KBEEA

February 8, 2006

Meeting Notes

Attendees: Beth Trowbridge, Bree Murphy, Steve Hackett, Catie Bursch, Carmen Field, Terry Thompson, Ingrid Harrald, Lois Bettini, Kris Holderied, Elizabeth Wasserman, Glenn Seaman, Marianne Kronk, Ryjil Christianson, Larry Lewis

New Programs

Carmen (KBRR): - post-Discovery Lab classes currently done with Flex High

School students every other week the day after the public

open lab; next school year more classes may get involved in

this program

- KBRR’s Community Council Education sub-committee now

has 6 actively teaching educators, including homeschool;

they helped Reserve staff recently in reviewing a draft crab

monitoring protocol for students

Lois (Pratt): - introduced Ryjil as the Museum’s new education assistant;

Ryjil’s background is in sociology and art; she will be

involved in various outreach efforts

- Patrons of the Pratt (POPS) funded a marine room facelift

over the break > Ryjil will be painting 2 new murals in that

room

- a new exhibit opened last night on homesteading

- new brochure draft is out > 15 programs are spelled out here

- an MOU with the NPS is done (“Park at the Pratt” programs)

> e.g. bears, geology, volcanoes, Native cultures

- there are 2 upcoming docent trainings:

1) collections with Betsy Webb on Feb. 22 from 10am – 12pm

2) interpreting Native cultures with Gale Parsons on Mar. 16

from 10am – 12 pm

* Discussion about use of Museum’s collections

(ask Betsy for details)

- WHIZ Kids with Ryjil is all exhibits-based now

- the Saturday after PlanktonFest (Sat, Mar. 18), kids wearing

their plankton costumes get into the Museum free

Ingrid (Cook Inlet Keeper): - involvement with Girl Scouts’ Women of Science

day at Islands & Ocean was great

- looking forward to Science & Math Night at

West Homer Elementary on Feb. 24

- they are starting to train teachers as CEMP

(Citizen Environmental Monitoring Program)

volunteers, with the 1^st one in a Russian village

at the head of the Bay

- Keeper is an oil spill advocacy resource, e.g. for

oil spill curriculum from PWSRCAC (it should be

on the PWSRCAC website in the next month)

- Samantha Cunningham will be teaching a 1^st

Aid/CPR class on Monday, Feb. 27 and there are

still a few openings for KBEEA members

Beth (CACS/WNC): - lack of snow has forced cancellation of some

programs

- this Sunday from 1 – 4pm there will be a Winter

Carnival event at the Wynn > hot cocoa,

snowshoe races and more

- there will be events at Wynn in March and

April, too, but no dates have been set

- skiing and snowshoeing are allowed at Wynn at

no cost & there are about 10 pair of snowshoes

available for use from CACS

- there will be a Winter Ecology program for

Connections students March 16 - 17

Bree (CACS): - offering 8 homeschool programs this spring (all time high)

- summer yurt programs: dock tours with Jane Tollefsrud;

they want to offer at least 2 adult education programs in

addition to regular programs at Peterson Bay Field Station,

maybe a family getaway weekend (maximum accommodation

# is 20) > looking for new uses of PBFS for adult

audiences, community events, KBEEA partnerships,

artists…any ideas?

Glenn (NOAA): - described pilot project in Chugach region (Eyak to Port

Graham & Nanwalek) with oversight by CIRC

Tribal Management Program at College of Rural Alaska,

with emphasis on natural resources (a certificate program)

