PFI’s summer workshop season is off to a great start. We began with Earth and Environmental Science for Middle and High School Teachers during the week of June 17-22. We had a great mix of 24 teachers, with a strong contingent from Florida this year. The highlight of the week was the capture of a Hellbender in the Davidson River during our water quality exercise. The animal was about 18 inches long, incredibly strong, and very slippery, but no match for summer assistant Devin Gentry! Everyone had a chance to photograph the huge salamander before we released him back into the river.
On Sunday evening and all day Monday, Dr. James Reynolds, Brevard College’s geologist, provided excellent information on the formation and structure of the Southern Appalachians. He showed the participants metamorphic rocks that recorded at least two different mountain building episodes here in the southern Appalachians, and we followed a portion of the famous Brevard fault during our field trips to Caesar’s Head State Park and Dupont State Forest. On Tuesday, Diane Silver’s presentation and Lindsay Green’s activities on water quality gave us a chance to get wet while studying hydrology in the Pisgah National Forest. Diane is coordinator for Henderson County’s Mud Creek Watershed Project (part of NC State University’s Extension Service) and Lindsay is an interpreter for the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education. Wednesday was focused on Ecology, with several activities designed and led by PFI staff members Jennifer Frick-Ruppert and Ralphene Rathbone. Ranger Chris Spender at Holmes Educational State Forest also provided an activity on tree identification. Thursday’s focus was the atmosphere. We began with a great presentation and set of activities on air quality by Margie Meares of the Clean Air Trust. In the afternoon, PFI’s own Kevin Fischer and the National Climatic Data Center’s Axel Graumann provided information and activities on weather. Friday we wrapped up the week at the USDA Forest Service’s Cradle of Forestry in America Historic Site with an activity designed by Education/Interpretation Program Manager Cindy Carpenter. With help from Devin, Kevin, and Jennifer, Cindy led an activity that focused on a watershed to evaluate tree canopy and midstory, ground cover, and several measurements of soil. It was a great culmination of the different aspects of the forest that we had focused on each day. The PFI staff worked together to produce a great first summer workshop, with much of the “behind-the-scenes”
preparation during the week by summer assistants Austin Brodfuhrer, Ryan Fiffick, and Hayley Lawrimore. Doris Pressley was our fabulous bus driver, who is an important and helpful staff member.
With one day off to recover, PFI launched into the second summer workshop during the week of June 24-29. We had 26 teachers join us for the Earth and Environmental Science for Elementary Teachers. With a goal of serving 24 teachers in each workshop, this one actually overfilled, but we were able to accommodate the two extra participants. This workshop has an identical format, but with activities and lessons focused at the elementary rather than high-school level. Geologist Amanda Roberts replaced Jim Reynolds, but Diane Silver, Lindsay Green, and Axel Graumann returned for this second workshop. PFI worked with Project Learning Tree NC coordinator Renee Strnad to offer Project Learning Tree activities and a certificate of completion. Keith Bamberger of the Air Quality Division of the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Tim Fleming of Holmes Educational State Forest each led an afternoon of PLT activities on the subjects of atmosphere and ecology. We concluded the week with a different activity led by Cindy Carpenter that focused participants on the benefits of forests and their sustainable use. Once again, the PFI staff pulled together and carried off an excellent workshop.
PFI's website is located at www.brevard.edu/pfi.
Pacific Forest Institute
Pacific Forest Institute (PFI) personnel are in the final preparation for the June and July Workshops in California. Our July 15-20 Workshop is full, but we still have space available in the June 24-29 session.
One of the important details was in securing cooks for our Hidden Lakes camp that is nestled in the beautiful high Sierra’s near Lake Tahoe. There are no catering services near this remote facility. We believe that we have found a couple that will provide those services. Otherwise, we will be treated to staff prepared meals.
Mark McReynolds, PFI Program Coordinator has been very active on several projects that will assist our 2007 Workshop programs and enhance the use of the William Jessup University (WJU) Pond that has become an integral part of PFI.. These include the following:
- A May 1st meeting was held with the Placer Land Trust biologist to discuss management options for WJU Pond.
- A May 3rd meeting was arranged with the Rocklin Unified School District. They have a multi-year grant to encourage service learning. Their representative, Jennifer Hicks was excited about using the WJU Pond as a service-learning center. They also discussed holding a May 30th teacher training session.
- May 10th a meeting was held with a California Waterfowl Association representative to discuss their programs and management options for the WJU Pond.
- May 11th Mark held an all day PFI and Rocklin Unified School District (RUSD) meeting for teachers as an introduction to PFI, WJU, the Pond and service learning center.
