The Pisgah Forest Institute (PFI) staff is pleased to welcome Elizabeth Kampouris to its fold effective September 3rd. Elizabeth earned her BS degree from the University of North Carolina at Asheville where she majored in Environmental Studies. She also gained additional GIS training at Haywood Community College. She has served as a teacher of inner city youth through the Blue Ridge Learning Centers, Inc in Boone as well as developed an environmental curriculum for home schooled K-2 students in Canton. Ms Kampouris also interned with the Western North Carolina Nature Center in Asheville where she instructed K-5 pupils as well as college students and senior citizens. At PFI Elizabeth will play a lead role in the formulation of a distance learning course based on the Institute's Earth / Environmental Science Summer Workshop for Middle and High School Educators. She is being supported by an AmeriCorps grant awarded to the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy Partnership in which PFI is a participant.
The Institute is developing a schedule of offerings for the 2004-2005 academic year as well as Summer 2005. The eight workshops slated for the latter are: Earth/Environmental Science for Middle and High School Educators; Air Quality; Water Quality; Elements of Nature; GIS I; GIS II; Earth/Environmental Science for Elementary Educators as well as "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". (The latter deals with medicinal plants, poisonous plants and invasive species.) The times when these courses will be offered along with a brief workshop description and directions on how to register will appear soon on the Institute's website, www.brevard.edu/pfi.
During the academic year three short courses will be taught: Composting/Recycling; Weather; and Decomposition/Fungi. Partnerships with new institutions and scientists are being developed which will enrich the subject matter and presentations. Among the anticipated students will be a larger number of home school instructors and camp counselors.
The distance learning course is scheduled to be offered in Spring 2005. The assistance of staff at Yale University, Western Carolina University and Clemson University will add to the worth of this program. PFI also will make use of the computer communication network developed in Western North Carolina by the Adventure of the American Mind program through the Education and Research Consortium of the Western Carolinas (ERC). This effort initially is aimed at serving educators in the 11th Congressional District.
PFI is pleased to have been of assistance to the ERC-supported environmental education programs at Yale University as well as Keystone College. PFI looks forward to aiding other USDA Forest service supported programs in Northern California and other areas that will use some of the pedagogical approaches developed by Institute staff.
PFI’s website is located at www.brevard.edu/pfi.
KceeI anticipates running the Forest Stewardship and Watershed Concepts courses again in the summer of 2005. There has also been preliminary planning for a new course centering on Geology of Northeast Pennsylvania, as well as next year’s grant application.
NEIU-19 and its Assistant Executive Director Vito Forlenza as administrator, was awarded a Geography Governor’s Grant focusing on the Geography for Life National Standards. Geography for Life: The Geography National Standards 1994 present what each American student should know and be able to do in geography by grades 4, 8, and 12. The eighteen standards are organized under six "essential elements." They represent the essentials and fundamental ideas of geography. Tim Eichner, Assistant Director of KceeI, has been working with NEIU-19 on the implementation of a GIS course that will be a component of this grant. Institute director Howard Jennings has been appointed as a member of the NEIU-19 Geography for Life Advisory Council.
Keystone College received the “Liberty Award” for outstanding environmental partnerships on Sunday, September 12th, 2004. The event was held at Lackawanna College - Scranton, PA.
The Liberty Awardees are those that embrace and practice civil interdependence in the tradition of Eleanor Roosevelt, Vaclav Havel, Kofi Anan, and John F. Kennedy. Interdependence Day is a “new day” for reflecting on the realities of our interdependent world and the civic responsibilities that come with it. It begins with the premise that people – citizens of their own communities, their nations and the world – can and must be the driving force and principle agents for change for a more democratic future. Celebrations of Interdependence Day will also be held in Rome,
Other awards went to local community and school groups, as well as Governor William W. Scranton who received the Lifetime Achievement in Citizen Action and Community Service Award. The day consisted of presentations of student essays, an environmental walk, panel discussions, music and art exhibits, and a luncheon. For more information visit: www.scrantontomorrow.org/iday/asp/index.asp.
Thanks to the Northeast Pennsylvania Urban and Community Forestry Program, Keystone College was awarded a grant entitled: “The Creation of a Conifer Interpretive Community Resource Site on the Campus of Keystone College”. The purpose of the grant is to plant conifers on Keystone’s Campus to show alternatives to the hemlock. Alternatives are necessary due to the decline of the Eastern Hemlock from the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid infestation. The grant will also allow landscaping to occur this weekend around KceeI and the Urban Forestry Center. Invasive plants are being removed and designs for appropriate plantings have been created by Landscape Architects Donna Murphy and Tom McLane. Community and college volunteers will assist in the plantings.
