August 13th, 2009
Photo from a post titled "Occupational Hazards"
The Infinite Universe Blog is an engaging and witty site authored by local naturalist and photographer Tim Boyle.
I highly recommend scrolling down and checking out the sidebar section titled “Things kids say to a naturalist…”
June 23rd, 2009
Black Crappie Image From the Leader's Guide
I finally got a chance to take an indepth look at MinnAqua’s Leader’s Guide.
I knew it would be good because it won a 2008 NAI Interpretive Media Award, but it far exceeded my expectations. I anticipated a curriculum guide much like the Project WET and WILD guides – which are great resources. However, the MinnAqua Guide builds on the template in a couple major ways.
First, each chapter contains an impressive quantity of local aquatic natural history, essentially eliminating the need to seek out other sources to build your knowledge or to tweak activities to be locally applicable. The guide is alone worth reading to simply increase your natural history knowledge.
Second, the guide also comes with a CD containing a plethora of seriously impressive images, especially of fish. No simple line drawings here, think detailed full-color images that look like the fish jumped out of the water onto your page.
The guide also includes hyper-detailed evaluations of how each lesson meets Minnesota’s Academic Standards and ready-to-use assessment quizzes and standards. To top it all off, the entire guide was reviewed by over 100 experts in various fields so you can feel ultra-confident about the accuracy of the content.
You can get a copy by attending or hosting a MinnAqua Educator Workshop. Contact Michelle Kelly for more info.
March 27th, 2009
Project BudBurst
Springtime always peaks my interest in phenology. Recently, I went to a local book seller and inquired if they sold phenology journals, the women at the book store asked if I had looked in the New Age section. Right away I knew her mistake, “Not Phrenology,” I said, “Phenology.”
Here is a list of phenology resources from people and organizations who definitely wouldn’t make the same mistake.
The Minnesota Conservation Volunteer has a great young naturalists article on Phenology, including a teachers guide.
Project BudBurst is “is a national field campaign for citizen scientists designed to engage the public in the collection of important climate change data based on the timing of leafing and flowering of trees and flowers. ”
The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service’s extensive phenology page.
John Latimer, of Grand Rapids, hosts an interesting phenology radio series with the MP3s available on his website.
Red Wing Nature Notes is group blog which holds true to its name.
And the Star Tribune reports that this week the first barge plowed upstream through the ice at Lake Pepin.
March 12th, 2009
I’ve been attending the UMN’s intriguing Public Engagement Symposia Series.
One thing that was identified at both symposia is a need for translators to communicate between scientists and community.The values and methods of communicating with these two groups are very different, making direct communication nearly impossible.
The role of translator between scientist and community member is a role Environmental Educators have been playing for decades: making it real to the community how environmental science effects their everyday lives.
Perhaps Environmental Educators could translate their skills to other types of science – health, psychology, etc. Additionally, they may be able to help the communication flow from the community to scientists; pass on information about the community’s needs and therefore obtain their buy-in.
This strong connection to local communities with help scientists fulfill national grant standards and foster more relevant and valuable research.
On a related note, here is an cool bit of science that would translate well to an environmental education program. Scientists have developed a software program which identifies Tigers by there strip pattern. The software is free, and could be cool in a program developed by a tech-savvy EEer.
Tiger Stripe Mapping Software
March 9th, 2009
If you haven’t recently (or ever) gone through the Project Wet, Wild, and Learning Tree training I highly recommend taking them again!
I had the opportunity to go through the training, for the third time, last week at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve (which is such a cool place it deserves a post of its own) and I was happily surprised at the upgrades and additions to the programs.
New (since about three years ago went I last attended a training) is a Early Childhood supplement for Project Wild, an awesome Project Wild Aquatic book, a phenomenal time-saving book with Minnesota versions of Project Wild activities, and a newly revised Project Learning Tree guide. They have also recently added a plethora of online components.
Also, as always, the opportunity to meet new people is priceless.
If you want to attend, check out the calendar and sign up! If you have a big group you can contact the Project coordinators and see if you can arrange a private training.
March 3rd, 2009
The Coen Brothers, Saint Louis Park natives and movie mogul siblings, have distilled their creative juices into a clever anti-clean coal commercial:
The commercial was made for the Reality Campaign which is an anti-coal project founded by a coalition of environmental groups.(LA Times article about the group and movie)
For balance, here is a science blog post arguing that clean coal technology is a needed tool during our transition to sustainable energy.
March 2nd, 2009
Penelopedia: Nature and Garden in Northfield, MN is a local blog by an observant and engaged nature lover in Northfield, MN.
If you know of, or have, a local environmental blog please let me know and I’ll post about it!
February 23rd, 2009
Sierra Bravo Web Challenge
Web development company Sierra Bravo is again hosting theOvernight Website Challenge. Twelve lucky non-profits were selected to receive a new website created in just 24 hours by over 100 web geek volunteers.
Two non-profits connected to the environmental community were selected: Friends of Fort Snelling and Yea Corps.
The web development lock-in occurs next Saturday, Feb. 28 – so make a note to check out their fancy-shmancy new sites next week!
The deadline for non-profit applications was in early January, so if you know of a non-profit in “www.” need give them a heads-up and perhaps they can apply for next years Website Challenge.
January 22nd, 2009
The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota has just started a new blog called Field Notes.
From the first post:
Welcome to Field Notes, the blog of the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota. As the Field Representative for the Alliance, in partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, I will be using this space to report on my travels and activities throughout the state. I hope to cover local issues, initiatives, opportunities, and ideas that will help and inspire you to work towards preserving the historic places in your community. From time to time I may ask you for your feedback, but you’re always welcome to comment on the blog, emerging issues, or other preservation concerns at PAMfieldnotes@gmail.com Happy reading!
Also, Preservation Alliance of Minnesota is on Facebook, if you are too, become a fan!
January 19th, 2009
Here is a nice video of a Snowy Owl being a cared for at the Raptor Center by the Star Tribune. Its accompanied by an article noting the Snowy Owls who have taken winter residence at the airport.
More information about airport owls from a Birdchick blog post.