“Spacetalking with Astronauts”

Friday, September 17, 2010

Free Refreshments at 9 AM / Talk Begins at 10 AM Followed by Q&A

Harvey Hall, Murphy Center
East Carolina University
300 Ficklin Dr.
Greenville, NC

From GO-Science:

Presented by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, Astrobiology@ECU, the Department of Biology, and GO-Science. At this exclusive event you will have an opportunity to hear from two astronauts that flew on the Shuttle and visited the MIR and International Space Station. This is a exciting opportunity to learn first-hand what it is like to be in space. Event parking on-site.

For complete details and tickets, visit the GO-Science website here for further information.

Hello Family, Friends, and Colleagues,

Nancy and I, and Melani Duffrin, need your assistance throughout the month of September.  Please help us.

Our non-profit nature and science learning center, A Time for Science has been working with ECU’s FoodMASTER program in the College of Human Ecology and ECU’s Center for Science, Math and Technology Education on a variety of approaches to use food and agricultural sciences to build a science learning environment and resources for children and teachers in eastern North Carolina.  Among various grant applications we have submitted is one to the Pepsi Refresh Project entitled “Build collaborative science learning environments for Eastern NC.”  Obtaining this grant would provide A Time for Science with $150,000 with which to improve and enhance the infrastructure and facilities at the Center and throughout the conservation lands to better handle these programs and activities.

Now to win a Pepsi Refresh Project grant requires that we receive more votes than our competitors and voting is open daily throughout the month of September.  Here’s where you and everyone in you network of friends and colleagues can help.  Go to this website http://www.refresheverything.com/foodmaster and complete the necessary sign in and vote for our proposal.  Then return every day and vote again – everyday through September.  You can cast 30 votes and we will need each and every one but you must do so only once each day.  By the way, if you have multiple e-mail addresses you can cast a vote from each one.

With your help A Time for Science will be able to make a real contribution to the improvement of science education for students and teachers in this underserved area.  So get out and vote and get all your friends to vote (and their friends, etc – you know the drill).

Finally, one last point: We hope you won’t mind but our grants people will probably be sending out frequent, friendly reminders to help you remember to get out the vote.

Thanks for your assistance in making this happen.

Sincerely,

John and Nancy Bray

A Special Note from the Webmaster:

There’s a good chance that a lot of you will want to help us get this grant and vote for us.  However, sometimes it will be difficult to remember to vote EVERYDAY during the month of September.  If you want to be put on a special email list (Pepsi Voiting Email List) for us at A Time for Science to be reminded everyday to get your votes in, just fill out the information below and we will help along the process.  We will still probably email our Newsletter list once a week for a reminder.  After voting is completed, we will remove everyone form the Pepsi Voting Email List.  Be sure to confirm your email account once you sign up!

Thanks!

Shawn Wyatt
Webmaster

Mark Brinson

GREENVILLE, N.C. (Aug. 9, 2010) — On Aug. 28, East Carolina University’s Department of Biology will host a symposium in honor of two Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professors, Drs. Mark Brinson and Robert Christian. Brinson and Christian are retiring this fall.

The free, public symposium, “Wetlands at Risk: New Scientific Insights into Critical Ecosystems,” will feature five guest lecturers from 1 – 4:30 p.m. in the Science and Technology Building, Room C207, and is co-sponsored by the Institute for Coastal Science and Policy.

“With their international prominence in wetlands research, these talented scientists played critical roles in establishing ECU as a leading institution for coastal research. We are delighted to have this opportunity to honor them,” said Jeff McKinnon, biology chairperson. “This symposium will both highlight the important contributions of Brinson and Christian and give the general public a chance to learn about an area of great interest, with recent threats to Gulf wetlands from the BP spill and the longer-term threat of climate change.”

Robert Christian

McKinnon will provide introductory remarks at 1 p.m., followed by 30-minute presentations from each of the speakers and a final question and answer session. Leading off the symposium, professor Pierluigi Viaroli from the University of Parma in Parma, Italy, will present “A Long Journey in Coastal Lagoons and Wetlands Along the Po River and the Adriatic Coast: From Ecology to Friendship, and Back to Ecology.” Following Viaroli, Dr. Linda K. Blum, professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, will present “Salt Marshes and Sea-Level Change: Where Millimeters Matter.”

After a short break, Dr. Aaron L. Mills, also from the University of Virginia, will present “Coastal Riparian Forests and Wetlands: The Final Filter.” Mr. Ronald E. Ferrell, senior scientist at PBS&J Corporation in Raleigh, will follow Mills and discuss “Wetlands and the Clean Water Act: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Rounding off the presentations, Dr. Robert R. Twilley, a professor of coastal sciences at Louisiana State University, will discuss “Oil, Hurricanes, Floods and Wetland Loss: Calibrating the Risks of the Mississippi River Delta.”

