The cover of the 2016 Chesapeake Bay Report Card. Image credit:

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I recently wrote a blog entitled 'Practical visual literacy for science communication', and since narratives and visuals need to be combined for effective science communication, I felt that developing a narrative literacy was also important. The first three narrative literacy principles are derived from Randy Olson's excellent book "Houston, We Have a Narrative", discussed in a previous blog.

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In a paper titled "Visual literacy and science communication", published in the journal Science Communication in 1999, Jean Trumbo uses the writings of Leonardo da Vinci to introduce the concept of visual literacy. Da Vinci called his visualization process "sapere vedere", translated as "knowing how to see". Da Vinci was a master of drawing and sketching in addition to his more famous painting skills (e.g, Mona Lisa, The Last Supper).

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It was a cold and rainy day on Earth Day, April 22, when a contingent of Integration and Application Network (IAN) scientists headed to Washington, D.C. to join the March for Science. The rain couldn't dampen our spirits, as it was heartening to see so many people committed to supporting science. The highlight of the day for me was the camaraderie of the people we encountered throughout the day. Even the Capitol Police were very friendly and helpful.

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Jane (Jano) Thomas was a member of our Marine Botany Group at the University of Queensland. After I left Australia to set up the Integration and Application Network at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in 2002, Jano stayed in Brisbane to finish her Honours thesis on macroalgae. Jano then joined the IAN team in 2003, doubling the staff size, as only Tim Carruthers, who came from Australia with me in 2002 was in residence.

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We recently held an open house in our new University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Annapolis Office. We had our guests locate their favorite location on a map of the Chesapeake region, and write three words to describe Chesapeake Bay. We then created a word cloud based on these results. Many of the seventy five people who visited our office for the open house remarked about what great space we had put together.

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The Atlantic Estuarine Research Society (AERS) meeting was held on 16-18 March 2017 at St. Mary's College of Maryland. AERS was the first scientific society focused on estuaries, formed in 1948. Other regional societies sprang up and a consortium of regional societies was formed, called the Estuarine Research Federation, formed in 1971 (later renamed Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation).

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Our Integration and Application Network (IAN) team has been traveling the globe to help various partners develop rigorous report cards. When we starting working with Tina Bishop and Peter Tuddenham from the College of Exploration to develop an evaluation approach for IAN, we realized that using the same process to develop report cards for our own assessment would be a useful way to evaluate ourselves.

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As part of our ongoing learning about science integration and application, our team reads and reviews papers that are relevant to the IAN mission. We recently read and enjoyed a paper by Estrada and Davis titled "Improving Visual Communication of Science Through the Incorporation of Graphic Design Theories and Practices Into Science Communication", published in the Journal Science Communication in 2015. In this paper, they called for the inclusion of 'visual literacy' in science communication.

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On 22 February 2017, a large group of friends and co-workers gathered at the University of Maryland College Park to celebrate the life of an extraordinary person, Erica Herling Kropp. Erica worked in a research support role for 43 years for the University System of Maryland. Her first stint was for 32 years at College Park, followed by an 11 year stint at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES).

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