Division of Education and Outreach
  September 2015
Blaine Eckberg, Editor

Greetings!

 

Welcome to the September Issue of VOICES - a source for what is going on in the visitor services community.  With summer ending and students back at school, now is the time to cool down with some ideas for training, grants, events, and new activities you can do at your site. 

 

I hope you had a great summer and are looking forward to a busy autumn.  
                                                                              Happy Trails,
                                                                                      Blaine Eckberg
In This Issue







 
 
Find Out More
 
 
 



Quotes to Remember...

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.   
Robert Louis Stevenson
 
 
Be that change you want to see in the world.
  



 
 
VOICES is a service for FWS employees. You must use your fws.gov email address to subscribe.
  
Active links in blue
Connecting People With NatureConnecting 
Beginning September 1, 2015, U.S. fourth-grade students will receive an Every Kid in a Park (EKiP) pass that will give them free access to all of the federal lands and waters across the country for a full year, with the goal of getting more than one million fourth graders onto public lands. The EKiP initiative is an effort among the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Department of Education, Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Interested in learning more about Nature Explore Classrooms? Request your free copy of the Nature Explore Resource Guide today

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters has signed on as a national partner to the "PlayCleanGo: Stop Invasive Species in Your Tracks" Invasive Species Prevention Campaign".   Sign on as a partner and receive a free welcome kit with educational materials and access to order additional prevention materials including signs, brochures, and banners with fun and friendly messages that promote cleaning gear, boats, and vehicles, burning local fire wood, using local hay, boot cleaning stations, etc. 

The goal of "Monarch Live: A Distance Learning Adventure" is to meet national science standards and promote conservation action through education and awareness.

Science for Citizens Project Finder  ScienceForCitizens.net aims to bring together the millions of citizen scientists in the world; the thousands of potential projects offered by researchers, organizations, and companies; and the resources, products and services that enable citizens to pursue and enjoy these activities. Simply go to the Project Finder page, pick a topic that interests you, and select the project you want to join.

Plants are often exposed to bitter cold, relentless winds, intense heat, drought, fire, pollution, and many other adverse growing conditions. Yet they are still able to cope with their environment, surviving and often even thriving. The book Quiver Trees, Phantom Orchids and Rock Splitters: The Remarkable Survival Strategies of Plants showcases these exceptional plants with absorbing information and stunning photos that will inspire a new respect for nature's innovation and resilience.

Discount Gear Available for Youth Fishing Programs 
Pure Fishing Global (which includes brands such as Shakespeare, Stren and Berkley) offers fishing tackle, lures, rods and reels at special discounted prices for nonprofit aquatic education programs and youth events. Those include programs and events at national wildlife refuges. For more information about how to get the discounted gear, contact Roxanne Coleman at Pure Fishing Global

Dragonfly's Question
Wrapped in a father-daughter story set eight years in the future, Dragonfly's Question helps teach sustainability concepts. Appropriate for all ages, the novella and discussion guide covers a wide range of topics including distributed energy, smart growth, toxics, urban agriculture, local currencies, sustainable investing, and homelessness.

Youth in the Great OutdoorsYouth 
Energizing Youth on Climate
The importance of #ActOnClimate is now! To avoid fear tactics and get youth engaged in being part of the solution, this new book,
Climate Change: Discover How It Impacts Spaceship Earth, 
helps to bring the science of climate change and technology solutions to life. Students investigate climate change through STEM activities, cool concepts to tell the story of climate science, and learn about environmental actions that can address climate change.

GPA is the international coordinating body for schools using the Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility. The Pledge was established in 1987 at Humboldt State University in California by socially and environmentally committed students who were graduating, and since has been implemented at over 300 high schools, universities, and professional schools. The Graduation Pledge of Social and Environmental Responsibility states: "I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work."
Two new service policies, 140 FW 1 Overview of the Youth Program Policy, and 142 FW 2, Youth Partnership Organizations, that establish overall policy on working with youth and encourages engagement have just been released.  

