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NCTC Division of Education and Outreach
  March 2016
Blaine Eckberg

Howdy!

Just as new life emerges as we transition from the coldness of winter to the warmth of spring, new ideas and partnership opportunities to reach our public should spring forth from our refuges, fish hatcheries and other FWS sites. Please use the resources that you will find in this VOICES to help you try new curriculum, plan events, and make connections with youth and adults. Also feel free to pass on information from VOICES to your local educators who can use it to work with us to educate students about wildlife conservation. Remember, working with others is the first part of the Service's mission, so partner up with your local school or community organization to see what amazing things you can do together.             

                                                                  Enjoy the rest of winter and have a great spring,

                                                                                      Blaine Eckberg, Editor
In This Issue
 






 
 
Find Out More

  
 
 
 
 
 


 
Quotes to Remember

"Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife, are in fact plans to protect man."
  
Stewart L. Udall
 
 
"We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future."
 
Franklin D. Roosevelt 
 
 

 
 
VOICES is a service for FWS employees. You must use your fws.gov email address to subscribe.
   

Please click here to send any comments or submissions to the editor of VOICES 
Active links in blue
Connecting People With NatureConnecting

This website chronicles the activities of the eagle nest located at NCTC next to the Potomac in Shepherdstown, WV.

 

Science Club Challenge

SciFri's Science Club challenges participants to go out, do science, and share it with others. Twice a year they offer a new challenge to build something, investigate a question, or more. Using e-mail or social media, participants share their discoveries with others.

This independent movement has a ten-part video series highlighting the effects of sea level rise and climate change through the stories and voices of local Floridians. Each short video (5-7 minutes) will showcase various aspects concerning sea level rise and will include interviews with scientists, politicians, educators, and others.

Antarctica Melting: A Story in Four Acts is an audio slideshow series that addresses the effects of global climate change on the polar region, as seen through the eyes of three scientists.

Luna Imaging specializes in turning archival materials into digital collections. They have aggregated more than 70 NASA image collections into a searchable resource with over 100,000 images. Categories include Planets, Earth, and more.

This visualization, comprised of imagery from geostationary satellites, shows an entire year of weather across the globe during 2015 and includes audio commentary.


This is a new two-minute podcast that delivers a science topic in an enjoyable and easy to understand fashion. Ainissa Ramirez discusses the importance of science communication, the inspiration for her topics, and how you might use these audio nuggets in your science classroom.

Connected Science Learning
Connected Science Learning is a new, free e-journal from NSTA bridging the worlds of formal and informal science education.

Youth in the Great OutdoorsYouth   

Summer Opportunity AmeriCorps

This program helps young people, including high school students, serve their communities while earning money for college.
 
Watch this video created by a Green Schools Alliance school show what they are doing to help mitigate climate change.

The Outdoor Foundation examines youth participation in outdoor recreation - profiling the extent and quality of participation among ages 6 to 24. It seeks to provide youth organizations, public agencies, businesses and non-profits with insights needed to get youth outside.
 

Outdoor Nation

Outdoor Nation (ON) is a non-profit founded by a community of Outsiders dedicated to reconnecting millennials with the outdoors. They host Summits around the country, award grants for outstanding project ideas, lead outdoor outings, work with youth, and connect with others like us - all in an effort to mobilize a movement to get our generation outside. 

FWS Professional DevelopmentFWS
This customized course is designed for leaders on the boards of Friends organizations interested in having a broader understanding of the National Wildlife Refuge System and improving the effectiveness of Friends partnerships with FWS sites. Offered at NCTC August 8-12, 2016. Applications are due by April 18, 2016.
  
This blended learning course is designed to empower conservation professionals to work with local youth service corps and to engage 14-25 year olds in job training, conservation skills and leadership opportunities.  It will introduce effective ways to work with youth, promote conservation career awareness, develop partnerships and create urban wildlife habitats. Offered May 17-19, 2016 onsite in San Jose, CA with additional webinars April 28 and June 23, 2016. 
   
In this course, explore tried and true activities that engage people in bird watching. Participants will learn to teach others basic bird identification; explore resources including citizen science and bird mist netting programs; discuss current bird conservation issues; and discover the possibilities of inspiring interest in birds through festivals. Offered in Kenai, AK April 25 - April 28, 2016

This previously recorded webinar, led by highly knowledgeable 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.

This online, self-paced course is designed to help those who want to become a mentor and get started with your first mentee meeting. Mentoring relationships help current and future staff to adapt, learning new skills, and participate in communication networks to advance their careers. This course is a prerequisite for Mentoring: The Next Generation - OUT8050 webinar, and course completion qualifies for 2 1/2 hours of diversity training credits.  

 

Reinvigorating Your Friends Partnership CLM8129

Friends organizations are important partners and community resources for FWS 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. Online March 8 - April 19, 2016.
 

