|
|
|
|
|
Division of Education and Outreach
| November 2015
|
|
|
Greetings!
Welcome to the November Issue of VOICES - a source for what is going on in the visitor services community. With summer over and the 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 enjoying a beautiful autumn.
Happy Trails,
Blaine Eckberg
|
|
In This Issue
Find Out More
Quotes to Remember...
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. William Shakespeare The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Gandhi The Earth has music for those who listen.
VOICES is a service for FWS employees. You must use your fws.gov email address to subscribe. |
|
|
Active links in blue
Connecting People With Nature
This new video series produced by the USFWS aims to connect youth ages 9-13 with the great outdoors, wildlife species, new technology and conservation careers. The series is filmed on Service and other lands with leading experts, and is broadcast live on the third Wednesday of every month. Educator resources and pre-recorded videos are also available.
The FWS has teamed up with FishBrain - the world's largest free-to-use app and social network for anglers - to launch a new feature of the app that will help the American public identify and document threatened, endangered and candidate species. The full list of species with accompanying information and photographs is available, and the app can be downloaded from iTunes or Google Play.
Explore.org from Annenberg Media offers a portal to a myriad of live nature cams. The cameras take visitors to remote places around the globe, from Hawai'i to the riverbanks of Katmai, Alaska. Check out the five live web camera from OrcaLab, watch honeybees, and much more. The website also offers off hour highlights and more.
Nature Soundmap
The Nature Soundmap provides snippets of sounds and video from the natural world. The website hosts an interactive map of the world, complete with markers which include information about the animal or setting profiled, along with a link to more information. There are over 400 recordings from 81 countries and 93 contributors.
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.
|
|
 Youth in the Great Outdoors
The National Wildlife Federation's EcoLeaders Initiative is an online community that offers students the space to create, to share and to be recognized for their leadership efforts and for sustainability projects and campaigns.
The EPA is seeking young adults, ages 18 to 29, who are involved in climate change efforts and/or advocacy, to participate on this "first of its kind" youth-led advisory work group to assist the National Environmental Justice Council (NEJAC) in developing advice and recommendations to assist EPA in developing best practices to address climate change concerns.
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."
|
|
 FWS Professional Development
This online course goes beyond the nuts and bolts of recruiting and managing volunteers. It's focus is on leadership and the effective communication skills necessary to build management support, strategies to justify costs for a volunteer program, methods of involving refuge staff in utilizing volunteer skills, and creating a positive and supportive environment for volunteers.
The class consists of eleven online classes that are held on Tuesday and Thursday from 2-4 PM (EST) for six weeks.
This online, self-paced course is designed to provide you with an overview of how social media can be used effectively in the Service and to help those of you who want to start and manage social media accounts for your FWS office or program. This course will explain various policies relating to online content and comments, photographs, and photo ownership, as well as guidelines for captioning videos to ensure Section 508 compliancy.
Friends organizations are important partners and community resources for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field stations. Like all non-profit organizations, they have periods of growth and of decline. They can flourish and they can stagnate. This online course will enable FWS staff and Friends board members to assess the "health" of their Friends organization and develop strategies to sustain and/or strengthen these unique partnerships.
The course goal is to help participants learn to communicate more effectively about science with people outside their field, including the general public, policy makers, the media, or funders and prospective collaborators in other disciplines. Through discussion and practice, the course will first focus on fundamental skills - knowing your audience, connecting with your audience, and speaking clearly and conversationally about your work and why it matters. Then students will work on applying these skills productively in challenging settings.
Gain an overview of the Schoolyard Habitat Program and explore the new Schoolyard Habitat Project Guide with the authors! The SH/OC program is a coordinated effort between schools, FWS offices, and other conservation and community organizations to establish ecologically sound restoration projects that are sustainable outdoor learning areas on school sites. SH/OC program supports the Service's Connecting People with Nature and Youth in the Great Outdoors Initiative.
Partnership and Community Collaboration: Managing by Network is an interagency applied learning course designed to strengthen the partnership and community collaboration skills of BLM, NPS, USFWS and USFS managers, specialists and front line supervisors. Participants learn the principles and techniques of managing by network through peer-learning, case studies, interactive exercises and facilitated discussion. The learning occurs among a cohort of colleagues from the sister agencies. Interpretation is a necessary tool within agencies and organizations for communicating important messages about management of our sites, about instilling awareness, appreciation and inspiration in our visitors; to encourage stewardship of our natural and cultural resources. Those responsible for educating in nonformal settings will benefit from training skills that increase effectiveness in delivering messages to non-captive audiences. This course will provide participants with the tools to develop successful personal interpretation programs with advanced skills in program evaluation and the use of interpretive techniques.
| |
The objective of this one credit course is to familiarize K-12 educators and pre-service educators with modern ecological theory, issues and practices. Ecological topics will span the levels of ecological organization: organism, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere. The basic principles of ecology will be applied to contemporary environmental issues and will focus on the values and roles of ecology in diverse human cultures, and the problems and solutions that arise due to competition between humans and other living organisms for common resources. In addition, the course will facilitate ecology-related curriculum development relevant to teaching Environmental Education which: 1) encourages the development of interactive inquiry lesson plans, 2) encourages place-based field trips and 3) addresses the needs of diverse student learners.
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
This course is a refresher on safe practices for operators of Service snowmobiles as defined in 243 FW 6. Successful completion is required by Service Manual Policy (321 FW 1) every three years.
|
 Other Professional Development
Offered throughout the year at various locations throughout the country.
Offered throughout the year at various locations throughout the country.
Explore many ways in which Citizen Science can be incorporated into your classroom or institution. Developed and facilitated by leaders in Citizen Science, these Professional Development courses also provide opportunities to earn optional continuing education credits. 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).
| |
|
 Educational Resources
National Wildlife Federation has just posted a new web resource designed to help younger children learn about climate change and sustainability.
Climate Classroom
This website from the National Wildlife Federation is based on the documentary series, Years of Living Dangerously. The website contains educational materials for grades six and up to use with video clips from the documentary series, and contains guides for student action, case examples of on-campus greenhouse gas reduction programs, and educational standards alignments.
The Spanish translation of the Schoolyard Habitat Project Guide is now available thanks to the efforts of the Region 8 Schoolyard Habitat Program, Region 8 Refuges, HQ Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program and the NCTC DEO. You can download it from the web. On September 30, the White House announced a Federal Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science Toolkit. The toolkit includes tools for citizen science program planning, features case studies of successful federal citizen science programs, and other resources.
Tour de Turtles
Tour de Turtles is an educational journey through the science, research, and geography of sea turtle migration using satellite telemetry. This event follows the migration of 13 sea turtles from their nesting beaches to their foraging grounds. The website hosts links to educational resources, games, and more.
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.
Science in Your Watershed
The USGS Science in Your Watershed website offers scientific information organized on a watershed basis. This information, coupled with observations and measurements made by watershed groups, provides a foundation for characterizing, assessing, and analyzing the health of a watershed. Using the information on water levels and flow from rivers across the nation, students can see how seasonal trends of freshwater outflow impact ocean circulation and material distribution in the Atlantic.
|
|
 Events, Conferences and Workshops
Migratory Bird Treaty Centennial Celebration! The year 2016 marks the centennial of the Convention between the United States and Great Britain (for Canada) for the Protection of Migratory Birds (also called the Migratory Bird Treaty). The Service and our partners are celebrating by bringing together those who have contributed to its success and to galvanize efforts to protect migratory birds for generations to come. Goals of the Centennial celebration are to create awareness, promote key actions, increase support, and expand opportunities for engagement in the conservation of migratory birds. Visit our website and check out the Nestbox, an online toolkit containing products and resources related to the Centennial.
|
NSTA Conferences on Science Education - Various
National Science Teachers Association conferences offer science content, teaching strategy, and more. Each year NSTA hosts a national conference on science education, a STEM Forum & Expo, and three area conferences. Upcoming conferences with open submission deadlines are:
- 5th Annual STEM Forum & Expo, July 27-29, 2016
- Minneapolis Area Conference, October 27-29, 2016
- Portland Area Conference, November 10-12, 2016
- Columbus Area Conference, December 1-3, 2016
- Los Angeles National Conference, March 30-April 2, 2017
See the website for submission deadlines and new proposal guidelines. Free registration is required.
|
 Grants, Awards, and Contests
The USFWS through the Monarch Joint Venture is awarding $1,000 grants to FFA chapters that install a monarch and pollinator garden at their school or agricultural area. Applications should be available online mid to late November.
Promote this Refuge System-wide contest by spreading the word among visitors at your refuge. The contest will run from September 15 to November 15 and is open to photographers of all ages and experience level. Please contact Tracey Adams at (202) 577-3396 if you would like promotional materials. Deadline November 15, 2015.
Teens for Wildfire Safe Communities Grants
The National Fire Protection Association offers this grant to youth ages of 13-22 for community service projects that reduce wildfire risks or post-fire impacts and improve the area's chances of surviving a future wildfire, flooding, or mudslide. The deadline for submission is November 15, 2015.
The Urban Waters Small Grants, different from the Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Grant Program, is currently requesting proposals. The open period is September 22 - November 20, 2015. This is another great opportunity. Visit the Urban Waters Small Grants website to learn more about the program and how to submit a proposal. Deadline November 20, 2015.
The National Wetlands Awards recognize individuals from across the U.S. who have demonstrated extraordinary effort, innovation, and excellence in the area of wetlands preservation. The education and outreach award is presented to a teacher, nonprofit staffer, state/local government employee, or reporter involved in hands-on wetland education. Deadline November 20, 2015.
National Youth Leadership Council Awards
The NYLC offers awards recognizing service-learning leaders. The NYLC Service-Learning Practitioner Award recognizes those who have equipped young people to lead and serve, both through their direct work with youth and by nurturing other practitioners. The Youth Leadership for Service-Learning Excellence Award recognizes service-learning programs and projects that demonstrate outstanding youth leadership. Check the website for additional awards. Deadline for applications is December 4, 2015.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) Friends Grant Applicant Information Webinar recording is now available on the grant webpage. The link to the recording is located under the "Application Information" heading towards the right side of the screen.
The National Wildlife Refuge Friends Grant Program funds projects that assist organizations in being effective co-stewards of important natural resources within the National Wildlife Refuge System. The program's goals are to assist refuge Friends organizations in developing projects, expanding and increasing their capacity and skills, meeting local refuge conservation challenges and gaining and building community recognition. Deadline December 8, 2015.
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) in cooperation with its federal partners, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), Forest Service (USFS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announce an initiative to connect youth to the outdoors by providing financial support for conservation employment programs. Deadline December 15, 2015.
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, 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.
World of 7 Billion Video Contest
The World of 7 Billion student video contest can help bring technology and creativity into middle and high school classes. The contest challenges students to create a short (60 seconds or less) video illustrating the connection between world population growth and one of three global challenges dealing with deforestation, public health, or water scarcity. Students can win up to $1,000 and their teachers will receive free curriculum resources. Deadline is February 25, 2016.
| |
|
|
|
|
VOICES is Archived!
Looking for that special resource from a previous issue?
Click here to find past issues of VOICES.
|
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! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