FWS Professional DevelopmentFWS
Registration: DOI Learn
More Info: NCTC Website

Date: Ongoing
Location: DOI-Learn or NCTC website:
So you've decided to become a mentor and get started with your first mentee meeting. You are about to embark on a truly rewarding experience that will benefit you, your mentee, and your agency. The changing nature of many careers has led to a need to adjust to workplace organizational shifts. Current and future staff need to adapt, learning new skills, and participate in communication networks to advance their careers. More often, these needs are being met through mentoring relationships. For the Mentee, to start a relationship with a mentor can lead to real benefits, an internship, greater career opportunities, or more abstract benefits such as gaining confidence and recognition. As a mentor, the relationship can provide the opportunity to participate in the development of a promising employee and to foster a diversity of future career employees in your agency. This course is a prerequisite for Mentoring: The Next Generation - Voices of Experience - OUT8050 online previously recorded webinar course.
Contact: Ora_Dixon@fws.gov; 304-876-7314 or Sandy_Spakoff@fws.gov; 304-876-7783

Date: Ongoing
Location: DOI-Learn or NCTC website:   
As you view this previously recorded webinar, you will hear the ins and outs of mentoring as a panel of experienced mentors and mentees answer questions and provide suggestions for ensuring a productive mentor-mentee relationship. Then apply the insights you've gained to your own mentoring practices to build a more open, inclusive, and trusting relationship with your mentee(s). The target audience includes DOI employees who are currently serving as mentors to young adults or those who are interested in exploring such a relationship. This online self-study training builds on the course OUT8081 and focuses on trouble-shooting challenges in a mentoring relationship.
Contact: Ora_Dixon@fws.gov; 304-876-7314 or Sandy_Spakoff@fws.gov; 304-876-7783

Date: Ongoing
Location: DOI-Learn or NCTC website:
Supervising young adults in seasonal and internship positions can be a new and challenging experience for even the most seasoned of supervisors.  It requires knowledge and understanding of an emerging workforce eager to gain experience and skills in their fields of interest. It also involves developing meaningful jobs, setting expectations and mentoring young people, including how to demonstrate best practices regarding work ethic and professionalism. This previously recorded webinar, led by highly knowledgeable Student Conservation Association (SCA) staff possessing practical hands-on experience working with and supervising young adults in both field-based and office environments, will relate critical thinking to common issues and situations often faced by supervisors working with young adults aged 16-25 years.
Contact: Sandy_Spakoff@fws.gov; 304-876-7783 or Ora_Dixon@fws.gov; 304-876-7314

Mentee the Journey to Meeting Your Mentor OUT8082-Online
Date: Ongoing
Location: DOI-Learn or NCTC website:
Having a mentor - someone who can help you navigate your career path - has the potential to make your career more fruitful, if you take responsibility for managing the relationship. Therefore, to be successful as a mentee, your work begins prior to the first meeting with your mentor. This self-paced course focuses on the information and skills you will need prior to meeting with your mentor for the first time. Participating in this course will contribute to your success in building a strong mentoring partnership. Mentees who are already working with a mentor, or those with an interest in this subject, may also find the tools and information helpful for establishing a solid mentoring relationship. Contact:
Sandy_Spakoff@fws.gov; 304-876-7783 or Emily_Jenkins@fws.gov; 304-876-7379
  
Date: April 25-28, 2016
Location: Kenai National Wildlife Refuge
In this course, explore activities that engage people in bird watching. Even if you are not a birder you will find these activities easy to implement. Specifically, participants will learn to teach others basic bird identification; explore a variety of programs that connect people to nature including citizen science and mist netting birds; discuss current bird conservation issues; and discover the possibilities of inspiring interest in birds through Flying WILD.
Contact: Michelle_Donlan@fws.gov or 304.876.7685
  
Other Professional DevelopmentOther
Offered by the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center, this online course is targeted at federal employees who are leading or are part of a team that is currently (or will soon be) writing a wilderness management or stewardship plan.  It may also be helpful for those seeking to learn more about the components of wilderness planning used to address specific issues.  It takes about five hours to listen to the narrated, multi-media lessons, but there are suggested practical exercises that will considerably lengthen the time it takes to complete this course.  Those work products are designed to get course participants started on the nuts and bolts of a wilderness management plan.  The course is entirely self-study, is free to employees of the four wilderness-managing agencies (with a nominal fee to others). 
Download this free guide from Points of Light to learn tips for managing volunteer burnout.

