Stroud Center education staff continued their international impact at the recent North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) conference. The 45th annual NAAEE conference was held October 19–22 in Madison, Wisconsin — near the home of Aldo Leopold (a father of the conservation movement) and the Leopold Shack where Aldo wrote the Sand County Almanac.
Director of Education Steve Kerlin, Ph.D., and Assistant Director of Education Tara Muenz participated in and led a number of events at the conference. For the second year in a row, Kerlin served as the co-strand leader for the “Linking Research to Practice” conference strand. Muenz attended the state affiliates’ workshop as a current board member of the Pennsylvania Association of Environmental Educators. Muenz and Kerlin hosted a Stroud Center education programs exhibit booth that was visited by many of the approximately 1,200 conference attendees.
WATER QUALITY APP, WIKIWATERSHED PRESENTATIONS A ROUSING SUCCESS
Stroud Center’s Water Quality mobile app (available on iTunes and Google Play) was featured during the “EE in the 21st Century: Where Nature Meets Technology” field trip at Devil’s Lake State Park and the Aldo Leopold Nature Center (ALNC). ALNC has embedded the Water Quality app into their water study programs. Our WikiWatershed.org toolkit of resources and Model My Watershed web-based GIS tool was featured in the “Open Source Online GIS to Teach Watershed Modeling” presentation led by Kerlin and Muenz. The room for this presentation was filled to capacity and overflowing with attendees into the hallway!
Lastly, Kerlin and Muenz participated in a fun networking and teambuilding event — the Voyageur Canoes Races. Kerlin was the gouvernail (steerman) and Muenz, a paddler, of the winning and new record holder voyageur canoe!
