• When: July 29, 2021, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
• Where: Stroud Water Research Center Education Pavilion (outdoor space). For GPS directions, use 972 Spencer Rd., Avondale, PA, 19311. Mask wearing will be required.
• Audience: Informal and formal educators. Four hours of Act 48 are available for Pennsylvania Certified Teachers (submit PPID through registration form). A certificate of participation will be provided for participants outside of Pennsylvania (upon request at workshop sign-in). Attendees will also receive a modest stipend for attending and submitting feedback on the website and new app.
• Cost: Free, includes prizes and giveaways! Bring your own lunch or money to order from local vendors. We’ll provide the knee boots for in-stream collecting but please bring a pair of socks.

Registration is required and limited to 24 participants.

As part of your participation in this workshop, Rockman et al Cooperative, Inc., an educational research and evaluation group, invites you to share feedback about your experience using the Macroinvertebrates.org mobile app. If you complete an online survey after this workshop, you will receive a $25 Amazon gift card. If you indicate on the survey that you’d be interested in participating in a follow-up interview to discuss your experience using the app further (and are selected to be interviewed), you will receive an additional $25 gift card. Your participation in the survey or interview is completely voluntary. If you have any questions about the app study, please contact Camellia Sanford-Dolly at camellia@rockman.com.

The Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University with Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Stroud™ Water Research Center, and Clemson University are launching the mobile app version of Macroinvertebrates.org, the Atlas of Common Freshwater Macroinvertebrates of Eastern North America. The app features nine orders of aquatic insects plus other benthic macroinvertebrates commonly used in water quality biomonitoring and environmental education, with 150 taxa total.

In this workshop, we’ll provide an overview of how this NSF-funded project was developed through a codesign process with an interdisciplinary team of entomologists, educators, designers, and learning researchers in cooperation with regional volunteer biomonitoring organizations involved in water quality assessment. We’ll demonstrate app features and functionality and cover how this open educational resource can be used to support macroinvertebrate identification training with volunteers and students to improve confidence, accuracy, and engagement.

You’ll dive right into the project’s many engaging digital and print tools including a new downloadable handheld field guide that works streamside without an internet connection, as well as other learning and teaching resources including flashcards, handouts, posters, and videos to help bring learners into the magical world of freshwater macroinvertebrates!

We’ll adventure into the creek onsite to do some live collecting of macroinvertebrates so you can put the tools and app to the test!

What more could you ask for? Jump on in and join us in July 2021! Questions? Please email Tara Muenz (co-instructor of workshop).

Presented in partnership with: 

• Carnegie Mellon University’s Learning Media Design Center and the Human Computer Interaction Institute
• Stroud Water Research Center Education Department

Funded by: National Science Foundation