2 courses: 1) Intro to Tribal Management

2) Cross-Connections (between western

ways of knowing and traditional ways

of knowing) – e.g. harbor seals, sea

otters

targets 18 to 45-year-olds who are out of school & in

villages

late March at Kasitsna Bay Lab & Port Graham

Henry Huntington is a co-teacher

- villagers want to play a meaningful role in management of

their resources

- Marine Advisory Program has a statewide initiative to get

Native Alaskans more involved in fisheries

- Glen learned at the Marine Science Conference in

Anchorage that UAF is developing programs to strengthen

their marine fisheries undergraduate program, with monies

from perhaps Rasmusson > a 3-year effort, working with

rural AK campuses

Elizabeth (NPS): - the MOU with the Pratt has been finalized

- she will be at Islands & Ocean again this summer

Larry Lewis (ADF&G): - he coordinated with a group of members from UAF,

local educators, and KPBSD to address lack of

science-based, natural resource education

opportunities > this group built a high school

curriculum to be accepted by the school district

about fisheries management, oil & gas, natural

resources, etc. > Al Poindexter took this idea to

Homer High School and got it going in Homer – this

lead to some bad feelings up the Peninsula

- Larry does outdoor education programs in middle

schools like Cook Inlet Academy, Seward

(interested), and Ninilchik (at least until

recently, when Chris Hanson left for Soldotna) >

topics include wildlife management, firearm safety,

hunter education, & career education

- he goes into schools and works with communities to

foster understanding and stewardship, spending

most time dealing with bears or bear issues

Terry Thompson (KBRR): - Jan Yeager at the Kenai River Center (& contracted

by the Kenai Watershed Forum) is organizing a

group of education folks in the central Peninsula

KBEEA Outreach Committee Report

PIE Banner: Catie gave each of the partners a CD with banner

graphics on it

Partners in Education (PIE) disscussion outcomes:

* Three or more organizations must be involved for an

event to be a PIE event

* Future PIE events:

West Homer Elem Math & Science Night [Feb. 24]

PlanktonFest [Mar. 15]

Homer Middle School Science Day at I&O [Apr. 25]

A Morning of Coastal Science for Homeschoolers [Apr. 7]

Earth Day [Apr. 22]

KBEEA brochure: Carmen distributed a draft of our 3-panel,

black-&-white brochures > get edits /

suggestions / feedback to her by Monday,

Feb. 20

www.homerfieldtrips.com website:

* Catie distributed a handout detailing website use

statistics & provided details on these; we can’t know

where viewers are physically located

* Carmen led discussion about funding this website

past the end of March > this website costs $275/year,

which includes a yearly listing fee of $35 (due in April)

and a monthly fee of $20; by March 31, we will only

have $5.90 left in the account for paying these fees and

need to come up with $55 for April + the rest of the

year – Kris Holderied offered to see if NOAA might

fund this, as well as the possibility of funding printing

fees for 6 PIE banners and ~1000 color KBEEA

brochures.

THANKS KRIS!!!

COLLABORATIONS

KBay Science Conference

Beth: - the flyer is out now

- the website is www.kachemakbayscience.org

- educators can get 1 credit for attending the conference

(see the website for more info)

- info posters from students are being encouraged

Arctic Winter Games

Marianne: - Games take place March 5 – 11, 2006 with curling &

cultural events in Homer

- inserts for Peninsula papers will focus on Homer

tourism opportunities during the Games

- there will be movies shown during this week at Islands

& Ocean

Also (not related to AWGs):

- the Chamber and Eco-tourism Network are looking for a

new motto for Homer, perhaps incorporating eco-

tourism & art

- there will be a job opening soon to replace Karen as

ANHA manager at Islands & Ocean

- contact Marianne with activities for Earth Day (Apr. 22)

ANROE Statewide Conference - March 9 – 11, 2006 in Anchorage

- Bree and Marilyn will be going

Teacher Trainings

Beth/Bree: - Project WILD – Forest Ecology teacher workshop

during the weekend of June 17-18, 2006 (a CACS/KPC-

KBC partnership)

- 3 bear workshops at McNeil with Derek Stonorov

offered through CACS; the 1^st one is for teachers

Kris: encouraged KBEEA members to think about using

the Kasitsna Bay Lab for teacher trainings

Carmen: there might be a marine invertebrate class

through the college there in Sep (perhaps

joining forces with Lois’s insect class for an

invertebrate class)

Terry: there might be a NERR teacher workshop there in

2006

CoastWeeks

Discussion outcomes:

- CoastWeeks ‘06: September 8 – 30, 2006, with

kick-off at CACS for CoastWalk and wrapping

up with KBRR’s National Estuaries Day

- ’06 theme: Careers in Coastal Science

- possible events: job shadow day, Women of

Science event, KBRR Careers in Marine

Science Discovery Lab

A Morning of Coastal Science for Homeschool Students

Carmen: - scheduled for Friday, April 7 at I&O from 10 – 11:30 am

- a PIE event (CACS, Pratt, KBRR, NPS)

Elizabeth: will do Volcanoes as part of this program

Kris: Any plans of something similar in Seldovia?

Carmen: Yes, we’ll be building on our Sep. ’05 Day of

Science in Seldovia.

ADF&G’s Wildlife Conservation Community Program (by Larry Lewis)

Larry gave a Powerpoint presentation on this ADF&G program, describing how

he works to change behavior of upper Peninsula residents regarding bears.

Education efforts focus on proper garbage disposal, use of bear-proof

containers, and bear-proofing attractions such as livestock pens. Larry would

like to create a market for bear-resistant containers, which are now available

through 2 sanitation companies. Kenai is working toward being a model

community for proper bear behavior.

Larry asked if a sub-set of the Alliance might be a grass-roots group to bring

such a program to Homer. Carmen replied that such a project might be

overwhelming for our loosely organized group, but we certainly support the

program.

Carmen suggested that we consider a similar way to pro-actively approach

wildlife stewardship issues around KBay, such as tidepool overuse or

etiquette.

MEDIA HINTS

Elizabeth: - she distributed a handout of KBBI’s Community Calendar event

sheet, for use by us in future press releases

- she is working on pulling together more info > for newspapers and

commercial radio station announcements, including lead times,

contact info, etc.

MISCELLANEOUS

Terry: asked if Alliance members would be interested in sharing the duties

of "chairperson,"which has fallen to Carmen in past years.

Discussion followed with members agreeing that there should be a

rotating chairperson, perhaps a PIE organization member every 6

years. Carmen will draft a list of KBEEA duties that could transfer

from one chairperson to the next – she will share these with

members before the next semi-annual meeting.

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Carmen: let us know that the trail between Islands & Ocean has been

partially ripped out and may not be replaced by spring EE season,

due to land swap issues > classroom & public programs may need

to follow the road to Bishops Beach this spring > funding of several

$100K is being sought to replace the old trail along a new route

closer to the Slough

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Kris: suggested we create a list of local speakers (similar to a ‘speakers

bureau’) who would be available for K-12 science education.

Carmen said an effort to do this began with the creation of the

www.homerfieldtrips.com website, but wasn’t carried out. Larry did

this for the upper Peninsula, calling organizations from the phone

book and got great response. He suggested job shadowing as a

way to bring natural resource professionals together with students.

In Soldotna (or Kenai?), the Chamber of Commerce supports and

helps pay for this program.

2006 IMPORTANT MEETINGS & EVENTS

Feb 24 Math & Science Night (7-8:30 pm at West Homer Elementary)

Mar 15 PlanktonFest (3–5 pm at I & O)

Mar 9 – 11 Statewide Conference in Anchorage

Mar 24 – 26 Kachemak Bay Science Conference

Visit www.kachemakbayscience.org

Apr 7 A Morning of Coastal Science for homeschool students

(10–11:30 am at I&O)

Apr 22 Earth Day (at I & O)

Apr 25 Homer Middle School Day of Science at Islands & Ocean

Jul 9 – 12 NAME Conference in Seward

Sep 8 – 30 CoastWeeks ’06: Careers in Coastal Science

Oct 27 Semi-annual KBEEA meeting (9 am–2 pm at I&O)