Events & views -November 2009
In This Edition
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November 2009 Newsletter |
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Go Forth and Role-Model!
by Allan Berkowitz, Executive Director
Anyone who parents a child, is the grandparent of a child, is the ‘outdoor mentor’ of a child, or teaches a child needs to know a few important facts about environmental education. Why? Because the future of the natural world depends on it. Three Important Facts about Environmental Education: |
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Important Fact #1: Knowledge isn’t everything. Attitude is! Researchers talk about the K-A-B continuum: Knowledge leads to a change in Attitude which leads to a change in Behavior. According to conventional wisdom, educate people with the facts and you will change their attitudes. And once they have an attitude adjustment, their behavior will change. Turns out that a change in behavior regarding the environment is influenced more by a change in attitude than acquisition of knowledge. So it seems that taking time to smell the roses is more valuable than learning the parts of a flower, at least as far as stewardship is concerned. (for the record: I do think knowledge is a critically important thing. There are many, many reasons to acquire knowledge, but that is the topic for a different article). Important Fact #2: Nature role-models change attitudes. In several studies in the United States and in other countries, a connection to an adult who enjoys nature increased positive environmental behavior among children. And in one study it didn’t even matter if that person engaged with the child in outdoor experiences. Simply being around an adult who held a positive and respectful view of nature led to a statistically significant increase in positive attitudes among children. Everyone can be a nature role-model. Important Fact #3: Age matters. Start young and save the world! In one study the tipping point was age 11. There is a correlation between positive nature experiences until age 11 and positive environmental actions embraced later on as an adult. In another study 8th graders outscored 6th graders on knowledge about nature. That makes sense; they had 2 additional years of learning. But 6th graders outscored 8th graders in the affective realm of positive feelings about nature and personal actions in support of the environment. So we see that playing in the dirt is not only a desired pursuit of young children, it may be the really important first step on their road to caring about nature. The conclusion is obvious: go forth and role-model. Share your passion for nature. Open a child’s eyes. Educate to the heart. It’s a fun prescription for that which ails the natural world. |
Spring Training Schedule
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Believe it or not, we are almost half way through the school year and we have finalized the schedule for the spring training courses. As always, any volunteer with up-to-date paperwork, including dues and TB tests, may drop in for any training class. We only ask that you RSVP to Brittany so if there are last minute changes to the agenda, she can make sure you are informed. |
Living in California (Classroom Course) This course covers four of our nine subject areas: Earthquake Geology; Water Science & Conservation; Early California Indian Life: an Environmental Focus; and Energy & Natural Resources. Next Session: Peninsula Office Thursdays 9:00 – 1:30 March 25, April 1, 8, 15, 22. 29 Explorations in Ecology (Classroom Course) This course covers five of our nine subject areas: Baylands Ecology; Forest & Foothills Ecology; Marine Ecology; Nature in Your Neighborhood (Urban Ecology); and All About Birds. Next Session: South Bay Office Fridays 9:00 – 1:30 January 8, 15, 22, 29, February 5, 12, 19 Field Trip Training This course covers all six of our field trip sites: Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve; Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve; Los Trancos Open Space Preserve; Fitzgerald Marine Reserve; Huddart Park; and Stevens Creek Park. Next Session: At the various field trip sites Mondays 9:00 – 1:30 (Except as noted. All times including drive time.) February 22, March 1, 8, 15, 22, 26 (12:00-5:30) Prerequisite: Trainees must have taken or be taking a classroom course. |
Join the Egret Club
by John Armstrong, Outreach and Communitcations Coordinator
Support an Egret Club membership today and
grow science education in our local schools
We have launched the Egret Club – a special project designed to keep parents informed of our work, as well as nature opportunities you can enjoy with your family
The egret is a bird that lives in the marshes of the Palo Alto Baylands. It is also our mascot and we invite you to support our work by becoming a member of the Egret Club.
Click on this link to learn about the benefits of joining the Egret Club and to check out activities and questions you can share with your child: www.evols.org/EgretClub.
Who's News: Meet Lila Jones
The EV has another wonderful teaching intern this year—Lila Jones. Like Dusten Dennis, Lila is in the multiple-subject credential program at San Jose State University. She will be observing and helping with classroom presentations as well as reformatting our scripts for printing.
Lila grew up in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania and graduated from Bloomsburg University with a degree in Political Science and an MBA. At the time, she wasn’t sure she really wanted to continue on this career path, so she joined AmeriCorps Vista, a national service project designed to fight poverty. She worked in Portland, Maine for 2 years, organizing events for young people, then moved to Oakland and worked for a year with the Cesar Chavez After-School Program, organizing youth service clubs. Working with children and appreciating their energy and enthusiasm led Lila to choose teaching as a career. |
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Living in the Bay Area has had its pluses and minuses for Lila. She finds its size a little overwhelming, but loves the many opportunities for camping and hiking. She is amazed at the state’s natural diversity —from redwood communities to the desert. Lila loves to travel and explore new places; she drove from Maine to California! Her favorite stop along the way was Arches National Park in Utah. Other avocations for Lila include swimming, reading, and watching movies. We are happy to welcome you, Lila, into the EV family. |
Passport to Adventure Recap
by John Armstrong, Outreach and Communications Coordinator
All participants qualified to become members of the Egret Club - a special Environmental Volunteers project designed to keep parents informed of our work, as well as nature opportunities you can enjoy with their families. We’ll do more of these fun activities, so keep checking out upcoming newsletters for future announcements. |
Here Comes the "Fun Guy": The Mushroom
by Esperanza Sanz Escudero, Intern
Many good and devilish things have been said about the mushroom. There are countless species coming in every shape, size, and color in nature. Everyone has an opinion about them. You love them or you just hate them. During fall, there are many exhibitions all over the world (Asian and European culture use them heavily in their cuisines). Do you want to learn more about them?
Pictures: Agaricus on Middlefield Road in Mountain View, Oct 14th, 2009, and some mushrooms on a log in Jasper Ridge BP, Oct 15th, 2009. Just a few days after the big storm happened.
With the summer being over and the rainy season just started, and old friend comes to visit our lawns and forests: the mushroom. They are all over. They even appear in the last place you might think on Earth... Antarctica! The "mushroom" is in all of our planet's ecosystems.
Scientist studying them are called Mycologist, that comes from the Greek word myco meaning fungus. In addition to the most "famous" fungi, the mushroom, this group includes molds, rusts, mildews and yeasts. There are around 70,000 species of known fungi, but experts say that probably the number is much larger.
Science of mushroom is so interesting. Even today there is still some controversy over whether they are closer to plants or animals. Once they were classified as plants but nowadays they have their own kingdom (Fungi). They are neither plants, nor animals, but believe it or not they are actually closer to animals than plants. One of the main discoveries was that fungi have a cell wall structure similar to plants, but instead of cellulose, they are built with something called chitin, a protein normally found in the outer skeleton of insects, crabs, shrimps, lobsters and in other invertebrates.
They do not produce their own food (they don't have chlorophyll); instead they get their nourishment from organic matter (animals or plants). Fungi are decomposers. They reproduce through something called spores, that they drop from their gills to the ground and then produce mycelia the same way as seeds for plants sprout.
There are two major groups that are distinguished depending on where the spores are formed. The most common and also the most evolved mushrooms belong to the basidiomycetes group (like agarics, boletes, chantarelles and many others). In those, 8 spores are formed in a structure called basidium. When spores are formed in a structure called ascus (like truffles, morels and others), the group is called ascomycetes. The number of spores formed in those are 4. The most colorful, big, edible and poisonous mushrooms belong to the first group described.
Truth is that we live in a climate where mushrooms grow easily and there are many chances to see them around. In California, we are able to find many hundreds of mushroom species. Out of them, around 10 are deadly poisonous (even eating only small amounts) and many others could cause different reactions (going from mild to severe, depending on the type of fungus). Suggestion: do not pick your own mushrooms to eat. Trust the ones at the store. What could look so similar, might give you trouble at the end.
Sources:
"Field Guide to California" National Audubon Society. 1998
"Science Desk Reference " The New York Public Library. 1995
"Hongos" El Norte de Castilla. 1992
http://www.mykoweb.com/CAF/skey.html
http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/index.php/search-for-northern--5427/
http://mycology.cornell.edu/
http://davidlnelson.md/Cazadero/FiveKingdoms.htm
http://www.reachoutmichigan.org/funexperiments/agesubject/lessons/shroom.html
http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Mushrooms/index.html
Pictures credits: Ignacio Martin Bragado and Esperanza Sanz Escudero
Muwekma Ohlone Toy Drive
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Dolores Sanchez Memorial |
Last year the Muwekma Ohlone Toy Drive was able to give presents to more than 200 needy Native American children from the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and other local Indian children! Bring joy to these children this year by donating an unwrapped new toy (for children 0-18 years old). Toy donations can be dropped off at the EV Office. 3921 East Bayshore Road Palo Alto, CA 94303 Monetary donations are also accepted. |
EV Snapshots
Click the PDF to the right to see amazing photos by Tom Rossiter. These are aerial photos of the salt ponds around the southern portion of the SF Bay. The different concentrations of minerals allow different algae to grow which generates the color. |
________________________ Photo Credits Spring Training Schedule: Brittany Sabol Who's News: Lila Jones Here Comes a Fun Guy: Esperanza Sanz Escudero EV Snapshots: Tom Rossiter All other images: Wikipedia |