Teachers at the USAUS-H2O workshop in Canberra.

USAUS-H2O Canberra workshop

Bill Dennison ·
16 September 2014
Learning Science |     1 comments

In order to kick off Phase 2 of the USAUS-H2O virtual environmental exchange program between eight high schools in Australia and eight high schools in the U.S., we held a teacher workshop in Canberra, Australia. Judy O'Neil, Simon Costanzo and I traveled to Canberra, the capital city of Australia where our partners from Charles Darwin University organized the workshop at the University House, Australian National University.

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Picturesque landscapes are all around in the Scottish Highlands

Failte gu Alba! (Welcome to Scotland!)

Caroline Donovan ·
11 September 2014
Science Communication | Applying Science | Learning Science |     3 comments

Participating in the International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) 3rd Annual Conference, August 14-18 2014 at Glasgow, Scotland … Picturesque landscapes are all around in the Scottish Highlands … I traveled to the International Marine Conservation Congress' (IMCC) conference in Scotland in part because I wanted to visit Scotland - land of Scottish brogues, whisky, and wild, mountainous landscapes!

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Three ecologists contemplate something fishy about a 900-year-old cedar tree on Haida Gwaii.

Insights on story-telling from the salmon in the tree

Bill Nuttle ·
9 September 2014
Learning Science | 

I first heard the story of the salmon in the tree while visiting in Haida Gwaii this summer. Haida Gwaii is a set of islands along the northwest coast of North America that is home to the Haida people, one of several nations of the aboriginal people that have existed here for about 10,000 years. I am an engineer by training, and my traveling companions, my wife Lenore and friends Tom and Nancy, are scientists.

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Kansas City skyline from Kaw Point, where the Kansas River terminates at the Missouri River in the West Bottoms area of Kansas City. Photo from Wikipedia.

Water supply is a concern in report card planning for the Missouri River Basin

Heath Kelsey ·
4 September 2014
Environmental Report Cards | Science Communication | 

I traveled to Kansas City, Missouri August 26, 2014 to facilitate a workshop in the Missouri River Basin, as part of the Mississippi River Report Card project with America’s Watershed Initiative. This meeting, held at the Kansas City Airport Hilton, was a follow-up to the May 23 meeting we had in Rapid City, South Dakota, where we got a good start on conceptualizing issues and concerns in the basin.

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Jacqueline Talbot and Meghan Ruta talking about goals of the conference.

2014 Connecticut Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Conference

Alexandra Fries ·
28 August 2014
Environmental Report Cards | Science Communication | 

In conjunction with our work on the Long Island Sound embayment report cards, I was invited to speak about report cards at the first annual Connecticut Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring Conference. The conference was held on July 25th, 2014 at Goodwin College. The organizers of the conference were Jacqueline Talbot with the Connecticut River Watershed Council and Meghan Ruta with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP).

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Conceptualization shows that coastal wetlands are likely to be affected by their ability to migrate landward or grow upwards as sea levels rise, and will be protected by underwater grasses and oyster habitat, which reduce wave action and erosion during storms. Image from the Chesapeake Bay Report Card 2013

Climate Change and resilience create new challenges in tracking ecosystem health status

Heath Kelsey ·
26 August 2014
Environmental Report Cards | Science Communication | 

Understanding resilience to climate change effects is critical to the future of environmental assessment and reporting. Changing air and water temperature, precipitation patterns and storm frequencies, CO2 concentrations, and sea level rise will add significant pressure to the natural and engineered systems that provide us services. Understanding system resilience to these changes is important to developing relevant monitoring, assessment, and reporting frameworks.

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Mississippi River at the conference venue showing the Crescent City Connection

The CEER Conference provides insight to the future of report cards

Heath Kelsey ·
21 August 2014
Environmental Report Cards | Science Communication | 

Alex Fries and I had the chance to represent UMCES at the Conference on Ecosystem and Ecological Restoration (CEER) on the New Orleans riverfront from July 28 to August 1, 2014. I presented on our … Alex Fries at the UMCES booth … CEER Conference a good venue for the Mississippi Report Card … There could not have been a more appropriate location to talk about a report card for the Mississippi River than New Orleans, Louisiana this July.

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Title page of Isaac Newton's Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, first edition (1686/1687). source Wikipedia

The poetry and art of Isaac Newton

Bill Dennison ·
7 August 2014
Science Communication | 

‘Scientists who made a difference’ series … This blog accompanying the biographical sketch of Isaac Newton looks at a selection of his writing as poetry and a selection of his scientific sketches as art. The ‘Poetry” uses Newton’s exact words (translated into English from the Latin text) in prose form to focus on the cadence and word choice.

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A 1689 portrait of Isaac Newton by Godfrey Kneller. Source: Wikipedia

Isaac Newton: a solitary genius 

Bill Dennison ·
5 August 2014
Science Communication | 

‘Scientists who made a difference’ series … Isaac Newton was born in 1642, the same year that Galileo Galilei died. He was born in a modest farmhouse in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth, just north of London. His father died before he was born and his mother remarried when Isaac was three years old and she left him to be cared for by his maternal grandmother. When Isaac was ten years old, his step-father died and his mother moved back with three younger half-siblings.

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