The summer
workshop season was a busy one for PFI. In addition to new staff members
arriving, former staff departed. Now that the summer season has come to a
close, staff transitions have been completed. Former PFI staffers Heather Cosby, Bob Sweeney,
and Jessica Sharp have already been recognized. In August, Jayne Hall, David
Funderburk, and Aaron Motley complete their duties.
Jayne Hall
acted as Media Specialist for PFI, providing us with attractive and useful media
including brochures, nametags, and notebook items. A Math major at Brevard College graduating May 2006, Jayne brought
her mathematician’s eye to inventory, purchasing, and registration databases.
She constructed and maintained many of our computer-based operations. Much of
her effort was “behind-the-scenes,” but made PFI run smoothly. She worked for PFI all four years that she attended Brevard College. She is already attending graduate
school in Greenville SC.
David
Funderburk is shortly on his way to Bolivia for a chance to examine the
ecology, human culture, and geology of the region. He was an Environmental
Studies major at Brevard College with a minor in Geology, also
graduating May 2006. Once he returns from his excursion to South America, he hopes to narrow down his many
interests into one field and apply to graduate school. He is not only
interested in several areas of environmental science and geology, but is also
an excellent musician. David served as an Environmental Educator for PFI and was instrumental in preparing
for as well as teaching in several of our workshops. He was given the task of
operating our first distance learning workshop, which was offered this past
spring of 2006, and surmounted the numerous technical obstacles to make it a
success. His many different experiences at PFI have influenced his interest in
teaching as a career, and should he choose that field, he will be a valuable
addition to it.
Aaron
Motley served as an intern for PFI last spring and worked as an Operations Assistant
this summer. He is in his senior year at Brevard College and will serve as the Student
Government President this year (Jayne was the previous SGA president!). While Aaron is not
leaving PFI for good, his many commitments to
classes, soccer, and the SGA will prohibit his working during the school year.
We wish all
our former staff members good luck and thank them for leaving a strong program
in place. Participants in the summer workshops noted the quality of both the
outgoing and the new staff and were very complementary of PFI as a whole.
PFI's
website is located at www.brevard.edu/pfi.
KceeI’s Exotic and Invasive Species course
began on Sunday, July 23rd.
Geology of Northeastern PA
was also held during this week. This was
the first time that this course was conducted and it was also the first time
that KceeI held two concurrent courses.
The Water Resource Center was used to conduct the Geology
course while a room in Keystone College’s Capwell Science Hall was used to
conduct the Exotic and Invasive Species course.
Registration
began at 3:00pm on July 23rd followed by an introduction to the
course by Howard Jennings, Director of KceeI.
After the pre-assessment, the group was split into teams for a round of
KceeI Bingo on Keystone’s interpretive trails.
It was now time for the opening evening banquet in the President’s
Dining Room. Howard Jennings gave an introduction
to KceeI and Keystone College.
Dr. Lewis
Ziska, an ecologist with the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, MD, was the keynote speaker. Currently, Dr. Ziska has been studying the
impacts of rising carbon dioxide and global climate change on weed biology in
managed and natural eco-systems for the past 15 years. He began his career as a Smithsonian fellow,
and then took up residence as the Project Leader for global climate change at
the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines before joining USDA. At present he is investigating the role of
rising carbon dioxide and changing climate on weed-crop competition,
invasive/noxious weeds and weeds and public health. Dr. Ziska’s research has
appeared in National Geographic, The New
York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report and CNN Headline News.
The topic
of Dr. Ziska’s presentation was on the role of rising carbon dioxide and
changing climate on weed-crop competition.
It was an extremely timely topic and a great way to start off the
week. KceeI would like to thank Dr.
Ziska for his excellent presentation.
Dr. David
Reese, Assistant Executive Director of the NEIU-19, spoke to the group early
Monday morning about the PA Academic Standards for the Environment and Ecology
and introduced the WebQuest exercise for those teachers who were obtaining CPE credit through the NEIU-19. Next was Donna Murphy, Coordinator of the USDA Forest Service Mid-Atlantic Center for Urban and Community
Forestry. She presented on the topics
of: history of invasive species, cultural requirements and why they
invade. Howard Jennings showed a video
to the group entitled, National
Geographic’s Strange Days on Planet Earth: The Invaders, which was very
well received. The next presenter,
Rebecca Hargrave, came from the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chenango
County. She introduced the topics of
ecology, succession, and NE PA community types.
After lunch, Rebecca talked about exotic insects and diseases: Chestnut
Blight, Dutch Elm Disease, Asian Long-Horned Beetle, Emerald Ash Borer, Woolly
Adelgid, and Gypsy Moth. Donna Murphy
then spoke about the specific invasive threats to this area and rest of the
afternoon was spent in the field identifying invasive plants.
Tuesday
began with a discussion on a reading assignment from the book, The Ecology of Invasions by Charles S.
Elton. This was followed by the impacts
on habitat and ecological functions by invasives. Tim Eichner, Director of the Water Resource Center, was up next speaking on the topics
of aquatic invaders and threats to biodiversity. Following lunch the group left for a field
trip to Wilkes-Barre Riverfront Parks.