- May 30th there was a scheduled Project Learning Tree Workshop for 10 RUSD teachers.
- June 19th will be PFI’s first official Flying WILD Workshop. As reported last month, PFI has been chosen to be a City Partner for Flying WILD (that is related to Project WILD and Project WET) and will be the area distributor of curriculum guides and a center for training educators and facilitators.
- June 22 PFI is hosting the Golden State Environmental Education Consortium Workshop.
We take this time to congratulate and thank Mark for the tremendous strides that he has made in the expansion of PFI activities and the ultimate education of our teachers and students.
This is PFI’s third year in the ERC program. We are benefiting from many hours of diligent work by the ERC and PFI staff and if funding continues, we can foresee many opportunities for meeting the goals that we established at the beginning of the program.
For updated information on the Pacific Forest Institute, please visit our website at:
http://www.jessup.edu/academics/pacificforestinstitute.
Keystone College Environmental Education Institute
KceeI just completed its first two week-long courses of the summer: Watershed Explorers for teachers of grades k-6 and Astronomy for teachers of grades 7-12. Both courses were held during the week of June 17th – 22nd. It was challenging to work out all the small details of running concurrent courses but the week went very smoothly thanks to the help of Keystone College food service, physical facilities, housekeeping and student life.
A total of 23 teachers attended the Watershed Explorers course. Of whom, 12 obtained CPE credit through the NEIU-19, 1 obtained Wilkes University Graduate Education Credit, and 10 received Act 48 Hours.
The course began on a Sunday with registration and check-in at 3:30pm. Following registration, Howard Jennings, Director of KceeI, tested the groups’ knowledge of the history of Keystone College and the Environment with a trivia game – the winner received a Keystone College baseball hat. A pre assessment was given next. This year KceeI is able to administer the pre/post tests on the laptop computers that were purchased through the grant. The teachers are able to see their scores instantly which is something that they definitely like. After the pre test, the group split into teams for an icebreaking game of KceeI nature bingo on Keystone College’s interpretive trails.
This year, the keynote speaker for the Watershed Explorers course was Mike Lovegreen, Bradford County Conservation District Manager. Mike gave an excellent presentation on the culture of watershed management. The topic of his presentation was Watersheds: A Reflection of our Physical, Social and Economic Worlds.
Monday morning began with a discussion of the book, Every Drop for Sale, Jeffrey Rothfeder, which deals with global water issues and problems. This book was provided to all attendees. Next, Angela Lambert, DCNR Environmental Education Coordinator, did a number of activities with the teachers related to the water cycle, they were interactive and hands-on and the teachers loved them. The PA American Water Company presented next. Susan Turcmanovich and Nancy Donahue talked to the group about the water treatment process and brought an actual model of the technology that PA American Water Company uses to treat water.
After lunch, Mike Chisdock, coordinator of the West Nile Virus Program for Lackawanna County, spoke to the group about the virus and showed an excellent PowerPoint Presentation on the topic. Angela Lambert and Tim Eichner finished up the rest of the afternoon with various Project-Wet activities that teachers can use in their own classrooms. Some of the topics covered were: watershed delineation and point and non-point source pollution.
Dr. Robert Cook, Keystone College professor, started Tuesday morning off with an introduction to groundwater and measuring flow. Dr. Cook took the group outside and in the stream for most of his presentation. After lunch, the group was divided in two and concurrent sessions were held. Angela Lambert conducted one session in the stream on collecting and identifying macroinvertebrates while Dr. Jerry Skinner, Keystone College professor, took the other group further upstream to demonstrate fish sampling techniques. The groups switched after each session. Next on the agenda was a riparian trail hike on Keystone’s interpretive trails.
Wednesday was dedicated to an all-day watershed tour. The group traveled to the Mehoopany plant of the Proctor and Gamble Company for a behind the scenes tour of the companies’ water treatment operations as well as paper making processes. Alex Fried, Public Relations Director at the plant, guided the tour. The plant is located on the banks of the Susquehanna River and takes in 10 million gallons of water a day from the river. Their water treatment process is such that when they return the water to the river, it is cleaner than when they took it in. Alex and his staff also gave the teachers a private demonstration of P&G’s own PUR Water Purification System. This process takes the dirtiest of water and transforms it into clean, drinkable water in minutes. By adding a packet of PUR to dirty water and stirring for about 5 minutes allows the particles flocculate together and settle to the bottom. The water is then strained through a paper towel and is clean and ready to drink! This technology is now being used in third world countries and places where natural disasters have occurs. This was a one of a kind opportunity for the teachers and they really enjoyed it.