Designed to help educators use environmental social marketing as a strategy to bring about behavior change, these courses are entirely online, with asynchronous and synchronous portions. Each course may be taken as part of the Duke Environmental Communications Certificate program, but are non-degree and not counted towards student credits.
Intermediate Environmental Social Marketing Strategy: October 5-November 20, 2015
This course offers an in-depth look at strategy development to bring about behavior change through social marketing. Participants will learn how to develop the strategy to execute a successful social marketing behavior change campaign.
Environmental Communication for Behavior Change: February 1-March 18, 2016
This course gives an overall introduction to social marketing and the five-step model with focus on audience research, and will help participants develop a social marketing campaign.

  
Educational ResourcesEducational
Across the Spectrum: Resources for Environmental Educators, Second Edition
Edited by Martha C. Monroe and Marianne E. Krasny. The second edition of Across the Spectrum: Resources for Environmental Educators has been released with 10 chapters and is now available to download. Environmental educators work in a variety of places to design, deliver, and evaluate programs that inform, motivate, and empower learners of all ages. This collection of resources, perspectives, and examples will help nonformal environmental educators learn more about the field of EE, access resources and gain skills to improve their practice, and over time, build a community of practitioners to advance the field.

Natural Inquirer Readers are targeted for children K-2nd grade. This Reader focuses on Dr. Paulette Ford and her research on prairie dogs. This Reader is the 6th in the series. All Readers can be ordered free of charge.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service library provides licensed content and search tools for all FWS staff. Several powerful social science databases can hone in on what you need:  Education Research Complete and Web of Science (includes Social Science Citation Index - links to FWS licensed content).  All licensed content and tools for FWS access: Use your VPN account or come directly from a FWS network to access full text.

Research in Outdoor Education (ROE) is soliciting manuscripts for publication. ROE, the official journal of the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors, is peer-reviewed and seeks to further outdoor education and its goals, including personal growth and moral development, team building and cooperation, outdoor knowledge and skill development, environmental awareness, education and enrichment, and research that directly supports assessment and/or evidence-based advances. Articles explore perspectives on the theoretical, empirical, and practical aspects of outdoor education in its broadest sense. Deadline: Papers are due on a rolling basis.

The Green Strides web portal was added to the Dept. of Education's Green Ribbon Schools program to connect school communities with free, publically available resources. Green Strides is intended as a one-stop-shop for resources, webinars, case studies, promising practices, and collaboration so all schools can make progress towards being a Green Ribbon School.
  
Events, Conferences and WorkshopsEvents 
Registration for the 22nd annual National Public Lands Day is now open. It is the largest, single-day volunteer event.  This year, the event will be held on Saturday, September 26, 2015.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are critical success factors for everyone working in the field of environmental education. This year's conference will explore ways to enrich and expand our work and workforce, along with other strategies for strengthening field and achieving greater collective impact.  The 2015 conference venue is at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, in CA., October 15-18, 2015.

NAI National Conference
Virginia's historic hospitality awaits you at this year's National Association of Interpretation National Conference in Virginia Beach, VA., November 10-14, 2015. This unique training event brings together the best and the brightest in interpretation and showcases the best practices in interpretation that covers field interpretation as well as management practices. With over 100 concurrent sessions, the best of the best, success stories, interpretive tools, and practical solutions are shared as one learns from experts, leaders in the field, and fellow practitioners. To attend, you first must get approval from your region's Visitor Service Chief and fill out the required paperwork before September 7, 2015.
The Partners for Public Lands Convention and Trade Show is the annual gathering of nonprofit organizations and land management agencies who work together to protect, conserve and enhance visitors' experiences on public lands.

