Hello! It's been a few days and a few things have been going on. I was able to help out with a high school class that came in to do some sampling and look at things under microscopes. Here's a picture of me explaining the spine that catfish have on their dorsal fin. These guys were fun. Of course you had a boys teasing the girls about gross stuff and dissecting fish. It brought back memories.

On Friday, Phoebe and I went to Crane Creek and the Sportsman's Migratory Bird Center. We were there to plan out an Project Wild Aquatic and Civics and Science workshop for teachers in July. (I get to attend that, yay!) It sounds like it'll be a great workshop. I also love how the Project Wild/Wet/Learning Tree/etc. has really fun lessons in them and they tell you exactly which educational standards they work with.

I've been wanting to take training sessions on these programs for a few years now because I do not understand these standards at all. I'm just beinging to scratch the surface now. I'm hoping I can compile for myself as time goes on what all the standards are and if and how they inter-relate. Maybe it'll help my confusion and frustration with them and make me a better informal educator.

After the meeting, Phoebe walked me around the Migratory Bird Center. They have an awsome collection of taxidermy birds. I love the musical bird keyboard. You press a key and the picture of the bird will light up and you can listen to is call. As you can tell by the name of the place, they have a thing for birds and it is a phenominal place to go birdwatching. I may have to take a trip out there just to walk the trails. They have some great sounding programs there too thanks to the Friends of Magee Marsh. I had visited Magee Marsh last summer but we never made it far back enough to see the center. We were obsessed with plants though so it was all good.

Saturday, I tagged along on a Trees on Trails walk through Old Woman Creek. Zach Rinkes, of Erie OSU Extension (sorry, before I thought he was Huron), lead the walk and told us all about trees and how to identify them. He told the crowd about the hairs on the ends of oak leaves and MADBuc (Maple, Ash, Dogwood, and Buckeye) as having opposite leaves. He gave us a rundown of the Emerald Ash Borer problem and told us about Extension's guide to Ash alternatives (warning: big PDF file). He also told us about other invasives. