Archive for the 'Under the Bridge' Category

Podcast Aquatic: Making Waves with the NOS

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Jason
on November 13, 2008
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On October 31st, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Ocean Services (NOS) Communications and Education Division (CED) launched a weekly “podcast” called Making Waves. The program offers highlights to current activities, recent discoveries, and other happenings around NOS. So far there are two episodes out, each around seven minutes long and they promise to launch a new one each Friday.

Unfortunately, their RSS does not seem to include enclosures for their audio files, so I cannot automatically subscribe to it in iTunes. To listen, I have to actually visit the page and manually download the mp3 files. That’s kind of a pain, so let me know if it works differently for you.

So what is the NOAA NOS? It is part of the US Department of Commerce and is one of the agencies responsible for managing America’s “95,000 miles of shoreline and 3.5 million square miles of coastal, Great Lakes, and deep-ocean waters.” It is is composed of eight program and two staff offices, including the Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS), the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) and the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS). Still unsure about what NOS does? Then listen to their new audio program to learn more. :)

NOS is not the only NOAA podcast floating around out there. WeirdFins is a NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) podcast about some of the strange creatures that live in the sea. Each audio program is about two minutes long and their RSS appears to be valid. NOAA’s Office of Exploration also regularly publishes audio and video podcasts during their expeditions and you can subscribe to them here.

30 Days to Being a Better Blogger

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Jason
on November 6, 2008
in Blog, Meta and Under the Bridge
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Remember when I made that 100 days of 100 words blog challenge? Yeah, that did not turn out so well. But I thought, why not get back on the yo-yo and try a new dietchallenge? This one is called 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger. And since blogging is by nature an iterative process, no one will notice anyway, right?

This latest craze is an initiative started by Steven Dembo, author of the Teach42 blog and Online Community Manager for the Discovery Educator Network. A similar program is going on over at the National Blog Posting Month site (NaBloPoMo).

Steve has a Web badge to go along with the program, but I’ve made one too (above). Using the highway sign motif may be a tad trite, but it is the image that came to mind when I first heard of the 30 Days idea (and I already had the pieces handy). To me, the concept seems as much about distance as about time, like there is some destination up ahead on the Information Super Highway and each day is another mile marker along that road. Let me know what you think, or if you have a better idea.

The support wiki is at 30d2bbb.pbwiki.com. It is a work in progress, and if you would like to contribute, please join in. And keep your readers pointed here if you want to see where this thing goes. With any luck, it won’t end up in the drink again.

White Shark Video Webcast, Friday at 3:00 p.m. (ET)

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Jason
on September 11, 2008
in Events and Under the Bridge
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The Monterey Bay Aquarium will host a live video webcast at 3:00 p.m. (ET) on Friday, 12 September 2008. The webcast will be hosted by Ken Peterson and feature curator of field operations John O’Sullivan and white shark researcher Chris Perle.

The aquarium recently captured, put on display and released their fourth white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). They are the only aquarium that has long-term success keeping these animals in captivity.

The webcast will include video of the sharks capture, feeding and ultimate release. The experts will also talk about shark research and conservation.

Monterey Bay Aquarium is asking folks to submit questions for the webcast, but asks that people check their computer system prior to showtime to ensure compatibility with their player. Check the link below for more details.

UPDATE: The information page said I needed Windows Media Player. That’s too bad. I guess the Monterey Bay Aquarium hates Macs. :P

Wildlife of Florida’s Ancient Islands

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Jason
on August 14, 2008
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These scrub-oak domes provide patches of shade. This one seems to be mimicking the cloud behind it. [240x175, 16K]

Flickr photo: DSCN0505 by j.s. clark
Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Ancient Climate
Even the smallest changes in climate can have a dramatic impact on Florida. Over 600,000 years ago, sea level rise changed the state from a peninsula to an archipelago. Since then, the ocean has receded and risen to different levels. But the dunes of those ancient islands now form a sandy ridge that runs through the center of the state. The geological history of these ridges have created unique scrubby habitats that are home to many endemic species, including the famous Florida Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens). Unfortunately, less than 20% of the original uplands remains intact. The rest has been converted for agriculture (citrus), residential and commercial uses.

Modern Milieu
Next week is the Florida’s Wildlife: On the Frontline of Climate Change conference. The conference is about about the looming changes facing all the terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of Florida. Policy makers will be discussing the impact of these changes and how to link any initiatives with conservation goals.

Studying the Ancient Islands Today
The Archbold Biological Station has a free lesson plan on Florida scrub habitat and wildlife. It is weird to stand in the midst of these hot, arid areas and think that they were once beachfront property.

Coda: While putting this post together, I came across the sad news that Dr. Dave Maehr had passed away. Dr. Maehr was a well-known (and sometimes controversial) wildlife biologist. Back in the early 90s I got to tag along on a trip while his team tranquilized and studied black bears on the Weeki Wachee Preserve. Most Floridians go there whole life without ever seeing a native black bear. Because of Dave’s work, I got that chance. It was the high point of my internship at the Water Management District. Thanks.

The Bioluminescent Fungal Infection of My Life

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Jason
on July 28, 2008
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Unknown species of red-capped mushroom [240x180, 24K]
Unknown species of red-capped mushroom, Mountain City, GA.

I thought I would be headed home today, but instead we ended up with an unexpected extra day in the mountains. It gave us an opportunity to finally visit the Foxfire Museum.

Starting in the late 1960s, students in this rural Southern Appalachian area produced a magazine containing interviews with the elders of their community. The stories ranged from country herbals, to ghost stories and legends, to what life was like growing up in a pioneer era. The magazine was a pioneering effort itself and has grown over the years into its own franchise of sorts, including the museum.

I’d forgotten how deep the hyphae* of the Foxfire had penetrated into the substratum of my own life. As a kid, my parents regularly took us on camping trips to this area and for as long as I can remember, we had all the books sitting on the shelves of our modest Florida home. But it is interesting returning to this place and seeing its fruit with more mature eyes. As an educator, I am especially interested in the “Foxfire method of classroom instruction.”

“Foxfire” is a method of classroom instruction—not a step-by-step checklist, but an over-arching approach that incorporates the original Foxfire classroom’s building blocks of giving students the opportunity to make decisions about how they learn required material, using the community around them as a resource to aid that learning, and giving the students an audience beyond the teacher and the classroom for their work.

A more thorough introduction is available in this brochure (PDF). But I wonder if this approach would lend itself to some of the new media methods of content creation that interest me, especially student-created podcasts and blogs. Expect to see more on my explorations into that topic here in the future. Sadly, I missed the teacher courses for this year, but I hope next year will be a possibility.

*From the Web site: “The term ‘foxfire’ is a name commonly applied to several species of bioluminescent fungi that grow on rotting wood in damp forests.”
 

Managed Blogs for Teachers and Students

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Jason
on July 25, 2008
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After our Ocean Blogging session at NMEA, a couple of folks asked about solutions that would work for teachers, students or for closed teams. What I recommended verbally has coincidentally just been written up nicely by Wesley Fryer. It is an extensive post that introduces the options for hosting your own blog or using a service like Wordpress or Blogger.

Under the Bridge

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Jason
on July 24, 2008
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Picture of Talmadge Memorial Bridge [240x180, 24K]
Talmadge Memorial Bridge, Savannah, GA

I spent the last week in Savannah, GA, attending the 2008 National Marine Educators Association conference. In addition to doing a presentation for work, I also co-presented a session on ocean blogging with Rick MacPherson. It was a well-attended event, and I want to thank all the participants and Rick for making it a success.

I hope to post the audio and images from the presentation later this week when I get into an area with better bandwidth. We structured the presentation around the interrogatives. We both spoke about what is ocean blogging. Then Rick covered the who and why while I talked about the how, when and where. Regarding the latter, I noted that one place where you won’t find much information on ocean blogging is NMEA’s own ocean portal site, The Bridge.

The Bridge is a growing collection of the best marine education resources available on-line. It provides educators with a convenient source of accurate and useful information on global, national, and regional marine science topics, and gives researchers a contact point for educational outreach.

The Bridge is billed as: “An ocean of free teacher-approved marine education resources.” Given the protean nature of blogs, I understand why they might largely be absent from the site’s attention. But in the future I hope there will be a way of vetting blogs and other social networking sites for inclusion on some level.

Trolling Under the Bridge

Sites are added to The Bridge by moderators called TROLLS. This stands for Teacher Reviewer of On-Line Learning. It’s an odd acronym, and I suspect the folks at NMEA were thinking more about the piscatorial sense of the word than the more recent, negative connotation that has gained currency on the Internet. There is also the third meaning of the word, the legendary creatures that live under bridges and prevent passage of unsuspecting travelers. Again, usually a negative connotation, but I could see how it works.

So the other day I was looking for a catchy name for my Thursday feature, the one that covers the confluences of science education, environmental education and education technology. I’ve decided for now to call this section, Under the Bridge. It’s a cheeky reference to NMEA’s Web site. I hope to cover resources that might not otherwise make the cut on the official site*. It is also an incredibly oblique homage to another group of educators I work with, the ones at Worldbridges. They are an informal group that regularly webcast about many issues, especially those related to education technology. And they too have a habit of referring to their collective efforts as -bridges.

*I am a member of NMEA but not directly involved in The Bridge. This feature is my own effort and not affiliated with NMEA’s awesome outreach program.

Coral Clipart, Etc.

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Jason
on April 28, 2008
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black and white illustration of a branching coral [255x350, 21K]
“It appears to be confined to the Mediterranean Sea, where it grows, especially on the southern coast, attached to rocks at considerable depths in the sea. It is fished up from the deep by means of nets and other instruments. The manufacture of ornaments of this coral at Naples is of great extent.” — Goodrich, 1859
Source: S. G. Goodrich Animal Kingdom Illustrated Vol 2 (New York: Derby & Jackson, 1859)

It’s Deep-Sea Coral Week over at the Deep-Sea News blog, from April 27-May 3. It’s worth a look, with many interesting posts already up and many more to come each day.

Coral Clipart
The Florida Center for Instructional Technology
has made a number of antique woodcuts and engravings available online for educational use. Many of these include things zoological, including several anthozoan images.

While the license is generous, this collection could really benefit from an updated treatment with Creative Commons. Also, like most clipart collection, many of the specimens are mis-classified. For instance, larval arthropods are generously mixed in with the annelids. But those vermiform organisms were vexatious even for Linneaus (say that fast seven times).

In no particular taxonomic order


Free Stock Videos for Conservation Education

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Jason
on April 18, 2008
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It can be a challenge for environmental non-profits and educational outfits to produce original multimedia content. On a tight budget it can be tough to produce compelling content in-house, so at some point, the question of using stock images or video comes up. This has a cost too in the form of licensing, clearances and properly managing the rights to the media. Fortunately, there are some low cost (and free) resources available.

Reef Vid

A resource of free coral reef video clips for educational use

Professor Peter Mumby from the University of Exeter has made available a number of coral reef video clips. The database has over 500 clips which are free for educational and research use. The clips on the Web site are suitable for use in a PowerPoint presentation. Full-quality footage is available on mini-DV tapes, DVD, or DVD-ROM (recorded in PAL) by contacting them.

Environmental Video from the Feds

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also maintains a library of public domain video footage. The only cost is for reproduction, there are no other licenses or clearances required. All they ask is that you credit them as the source. In particular, I’ve found the Year of the Ocean, Turtle Excluder Device (TED) and Commercial Fishing to be useful stock footage for many projects. They also have a photo library of royalty-free still images.

Quality at a Price

Finally, there are also exceptional stock libraries available for a fee. The quality of these is incredible and the staff are available to help you find just the right image for your message. Some of the more marine-themed ones are listed below.

Have you used any other video resources for ocean conservation? Let me know.

Horseshoe Crabs & Arts Competition

Published
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Jason
on April 15, 2008
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Low angle shot of the anterior end of a horseshoe crab sitting in the surf [240x180, 17K]

Flickr photo: dead horseshoe crab by Epsilon289
Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Horseshoe crabs are not really crabs at all, being more closely allied to spiders and scorpions. There are only four species in the world, but they have a fossil record dating back more than 400 million years. Their annual spawning along the east coast of the United States serves as a vital food resource for migrating birds.

At work we do a program on invertebrates for the little guys (K-2nd grade). When we hold up a horseshoe crab and ask them what it is, some invariably identify it as a stingray. When we flip the carapace over they are surprised to see the pinchers and legs. So presumably, the ray is a more familiar animal to many children. If you are a teacher interested in rectifying this matter, I encourage you to check out the many lesson plans and resources over at horseshoecrab.org.

InVERSEabrates

April is National Poetry Month and the oceans provide a lot of inspiration for verse. And one outlet for that creativity comes each year with the annual arts competition from Horseshoecrab.org.

[Horesehoecrab.org] invites students from around the world to submit poems, tales and images in appreciation and celebration of the remarkable horseshoe crab. Through the arts, our future environmental stewards have a voice which is heard globally.

The competition is open to all grade levels pre-K – 12. Students may enter through their school or can enter individually. Each year 30-50 student visual/language artworks are selected to appear in our annual anthology, “Horseshoe Crabs & the Arts.” Each of the young artists as well as their teacher receives a copy of this limited edition artist’s book. All selected works are posted on our web site in the “Poems, Tales and Images” category. In addition the works are reproduced for exhibit in our traveling art exhibition, which has been hosted in art and nature centers throughout the United States and Japan. International entrants are encouraged to help us identify art centers in their countries that may also be interested in hosting the exhibition. We welcome invitations for international display of these outstanding student works!

The competition begins each September and the deadline for entry is today. Selected artists are notified in the beginning of June.

Jumbo Squid Weekend @ Camp Ocean Pines

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Jason
on January 17, 2008
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Camp Ocean Pines in Cambria, California has a number of workshop opportunities for educators this year. One in particular caught my eye:

Jumbo Squid Dissection, Teacher In-service February 1-3, 2008

The naturalist staff at Camp Ocean Pines have invited Dr. Bill Gilly, professor of Marine and Organismal Biology at Stanford to lead a study of these amazing squid. This is a great opportunity for hands-on experience with a 30-pound giant Humboldt squid. You’ll be studying under an expert who has researched the behavior and biology of squid for more than three decades.

Schedule
Friday, wine and cheese social and dinner before Dr. Gilly presents research and insights on the Humboldt Squid. Overnight accommodations available in straw bale cabins (with bathrooms and showers).

Breakfast Saturday morning, when Dr. Gilly will lead a dissection of Humboldt Squid. After this expert instruction, we share our experiences leading squid dissections in the classroom with students. Lesson plans and other handouts will be provided.

Lunch on Saturday and opportunity to join naturalist staff for a kayaking tour of the Morro Bay Estuary or a tour of the local elephant seals.

Saturday night join the staff for a relaxing campfire or visit the local attractions.

The weekend ends Sunday after breakfast and closing ceremony.

Open to science teachers, naturalists, docents, and marine science
educators.

Cost
Option 1 is $195/person (some partial scholarships available). Friday-Sunday, 2 nights lodging, wine reception, five great meals, instruction, kayak rental.

Option 2 is Saturday only $100/person for locals. Includes squid, instruction, lunch and dinner, evening lecture (either Friday in Cambria OR Saturday in Avila Beach).

Effective Narrative for Science Communication

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Jason
on October 2, 2007
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How not to overwhelm with Charts and Graphs

Over on the 43Folders blog, Matt Turk is asking how he can improve his academic presentation style.

I am in a fairly quantitative science…Unfortunately, what most people in my field do is to simply overwhelm the audience with lots of facts and charts and bullet points. Obviously this is a bad idea — but on the other hand, if you don’t give enough ’serious-looking’ plots, you run the risk of being dismissed by the majority of the people in the audience.

So how do I strike a balance? How do I keep my presentations in the manner of a good narrative, with appropriate display methods, when constrained by an audience that could liberally describe as ‘hostile’?

There are obligatory recommendations of Tufte, but also to The Craft of Research by Booth, Colomb, and Williams.

If you have any ideas about effectively communicating science information, head on over to 43Folders and chime in.

Free Giant Squid Workshop for Teachers (Seattle, WA)

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Jason
on September 13, 2007
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The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, WA, will host the traveling Smithsonian exhibit In Search of Giant Squid from September 22-December 31, 2007. The have a FREE Teacher Workshop & Open House on Thursday, September 27, 2007.

This 2-hour workshop for teachers will introduce useful resources from the Burke Museum and the upcoming Smithsonian traveling exhibit, In Search of Giant Squid. Learn how to use this exhibit to reinforce your marine science curriculum, including the scientific process, ocean research, and deep-sea ecology. The workshop will feature a presentation by a museum curator, a guided tour of the exhibit, an introduction to the exhibit curriculum created by the Smithsonian, a small-group activity, and a review of available teacher resources.

The workshop and curriculum is ideally suited for teachers of grades 5 through 8, but can be adapted for younger and older grade levels.

Miniature Portable On-Air Light for Podcasting, Skype and Webcasting

Published
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Jason
on July 26, 2007
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Hacking your iPod [200x150, 6K]During Skype, podcast and webcast sessions, I needed a way to let other folks know that the microphone was hot. I wanted a minitature on-air light flashing so they’d know they could be overheard. But where could I find such a device?

I considered all kinds of crazy schemes, from wiring up LEDs to sacrificing my moribund Palm Tungsten T3. But then it hit me. I already had an auxillary 320×240 LCD screen sitting right next to me in the form of my 5G iPod with video. Why not use the photo slideshow feature in that? So here are the steps to making your own miniature on-air light for podcasting, etc.

  1. Download the following graphics (available under Creative Commons license). You can customize them or make something similar on your own.
    [320x240, 20K] [320x240, 20K]
  2. Open up iPhoto and create File>New Album. Call it ONAIR or something similar. Alternatively, you could skip iPhoto and create a folder for the images. ITunes accepts either solution.
  3. Upload the graphics and move them into the new album/folder.
  4. Connect your iPod and under the Photos tab in iTunes, select the new album/folder for synchronization.
  5. Then under the iPod itself, select Photos>Slideshow Settings.
  6. I changed the following settings:
    Timer Per Slide: 2 sec
    Repeat: On
    Shuffle Photos: Off
    Transistions: Dissolve
  7. Back out one click to the Photos submenu, highlight the ONAIR album and press play. You should now have your own miniature on-air sign to warn your mates that the microphone is hot.
  8. Adjust the backlight timer to keep the images bright.

Other Uses

This might also be useful in public areas or when recording at conferences. You could create additional graphics with an advert for the show or details about the current recording session.

You could also sychronize it with an audio file, set it up remotely and send out a warning message. The TV out option also allows you to display it large.

This technique has an additional psychological effect for me. When the on-air light is lit, I know it is time to record. Now I just need an elegant way to display my iPod so people can see it.

Scholastic Squids and the DAST-ly Hallows

Published
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Jason
on July 23, 2007
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The 2007 Annual National Marine Educators Association Conference is under way in Portland, Maine. Sadly, I will not be able to attend NMEA this year. However, I did get a chance to present last year. My wife and I also took that opportunity to tour through New York City. Our last day was rather rainy, and somewhere in SoHo we serendipitously ducked into the Scholastic Retail Store to avoid the downpour. It was a pretty amazing space, with lots of primary colors and opportunities for young readers. I picked up a book on sharks to share with my co-workers.

