A Comprehensive Plan for an Ecological Restoration-based Eco-toursim Program at Glacial Park

McHenry County Conservation District (MCCD) manages 25,000 acres of open lands in northern Illinois, including Glacial Park, a 3,273-acre park and conservation area. Dr. Tom Simpson, Research Field Station Ecologist for MCCD, approached the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan with the proposal that a master’s project team join him and MCCD in reestablishing a weekend-long event, called the Weekend of Restoration, and analyzing ways to turn the event into a sustainable annual or semi-annual program at Glacial Park. To guide the project’s activities, objectives and research, the team formulated a fundamental question: What elements of event planning, marketing, implementation, and evaluation can best create a successful, repeatable weekend restoration program at Glacial Park? The team developed a set of recommendations based on a combination of personal observations, evaluation findings, background research on relevant topics, and conversations with MCCD and other conservation professionals. Additionally, site analyses were conducted to inform future restoration projects by providing educational resources via maps, teaching points, references, and activities. The project resulted in the establishment of a 2012 event, complete with outside funding as well as staff and volunteers registered to help plan, market, implement and evaluate the event.Master of ScienceNatural Resources and EnvironmentUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90881/1/Ecotourism_Bomey_Dreps_Hanna_Haroutunian_Pierce.pd

Prediction Error Associated with the Perceptual Segmentation of Naturalistic Events

Predicting the near future is important for survival and plays a central role in theories of perception, language processing, and learning. Prediction failures may be particularly important for initiating the updating of perceptual and memory systems and, thus, for the subjective experience of events. Here, we asked observers to make predictions about what would happen 5 sec later in a movie of an everyday activity. Those points where prediction was more difficult corresponded with subjective boundaries in the stream of experience. At points of unpredictability, midbrain and striatal regions associated with the phasic release of the neurotransmitter dopamine transiently increased in activity. This activity could provide a global updating signal, cuing other brain systems that a significant new event has begun