Good-Bye Everybody

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/1540/thumbnail.jp

Mammy\u27s Shufflin\u27 Dance / music by Melville J. Gideon; words by L. Wolfe Gilbert

Cover: photo of the Dolce Sisters (see 433); Publisher: Will Rossiter (Chicago)https://egrove.olemiss.edu/sharris_c/1019/thumbnail.jp

Connecting Children and Young People with Trees

Engaging children and young people with the natural world has never been more important. The benefits of outdoor learning span from increased nature connection to improved self-esteem and physical wellbeing. But with so many potential risks and barriers, how can we help practitioners feel confident and capable in an outdoor setting and therefore improve access to green space for children and young people? The education team at the National Forest Company set out to tackle this challenge. The National Forest was established in the early 1990s in a post-industrial area of the English Midlands. It covers 200 square miles and has seen a huge transformation from black to green over the last thirty years through an intensive program of tree planting and habitat restoration. However, nature was not designed to be the only beneficiary of this work. Green spaces were created near to where people live, work and learn to promote engagement with nature. It became clear early on that working with schools and youth groups across the Forest would be vital to making this happen. Here we describe the varied ways that outdoor learning provision has been supported and improved in the National Forest – from traditional in-school settings to engagement through arts and culture. We address some of the challenges facing outdoor learning providers and offer a pathway to success that can be followed elsewhere. By offering a variety of ways to engage with the local treescapes, the National Forest hopes to foster the next generation of custodians of this ever-changing landscape

'MOHAWK': A 4000-fiber positioner for DESpec

We present a concept for a 4000-fibre positioner for DESpec, based on the Echidna 'tilting spine' technology. The DESpec focal plane is 450mm across and curved, and the required pitch is ∼6.75mm. The size, number of fibers and curvature are all compara

'MOHAWK' : a 4000-fiber positioner for DESpec

We present a concept for a 4000-fibre positioner for DESpec, based on the Echidna 'tilting spine' technology. The DESpec focal plane is 450mm across and curved, and the required pitch is ~6.75mm. The size, number of fibers and curvature are all comparable with various concept studies for similar instruments already undertaken at the AAO, but present new challenges in combination. A simple, low-cost, and highly modular design is presented, consisting of identical modules populated by identical spines. No show-stopping issues in accommodating either the curvature or the smaller pitch have been identified, and the actuators consist largely of off-the-shelf components. The actuators have been prototyped at AAO, and allow reconfiguration times of ~15s to reach position errors 7 microns or less. Straightforward designs for metrology, acquisition, and guiding are also proposed. The throughput losses of the entire positioner system are estimated to be ~15%, of which 6.3% is attributable to the tilting-spine technology.Comment: 10 pages, to appear in Proc. SPIE 844