The next stop was Lazy Brook Park, once an area occupied by many homes and now a public park. Shane Kleiner, DEP Conservation District Field Representative, explained how and why this area flooded so often. FEMA had to assist in relocating the homes to different areas because they should never have been built there in the first place. They ate a picnic lunch here.
Glenburn Pond was the next stop on the watershed tour. Bob Lewis, PA DEP, explained about the issues associated with this pond such as, flooding, safety, and chromium contamination. He also explained about the current controversies over the breeching of the unsafe Glenburn Dam. The pond was actually being drained by a large pump the day the teachers were here. They were able to see first hand the complications and issues surrounding Glenburn Pond.
After this, the group traveled to the Environmental Learning Center at Lackawanna State Park where Angela Lambert spoke about the resources for teachers that are available here. For the last stop of the day, Ernie Keller of the Lackawanna County Conservation District showed the group a modern day conservation farm, the highlight of which was a manure containment facility that reduces non-point source pollution.
Early Thursday morning the group left for Lake Manataka, Keystone’s own biological field station. Tim Eichner, demonstrated water sampling with one group while and Dr. Jerry Skinner spoke about lake and pond ecology to another. Once back to Keystone College, an information session was held on Lake Manataka phytoplankton. And the teachers were able to use the QX5 Computer Microscopes that they received in their packets to look at plankton and zooplankton from Lake Manataka. The final session of the day was on vernal pools with Rich Gulyas of the Stoll Natural Resource Center. After dinner, an E-Portfolio session was held for those who obtained CPE credit through the NEIU-19 or Wilkes University Graduate Education Credits.
Lindsay Barrett George presented most of Friday morning. She is the author-illustrator of a number of children’s books including, The Secret; Inside Mouse, Outside Mouse; Box Turtle at Long Pond; My Bunny and Me and many others. This is her second time with KceeI’s Watershed Explorers Course. Lindsay spoke about children’s literature related to nature and the environment as well as her own writings. The teachers broke into groups and made books of their own. After Lunch, Ed Zygmunt, Field Representative for Congressman Christopher P. Carney 10th District PA, spoke to the group about the Chesapeake Bay and the current issues surrounding it. After a brief explanation of the Tunkhannock Creek Watershed Atlas on the web, a game of “Watershed Jeopardy” was played. The winning team walked away with Keystone College maple syrup. After wrap-up and evaluations, the course ended at approximately 3:30 on Friday afternoon.
The success of this course is probably best appreciated through some of the comments included in the evaluations:
“Not only do you walk away with a wealth of knowledge and materials, but you learn that you have access to professionals across the field who are willing to help you with your own class.”
“This week has been the most learning-packed, fun-filled adventure I’ve ever had! I’ll return to my classroom better informed and recharged to teach.”
“KceeI courses are second to none and far exceed the expectations of any participant.”
“In a world where mediocrity seems to be the norm, the quality of every aspect of this experience has been very impressive.”
“Come with an open mind and KceeI is sure to fill it with information you’ll be surprised that you didn’t know.”
“You have helped us touch the future by teaching us so much about the most important place we all love - our planet.”
Stay tuned to the next newsletter for information on KceeI’s Astronomy Course.
Just a reminder…
- To view the continuous water quality monitoring sites , click on the following link: http://www.waterontheweb.org/data/index.html
- If you would like to view the Northeast, check out the live “Streaming Camera” at www.atlas.keystone.edu/video.htm
KceeI’s website is located at www.KceeI.keystone.edu
Jennie Pressley, ERC Broadband's Business Development Manager, attended the ISP Conference on May 23 and 24, 2007. The conference schedule had several tracks and Jennie attended several different sessions on subjects such as business issues, municipal wireless networks and CALEA. Since sessions were running concurrently, it was impossible to attend everything but fortunately all presentations are available to ERC Broadband as a registered participant. She also visited several vendors in the exhibit hall, specifically several email hosting companies since ERC Broadband doesn't currently offer email hosting.
After over seven years with AAM and ERC, Jennie will be leaving this month to spend more time with her daughter. She has truly appreciated the opportunities and experiences she has had working with the various ERC projects. Part of the reward of working at the ERC has been getting to know so many different people in the community and she looks forward to reading all the upcoming news. The ERC will miss Jennie's manifold contributions and wishes her continued success in her future endeavors.