Interpretive Media CLM8243

This course will enable participants to design visually appealing signs, write dynamic interpretive messages, select appropriate fabrication materials, identify considerations for sign placement, and estimate project costs. Prior to the on line sessions participants are required to take and complete the Eppley Institute online "Interpretive Media" class which will be followed by eight FWS specific online sessions that will be focused on interpretive FWS media topics. Online March 15-31, 2016.

Archery as an Outreach Tool OUT8061 

Expand and enhance your visitor service programs through archery. In this course, participants will learn how to facilitate archery programs, as well as introduce their audiences to bowhunting which can lead to other wildlife dependent activities such as wildlife viewing and photography. Participants that complete this course will be certified as a Basic Archery Instructor Trainer through the National Archery in the Schools Program.  Offered at NCTC April 18-21, 2016.


Clear Correspondence CLM8202

This 2-session, online course will help you correspond effectively, with a clear purpose, and you'll get a few refreshers about language. Online April 20-21, 2016.


Teaching Youth Outdoor Skills OUT8062

This course provides participants with skills and tools that actively engage youth in the outdoors. Through a variety of instructor certification modules and interactive classroom and field based sessions, participants will be prepared to develop new or enhance existing wild-life dependent recreation programs. Offered at NCTC May 2-6, 2016.

    

Other Professional DevelopmentOther
The half-day virtual conference from NSTA and NOAA, Climate Science in the Classroom, March 12, 2016, will feature climate scientists and education specialists who will share both their knowledge about climate science as well as classroom-ready resources that educators can use.

The Gulf of Mexico Sea Grant program offers the Oil Spill Science Outreach Program with downloadable publications and a series of webinars that can be viewed live or downloaded as archived files. Sign up to be informed about upcoming seminars. New publications address dispersants, oil on beaches, and more.

Check out the National Science Teachers Association postings on YouTube. Watch videos about Next Generation Science Standards, the Learning Portal, and much more.

Pickup exciting and useful activities, scenarios and tools to start or refresh your interpretive trainings. Online March 22, 2016.

This webinar by American Trails and supported by the FWS examines how trails are helping injured service members recover from both the physical and unseen wounds of war. Online March 24, 2016.

Interpreters use media from Facebook pages and Twitter accounts to printed brochures and exhibits to tell their stories. Social Interpretation focuses on using basic principles of interpretation as a guide to creating effective non-personal media. Offered by NAI April 18 -19, 2016 in Charlotte, NC

During this 3-day course, community-based teams will focus on the economics, community character, natural resources, and partnership-building skills necessary for creating sustainable communities.  Teams will identify opportunities to differentiate their communities based upon their unique assets, have the opportunity to hear the latest trends in bringing alternative energy or transportation or sustainable agriculture practices to their rural communities, and develop specific action plans for implementation when they return home!  Offered at NCTC on May 3 - 5, 2016 

Social Marketing Webinar - Online

This webinar "To Target Everyone Is to Target No One: What Social Marketing Can Offer Conservation and Management", will review marketing techniques. The webinar will cover what social marketing is and isn't, what it offers to conservation and management practitioners, and examples of social marketing being used in a marine conservation context.

Offered throughout the year at various locations across the USA.

Educational ResourcesEducational

Transforming Youth Outdoors (TYO)
TYO was created to scale impact in outdoor youth development and transform the lives of youth by providing best practices, tools and support to individuals and organizations working with youth in the outdoors. TYO's learning paths provide members with step-by-step plans to enhance their knowledge and skills on topics ranging from business planning and fundraising to mountain biking and kayaking.

Free Pollinator Education Toolkit
USFWS & Transforming Youth Outdoors (TYO) have partnered to create a new easy-to-use resource providing outdoor educators and teachers with a comprehensive set of tools and resources to support pollinator education. Together they have created a learning path that will help educators easily integrate pollinator lesson plans, activities and projects into their classroom or program. 

Project Learning Tree
You might be familiar with the PLT Pre-K - 8 EE Activity Guide, but did you know PLT has a resources include printable student pages, technology connections, stories, charts, illustrations, 90-second radio shows, and more! You can browse by activity guide or topic.  

EcoSTEM Resource Kits

The Captain Planet Foundation offers ecoSTEM Kits designed to engage students in project-based learning. Each of the four kits (Earth, Energy, Water, Pollination) contains supplies for 32 students. Partial funding may be available. 


EPA's Lesson Plans, Teacher's Guides, and Online Resources for Educators

Find an array of environmental and science based lesson plans, activities and ideas below from EPA, other federal agencies and external organizations. 
  

Curriculum Collections

The Curriculum Collections from the American Museum of Natural History offers activities, articles, videos and more. Topics include biodiversity, deep sea vents, polar climate change, and much more.

