact in a county, changing the way attendees think about climate change, their concerns about the topic, and their behavioral intentions? 

The answer, I found, is a resounding “yes.” 

Thanks to funding from the CEE-Change fellowship and SciStarter, I hosted five DFEs — online, livestreamed programs — that were conducted and assessed in partnership with UF/IFAS Extension to educate adults in Florida about climate change subject matter knowledge and calls to action, including participating in a citizen science project called ISeeChange.

Each program consisted of a mix of background information, live demos, and time for Q&A. All across Florida (and beyond!) were welcome to watch, but the programs themselves included examples from the featured county and were designed with residents of that county in mind.

Recordings are archived on the Streaming Science (the program my advisor – Dr. Jamie Loizzo – runs) website, and will appear as part of the ClimateSmart Floridians course and elsewhere.

There were programs featuring Brevard County, Escambia County, Sarasota County, Miami-Dade County, and Monroe County. I called the series “ClimateCast LIVE.”

To promote my events, I distributed a fun postcard virtually, ran digital ads, and received some newspaper coverage.

The postcard! 

Most programs included a camera person who held an iPad, a mix of live demos in the field and slides presented from a laptop on stand in the field, at least one featured subject matter expert from Extension and/or local government, and then of course me – Caroline Nickerson – as an MC for the livestream and facilitator for Q&A with live participants. 

I adapted the model from what my PhD advisor – Dr. Jamie Loizzo – pioneered with electronic field trips, which are usually for youth learners. Dr. Peyton Beattie – one of Dr. Loizzo’s former advisees – originated the digital field experience concept for UF/IFAS Extension. I took Dr. Beattie’s work a step further by evaluating the impact of DFEs on participants and getting more feedback from Extension agents about the DFE model itself. 

I am indebted to both Dr. Loizzo and Dr. Beattie, as well as to my PhD committee – Dr. Lisa Lundy, Dr. Laura Warner, and Dr. Matt Jacobs – for helping me think through the whole process of thoughtfully evaluating DFEs!

When recapping my DFEs, I have to shout out my camera people! 

My friend Aniqa held the iPad for the Sarasota program.

My mom was behind the scenes in Pensacola.

My father handled Miami-Dade county.

Dad reprised his performance for Brevard county.

Then for Monroe county – Key West – I was behind the camera!

The Extension agents and local government partners I worked with were so inspiring. 

Armando was our Extension expert in Sarasota.

Carrie was our Extension expert in Escambia county.

Ana and Jeff were our Extension experts in Miami-Dade county.

In Brevard county, Lexi and Zach from the City of Cape Canaveral joined us, and Holly was our Extension expert. 

Mandy – Holly’s colleague and a CEE-Change alum – was a huge help in Brevard county when our equipment overheated!

In Monroe county, we had so many amazing folks from the City of Key West join, and multiple fearless Extension staff from the Monroe office, led by Alicia. 

Once again, you can watch the recorded programs on the Streaming Science website!

The Research Part

Of course, it wouldn’t be a dissertation without some research. I successfully defended my dissertation on August 30 (feel free to watch the recording:Caroline Nickerson’s PhD defense). December 2024 graduation, here I come!

The official research-y blurb is: “This study provided insight regarding and a model of how Extension’s use of livestreamed programming, specifically that of DFEs, fills a documented gap of needed guidance for the public about how to respond to climate change and environmental problems.”

The objectives of the study were to explore the influence of the DFE model, regarding climate change and the environment, on: 

• Participants’ subject matter knowledge of the environment and climate change with some focus on the topic discussed during the DFE; 
• Participants’ thoughts about environmental protection, the effects of pollution, and belief in the impact of climate change; 
• Participants’ concerns about the consequences of climate change on their lifestyle, health, community, all people, and plants; 
• Participants’ behavioral intentions to improve the environment and take action because of the DFE; 
• and Suggested best practices about the DFE as a model and use of livestreaming technologies for science communication by Extension. 