For additional information, please contact McKinnon at 252-328-5258 or mckinnonj@ecu.edu. Individuals requesting accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) should call 252-737-1016 (voice/TTY) at least 48 hours prior to the event.

It has been a while since we posted activities on the website. However, this is definitely not because of inactivity on the part of ATFS but merely due to the fact that folks have been away on vacations or simply have been too busy to gather together pictures and to write up reports.  So here is an attempt to rectify this situation and to report on some of July’s activities – Enjoy.

Ulster Project

July 7, one of the hottest days of the month, saw the third annual visit to ATFS from the Ulster Project of Greenville.  As always, the project involved youth from Northern Ireland and youth from Greenville with their adult leaders.  This year’s project involved the Ulster Team cutting the lumber and assembling a half dozen Leopold Benches.  The Leopold Bench is a simple design by Aldo Leopold (the founding father of wildlife biology and the science of game management) but is a sturdy, comfortably sitting bench.  These benches will ultimately be located at various locations around the Nature Conservancy.

Also included in the Ulster Project’s visit was a tour of the Nature Conservancy and Learning Center, a traditional American hot-dog lunch at the Learning Center, and a chance to see, up close and personal, the nose wheel tire from one of the missions of the Space Shuttle Endeavor that is on loan from NASA and Go-Science.

Additional thanks go to the adult leaders and supervisors from the various churches and to the folks from the Pitt County Soil and Water Conservation District – O! and to Spirit, the spirit of the conservancy, who will miss all of the good friends she made.

Click a photo to start the slideshow, move the mouse cursor off the photo to see without controls.

Ulster Project July 2010

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July 10 ATFS Saturday Family Fun Day and Go-Science IYB Explorer Program

Although no pictures are available, the second of our Saturday Family Fun Day’s nature walk was conducted by ATFS’s Nature Interpreter Leah Connell followed by craft time in which the participants made butterfly fans.  That morning assistance from ATFS to our science brethren at Go-Science was given by Bryan Evans.  For their IYB Explorer program at Goose Creek State Park, Bryan directed the macro-invertebrate activity in which these little critters were captured from the near shore waters and examined under a viewing scope followed by a discussion of their relationship to water quality.  We are not surprised that the report was that Bryan did a great job.  Only a couple pictures were available.

IYB Explorer Program July 2010

Boys and Girls Club Gardening Project

Most Tuesdays and Thursdays saw Nancy Bray and or Joni Torres at the new Ayden Boys and Girls club continuing with the “Edible Landscape” garden project.  The last time documented one of their first cooking sessions this time we are featuring their two forays into Italian cooking.  The budding chefs harvested their veggies, made their sauces and even made their pizza dough and pasta.  Check out these shots of the fun.  You can find other posts on subject here.

Click a photo to start the slideshow, move the mouse cursor off the photo to see without controls.

Boys and Girls Club Update – July 2010

Pitt County Soil and Water Conservation District Environmental Education Workshops

Over three days July 20 – 22 Educators with the Pitt County Soil and Water Conservation District offered a series of workshops – Project Wet, Project Aquatic Wild and Project Wild.  Conducting these workshops at the A Time for Science Center, these educators are able get eastern North Carolina teachers and students outside in order to participate in fun, hands-on learning activities.

On Tuesday July 20th, they focused on Project Wet which consisted of activities and projects that gave teachers the tools they need to stimulate the minds of students into recognizing how we use our most important resource, water.  Participants created their own water cycle diagrams, ground water models, irrigation models and also visited the Greenville Utilities Wastewater Treatment Plant.  These educational workshops allow educators to stay ahead of the learning curve and give them the resources needed to engage children in environmental education.

On Wednesday July 21st, the focus was Project Aquatic Wild.  Activities in Project Aquatic Wild can be easily integrated into an existing curriculum to further solidify the topics being presented in classrooms.  This workshop was led by Mike Campbell with the Wildlife Commission, and was filled with fun, hands-on activities.  The lessons involved a macro-invertebrate study to determine water quality, an ice breaker that involved species description, and a water usage lesson.

On Thursday July 22nd, the focus was Project Wild, which is one of the most widely-used conservation and environmental education programs among K-12 educators.  It is based on the premise that young people and educators have a vital interest in learning about our natural world.  Mike Campbell led the workshop and focused on activities that opened educators’ eyes to the wildlife and the habitats that we have here in North Carolina.  Participants experienced great activities to discuss the growing deer population we encounter in North Carolina, animal adaptation, and also learned how to identify animal tracks found in the wild.

Click a photo to start the slideshow, move the mouse cursor off the photo to see without controls.

Project Wet, Project Aquatic Wild and Project Wild – July 2010

A Few Other Activities

AST-251 Telescope Making

Five evenings through the month of July saw members of the AST-251 Telescope Making Class utilizing the dark skies at Bray Hollow Conservancy to bring their scopes into collimation and calibration and then to view the stars with their new “toys.”

Pumpkin Patch and Trail Blazing

Several youth volunteers joined with “Mother Nature” (a.k.a. Nancy) to plant pumpkins for future fall use.  As of now, with the recent rains, the plants look fairly healthy and are beginning to blossom.  By October we hope to have a variety of pumpkins for various activities.

Of course there are any number of other activities in preparation such as our next Saturday Family Fun Day (August 14) and Pioneer Technology Day (November 13) so we hope that this will give you a picture of our work at ATFS.

Here’s an update on the “Growing Food by and for Growing Bodies” – The Ayden Boys and Girls Club Garden Project.  You can see our other articles on the subject here and here.

On Friday July 9 the youthful gardeners at the Boys and Girls in Ayden got to sample the fruits of their labors.  Guided by Joni Torres and Nancy Bray our budding agriculturalists harvested some of their crops (tomatoes, basil, and Pak Choi [Chinese Cabbage]).  They then participated in preparing several enticing recipes in their new kitchen (Caprese salad with cheese, and Stir fried Pak Choi in sesame oil) and served these delectable dishes to staff.  They then consumed the rest themselves.  All agreed that the whole process from Plantings to Plate has been great fun and a grand learning experience – possibly even “…more fun than the computer room.”  Now is that a success or what?  Stay tuned for more to come.

Click a photo to start the slideshow, move the mouse cursor off the photo to see without controls.

From Plantings to Plate

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Groups of students were guided by “Mother Nature” to identify the many daily needs and uses they had for water, to recognize the importance of clean water for these uses and to estimate just how much water they typically used in a day’s time.  At the well and pump, near the ATFS Demonstration Organic Garden, each participant learned through experience just how much work was involved in pumping and retrieving only a very small portion of their estimated daily water needs.  Through this experience they had a greater appreciation for the difficulty many people in the Developing World have in obtaining their daily water needs and the true value of the easy accessibility of clean water we have in our modern society.

Leah led groups of participants in exploring the near-shore environment around one of the ponds on the Bray Hollow Nature Conservancy for evidence of other forms of life that also depend on the availability of habitable water.  Beaver dams, minnows, dragon fly larvae, water beetles, etc. were just a few of the items encountered.  This hands-on activity made a deeper impression on the participants of the importance and value of water to all living creatures.

A brief “hay-ride” tour of a portion of the Bray Hollow Conservancy, driven by John Bray (a.k.a. “Father Time”) and guided by “Mother Nature,” allowed participants to view Contentnea and Little Contentnea Creeks and to see additional ponds with different living populations and thus to demonstrate the existence of many different types of surface water bodies and their different effects.  Though the weather kept most of the critters from view (They all seem to have sense to get in out of the rain.), other habitats and evidence of the creatures living in and around them, such as various birds, deer, beaver, bugs, etc., were pointed out in this brief excursion.

Using an “Enviro-Scape,” simulator Leah guided groups in an exploration of various human activities that contribute to point and non-point sources of contamination and pollution of surface and ground waters.  Participants saw the simulated effects of water runoff that might be contaminated by agricultural, industrial, domestic and recreational activities and how these activities could affect the water bodies they recently viewed and the water that we obtain from them.  Through their discussions they were brought to the realization that such contamination of the aquatic environment generally result from the demands that together we all place on those who supply our food, our living and material needs, as well as our recreational activities.

Through these activities we trust that all participants (both children and parents) left with a greater appreciation that water is, indeed, our source of life.  In their wrap-up discussion of what they learned and/or what they are thankful for several of the responses were:

Terry: How we take water for granted because it is easy to get unlike the 8 hours some women spend getting water.
Ried: I’m thankful for being able to turn on the tap.
Margaret: We have clean water.
Pam: We can wash or shower after dirty work. Many can’t.
Ridge: I will donate the money I get for my birthday to help people get clean water.
Bryan: Take shorter showers.
Terry: Use water bottles, skip bottled water.

Finally, as an added attraction, everyone was able to get “up close and personal” with the nose-wheel tire that went into space and back on the Space Shuttle Endeavour, Mission STS-113.  This historic item is on loan from NASA and the Eastern NC Regional Science Center, Inc. (DBA Go-Science).

Click a photo to start the slideshow, move the mouse cursor off the photo to see without controls.

Water is Life – June 2010