A Two Year Education Plan To Support The Goals Of The Nine Mile Creek Watershed District

In Minnesota, and nationally, the general public’s understanding of environmental topics is sub-optimal. Recent studies have also noted an alarming trend of children spending less time in nature, and suffering physical and mental impacts as a result. To help increase environmental literacy, and encourage people to get outside and protect nature, watershed districts (local government units in Minnesota) are making use of environmental education. The Nine Mile Creek Watershed District (NMCWD) is no exception, with a robust education team, and a diversity of programs and messaging about water and the environment. As a local unit of government, the NMCWD protects and manages the water resources within its boundaries. The NMCWD oversees about 50 square miles, and contains parts of the cities of Bloomington, Richfield, Edina, Hopkins, Minnetonka, and Eden Prairie. It is guided by a Board of Managers and a ten year Water Management Plan, which sets the goals and focus areas for the District for ten years. Education and outreach are two of the main tools the NMCWD uses to accomplish the goals laid out in this plan. It is very important that NMCWD staff use time and resources wisely to accomplish the goals laid out in the Water Management Plan. Therefore, an Education and Outreach Plan was developed to aid in this prioritization effort. This Plan identified and defined the types of audiences that the NMCWD works with, as well as the different messages taught about, and the methods in which the messages are disseminated to the audiences. This Plan also looked at which programs and methods are more flexible to changes in messaging. Finally, the Plan laid out how best to evaluate programs and methods. The Plan will be updated every two years, and will be available to the public on the NMCWD website, ninemilecreek.org. With effective environmental education, the NMCWD hopes to encourage people to get outside, connect with nature, and engage in behaviors that protect and preserve water and natural resources

Pellets recovered from stick nests and new diet items of Furnariidae (Aves: Passeriformes)

This is the first record showing eleven species in seven genera of Furnariidae (Aves: Passeriformes) from Argentina that regurgitate pellets. A total of 627 nests of Furnariidae was examined, and from 84 nests (13.3%), 1,329 pellets were recovered. These pellets were found in the closed, domed nests of many Furnariidae, because in comparison to other passerine birds, their nests were used for roosting, especially in the subfamily Synallaxinae. Anumbius annumbi had the highest percentage of nests containing pellets. Food items identified from the pellets provided important new data on the diets of several species of Furnariidae.Fil: Turienzo, Paola Noemí. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Di Iorio, Osvaldo Rubén. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental; Argentin

Developing Pre-Service Teachers’ Evidence-Based Argumentation skills on Socio-Scientific Issues

We report on a study of the effect of meta-level awareness on the use of evidence in discourse. The participants were 66 pre-service teachers who were engaged in a dialogic activity. Meta-level awareness regarding the use of evidence in discourse was heightened by having same-side peers collaborating in arguing on the computer against successive pairs of peers on the opposing side of an issue on the topic of Climate Change and by engaging in explicit reflective activities on the use of evidence. Participants showed significant advances both in their skill of producing evidence-based arguments and counterarguments and regarding the accuracy of the evidence used. Advances were also observed at the meta-level, reflecting at least implicit understanding that using evidence is an important goal of argumentation. Another group of pre-service teachers, who studied about the role of evidence in science in the context of regular curriculum and served as a control condition, did not exhibit comparable advances in the use of evidence in argumentation. Educational implications are discussed

Curriculum design for inquiry: Preservice elementary teachers' mobilization and adaptation of science curriculum materials

Curriculum materials are crucial tools with which teachers engage students in science as inquiry. In order to use curriculum materials effectively, however, teachers must develop a robust capacity for pedagogical design, or the ability to mobilize a variety of personal and curricular resources to promote student learning. The purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of the ways in which preservice elementary teachers mobilize and adapt existing science curriculum materials to plan inquiry-oriented science lessons. Using quantitative methods, we investigated preservice teachers' curriculum design decision-making and how their decisions influenced the inquiry orientations of their planned science lessons. Findings indicate that preservice elementary teachers were able to accurately assess how inquiry-based existing curriculum materials are and to adapt them to make them more inquiry-based. However, the inquiry orientations of their planned lessons were in large part determined by how inquiry-oriented curriculum materials they used to plan their lessons were to begin with. These findings have important implications for the design of teacher education experiences that foster preservice elementary teachers' pedagogical design capacities for inquiry, as well as the development of inquiry-based science curriculum materials that support preservice and beginning elementary teachers to engage in effective science teaching practice. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47:820–839, 2010Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/84401/1/20379_ftp.pd

Learning to critique and adapt science curriculum materials: Examining the development of preservice elementary teachers' pedagogical content knowledge

Teachers often engage in curricular planning by critiquing and adapting existing curriculum materials to contextualize lessons and compensate for their deficiencies. Designing instruction for students is shaped by teachers' ability to apply a variety of personal resources, including their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). This study investigated a criterion‐based approach to lesson plan analysis as one way to help preservice elementary teachers develop and use their PCK to plan instruction for students. Results show that the preservice teachers demonstrated a range of strengths and weaknesses in applying their knowledge of science assessment, science curriculum materials, and instructional strategies for teaching science. This range was influenced, in part, by the presence of alternative ideas about science teaching, the extent to which the original curriculum materials aligned with reform‐based standards and practices, and the presence of prompts to use criteria in their analyses. Despite these factors, preservice teachers' PCK improved significantly over time when they had multiple opportunities to practice applying the same criterion in their analyses. Insights into science teacher knowledge and implications for science teacher education are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 96: 130–157, 2012Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89555/1/20466_ftp.pd

Quantitative acoustic differentiation of cryptic species illustrated with King and Clapper rails

Reliable species identification is vital for survey and monitoring programs. Recently, the development of digital technology for recording and analyzing vocalizations has assisted in acoustic surveying for cryptic, rare, or elusive species. However, the quantitative tools that exist for species differentiation are still being refined. Using vocalizations recorded in the course of ecological studies of a King Rail (Rallus elegans) and a Clapper Rail (Rallus crepitans) population, we assessed the accuracy and effectiveness of three parametric (logistic regression, discriminant function analysis, quadratic discriminant function analysis) and six nonparametric (support vector machine, CART, Random Forest, k�nearest neighbor, weighted k�nearest neighbor, and neural networks) statistical classification methods for differentiating these species by their kek mating call. We identified 480 kek notes of each species and quantitatively characterized them with five standardized acoustic parameters. Overall, nonparametric classification methods outperformed parametric classification methods for species differentiation (nonparametric tools were between 57% and 81% accurate, parametric tools were between 57% and 60% accurate). Of the nine classification methods, Random Forest was the most accurate and precise, resulting in 81.1% correct classification of kek notes to species. This suggests that the mating calls of these sister species are likely difficult for human observers to tell apart. However, it also implies that appropriate statistical tools may allow reasonable species�level classification accuracy of recorded calls and provide an alternative to species classification where other capture� or genotype�based survey techniques are not possible