The study was inspired by the Situational Theory of Problem Solving, the Theory of Planned Behavior, and the adult learning theories of experiential and transformational learning to create a conceptual model of a DFE’s impact. For my survey questions, I included items inspired by these theories, as well as from existing instruments and scales (scales are basically sets of survey questions that are intended to measure the same phenomenon) – in my case, I adapted the Awareness of Consequences (Stern, 2000) scale and the Environmental Concern (Schultz, 2001) scale. 

Extension agents and the primary researcher (me) for this project conducted and evaluated five DFEs across Florida, with an explanatory mixed methods study. 

Analysis of a survey of viewers, follow-up interviews with select survey respondents, and a focus group with the Extension agents who planned the DFEs indicated that DFEs can increase participant subject matter knowledge, increase the intensity of participant thoughts and concerns about climate change, and increase participant behavioral intentions to address climate change and environmental problems, indicating that DFEs and livestreaming technology use by Extension can be an effective way to communicate about climate change and environmental problems.

This is the conceptual model of a DFE’s impact:

In other words, the tldr (Internet-speak for “too long, didn’t read”) of my dissertation is that DFEs are an effective climate change communication tool for Extension agents!

How Could This be Used?

I think the DFE model could also be used by nonprofit professionals and environmental educators beyond Extension to liven up webinars and enhance their public communication programming. 

Earlier this year, Dr. Beattie and I presented a webinar about DFEs for UF’s Program Development and Evaluation Center. Below, I include some screenshots from my slides to guide interested people through the process of creating a DFE.

If I were going to come up with a step-by-step guide to hosting a DFE, it would look something like this:

1. Decide on your topic (extreme heat, flooding etc.), and recruit a subject matter expert. Extension agents are great partners and have a wealth of knowledge they can share. For example, in my case, most of the Extension agents I worked with were part of a climate change work action group, where they worked together to share resources about climate change. With your subject matter expert, you can figure out a call to action for participants – what do you want them to do after they see your presentation? – and tailor content and demos that relate to that.

2. Decide on your field site. What place has the most interesting visuals that relate to your topic? Then, head out to your field site and test your equipment and your WiFi phone hotspot there. All you need is an iPad, a case for the iPad with handles, some microphones (I recommend the Samson technologies), a stand for your laptop, a WiFi hotspot, a team, and a dream…and then you’re ready to go!

3. When structuring the content of your DFE, think about what you want participants to get out of it. The Extension agents and I created a template slide deck, and then filled that out in line with the below program format.

If you have particular research objectives, create your survey ahead of time to make sure you’re asking about what you’re presenting about in the DFE. Pull in existing scales that other researchers have used to measure different things, like “participant concerns about climate change.” Google scholar is your friend for this!

4. Now that you’ve planned your slides and demos (and demos could be as simple as turning off the slides and then walking around to point at different aspects of the climate impact you’re spotlighting, as the camera person follows you with the iPad), it’s time to promote your DFE!

I promoted my DFE by sending a press release and op-eds to local newspapers. My press release is on the Streaming Science website, if you’d like a model.

I also ran Facebook ads (thanks to funding from CEE-Change and SciStarter). The bulk of my participants came from these ads.

That being said, I also leveraged email listservs I had access to, like Extension’s, and SciStarter’s directory of Florida participants. Spread the word through as many channels as you can, like I did!

5. Do the DFE! Go to your field site, go live on Zoom, and see what happens. Be prepared for unexpected surprises – perhaps bring your umbrella so your equipment doesn’t overheat – and just be ready to have fun.

6. After the DFE is done, email participants your survey and any follow-up materials about the calls to action you shared (e.g., you can volunteer at this place at this time). If you want to do interviews and focus groups to further assess impact beyond just the survey, invite participants to sign up.

The first step to solving problems caused by climate change is talking about them. Hopefully the DFE model is a helpful tool for you to do just that!

A collage of pictures from my DFEs.

Have questions for me? Want to work with me to run your own DFE? All of my info can be found at https://carolinenickerson.com