Sea Earth Atmosphere: Educational Resources

These educational resources from NOAA offer lessons, visualizations, interactive games, and much more. The materials can be viewed by grade level or by media type. Lessons include Island Formations, Ocean Geography and Geology,  and more.

Library of Congress: Themed Resources

This set of Themed Resources from the Library of Congress includes topics Nature and the Environment, Science and Invention and more. Tied together by various threads of American history and culture, the resources feature images, text, and lesson plans. Most themed pages include primary sources, lesson plans, related exhibitions, collections, and a section for students.
 
Teaching boxes are free, online classroom-ready instructional units created by a collaboration between teachers, scientists, and designers. The Teaching Boxes contain materials that model scientific inquiry, allowing teachers to build classroom experiences around data collection and analysis. Topics include weather, plate tectonics, changing sea level, and more.


Forestinfo.org

This is a source for environmental information which is understandable, unbiased, accurate, and available in a wide variety of formats. We strive to facilitate informed decisions regarding forestry-related issues. 
 

Urban Environmental Education Guide

This book advances our understanding of settings, audiences, teaching approaches and goals of urban environmental education and can be useful for in-service and in-training educators who are interested in urban environmental education. 
 

Amphibian Alert! Curriculum

Amphibian Alert! aims to teach children, grades 2-5, what amphibians are and why amphibian population declines are important to scientists and communities throughout the world.

Changing Circumstances

This is a free, photography-based curriculum for grades 5-8 that focuses on issues of global sustainability and humanity's changing relationship to the world around us, as well as the economic, social, and personal impacts of those changes. Galleries include Climate Change, Globalization of Natural Resources, and New Technology.

An exploration of one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world, this website has lesson plans, links to citizen science activities, information about grasslands and more. 

The U.S Forest Service, Prince William Network and partners bring you webcasts, webinars, and online educational resources about bats, butterflies, climate change, wetlands, and more!

 


Events, Conferences and WorkshopsEvents  
March 2016
 
April 2016

Celebrate Earth Day April 22 at your site! This is now the 46th year of a movement that continues to inspire, challenge ideas, ignite passion, and motivate people to action.
 
The 45th Annual NAAEE Conference will be held October 19 - 22, 2016 in Madison, Wisconsin. The deadline for presentation proposals is March 31, 2016.  

The 2016 Annual Conference of the National Association for Interpretation will be held November 8-12, 2016 in Corpus Christi, Texas. The deadline for proposals is April 17, 2016.

This year IMBD on May 14, 2016 highlights the importance of international efforts to conserve birds through agreements, laws, treaties, and collaborations. This year also marks the Centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty.
 
27th Annual National Service-Learning Conference
Join students, educators, and government leaders from across the country and around the world March 30  - April 2, 2016 in Minneapolis, MN. This intergenerational event provides attendees with the tools, resources, ideas, and support to return home to improve their practice, schools, and communities.

The Society of Outdoor Recreation Professionals (SORP) and the River Management Society (RMS) are hosting their collaborative 2016 event: Rivers and Recreation in a Changing Climate May 16-20, 2016 in Boise, ID..

Endangered Species Day

The 11th annual international Endangered Species Day, May 20, 2016, offers marine science, oceanography, biology, and other teachers an ideal opportunity to educate students about the importance of protecting threatened and endangered plant and animal species. Check out the teacher resources and more.

International Conference on Interpretation

The theme of the 10th annual international conference to be held in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand, April 3-7 2016, is Tihei Mauri Ora (the story begins).

Children and Nature Network's 2016 International Conference and Cities and Nature Summit

Innovation, collaboration & commitment are the key ingredients for meaningful grassroots change. Join leaders from around the world to learn, connect & build the future of the children and nature movement on May 24 - 27, 2016 in St. Paul, MN.            
  

Grants, Awards, and ContestsGrants 
Youth are invited to participate in this national competition where participants investigate an environmental issue and report on it in writing, photography, or video. Entries due March 15, 2016.

Encourage the Boy Scouts that visit your site to achieve this award. The Hornaday Awards program encourages learning by the participants and increases public awareness about natural resource conservation. This program and recognizes truly outstanding efforts undertaken by Scouting units, Scouts and Venturers, adult Scouters, and others that have contributed significantly to natural resource conservation and environmental protection.

The North Face Explore Fund provides $500,000 annually in grants to nonprofit organizations working in powerful and creative ways to encourage participants to experience outdoor activities and develop an enduring appreciation of the outdoors. Applicants may request funding to bring their programs to federally managed lands and waters. Applications will be accepted until April 17, 2016.

Youth Birding Scholarships

The American Birding Association offers scholarships to help young people attend bird-related summer camps, workshops, training programs, conventions, and other activities. Deadline for submissions is April 1, 2016.

Discovery Education 3M challenges students in grades 5-8 to make a short video describing a new innovation or solution that could solve or impact an everyday problem. Deadline is April 20, 2016.