KceeI will be offering two 4-hour sessions on October 5th and 7th for NEIU-19 and area teachers. The first will be presented by Dr. Robert Cook on groundwater related topics, and the second with Dr. Jerry Skinner and Tim Eichner on Lake and Pond Ecology. Both will provide the teachers with an opportunity to earn Act 48 hours as well as provide an opportunity to share proposed summer courses with area teachers.
KceeI’s website is located at www.kceei.keystone.edu.
Governors State University
With the first AAM group completed during the summer, energies have turned toward preparation for the fall group. Luci and Sandi began a review of the curriculum using the online survey results from the first group to guide their improvement efforts. Following curriculum review came the customary ordering and configuration of everything from computers to the student instructional materials.
A kick-off dinner was held on August 25th. Unfortunately, Gateway mishandled the laptop order (submitted in June) and the very exciting distribution of the computers did not happen. Teachers in the program had to make a trip back to campus two weeks later to pick up their computers.
The new group of participants met for the first time on September 11th for the first of seven day-long Saturday sessions. Special thanks to Elizabeth Ridgway for volunteering to host a video conference for the group on a Saturday. Video conferences are only available on weekdays, so it is greatly appreciated that she did not hesitate to make this wonderful experience happen for them.
The dedication of the Durbin AAM Training Academy was also scheduled for August 25th but had to be postponed. Hopefully, the event will take place shortly after the presidential election. Luci and Sandi are looking forward to teaching in their new genius classroom.
Governors State’s AAM program website is located at: http://aam.govst.edu/
Eastern Illinois University
As the academic year begins, the next stage of EIU AAM is unfolding. The summer was bustling with scores of workshops at schools throughout East Central Illinois with a variety of schedules, ranging from three to eight hours. Fall workshops are primarily being held at schools following student dismissal. A few schools have scheduled workshops during the day with the district paying for substitutes so the classroom teachers may attend during regular school operating hours.
EIU AAM has begun delivering equipment to schools that have completed workshop series. This equipment has been received enthusiastically. Packets were distributed containing posters, booklets, and information offering support to these schools. Assistance was offered in the areas of technology, curriculum needs, and American Memory via electronic means, telephone, or personal visits.
The Regional Office of Education that includes the schools currently being serviced by EIU AAM has invited staff to present at three of the nine conferences it is offering on October 8th. Director Cindy Rich will co-present with Elizabeth Ridgway from the LOC at “E3: Enhancing Educational Experiences” at Eastern Illinois University, as well as “The New Fall Classic” at Charleston Community High School. Digital Preservationist Steve Staskiewicz will present at the “Framework of Developmental Assets Conference” at Paris Community High School with the assistance of AAM staff member Melissa Carr. The EIU AAM staff is very excited about Elizabeth’s visit to campus.
Additional scheduling and activities are being planned with new schools, as well as further training for schools that have completed the first series.
EIU’s AAM program website is located at: http://www.eiu.edu/~eiuaam/
Illinois State University
Richard Satchwell, Illinois State University’s newly appointed AAM Director, is up and running! As many of you know, starting a program like AAM from scratch is a daunting task. However, one thing that has helped is the support that Rick have received from the national AAM office, the Milner Library faculty and staff, as well as the network of established directors. Rick is grateful for this support and would like to thank those who have helped him establish a successful partnership.
One of the first things that Rick did was to draft some goals for the first three months. He found this to be helpful not only to steer the program, but to help communicate his needs to the Dean of University Libraries at Illinois State University. The ISU AAM partnership is uniquely housed in the academic library at Illinois State University. The Milner Library faculty and staff have been very helpful in the initial phase of the program. Rick has worked with the Systems Department at Milner to establish a web address, as well as help to develop guidelines that will govern the library’s web redesign. The AAM office computer equipment is in place, and orders have been initiated for letterhead, business cards, etc.
The Digital Preservationist position has been approved and advertised. Milner Library has some collections that are ideally suited for digital preservation and dissemination. Rick looks forward to helping the Dean of Libraries fulfill her vision to establish a digitization center at Milner Library.
