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Undergraduate Spring and Fall Internship Opportunities
The UVM Watershed Alliance (UVM WA) aims to increase awareness and knowledge of watershed issues in Vermont youth. UVM WA provides internship opportunities to UVM undergraduates. Interns serve as Watershed Educators providing educational programming in schools and other academic settings throughout Vermont. Watershed educators are needed from April into early June then again in late August through November. Summer projects may also be available.
If interested, please stop by the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory or call Erin De Vries, Watershed Alliance Outreach & Education Coordinator at 802-859-3086. The application deadline is March 16th.
Climate Change Workshop for Teachers
The Champlain Basin Education Initiative (CBEI) is offering a climate change workshop for K-12 teachers Saturday, March 10th, 8:30 am - 3:00 pm at St. Michael's College in Colchester, Vermont.
Join us for a stimulating day of new information, dialogue, and classroom applications in an innovative format of presentations, lab work, computer time, and the sharing of ideas.
The keynote speaker will be Dr. Richard Kujawa, Professor of Geography at Saint Michael's College.
Additional presenters and workshop facilitators include:
Kara Lenorowitz, Colchester High School science teacher
Walter Poleman, UVM PLACE program
Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux, Vermont State Climatologist
CBEI Partners and Alumni
Cost: $20, which covers lunch and materials
View the agenda here or visit the new WatershED Matters website.
To register, contact Colleen Hickey of the Lake Champlain Basin Program by phone, (802) 372-3213, or email.
Click here to learn more...
Bugs as Bioindicators
Every spring and fall students in the Lake Champlain Basin become budding stream ecologists, poised with kick nets, waterproof boots and lobster red camouflage gloves. They are on a mission to find and identify benthic macroinvertebrates or BMIs, those bugs, insect larvae, and worms that represent the health of a stream or river system. BMIs are biological indicators that stream ecologists use to determine the health of the stream and watershed. BMIs fall into various pollutant tolerance categories from sensitive stonefly and dobsonfly larva and semi-tolerant blackfly larva and snails to organisms very tolerant of pollutants like leeches and aquatic bloodworm larva.
Identifying these benthic (bottom-dwelling) macroinvertebrates is not always easy for students or their teachers. Vermont EPSCoR Streams Project has created Macroinvertebrate Pages that illustrates the most common BMIs found from over 40 sample streams or rivers collected by stream teams in Vermont, New York, Connecticut, and Puerto Rico. The site is constantly being updated as more streams are researched and samples are added to this illustrated and informative database. If you are a teacher or student interested in learning more about stream ecology and health, BMIs, and local watershed stewardship please contact Watershed Alliance. One of our goals is to educate more people each year about watershed health and turn them into curious and effective naturalists.
Click here to learn more...
Vermont Envirothon
Do you want to excite your students about the outdoors? Do they love nature and the natural world? Do you want to help connect them to the natural resources in their community?
If you answered "YES!" to any of the questions above, we would like to invite you to help them participate in the Vermont Envirothon. The Vermont Envirothon helps students focus on Vermont's environmental issues related to forestry, wildlife, soils and water resources through real-world learning in a teamwork environment. It is co-sponsored by a variety of agencies and organizations working in natural resource conservation.
The program provides an opportunity for hands-on field experiences and activities with professionals in the field. It's a way for high school-aged students to actively learn more about the natural world around them while they work together. Students learn to incorporate science-based investigations in helping to explore environmental issues. OK, you say. My students might be interested...What's the deal? Check out the Vermont Envirothon link and dive into hands-on experiential learning.
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Design your new lab
NSTA has posted the Shell Science Lab Challenge. If you are a school with little lab resources or none at all here is your chance to design your own lab and create new opportunities for your students to learn and do science in the classroom with appropriate lab equipment.
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Opportunities for Undergraduate Students Abound
UVM Watershed Alliance offers internship, work-study, and service learning opportunities in support of our educational programming. Each spring and fall, we hire 4 - 6 undergraduate students who are interested in water resources and watershed education, and would like to gain experience teaching in the field and classroom by serving as a Watershed Educator for our Stream Monitoring and Stewardship Program. Watershed Educators receive training in stream ecology and watershed science, group management in the field and classroom, and teaching science as inquiry. Educators are expected to work 50+ hours between March and early June during the spring season, or between September and late October during the fall season, to fulfill the requirements for 1 internship credit. Travel costs are reimbursed and a small stipend is awarded. Work-study is available for those who qualify. Program Assistants are hired on a semester-basis and provide support to the program coordinator. Students with curriculum writing, GIS, or website development experience are encouraged to apply. Lastly, if you have a project of particular interest related to watershed education or water quality, contact the Watershed Alliance Coordinator to find out more about additional service learning opportunities.
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A Watershed for Every Classroom on Across the Fence
A Watershed for Every Classroom (WEC), a year-long professional development opportunity that offers teachers inspiration, knowledge and skills to frame exciting place-based curriculum was featured on UVM Extension's Across the Fence television program. The activity highlighted by Across the Fence was the alumni trip aboard UVM's research vessel, Melosira that took place last July. The 2010-2011 WEC program begins this summer. For more information on the course, visit: http://www.lcbp.org/cbei.htm. In this photo, teachers learn tracking skills at the Ethan Allen Homestead in Burlington with Mike Brennan of the Adirondack Visitor Interpretive Center as part of the winter session of WEC.
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Williston students on Across the Fence
The UVM Watershed Alliance Program was featured on Extension's Across the Fence. Watch students from Williston Central School search for benthic macroinvertebrates and an interview with Bethany Hanna, Outreach and Education Coordinator.
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