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A wide range of research has examined trust building within corporations, businesses, and schools, and between and within organizations, but little research has been conducted that examines trust formation between university researchers and classroom-based teachers. Using a qualitative methodological approach, the authors examined the development of trusting relationships between their educational research team and a series of urban science teachers after 3 years of partnerships. It was found that teachers were initially cautiously optimistic about working with the research team, not wanting to invest much effort in the partnership until the research team had proven they were open, honest, and, most importantly, dedicated to helping their students. It was also found that the process of trust building began with an initial tentative and hesitant frontstage persona and eventually progressed to the point where they felt comfortable dropping their frontstage mask to engage in backstage conversations. The authors discovered that the trust-building process was transformative, in that, as trust was developed, it fostered the blurring of their social identities with the teachers as the teachers became teacher/researchers and the research team likewise became researcher/teachers.

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This chapter is a description of the Urban Tree Project where high school students were engaged in the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies to determine the economic and ecological value of trees in their neighborhood. Students collected data on tree locations and conditions and then used CITYgreen to evaluate the economic and ecological value of their trees. Urban high school youth had the opportunity to explore urban ecology in their neighborhoods. Pre–post interview and written assessments were conducted across a wide sample of school contexts. The goal of these assessments was to explore the students' beliefs and understanding regarding the ecosystem services that trees and greenspace provide to a city. The results were mixed as students' understanding measured by the written assessments increased significantly. However, upon further probing, students often showed difficulty in drawing coherent concepts and ideas that depicted a robust understanding of urban ecological principles regarding green space and the services that trees provide.