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 1st 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 1st
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 1st 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
