Overview
The goal of NJAS Department of Education is to provide
education programs and materials for students, educators,
special needs groups, NJAS members and the general public that
will increase awareness and understanding of their relationship
with the natural world. These programs will foster positive
efforts toward preserving New Jersey’s natural ecosystems and
species diversity.
Environmental education is a process of fostering responsible
human behavior toward natural systems. This behavior is based on
knowledge and understanding of the interrelationships among
living and nonliving things.
Below are just some of the projects in which NJAS staff has
been involved during the year.
Click here for archived copies
of Audubon Agenda 2003.
AUDUBON AGENDA
EDUCATION 2004
Summer 2004
Spring 2004
Winter 2004
 SUMMER
2004
NORTH BERGEN STUDENTS RECEIVE JUNIOR NATURALIST CERTIFICATES
Twenty-two students from North Bergen’s
Providing Enrichment and Accelerated Knowledge (P.E.A.K.)
program received Junior Naturalist certificates acknowledging
their participation in the Bridges to
the Natural World Habitat Passport program. The Habitat
Passport program encourages teachers and parents to enable
children to explore different habitats in New Jersey. As part
of the exploration, students are required to keep a Habitat
Journal with their impressions of each habitat they study.
As part of the awards program, students
performed habitat and recycling songs for their parents and
invited guests including North Bergen Mayor, Nicholas Sacco and
School Superintendent, Peter Fishbach. The students also
recited poetry and explained the artwork associated with the
project.
The North Bergen P.E.A.K. program has
been a part of North Bergen's Educational System since 1982.
The students selected for the P.E.A.K. Program spend a portion
of their school time with the P.E.A.K. teachers. They are
bussed from their "home schools" to the District Resource Center
for G & T at J. F. Kennedy School where the classrooms have been
created to meet their specific needs. The development of higher
level thinking skills; critical thinking skills, creative
thinking skills, research techniques and problem solving skills
are emphasized. This year, Pat Mazzone, the lead P.E.A.K.
teacher had the students focus on Language Arts Literacy, the
Environment, and Multiculturalism. To view a sampling of the
students habitat impressions and artwork click
here.
HABITAT RESTORATION PROJECT AT SANDY HOOK AN EXCELLENT
EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY
The New Jersey Audubon Society’s Sandy
Hook Bird Observatory (SHBO), in cooperation with the National
Park Service - Gateway National Recreation Area formed a
partnership for habitat enhancement at an environmentally
sensitive area known as North Pond. Gateway National Recreation
Area - Sandy Hook Unit provides materials including dune grass,
(Amophila sps.), split rail fencing, and tools while SHBO
coordinates the planting/fencing and provides natural history
interpretation on site. This is an ongoing project with more
work to come from adult and youth groups. So far, students from
Hudson County School of Technology in Jersey City, Ranney School
in Eatontown, and Henry Hudson Regional High School in Highlands
have participated in the restoration efforts.
Work is now focused on erecting
additional sections of split rail fencing along the trail and
planting dune grass to stabilize eroded portions of the dunes.
The North Pond Loop Trail at Sandy Hook allows visitors access
to a freshwater pond and wetland, coastal scrub-shrub, and dune
habitats. It is an excellent place from which to view an array
of wildlife including Painted and Snapping Turtles, Raptors,
songbirds, butterflies, and dragonflies. When the project is
completed, the North Pond Loop Trail will provide visitors with
a quality opportunity to visit a unique natural area at Sandy
Hook and enjoy watchable wildlife without negatively impacting
the sensitive habitat and flora present through trampling and
erosion. Future plans include the removal of invasive, exotic
species in adjacent areas and supplemental plantings of native
trees and shrubs.
We also hope that this kind of
cooperative partnership can serve as a model for other
environmental projects and mitigation efforts at Sandy Hook. If
you know of any school, youth, or adult groups that would be
interested in participating please contact
Scott Barnes,
Senior Naturalist, Sandy Hook Bird Observatory, 732-872-2500
x11,
PROTECTING CAPE MAY, TREE CITY U.S.A.
This grant was awarded to the Cape May
City Environmental Commission from the National Arbor Day
Foundation and it will supply funds over the course of the
school year 2003-2004 to provide educational connections to the
community schools to improve understanding and extend
appreciation of the trees and ecosystems of Cape May.
Under the grant Cape May City elementary
school will be receiving a copy of the newly revised Bridges to
the Natural World and students in the participating classes will
receive their own copy of Take A Tree Walk by Jane Kirkland
(winner of Philadelphia Magazine's "Best of Philly 2003" and
"The National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval" awards).
New Jersey Audubon Society's Nature
Center of Cape May has been named a consultant in the grant.
They will be providing professional development in-service
workshops for teachers and conducting student lessons. Students
will be creating projects for public display and will have an
opportunity to go on a “Tree Walk” with children’s author Jane
Kirkland.
SPRING 2004
EXPANDING BORDERS
New Jersey Audubon staff offered
informal teacher workshops at four Borders Bookstores throughout
the state. Karen Landers, NJAS member and public relations
administrator at Borders, arranged these presentations as part
of the stores’ annual Teacher Appreciation Weekend. Activities
from Bridges to the Natural World stirred enthusiasm among the
participating teachers. Art teachers learned how to incorporate
nature education into their lessons as they marveled at the
spectacular color derived from the common poke weed and autumn
flowers and others found excitement in naming plants according
to their physical characteristics. Sample lessons were offered
as an incentive to incorporate environmental explorations in the
regular school curriculum.
Cari Anne Slotterback, a Borders’
employee her mother, Sue Slotterback at the Mays Landing store.
Other sites included the Marlton store with Mary Belko, the
store in Princeton with Brian Vernachio and the Bridgewater
Commons store with Pat Kane, retired VP for Education.
NJAS MEMBERS MIGRATE WITH THE BIRDS
New Jersey Audubon members and friends
“migrated” with the birds to each of the Society’s nine centers
to participate a natural history treasure hunt. The treasures?
NJAS centers and properties; over 3,000 acres preserved and most
available for quiet walks and family hikes. Participants
traveled to each of the NJAS centers over a period 5 months. At
each center they received a small packet of goodies and a clue
to the “mystery bird.” Participants sent their completed maps
and bird guess to be entered into a drawing for prizes. The
following is a list of the prizes and winners. Thank you all
for your enthusiasm and support!
* First prize - 85 mm Zeiss Spotting
Scope – Mr. Stuart Forrest
* Second prize - Fall “Bird Show”
Weekend in Cape May – Ms. Mary Scanlon
* Third prize - A coupon book for free
day trips through any New Jersey Audubon Center – Ms. Heydi
Lopes
PRESERVING OASES ALONG THE FLYWAY REACHES STUDENTS
NJAS staff worked with teachers and
students from three high schools to promote conservation through
research and education. The goal of this portion of the
Preserving Oases along the Flyway initiative was to provide
students with access to data that would help them predict
songbird migration. Students and teachers from Lower Cape May
Regional High School, Mainland Regional High School, and the
Marine Academy of Science learned how to interpret weather maps,
radar images, and songbird flight calls. This project was made
possible in part by a grant from the National Park Foundation
through the generous support of American Airlines, a Proud
Partner of America’s National Parks. Click
here to view student projects.
NJAS PROMOTES WATERSHED AWARENESS
In the Society’s continuing effort to
focus attention on watershed quality, NJAS as a member of the
Watershed Partnership for New Jersey, helped develop a watershed
education and awareness media campaign. This campaign included
newspaper ads (like the ones featured on these pages) as well as
promotion of the watershed signs posted on our state highways.
WINTER 2004
CHAMPIONS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: Working with Linden and
Rahway School Districts
NJAS
received a grant from Merck & Company, Inc. Champions for the
Environment program, to help empower teachers with knowledge
and confidence needed to facilitate their students’ experiential
learning about the local watershed and its environment.