Hunter Goosmann, ERC Broadband's General Manager, participated in the Blue Ridge Industrial Council's annual marketing workshop. This event brings together regional economic developers and ERC Broadband was asked to present an update on broadband connectivity in the Advantage West region. This year's event was held in Raleigh from June 4-5 to an excellent turnout of 17 participants. During this workshop, speakers presented and discussed all aspects of entrepreneurism, broadband growth, bio-technology, military business, and more. Mr. Goosmann also recently attended the SEATOA conference held at the Grove Park Inn on May 8. The SEATOA conference is the Southeastern Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors. At this year's conference, the focus was discussing community networks and programming. This means both municipality-based networking and technology growth was discussed as well as the support of Community Media Centers and local cable access channels.
Additionally, the ERC Broadband team has been very active in advancing the ERC's growth as a supporter of all regional networks. This means we are planning and holding meetings with all regional school systems, community colleges/universities, and private schools/colleges to discuss connectivity, networks, and support. This effort will continue to solidify the ERC's role in WNC.
Hunter Goosmann attended the Blue Ridge Industrial Council's annual retreat on June 4 in Raleigh where he presented ERC Broadband's network, strategy, and market to economic development officals from throughout Western Carolina. This was a great opportunity to make more people aware of the ERC Broadband network and how we support technical economic development efforts throughout the region.
Mr. Goosmann also attended the Rural Universities Summit in Boone on June 11. At this meeting, active discussion was about how rural NC universities actively support and advance economic development efforts, distance learning and retraining programs, and more. It was opportune that the ERC was represented and able to increase awareness of its role as a partner to the university system and rural economic development goals.
For more information on ERC Broadband, please visit the website at: www.ercbroadband.org.
Western North Carolina
ERC NEWSLETTER – AAM REPORTS
07-03-07
PROPEL (Primary Resources Opening Portals to Enhance Learning)
Although the PROPEL professional development workshops have concluded, the follow-up summer “Make It, Take It, and Use It” workshops are well underway. Both the Montreat-sponsored workshop, held at the AB Tech Enka Campus, and Western Carolina University’s workshop were completed in June. Brevard College and Mars Hill College will hold their sessions in July. All workshops have been very well attended, with PROPEL participants inviting their collaborating teachers. Lots of great projects are underway for the upcoming school year, including puzzle activities, maps, pathfinders, image resource boxes, and primary source sets.
AAM eNewsletter
First published in February of 2000, the AAM eNewsletter will no longer be written and distributed to its mailing list of more than 450 teachers, university faculty, librarians and AAM/TPS staff. In both the final issue and subsequent “bonus” issue, an offer was made to send an archive CD to all who requested it. Mars Hill College’s AnneMarie Walter and Elizabeth Lang are currently creating and mailing CDs to more than 60 teachers who expressed interest. Readers may request a copy by e-mailing AnneMarie awalter@mhc.edu.
Continuing Partner Activity
The four WNC AAM partners are now completing project plans for the coming fiscal year. With the completion of the PROPEL collaborative effort, each partner’s final year program will be primarily targeted toward college faculty and undergraduate students, adapting and using the best practices of the eight-year program in this region.
- Mars Hill College – AnneMarie Walter and Elizabeth Lang presented at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) held this year in Atlanta. The focus of their presentation was the website they developed last fall, “Copyright for Teachers and School Librarians.” More than 250 were in attendance at this session.
Readers may link to this resource (still in its temporary home) at http://users.mhc.edu/facultystaff/awalter//Brim%20site/Brim_About_this_Project.htm
or through the AAM national website at
http://www.aamprogram.org/resources/copyright.aspx.
All this material will be moved to the national website server in the near future.
- Western Carolina University – The WCU staff is organizing and updating teacher- and AAM director-made materials into an easy-to-use format. Materials include help sheets, pathfinders, replicable activities, and lesson plans.
More information about AAM in WNC is available at www.aamprogram.org, www.aamlearning.org, and at the individual partner websites at http://www.mhc.edu/aamind/,
http://aam.montreat.edu/, http://aam.wcu.edu, and http://www.brevard.edu/aam/.
Loyola University
The Loyola University Chicago summer graduate course will be starting on July 2, 2007. Teachers from Chicago and the surrounding suburbs will be taking part in the course. The teachers represent a range of grades 4 through 12 and a range of subject areas, including social sciences, sciences, language arts, special education, and mathematics. Many of the teachers attended a dinner meeting in May to enroll in the class. The teachers were surprised by a visit from Senator Durbin’s Chief of Staff Michael Daly. Mr. Daly inspired the teachers with his discussion about the program’s importance and both Senator Durbin’s and the Library’s unending support. The Loyola University Chicago partner is very excited about this course and looks forward to great rewards with increased program exposure.
The Loyola University Chicago partner has also been planning and scheduling workshops for the next school year starting in August. The recruitment process for the summer course has provided opportunities to work with Chicago schools which have not been served by AAM or TPS to date. This should further expand the programs’ efforts to reach a larger audience with further dissemination as well.
