One of our favorite teaching modules is about conceptual diagrams, and the activity associated with this module is called Conceptionary. It is a game in which teams of 4-10 people are formed and one team member is designated as the 'science illustrator'. The 'science illustrator' is given a card with an environmental concept explained and several key words are identified.

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Several times each year, IAN teaches a course on effectively communicating science. On May 12-13th, Bill Dennison (IAN) and Caroline Wicks (EcoCheck) traveled to Toronto, Ontario to teach the course to scientists and communication specialists who work for local conservation authorities. Conservation Ontario, the umbrella organization that oversees regional and local conservation authorities, helped provide funding for the course. The website states:

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A group of Integration and Application Network staff taught a one day science communication course at the Oxford Cooperative Laboratory on April 19. Bill Dennison, Jane Thomas, Jane Hawkey and Caroline Wicks covered the principles of science communication and provided lectures, activities, demonstrations and exercises for creating conceptual diagrams, PowerPoint presentations, and design/layout of posters and newsletters. Overall, there was a lot of material packed into the one day course.

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Single digit temperatures, predictions of snow, and a six-inch blanket of the white stuff already on the ground seemed like a chilly proposition to Emily Nauman and me, Joanna Woerner, both Maryland Easternshorers who are acclimated to mild winters. However, as IAN Science Communicators we were eager to brave old man winter in order to present a Communicating Science Effectively course at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine.

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