Additionally the project was designed to motivate students to
become aware of the natural world around them and to introduce
to them how studies in chemistry, physics, and the biological
and earth sciences can lay the foundation for making decisions
about land use and land preservation.
Middle
school teachers from Linden and Rahway School Districts worked
with board member Jerry Schierloh to design an Environmental
Issues unit. NJAS staff, teachers and administrators worked
together to create the watershed portion of the unit which
included lessons from NJAS’s watershed curriculum, New Jersey
WATERS: Watershed Approach to Teaching the Ecology of Regional
Systems. Besides a teacher professional development
workshop, NJAS staff modeled field trips techniques with 175
students at several sites in the area - Hawk Rise Reserve in
Linden and Milton Lake in Rahway. Several Merck employees
attended these field trips to help the students in their
investigations.
New Jersey Audubon Represented at
National PLANT Conference
Mary
Belko, Program Director at Rancocas Nature Center was selected
to speak at the 2003 annual conference of the American
Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta (AABGA). Arnold
Arboretum, Boston Parks and Recreation, Massachusetts
Horticultural Society, Mount Auburn Cemetery, New England
Wildflower Society, and Tower Hill Botanic Garden hosted the
conference in Boston last June. The annual conference is an
opportunity for representatives from public gardens, arboreta,
zoos, museums, and nature centers throughout the country and
abroad to gather and exchange ideas and knowledge.
As part
of the 2003 conference theme “Seeds of Revolution”, the use of
technology in getting information to the public was
highlighted. Mary Belko was a panelist in a discussion on the
use of distance learning to reach a broader audience. As an
educator for The Camden Children’s Garden before coming to New
Jersey Audubon, she taught interactive nature lessons via
videoconferencing equipment. With the use of this equipment,
classes from all over participated in garden-themed science
lessons such as composting and decomposition. During the
discussion, Ms. Belko shared some of her secrets for creating
hands-on lessons over distance.
The New Jersey Audubon Society’s First Annual “Tiny tots” World
Series of Birding Takes Off!
Under
clouds and threats of thunderstorms, the first annual, New
Jersey Audubon Society’s “Tiny Tot World Series of Birding”
kicked off on May 10th, 2003 at the Rancocas Nature
Center in Mt. Holly, New Jersey. Clouds could not dampen the
spirits of the New Jersey Audubon staff and volunteers along
with fifteen tots, ages 3-7 and their families that participated
in the event. The event celebrated the 20th
Anniversary of the NJAS World Series of Birding, an annual
fund-raiser and birding competition for adults. The goal of the
adult event is to see the most birds in a twenty-four hour
period. The goal of the Tiny Tot event was to develop an
understanding and appreciation toward birds.
Families flapped their wings with NJAS volunteer, John Courtney
when he said the name of a bird during one game. Tara Miller,
teacher-naturalist from the NJAS Plainsboro Preserve and NJAS
volunteers created a chorus of birds by combining the voices of
children and parents imitating bird songs. On the trail, paper
birds helped toddlers identify birds when the real birds
fluttered away too quickly. Many real birds sang for the
toddlers and their families as they listened for the bird that
says “potato chip”. Later, children, after viewing some real
nests, created their own from play dough and natural materials.
Finally, children and parents became families of birds to
experience just some of the difficulties of being a bird.
Local
businesses generously supported the event. Brian Belko of
Prudential Fox and Roach in Turnersville, Dr. Kathleen Belko
from Runnemede, and Westampton Twp. Department of Recreation
helped by sponsoring local children. Walmart and Shoprite of
Marlton provided lunch for all the participants. Additional
support was given by Sayreville Iron Works, Inc., Supermarkets
of Cherry Hill, Kinko's of Cherry Hill, Wild Birds Unlimited of
Cherry Hill, Minuteman Press and Marilyn and John Courtney. A
very, very special thanks to our volunteers who helped with
planning and staffing the event! If you would like to be
involved in the 2004 Tiny Tot World Series of Birding, contact
Mary Belko at Rancocas Nature Center
or Tara Miller at Plainsboro Preserve
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