PFI is pleased to announce that it is partnering with Project Learning Tree to offer additional materials and credits for our Earth and Environmental Science Workshop for Elementary Teachers. Participants will receive a PLT activity guide and certificate of completion from Project Learning Tree in addition to the certificate and notebook from PFI. One afternoon, Keith Bamberger of the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) Division of Air Quality will lead a discussion of air quality and will introduce several activities from PLT that teachers can use with their students. The following afternoon, Ted Duncan of Holmes Educational State Forest will lead activities and discussion of forest ecology, also based on Project Learning Tree materials. This is the only workshop not completely filled, so if you are looking for an experience with Project Learning Tree as well as with PFI, this workshop is your chance. Renee Strnad, the PLT coordinator for North Carolina, has worked with us to make this partnership occur.
We have also been working with Cindy Carpenter, Education/Interpretation Program Manager for the USDA Forest Service’s Cradle of Forestry in America Historic Site, to improve the PFI workshop experience. Each of our week-long workshops has a day scheduled at the Cradle, where we explore habitats and integrate topics. In the Forest Ecology workshop, participants will visit an Appalachian Cove Forest and a Mountain Bog to evaluate the different biotic and abiotic features. In Earth and Environmental Science for Elementary Teachers, participants will “journey to the heart of nature” as they explore and experience a forest setting using all their senses. We will focus on activities involving environmental stewardship as a summary to the week’s events. As part of the EES for Middle and High School Teachers workshop, Cindy will recreate an activity she has used previously that focuses on watersheds. Participants will evaluate a particular site for the geological, hydrological, atmospheric, and biological factors that determine where the rain that falls in that watershed eventually ends up. This is a new ending to the workshop, but one we hope will summarize the topics covered and leave participants thinking about how a forest ecosystem is composed of and influences more than just the trees growing there.
As part of each workshop we offer this summer, PFI will present a featured speaker in association with the Transylvania County Library. The speaker’s presentation in the library’s main presentation room will be opened to the public in addition to our workshop participants, and we hope that this joint venture with the local Brevard community will introduce PFI and its mission to a broader public. On Thursday June 21st at 9:00 AM, as part of the EES for Middle and High School Teachers workshop, Margie Meares, former executive director of the Clean Air Trust, will be our featured speaker. She will discuss Air Quality in the Southern Appalachians. On Thursday June 28th at 10:00 AM, our own Dr. Jennifer Frick-Ruppert will speak on the Plants and Animals of the Southern Appalachians. Ila Hatter will present Edible and Medicinal Plants of the Southern Appalachians on July 26th at 10:00 AM as part of the Goods in the Woods workshop. Our Forest Ecology speaker is scheduled for Thursday July 12th at 10:00 AM to present Appalachian Cove Forests, but we are still waiting for confirmation before releasing his name. We look forward to these presentations and are pleased to work with the Transylvania County Library to bring these speakers to the public.
If you are a returning participant to PFI, you’ll notice many new faces. In addition to Kevin Fischer and me, who came on board last summer, we also have a new set of summer assistants. They include Hayley Lawrimore and Devin Gentry, both of whom recently graduated from Brevard College, Austin Brodfuhrer, who is a returning student, and Ralphene Rathbone, an instructor at Brevard College. All are already hard at work to provide a series of excellent workshops during the summer of 2007.
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
The summer months are quickly approaching and KceeI is gearing up for yet another busy and exciting summer. Just as last year, KceeI will run two courses concurrently, Astronomy and Watershed Explorers, during the week of June 17th – 22nd. Both of these courses are filled with waiting lists. Holding concurrent session worked in our favor last year during the Geology and Exotic and Invasive Species courses. The key is being organized enough and checking everything twice to ensure smooth sailing. The KceeI team is ready!
The 22nd annual Lackawanna and Wyoming counties Envirothon took place on Wednesday, May 16th at Keystone College. Envirothon is a fun, academic event that challenges high school students to think critically about the natural world and their role in it. Tim Eichner, Assistant Director of KceeI, coordinated this event which was sponsored by the Lackawanna and Wyoming County Conservation Districts, Keystone College, The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and Pennsylvania American Water Company.
Seventeen teams of students from local high schools participated. They competed in topic areas such as: wildlife, forestry, aquatics, soils, sustainable agriculture, and alternative energy. The winning team from Lakeland High School went on to compete in the PA State Envirothon on May 21st and 22nd at the Penn State Main Campus.
As a new addition to KceeI’s Forests and Society course, we have decided to bring in the Pennsylvania WoodMobile on the last day of the course. The WoodMobile is a traveling exhibit that is housed in a 34-foot trailer, pulled by a pick-up tuck. It provides information on the state’s forest resource and the state’s forest products industry.
Patrons to the exhibit will see how the forests of Pennsylvania have shaped the history of the state and nation, learn how today’s forest differs from 100 years ago, touch the various hardwood species produced in Pennsylvania and see how deer impact today’s forest. They will also learn about Pennsylvania’s forest products industry, see how products are made, learn how the forest is managed in a sustainable fashion, and experience how common and unusual forest products touch our lives every day. The trailer and truck are provided by Deer Park Lumber, Inc. of Tunkhannock, PA which is only a few miles away from Keystone College.
The Keynote Speaker for the Astronomy course has been decided. John Kosek is a teacher within the Riverside School District. He has always had a great love of astronomy. In 1974 John stared an adult evening astronomy program at Riverside. That was only the beginning…in 1976 he applied for funding for the construction of an observatory at the school which finally opened in October 1978. Since that time he has been the director of the observatory and advisor for the school astronomy club. John has taught many teacher-training courses on astronomy over the years and is also active in the NASA Endeavor Program, which connects middle school directly to NASA scientists through teleconferences. The title of his presentation will be Astronomy: Doctoral Dissertation or Movie of the Week?
In other news, Keystone’s campus has been relatively quiet since the 136th commencement was held on Saturday, May 19th. Degrees were conferred upon 329 students with 67 percent receiving baccalaureate degrees and the remainder receiving associate degrees or professional certificates. Dr. Maria Nduku Mullei, an expert in the field of international economic development and former agriculture and development adviser with the United States Agency for International Development, provided the keynote address. Dr. Mullei was also awarded an honorary doctorate degree. Dr. Mullei encouraged the graduates to use their talents and energy to bring people from all parts of the world closer together. Former Keystone College President from 1960-1975, Dr. Harry Miller, introduced the keynote speaker.
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 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.
For more information on ERC Broadband, please visit the website at: www.ercbroadband.org.
Western North Carolina
PROPEL (Primary Resources Opening Portals to Enhance Learning)
The Western North Carolina AAM partners taught four PROPEL professional development workshops during May. These included one Empower workshop at Western Carolina University and three Launch workshops at Mars Hill College, Brevard College, and Western Carolina University. All PROPEL professional development workshops for spring 2007 have been completed. Eight five-hour “Make It, Take It, and Use It” workshops will be held this June and July for all library/media specialist who completed PROPEL. Each participant is co-enrolled in the summer workshop with a teacher from their school in order to foster and enhance the collaboration efforts begun during PROPEL.
Research
The online survey for the WNC research component is complete. Developed using AAM grant objectives, the survey has been tested and sent to all WNC AAM participants (Phase I, Phase II, Phase III, and PROPEL). WNC AAM now has a comprehensive AAM participant information data set. The survey results will be used in the WNC AAM partner research study.
AAM Curriculum and Resources
The Western North Carolina AAM professional development workshop materials matrix contains over 20 items. When complete, the matrix will contain more than 50 items that will be made available to teachers and their students. The purpose of the matrix is to provide educational help sheets on the various topics covered during the past eight years.
Continuing Partner Activity
The four WNC AAM partners are now working on 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 – AAM staff at MHC recently sponsored two workshop series for college faculty. The Liberal Arts in Action (LAA) curriculum supports the MHC vision of intellectual, spiritual, and personal growth through an education that is grounded in a rigorous study of the liberal arts; connected with the world of work; and committed to character development, service and responsible citizenship in the community, region, and the world. To this end the LAA curriculum uses primary source documents to explore central human questions. To support the collaboration, AnneMarie Walter and Elizabeth Lang led 25 faculty members through a number of hands-on activities that have been used throughout the AAM and PROPEL workshops. As the faculty members worked through their activities, they commented on ways that they could adapt them to both the LAA courses as well as the coursework in their disciplines. Additional workshops are being scheduled this summer and fall to allow faculty to create new primary source-based learning activities.
· Brevard College – Congratulations are extended to Brevard AAM’s Associate Director Symantha Petitt who became Symantha Gragg on May 23rd! Symantha and her new husband, Shane, are currently enjoying their honeymoon in the British Virgin Islands.
· Western Carolina University – The WCU AAM office is now located at 139 HF Robinson Administration Building, tel. (828) 227-3960. The WCU partnership is working with the University’s Mountain Heritage Center (http://www.wcu.edu/2389.asp) to produce and contribute Library of Congress primary source activities to their educational outreach resources or “Traveling Trunks.” Mountain Heritage trunks, containing real primary sources and activity ideas for teachers, are loaned to schools for curriculum enhancement. The inclusion of LOC primary source activities into Mountain Heritage outreach activities will enhance educational extension in WNC as well as reinforce the use of Library of Congress primary sources into teaching and learning activities.
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/.
California University of Pennsylvania
Workshops
On May 16, 12 teachers from St. Patrick Catholic School attended a make-up workshop for the series of six AAM Basic Skills workshops. The workshop was delivered by TAG Team (Teacher Advisory Group) member Dr. David Lonich. This was the final workshop; nine of the 12 educators who have participated are now Basic Skills Certified. Mr. Mozina, the school principal, has decided on a laptop computer as his school’s technology incentive.
AAM in California University Classrooms
Michael Brna presented LOC resources to 29 graduate-level education majors in Dr. Beverly Melenyzer’s Curriculum Development Class on May 21. The class was informed about how to find Library resources online for activities, lesson plans, and unit development in preparation for a project at the regional Heinz History Center. This graduate-level class, along with six teachers who provided guidance, visited the Heinz History Center on Saturday, May 26 for the purpose of developing teacher resource guides that relate to the exhibits at the History Center. The resource guides are binders filled with suggestions for learning activities along with a list of resources related to the exhibits. Students were instructed to include in the resource guides LOC resources that relate to the exhibits and other related resources. The resource guides are to be housed at the History Center so visiting educators can use them for student-centered learning activities before or after they visit the History Center. Tying local history to national history using related LOC online resources has a number of long-term benefits, including helping graduate-level students to become accustomed to infusing LOC online resources into curricula and exposing regional teachers to Library resources as they develop related learning activities.
Veterans Oral Histories Project
On May 18, James Carter, Assistant Professor and Director of the Communications Studies/Media Lab, returned to the AAM office for digitalization the two oral histories that were recorded in April. Ms. Cindy Speer, Administrative Assistant for the History and Political Science Department, will conduct the digitalization process.
Dr. Kelton Edmonds, Frederick Douglas Scholar of the Department of History and Political Science, is tentatively scheduled to conduct five oral histories with former Tuskegee Airmen here at California University of PA at the end of June. The intent is to form a small, specialized collection within the broader Veterans Oral Histories project.
Other
Meetings were held with AAM/TPS staff, and Drs. Confer and Lonich regarding the Summer Institute 2007. The workshop is pre-registered to capacity at 20 teachers and there are several others on a waiting list. Printing and copying of the SI educational material is underway and give-a-way items for the SI have been collected and prepared for distribution.
Michael Brna attended a local history field trip with Dr. Thomas Wilkinson, Director of Student Teaching at California University of PA. Over 100 third grade students from the Belle Vernon school district visited three local historical sites to learn about local history. This is an annual event, and future plans include a presentation from AAM/TPS staff to accompanying parents and educators about Library of Congress resources that relate to the local historical sites. AAM/TPS staff will also prepare a related LOC website-based resource guide for teachers and students.
CUP’s AAM program Web site is located at:
http://www.cup.edu/education/aam
Metropolitan State College of Denver
AAM Transitions to TPS
AAM-Colorado begins its transition to Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) effective October 1, 2007. This next phase of the program will include a new look as well as updated program initiatives and goals. The TPS mission is to build a consortium that fosters collaborations between the Library of Congress and the educational community to increase instructional use of the Library’s digital primary sources. The TPS program contributes to the quality of education by deepening content understanding and improving student literacy in our nation’s schools.
AAM-Colorado Fellows
AAM-Colorado Fellows continue their activities on behalf of the program. Michelle Pearson conducted a complete online AAM series for the second session of the spring semester. Since returning from an assignment in Washington, DC, as the Library of Congress Teacher-in-Residence, Sherrie Galloway hosted four AAM-Colorado workshops during April and May in Grand Junction. Most of her students are pursuing graduate credit through our current online course.
Summer Workshops Begin
AAM/TPS has begun its summer semester workshop series with an online course which started May 29th. Two face-to-face workshop series are scheduled at Auraria both in June and in July. Other on-location workshops are also available.