Loyola’s AAM Web site is located at:
http://www.luc.edu/schools/education/aam/index.shtml
Northern Virginia Schools Partnership
The Northern Virginia Schools Partnership will focus on sharing this summer through workshops such as “Reading for Understanding with Primary Sources” and “Stretch Your Memory, Reason, and Imagination through Interdisciplinary Learning Activities,” along with several other presentations at University of Virginia’s Best Practices Institutes and Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero Classroom. Staff will also participate in the Summer of Learning and Diversity Institute in Fairfax County Public Schools this summer. A new primary source-based summer school program for Young Scholars will be the focus of AAMNVA programs in July See http://www.primarysourcelearning.org/tps/students/americans/index.php for more information about the resources used in this American biography project.
Northern Virginia’s AAM program Web sites are located at:
http://www.aamnva.org/ and www.primarysourcelearning.org
Online Education
Mystery of the Lost Colony
This lesson has been converted to the AAM Online Education lesson model. This model has been designed for the independent learner in a classroom and includes six stages which are: Lesson Introduction, Getting Organized, Exploring Online Sources, Gathering Information, Using Information, and Lesson Summary. In this lesson students learn about the mystery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island through reading articles and studying documents from the Library of Congress and other websites. Students have the option to complete one or all of the following projects:
- Organize and present material gathered during the lesson in a presentation.
- Develop a “role play" activity using knowledge gained through their research.
- Create a diorama on a scene from the Mystery of the Lost Colony story.
ED-U-BIT Library
ED-U-BITS are educational, manageable bits of information for the busy educator. They focus on using resources from the Library of Congress website and technology skills students may need in gathering and using these resources.
The ED-U-BIT Library includes 24 titles, listed by subject area. These subject areas are computer/technology skills, English/language arts, information skills, mathematics, science, and social studies.
The ED-U-BIT Overview provides a brief introduction to each ED-U-BIT. Download the EDU-
BIT Overview today for your quick link to the ED-U-BIT Library at www.aamonline.org/edResources/edubits/EduBit_Overview.pdf.
Professional Development Online Lessons
“Introducing Primary Sources” is now completed and ready for distribution. Visit www.aamonline.org/info/Intro_Lesson_Profile.pdf to learn more about the material covered in this lesson. The current online version of the lesson is located at www.aamonline.org/primary-a.
“Using Primary Sources In the Classroom” is now completed and ready for distribution. As the team developed the “Introducing Primary Sources” lesson during the past year, it was determined that the lesson would be more effective if these two aspects were separated into two lessons. Visit www.aamonline.org/info/Using_Lesson_Profile.pdf to learn more about the material covered in this lesson. The current online version of the lesson is located at www.aamonline.org/using.
AAM wishes to recognize Pam Johnson, Bonnie Jensen, Brian Bartlett, and Oran Mosteller for their hard work in designing and development both lessons.
CDs of both lessons are being distributed to individuals who have requested a copy of the finished lesson. To request a CD, complete the request form at www.aamhomeschool.org/primary_add.aspx.
Lesson Distribution
Dr. Beth Coulter and Dr. Pam Johnson met with representatives from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and North Carolina State University to discuss the distribution of educational materials developed by the WNC AAM programs during the grant. Materials being given to these institutions along with other interested individuals can be viewed at www.aamonline.org/info (AAM Online Education materials) and www.aamonline.org/aam (WNC AAM teacher education materials). If you are interested in obtaining the digital files for these materials, complete the request form linked from the “Next Step” page on each site.
Farewell to Brenda Mathers
The AAM Online Education Program will be closing as of September 30, 2007. Brenda Mathers, the Administrative Technician for the AAM Online Education Program, is the first staff member to depart. As of July 1, she will be the Administrative Assistant for the Henderson County Board of Education’s Exceptional Children’s Program. Brenda has been an invaluable member of the team and will be missed. AAM wishes Brenda the best of luck in her new position.
The AAM Online Education program Web sites are located at:
Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville
SIUE AAM completed a three-week, three-credit graduate course (CI 519 “Adventure of the American Mind”) from June 4 to June 21. Dr. Randall Smith and Binod Pokhrel taught the course to elementary and middle school in-service teachers within the area. Teachers researched the use of primary sources in K-12 education, learned to search the Library of Congress website, and created a learning experience using primary sources or historical sources.
Learning with Lincoln Institute participants from SIUE are finalizing their learning experiences for final publication in August for the symposium being held in Springfield.
SIU-E’s AAM program Web site is located at:
http://www.siue.edu/education
SIU-E’s AAM program Web site is located at: