Wachstumshormone

May

24

Sounds of the Southern Ocean

Filed Under Marine/Aquatic Education | Leave a Comment

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by Bill Hanshumaker
Hatfield Marine Science Center

The Southern Ocean surrounds Antarctica and serves as a conduit between the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. Yet because of severe climatic conditions, much of this ocean basin remains unexplored. Polar regions play key roles in the global environment and one goal of our project is to document linkages between changes to the Antarctic ice sheet and the volcano-tectonic seafloor processes in the region. To meet the challenge for continuous monitoring in this extreme environment, researchers from the Hatfield Marine Science Center utilized the Russian icebreaker Yuzhmorgeologiya to deploy an array of Autonomous Underwater Hydrophones (AUH). This new ocean-sensor technology uses cold-water capable, deep-ocean hydrophones to record sounds generated by moving ice sheets, undersea earthquakes and volcanoes; even vocalizations from large baleen whales. When the AUH array is recovered in 2006, sounds that it has captured will enable accurate monitoring of global climate change, as well as identifying previously unknown volcanically active regions on the polar seafloor. Read more

May

19

The Blessed Moment: Promise for Preparing Integrative Learners and Leaders

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The symbolic act of learning and living sustainability in the future should intermingle the fabric of natural systems and human made social systems

by Pramod Parajuli, Ph.D.
Doctoral Program in Sustainability Education
Prescott College

Introduction
The hundreds of thousands of initiatives of this blessed moment are not about the bread and butter, or just about the soil and water alone. Art and the things of beauty are emerging from the most ordinary—a permaculture household in El Salvador, a thread of garlic organically grown in the Chino Valley, Arizona, a solar cooker in the remote Nepalese Himalayas, a Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, a sustainable fishing regulation in British Columbia, or a bag of coffee produced under the canopy of agro-forestry in Chiapas, Mexico. One solar cooker at a time, one biogas at a time, there are millions of solutions, sprouting amidst crisis and seeming chaos.  The time has come as William Blake wrote:

To see a world in the grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower

What might all these imply as we prepare the future generations of learners, educators and leaders? The eight transitional insights I offer below testify that the symbolic act of learning and living sustainability in the future should intermingle the fabric of natural systems and human made social systems—two most complex systems on earth.  A new sustainable human trajectory will not be of humans alone shooting to Mars; it will require re-rooting ourselves with all our multiple senses, and working along with all more than human species.

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Pramod Parajuli is the Director of Program Development in Sustainabililty Education at Prescott College in Arizona. He has designed and developed various academic and community empowerment programs including the Learning Gardens and the Leadership in Ecology, Culture and Learning (LECL), a graduate program at Portland State University, Portland, Oregon (2002-2008). At Prescott College, he is incubating several new innovations that could build on its forty years of accomplishments and seek new heights and horizons.

May

19

Lessons of Discovery: Teaching and learning along with your students

Filed Under Activities, Marine/Aquatic Education, Place-based Education, Programs, Schoolyard Classroom, Science | Leave a Comment

Innovative tools allow a teacher to extend class activities on stream ecology and forest history

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Forest Grove Community School student taking a closer look at macroinvertebrates living in a stream near the school.

by Charles Graham

I have made an interesting observation about teaching recently.  Some of the best lessons are not necessarily the carefully planned and orchestrated units, but rather the ones that grew and took shape as the project progressed.  I have found that some of my best teaching has been when I didn’t know the exact outcome in advance and learned something new right along with my students. This has been my experience with environmental exploration into stream ecology and the “Leaf Pack” program. Read more

May

14

Review: Awesome Ocean Science!

Filed Under Marine/Aquatic Education, Resources, Reviews | Leave a Comment

Investigating the Secrets of the Underwater World

AwesomeOceanScience

By Cindy A. Littlefield
Illustrations by Sarah Rakitin
Published by Williamson Publishing, 2003, 120 p.

Reviewed by Sharon A. Hollander

I review children’s books, and I read through plenty on science and nature. I can honestly say that I felt a wave of relief when I came upon Awesome Ocean Science! Investigating the Secrets of the Underwater World, a Williamson Kids Can! Book.

I recently took home a big stack of books on the environment, and I was disappointed, not to mention bored by most of them.  Perhaps appropriate as sources for school reports, I can’t imagine a child spontaneously picking one up for leisure reading. In fact, some of these books would test even an adult without bulletproof interest in the topic.  Well-written and visually appealing, Awesome Ocean Science! stood out in the crowd. Read more

May

14

Ear to the Ground: Ned Buckingham, Olympic Park Institute

Filed Under Ear to the Ground, Interviews | 1 Comment

nedsmallWhat is your current job title?

I am a Field Science Educator for the Olympic Park Institute.

How did you get into this field?

My educational background is in Biology and Secondary Education, and when I graduated from college, I just wasn’t ready to teach in the classroom.  I had an urge to be outside; to live in and experience natural places. Teaching in an outdoor setting seemed to be the best of both worlds.

What are you working on right now?

Right now I’m working on developing a bird feeding behavior/natural history curriculum that is usable for a wide range of students. I’m also at the early stages of developing a hands on, long-term river ecology program which would get students to monitor – via underwater video footage, as well as stream health monitoring – changes or consistencies in the river ecosystem we have access to near our facility.

What is your favorite part of your job?

Opening students eyes to the natural world, and giving them the tools to learn about it and enjoy it keep me coming to work every day.

If you could change anything about your work, what would it be?

I’d love to have more time to impact students. If I had the ability, I would love to see longer programming.

Where do you find inspiration for the work you do?

I find my inspiration from the beautiful places I work, and from the people teaching by my side. To see my fellow educators teaching to their passions about this place inspires me.

What is your favorite resource or tool for teaching about the environment?

My favorite tools for teaching about the environment are current issues. Here on the Olympic peninsula logging and land management are a great resource to get students thinking about land as a resource, and how it is cared for and managed. Frequent field trips to various sites around the peninsula give students great access to seeing clear cuts and other managed lands, which can lead to phenomenal discussions.

Where do you go when you want to recharge your batteries?

Moving water and big mountains recharge my batteries. By either playing or exploring in them, going for a run near them, or just taking them in, I feel myself being recharged.

What is your favorite place to visit in the Pacific Northwest?

The Northwest is way too spectacular to pick one favorite place! Unfair question! I do find myself drawn to rivers, with the Solduc being closest to my house.

What is your favorite nature/environment book?

My current favorite book is Gary Larson’s ‘There’s a hair in my Dirt’. I like that students often miss some of his adult humor, but are still able to take home his message.

Who do you consider your environmental hero?

I can’t pick one name to represent my environmental hero, but I consistently look toward my students as heros. They have the power to make informed, positive decisions, and are the sponges which soak up information and experiences and can help make a positive impact.

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