Grants, Awards, and ContestsGrants 
Captain Planet Foundation Grants
The Captain Planet Foundation provides grants to school and community groups to support hands-on environmental projects for youth in grades K-12.  The objective of the foundation is to encourage innovative programs that empower youth to work individually and collectively to solve environmental problems in their neighborhoods and communities.  The next deadline for application is September 30, 2015.

Target will be awarding more than 5,000 grants of $700 each 
to schools for the upcoming school year. Teachers can use grants to fund school field trips to connect their curricula to out-of-school experiences, including trips to art museums, cultural events, civic experiences and environmental sites.  Deadline is Sept. 30, 2015.

The Monarch Butterfly Conservation Challenge period will run retroactively from October 1, 2014, through
September 30, 2015.  Throughout the year, each Region can earn points for monarch and other pollinator activities in each of three Monarch Butterfly Conservation categories: Habitat Restoration and Enhancement; Monitoring and Research; and Education and Outreach. For more information, click here or contact our Region 4 pollinator coordinator Bob Ford at 901/268-3395.  Deadline is Sept. 30, 2015

Biological research is transforming our society and the world. Help the public and policymakers to better understand the breadth of biology by entering the Faces of Biology Photo Contest.  Deadline is Sept. 30, 2015. 

The SAVE THE FROGS! Art Contest invites you to create your coolest frog artwork. The contest will raise awareness of the amphibian extinction problem by getting people involved and interested, and the artwork will be used on t-shirts, stickers, posters, coffee mugs, hats, and in greeting cards and books, to both publicize our cause and raise money for SAVE THE FROGS! amphibian conservation efforts.  Entries are due Oct. 1, 2015.

Wild Ones: Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Grant Program
The Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Grant Program gives small monetary grants to schools, nature centers, or other nonprofit educational organizations for the purpose of establishing outdoor learning centers. Funds will be provided only for the purchase of native plants and seeds.  Deadline is October 15, 2015.

Friends groups of Refuges, Fish Hatcheries and other FWS facilities may apply for a matching grant to support significant anniversary celebrations of their facilities, e.g. 50th, 75th, 100th etc. anniversary.  Deadlines for applications are April 30 for events occurring July through December and beyond; and October 30 for events occurring January through June and beyond.

Every Day Capacity Building Grants provide up to 25 Friends Groups with grant funds of up to $5,000 to help build their capacity to serve public lands. Proposals for the summer cycle are due April 30; winter cycle proposals are due October 30.

NSF Discovery Research PreK-12 Program and Solicitation
National Science Foundation's Discovery Research PreK-12 invites proposals that address immediate challenges that are facing PreK-12 STEM education as well as those that anticipate radically different structures and functions of PreK-12 teaching and learning. Learn about the DRK-12 program and solicitation by attending a webinar led by NSF and hosted by CADRE. This program supports projects that develop and study resources, models and technologies for STEM education.
Each session will feature a 45-minute presentation by NSF Program Officer Karen King, followed by Q&A as time allows. When registering, choose one of the session times:
  • Tuesday, September 22, 2015, 1-2pm ET
  • Tuesday, September 29, 2015, 2-3pm ET
  • Tuesday, October 6, 2015, 12:30-1:30pm ET
Deadline for proposals is December 7, 2015.
 
National Recreation Trails Photo Contest 
American Trails sponsors an annual contest for photographs of National Recreation Trails (NRT) across the country.  Deadline is December 15, 2015.
 
The 2015 Share the Experience Employee Photo Contest, which offers Service employees and volunteers a great chance to submit magnificent photos taken on national wildlife refuges, is open through December 31. The contest allows submission of up to 10 photos per person.

Nonprofit organizations who are dedicated to responsible outdoor participation are encouraged to apply for this semiannual grant centered around Earth Day and National Public Lands Day!  
    

 

VOICES is Archived! 

Looking for that special resource from a previous issue?  
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This newsletter is only as good as the information sent in by readers like you to share with others, so please send any comments or submissions to Blaine_Eckberg@fws.gov  
Thank you very much!