The ISU AAM awareness campaign will officially kick off on October 7th with a visit from the Library of Congress representative, Elizabeth Ridgway. Milner Library will host a presentation by Elizabeth and invite key stakeholders from Milner Library, the College of Education, the Regional Office of Education, and local school districts.
Rick visited North Carolina during the week of September 13th for his orientation sessions with the national office and established partners. A meeting with Eastern Illinois University’s AAM Director Cindy Rich on September 3 was also most helpful. Both were important steps toward figuring out what Rick has gotten him self into!
ISU’s AAM program website is located at: http://www.aamprogram.org/introduction/aam_partners_detail.aspx?id=22
The program’s Web site will be activated soon at http://www.mlb.ilstu.edu/aam.
Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville
The SIU-E AAM team has been busy presenting the Phase II workshop series at Regional Office of Education (ROE) meetings to District Superintendents in seven regional areas. Two more presentations were held for ROE 13, which covers three counties, on September 14 in Centralia. The last region, Madison County ROE 41, will be presented to on October 13 in Edwardsville. This region accounts for many educators from the Metro East St. Louis area. SIU-E is hoping to recruit for2005 and 2006 workshops. Regional area workshops for two school districts have been scheduled thus far beginning in January 2005. A follow-up session with added presentations to individual school districts will be made to continue recruitment efforts.
The AAM team continued its presentations to pre-service teachers in the CI 343 Social Studies Methods course on September 8th and September 15th. Dr. Susan Breck, CI faculty, is presenting the LOC American Memory Web site and discussing primary source analysis with her two CI 407 (Middle School Learner) courses this fall using guidance, materials, and handouts provided by the AAM program. The AAM team has presented in her courses since 2002 and is pleased to see faculty integrating LOC resources using primary source analysis into the curriculum.
SIU-E AAM lessons are continuing to be evaluated and put online. Please feel free to visit the lesson at www.siue.edu/education/aam/lesson.htm..
SIU-E’s AAM program website is located at: http://www.siue.edu/education/aam
Metropolitan State College of Denver
The AAM-Colorado (AAM-CO) workshop development team has been busy with its first round of Series 1, Workshop 1 presentations. They presented to a group of approximately 30 in-service teachers at Sheridan High School on August 10th and another group for the Jeffco (Jefferson County) School District on September 14th. Another presentation with Jeffco teachers is scheduled for September 30th. AAM CO will also offer a series of weekend workshops in October and November that will allow teachers who want the AAM CO American Memory Certification and/or graduate credit to complete the required contact hours in a three-day weekend series. AAM CO staff will continue to schedule introductory presentations with Jeffco, Sheridan, and Denver public schools while developing content and workshop packets for the remaining 17 workshops. Chris Jennings, the AAM CO Workshop Supervisor, is heading up the workshop document development project and is designing components for Internet hybrid workshop delivery. A sample of the workshop material can be found at http://aamcolorado/mscd.edu/workshops.htm.
The AAM CO rich media development team is building three prototype rich media presentations: “Lewis and Clark Travel West,” “Nature’s Fury: How People Deal With Disaster,” and “Santa Fe Trail, Castle in the Sky: Historic Bent’s Fort.” All three will tie into the AAM CO Web site and serve as examples of various ways in which teachers can incorporate digital primary sources into their classrooms through the use of rich media tools and the Internet. The Lewis and Clark project will use lesson plans developed by teachers in the Colorado digitization program that incorporate digital primary source materials from the LOC with a pre-existing, commercially-authored DVD. The Nature’s Fury project, created with American Memory Fellows from the LOC, demonstrates how teachers can use primary source materials and public domain footage in their lesson plans. Finally, the Santa Fe Trail project, produced with the help of Rocky Mountain PBS television and teacher Michelle Pearson, will show teachers how to use primary source material with a reformatted, existing television documentary (in this case, part of RMBPS' “America's Byways” series) to produce a custom-authored DVD. For more information, please see http://aamcolorado.mscd.edu/richmedia.htm.
The rich media team has also developed the AAM CO website, which was formally announced via its first HTML newsletter in September. The website serves to introduce the AAM CO program, goals, history, and staff. People interested in participating in the program can get information on the various workshops, the program itself, and the rich media prototypes, and find contact information for the AAM CO staff for more information, to register for workshops, or to join the newsletter mailing list. Lisa Bradshaw, AAM CO Communication Coordinator, who also built the majority of the website, has put together a fantastic and information-filled first newsletter.
MSCD’s AAM program website is located at: http://aamcolorado.mscd.edu