This blog is part of the Basin Report Card Initiative:

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This blog is part of the Basin Report Card Initiative: a partnership between the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) As part of our Integration and Application Network (IAN), University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) partnership with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), we held a one day workshop on 7 May 2015 in Annapolis.

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I recently posted a blog about Randy Olson's new book, "Houston, we have a narrative: Why science needs story". I contacted Randy about his book and learned that he is experiencing push back from some quarters, including some scientists. I would like to point out that Randy is not the only person to promote the importance of narrative in science communication.

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Randy Olson has really knocked a home run with his latest book, “Houston, we have a narrative: Why science needs story”. Randy’s previous book, “Don’t be such a scientist: Talking substance in an age of style” does a good job defining the problem that most scientists have in communicating complex ideas to wide audiences.

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Anthony Kung wrote an interesting blog entitled “Conceptual diagrams or conceptual diagramming? Creating diagrams as a tool for stakeholder collaboration” which was posted on the Newsdrop enewsletter of the International Water Centre. Anthony recently spent 8 months embedded at the University of Queensland. His insights into the conceptual diagramming process were both thoughtful and thought-provoking.

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The IAN Press produced 33 products, 78 blogs were posted by 13 different IAN staff and by the 15 graduate students in the Science for Environmental Management course, and IAN staff were in various media reports 109 times. The IAN Facebook page posted 582 items. The IAN symbol library and image library continued to be downloaded by people from the entire globe (people who downloaded IAN symbols describe themselves as residents of 243 different countries).

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Jeff Morisette, Director of the North Central Climate Science Center, provided us with two amazing opportunities following our workshop on climate issues in the North Central region of the United States. First, we were treated to demonstrations of the VisWall, a bank of 24 computer monitors run by a series of networked computers. The VisWall facility was in the USGS Fort Collins Science Center adjacent to the Colorado State University campus.

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I made a presentation in the CERF 2015 session entitled "Successful Science Story-Telling for Coastal Resilience". My presentation was titled "Telling new stories about resiliences of Chesapeake Bay, Mississippi River and the Great Barrier Reef". My initial slide contrasted story-telling vs.

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This poem was written on the last day of the 2015 Marine, Estuarine, and Environmental Sciences (MEES) Colloquium held at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Annapolis, October 30-31, 2015, and hosted by the MEES goes to Annapolis … William C. Dennison … 31 October 2015 … A gathering of scientists of the MEES brand … From all over the state of Maryland … They developed a passion for understanding nature … For which there really is no cure.

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On June 8, 2015 the Integration & Application Network and its many partners held two simultaneous press conferences to announce the inaugural Long Island Sound report card. I traveled to Glen Cove with Alex Fries while Caroline Donovan and Suzi Spitzer were in Westport, Connecticut. Suzi and Alex previously posted blogs about these press conferences. Long Island Sound report card team gathered together in Newark, NJ Ironbound District following the report card releases:

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