MSCD’s AAM program Web site is located at:
Northern Virginia Schools Partnership
The Northern Virginia Schools Partnership is assiduously focusing on their summer projects. One of these programs involves supporting Fairfax County gifted resource teachers as they teach a Young Scholars program for 200 high-achieving minority students. AAMNVA designed the primary source-rich curriculum that incorporates best instructional practices and emphasizes the theme of individuals making a difference.
Another AAMNVA initiative is hosting a summer Design and Teach Institute. Select participants in their Learn with Primary Sources Workshop series were invited to participate in developing, reviewing, and revising primary source-based learning experiences. The lessons will be used to supplement curricula identified as needing more engaging resources. Final products that meet certain criteria will be published on PrimarySourceLearning.org.
Northern Virginia’s AAM program Web sites are located at:
http://www.aamnva.org/ and www.primarysourcelearning.org
Quincy University
The AAM Project continues to develop at Quincy University. During the month of May, several meetings were held to set the ground work of the project. A meeting was held at the Veterans Home to discuss training students in conducting oral history interviews and in interviewing veterans at the home for inclusion in the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. Another meeting was held with a local historical society to discuss implementing the use of primary sources and the Library of Congress with their educational programs. Byron Holdiman, Quincy's AAM Airector, was a judge at the state history fair at Springfield. A website for the Quincy AAM project is under development. Quincy University is collecting resumes for a technical assistant position and will be starting interviewing soon to fulfill the position. Also, several AAM workshops are scheduled in June.
Quincy’s AAM program Web site is located at:
http://websites.quincy.edu/~schoolofed/AAM.htm
Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
The spring 2007 in-service teacher cohort successfully concluded EDUC 550: An Adventure of the American Mind course. The in-service teachers met on Saturdays and independently on some evenings during the semester and worked in small groups to create teaching units which incorporate primary source materials from Library of Congress. Each small group identified one teacher to field-test the unit that has been developed.
Research topics for the groups in the in-service cohort were: 1) the use of Wikipedia as a legitimate reference source; 2) the use of technology in the classroom; 3) intellectual property rights versus fair use; and 4) the status of the digital divide. Their PowerPoint presentations will be available at http://aam.siu.edu in the near future.
SIUC AAM/TPS has enrolled 15 in-service teachers and 12 Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) pre-service teachers for EDUC 550: An Adventure of the American Mind for the summer 2007 semester. The three-hour graduate level course is based on utilizing digitized primary sources from the Library of Congress’ American Memory website, and producing curriculum based on these digital primary sources.
Participation in the AAM/TPS program at SIUC includes a semester in the graduate class, summer workshops and seminars, and in the fall or spring semester, implementation of the teaching unit in a classroom setting. SIUC AAM/TPS staff present a series of summer workshops open to all current and former AAM/TPS participants.
SIUC AAM/TPS staff continue working with public school AAM associates in transitioning to the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) program. Transition to TPS will begin in the fall 2007 and spring 2008. AAM/TPS associates are also vetting “best practices” lesson plans for inclusion on the SIUC AAM/TPS website. The website is still under construction, but the lesson plans will be mounted soon.
SIUC AAM/TPS staff continue to make presentations to College of Education and Human Services classes at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. At the undergraduate level, pre-service teachers express great enthusiasm about the digital primary sources at the Library of Congress and American Memory. They learn how the Learning Page can serve as a valuable resource in their course work and future teaching career.
SIU-C’s AAM program Web site is located at:
Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville
SIUE AAM has kicked off the “Learning with Lincoln” Institute for those teachers who have been through the first level of workshops or completed a graduate course. Participants began the institute by attending a session on Saturday, May 12 with guest speaker Elizabeth Ridgway from the Library of Congress. The session included a lesson review and best practices activity in using primary sources when designing curricula.
The second institute session was held on Saturday, May 19 with guest speaker Dr. Stephen Hansen, Professor of History, Graduate School Dean, & Associate Provost for Research at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Dr. Hansen teaches a course on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War and presented fascinating and engaging material and discussions to explore the life and times of Abraham Lincoln. Teachers will reconvene at a symposium on August 9 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum in Springfield with the “Learning with Lincoln” TPS/ AAM participants from Eastern Illinois University.
SIUE AAM Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) students completed their year by presenting their projects and electronic portfolios on May 29 to all MAT faculty and instructors.
Twelve teachers from Virden Elementary School completed the 12-hour basic workshop series that was held May 30-31.
SIU-E’s AAM program Web site is located at: