Today, we paid visits to June and Juliet. We swapped June’s GPS unit and we changed Juliet’s GPS batteries and added a durable florescent strip to her collar. June was alone when we connected with her but 2 very wet muddy cubs soon showed up. Not sure where they had been but it certainly looked like they had fun! We found Juliet cooling off in a cedar/alder swamp (picture) where she was lying in a depression she had dug in the damp soil. It is hard to be a bear with a growing winter coat on a hot day like today (80s).
All the GPSed bears are safe, and Lily, Hope, and Faith are doing fine.
As school approaches, Education Outreach is coming back to center stage. The EO Team was good enough to provide the words for today. These are their words—good ones.
The North American Bear Center’s Educational Outreach Program, http://www.bear.org/website/introduction-from-dr-lynn-rogers.html was designed to present accurate information to broad audiences, particularly the school aged child, with the goal of replacing misconceptions with scientific facts to help people and bears better co-exist. It is rising to the challenge of conveying excitement and enthusiasm in the shared pursuit of knowledge that will help people and bears better co-exist!
Although the target audience of our Educational Outreach consists of school pupils and young people, it extends to the broader community worldwide. An important part of the job of scientists is communicating their research and its importance to others. While there are established methods of sharing that research with peers in our field, and with the broader scientific community through discipline specific journals, scientific papers and conferences, one major goal of the North American Bear Center’s Educational Outreach is to make the content of our research more transparent, relevant and easier to understand for non-scientists and the general public. A well-developed education component strengthens a research project by showcasing its broader applicability and extending the scope of its audience. This communication is essential for the greater impact of research.
In creating curriculum for "Replacing Misconceptions with Scientific Facts about Black Bears" http://www.bear.org/website/curriculum.html, the North American Bear Center's Educational Outreach Team sought to celebrate the diversity of students worldwide, by offering opportunities in lessons, resources, and interdisciplinary activities to support varied learning styles and multiple intelligences which can be further diversified with activities that involve writing, art, dramatization, songs, games, and cooperative learning techniques. All materials are adaptable to a variety of grade levels and may be differentiated for students taking into account what standards of performance are required for a particular age level.
At the same time, people are finding ways to chip away at the remaining $31,220 debt. Ann Shutze and Jill Lindzey entered pictures in a photo contest and will give all their winnings to the Bear Center if they win. To help them win, go to http://prize.komando.com/gallery/entry.asp?id=9294240 and to http://prize.komando.com/gallery/entry.asp?id=9271375 and click Like on each. It will likely bring $100 each to the Bear Center.
Again, you registered more votes for Soudan Underground Mine State Park at http://m.livepositively.com/park_details.jsp?parkId=556 than any other park, outvoting the number one park 38,457 to 36,250 with 11 days to go. Another strong showing of the Lily fans’ desire to help the area where the research bears live. We hope hunters will spare these bears so the goodwill and good data they provide can continue for years to come.
We appreciated your additional orders of the 3-DVD collector’s set ($24.95) “Lily and Hope: Memories of 2010” at http://www.bear.org/website/gift-shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images.tpl&product_id=855.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center