Back at work, summer camp was still underway. During the first sessions the kids were asked to draw a picture of a scientist, which is pretty standard stuff*. Their efforts were posted up in the classroom and I had a chance to check in a couple of times to see the progress. Many of them initially drew the archetypal illustration of a white male in a lab coat doing something with test tubes. And it was also interesting to note how many of the younger Aquakids (students entering grades 1-4) had a hard time distinguishing between science and magic. Many of them conflated chemistry with potion making and mixed up the regalia of wizardry with that of the laboratory.

Which brings me back to Scholastic. They are the the American distributor for the Harry Potter series. Many people intuitively argue that Harry Potter is good because it gets young people reading. Others are not so sure. So one might also blame Scholastic for contributing to the confusion in the kids’ illustrations. But the picture isn’t that clear. Scholastic also has a remarkable partnership with the American Museum of Natural History called Science Explorations.

Scholastic: Squid Anatomy [200x150, 8K]The program promises to, “engage students and teachers with authentic, hands-on science investigations with real scientists, primary documents, genuine artifacts, and standards-based science inquiries based on the Museum’s resources.” In additon to print publications, engagement currently seems to consist of a half-dozen interactive, Flash-based websites. These include exhibits on bats, bugs, space, reptiles and Charles Darwin. But naturally enough, my favorite one is Investigating The Giant Squid: Mysterious Cephalopods of the Sea. The exploration includes a virtual dissections and an interview/slideshow with Dr. Neil Landman from the AMNH. I am planning on posting this bit to TONMO (if it is not there already) because they recently started a new K-12 forum devoted to using cephalopods in education.

Science Explorations also has a section called Writing with Scientists. It offers teachers and students, “step-by-step support to transform a collection of notes, observations, research, and experiments into a well-organized, thorough, and thoughtful science report.” You can read examples of how students use the resource over here.

Kiss the Virus: Toy Microbe Anatomy Action Figures

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Jason
on July 21, 2007
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[200x150, 9.8K]In my college biology club I met a woman who taught her budgie how to speak. But the only thing it could say was, “Kiss the Virus.” This made slightly more sense when you realized that she named the parakeet Virus. Needless to say, they were both odd birds. However, I think they would both be delighted to know that there are now budgie-sized toy viruses available for purchase.

The TEDCO toy company makes miniature biological and anatomical models. These include the virus, but also bacteria, animal cell and plant cell models too. They range in size from 3.5 to 5.5 inches (9-14 cm) and cost $10 each. In addition to macro-sized microbes, TEDCO makes miniature-sized human anatomy models like the Brain and Skull, the Eye and the iconic Human Torso. They all have removable parts, as if you were dissecting them, and would make great novelty gifts for bio/med students or a favorite science teacher. Why isn’t Think Geek selling these things?

Even more interesting is that TEDCO is a family-owned, American company. And as best as I can tell, they actually manufacture their toys in the United States. From their about page:

TEDCO was first established as a research & development company by the late Ralph Teetor. Mr. Teetor was a well-known and highly respected inventor who started TEDCO (Teetor Engineering Development Company) as a vehicle to foster his inventions. His most renowned accomplishment is the “cruise control” on your automobile. Mr. Teetor was blinded at an early age, yet he did not allow his lack of sight to hinder his creative genius. He was president of the former Perfect Circle Corporation and was inducted posthumously into the Automotive Hall of Fame.

Now, if you are interested in more traditional, life-sized (and larger) biology models (and have a couple hundred dollars), you might want to check out the Somso models available from Holt Anatomical. These are museum-quality, German made models for the classroom. Products include the human torsos with head (and interchangeable genitalia), block models of the skin, fern prothallium, brains of the honey bee (with transparent head capsules) and much more.

For those who are more budget conscious, there are some free microbial activities available from the Rodale Institute. Check out the papercraft Bacteria from their Paper Garden Project.