Here, Vinnie Cotrone, Urban Forester with the Penn State Cooperative
Extension, demonstrated just how big of a problem invasive species were. In certain areas, the park has been taken
over by Giant Knotweed and Purple Loosestrife.
Vinnie explained about the management strategies for invasives that have
been implemented in the park. He also
showed how they are controlled in such a setting. Back at Keystone, a WebQuest session was held
in the evening for those obtaining CPE Credit.
Howard
Jennings began Wednesday morning with an introduction to invasive animals. Some of the current threats are the Nutria in
Louisiana; the Brown Tree snake in Guam; the Nile Monitor in Florida; and the Hemlock Wooly Adelgid in
the Northeastern
United States. Howard also showed a video on
the spread and control of Purple Loosestrife.
The next presenter was Bernie Dincher, a certified arborist, who spoke
about various control methods for invasive plant species that teachers can use
with their students. Donna Murphy then
spoke briefly about what’s currently being done to control invasives as well as
the regulatory considerations, new innovative ideas, and alternatives.
As a means
of wrapping up each of KceeI’s courses, Howard Jennings shared information with
the teachers on the book, Last Child in
the Woods, by Richard Louv. This book
deals with the disconnection of children from the outdoors. “Nature-deficit disorder,” as Louv terms it,
is a growing problem in our society today.
In future courses we hope to provide this book to all KceeI
participants.
After a
round of Invasive Species Jeopardy conducted by Nora Dillon, Operations Coordinator for KceeI,
the post-test was administered and the 2006 Exotic and Invasive Species course was complete!
The success
of this course is probably best appreciated through some of the comments
included in the evaluations:
“Keystone College’s campus is a jewel – beautiful and
relaxing situated in a beautiful forest.”
“This is a good experience with
useful information and links to teachers and administrators who are motivated
about what we do.”
“KceeI remains an educational
power-house run by a dedicated, friendly, and thoroughly knowledgeable staff.”
“I would highly recommend this
course to science teachers. It was
highly organized,
professional and interesting.”
“Excellent learning experience – the
best I’ve ever had.”
“Excellent program. Many resources for direct application in the
classroom.”
“Nature is constantly changing and
this course changed me.”
“Thank you for the professional
expertise, hospitality and commitment to educational progress through
teacher-training.”
20 teachers
participated in this course. 9 of whom
received CPE credit through the NEIU-19, and 11 received Act 48 Hours. There was a percent change of 40% in average
test scores.
KceeI would
like to extend a special thanks to Donna Murphy for all of her assistance in
the development of this course. We would
not have been able to conduct it without her help and continued support.
Just a
reminder…
KceeI’s
website is located at www.KceeI.keystone.edu.
Pacific Forest Institute
As noted in an earlier newsletter, PFI
has held a couple of events on William
Jessup
University
campus earlier in the year. July marked our annual teachers’ workshop where we
held two sessions back-to-back; July 16-21 and July 23-28.
Both sessions were the same, beginning at William Jessup
University (WJU) on a Sunday with registration that was arranged by Executive
Secretary Mary McFarland,
dinner and a program that ended at about 9
p.m. This included introductions and
activities for the teachers and principals that provided the opportunity to
become acquainted. The group was given a workbook for the week and an
opportunity to review the meaning of “Stewardship”---What is it? Why do it? Who
does it? This led to a summary by Program Coordinator Mark McReynolds of the
jurisdiction of various federal, state and local agencies and the regulations
governing private timberland management. Program Director Bill
Dennison provided an over-view of our California
forests. Part III
of “The Greatest Good: A Forest Service Centennial Film” was shown to the
class.
Monday morning began as every day during our classes with
breakfast served at 7
a.m. The first class was an introduction to
Project Wild and Aquatic by Bobbie Winn, State Coordinator for that program.
That was followed by a field trip to the WJU pond and the
opportunity to view the aquatic life through microscopes in the classroom.
Following lunch, Kay Antunez, State Coordinator for Project
Learning Tree (PLT)
provided PLT
work books and walked the teachers through scenarios of how these can be used
in the classroom for various age-groups. Mark Reynolds and his spouse Karen
(who teaches biology at WJU) provided background on invasive species and plant
diversity. This was followed by a PLT
program on fire education, where teachers had the opportunity see first-hand
the importance of terrain, aspect, wind and fuels of various sizes. An interactive
computer program “burning issues” (designed for middle school and up) was
demonstrated by Ms. Antunez.
The second night an enthusiastic presentation about the use
of “Talk About Trees” in the classroom was given by Lisa Perry from the
California Forest Products Commission. This was followed by a snack at the WJU
cafeteria and viewing of Part IV of “The Greatest Good: A Forest Service
Centennial Film.
Tuesday morning the bus was loaded for our mountain field
trip that lasted until Friday morning. The first group spent the week at the
6400 ft. elevation in the Tahoe
National Forest,
at Hidden
Lake,
near Lake Tahoe.
The second group spent their field trip at the 4,000 ft. elevation level near Grass
Valley
at Camp Ross Relles, in the heart of the gold rush fields.
The next PFI
Newsletter will provide details about the field training at each of these
unique camps.
For updated
information on the Pacific Forest Institute, please visit our website at:
http://www.jessup.edu/academics/pacificforestinstitute.
ERC Broadband is a super-regional Internet backbone
connecting the educational and research community and offering local access as
well as long
haul transport with maximum reliability and uptime.
The ERC has regional POPs in Asheville, Pisgah, Marshall, Burnsville, Waynesville,
Cullowhee, Greenville, Spartanburg, and Charlotte supporting:
* Commodity and Internet2 networks
* BGP/OSPF protocols for automated re-routing to
geographically diverse upstreams
* IPv6 address space allocation
* VLAN and VPN services
* DNS and NTP services
For more
information on ERC Broadband, please visit the website at: www.ercbroadband.org.
Illinois State University
Rick Satchwell, ISU-AAM
director, and several other AAM
directors participated in the Northern Virginia’s
AAM
Ambassador Training Program during the week of July 24. This experience
provided an opportunity to observe another program in action and to continue
dialog about the new Teaching with Primary Sources program.
The ISU-AAM
program successfully trained a large number of teachers and library information
specialists this summer in four face-to-face institutes as well as an online
section of the workshop course entitled, “Integrating Digital Primary Resources
Across the K-12 Curriculum.” Staff are preparing the resultant teacher
generated learning experiences to be published on the ISU AAM
website.
ISU’s AAM
program Web site is located at: http://www.mlb.ilstu.edu/aam.
Southern
Illinois University-Carbondale
SIUC AAM
completed delivery of EDUC
550 to 21 in-service teachers and 16 pre-service teachers. Both groups
completed projects which required them to learn about the value and efficacy of
incorporating digital primary sources into the classroom. The
instructional components for the course included topics related to the Library
of Congress’ American Memory website, including activities incorporating use of
materials from the Learning Page. The teachers also learned searching strategies
for American Memory. Each teacher prepared a comprehensive lesson plan
incorporating elements such as state standards, rubrics, student artifacts, and
enabling skills, for example. Other topics covered in the three-hour
graduate course included copyright for teachers, WebQuests, evaluating Internet
resources, and training in selected multi-media applications.
SIUC AAM
staff members are in the process of vetting and archiving lesson plans and
artifacts from the projects the in-service and pre-service teachers prepared
during their course of study. These materials are used in subsequent
semesters and in AAM
workshops.
SIUC AAM
is currently recruiting an in-service teacher cohort for EDUC
550 for the fall 2007 semester. AAM
staff are in discussions with an area Regional Office of Education to explore
the possibility of delivering EDUC
550 off-site during fall or spring semester. Teachers in the service area
have expressed an interest in participating in the course at a site which would
not require extensive travel.
SIU-C’s AAM
program Web site is located at: http://aam.siu.edu/.
Metropolitan State College of Denver
U.S. Senator Wayne Allard
to Visit AAM-Colorado
AAM-Colorado
is pleased to welcome U.S. Senator Wayne Allard
to Metropolitan State College of Denver in late August 2006. Senator Allard
and other guests will tour the campus, visit with AAM-Colorado
staff, and hear about how AAM-Colorado
is helping educators across the state to use primary sources in their schools.
AAM-Colorado
Highlights for 2005-2006
During the reporting year 2006-2006, AAM-Colorado
serviced more than 20 Colorado
school districts, with more than 600 teachers, librarians, media specialists,
and administrators attending AAM-Colorado
workshops. AAM-Colorado
has collaborated with 11 school districts to create on-site primary source
workshops. In addition, more than 600 pre-service teachers per year are
introduced to accessing LOC digital primary source material, and the technology
required to use it, in Metro
State’s
required teacher education course, Educational Technology (EDT
3610).
Jefferson County Public Schools, the largest district in Colorado,
was informed that they have been awarded a $950,000 Teaching American History
grant. AAM-Colorado
has been asked to participate and will teach its workshops to all grant
participants.
AAM-Colorado
Fellows
AAM-Colorado
introduces its new Fellows program, in which educators who have completed AAM-Colorado
workshops will assist AAM-Colorado
staff with promoting and coordinating the program in their home district and
across the state. New Fellows to be welcomed are:
- Mary
Johnson (Consultant, former Library Media Specialist with Eagleview Middle
School, Colorado Springs Academy 20 School District, former Library of
Congress American Memory Fellow, AAM-Colorado
Alumnus)
- Donna
Levene (former Library Media Specialist with Overland High School, Cherry
Creek School District, former Library of Congress American Memory Fellow)
- Michelle
Pearson (History and Language Arts, Hulstrom
Options
School,
Adams
12 School District,
AAM-Colorado
Alumnus)
- Cynthia
Stout (Project Director for Teaching American History Grant, Curriculum
Content Specialist for Secondary Social Studies Education, Jefferson
County School District, former Library of Congress American Memory Fellow)
MSCD’s AAM
program Web site is located at: http://aamcolorado.mscd.edu.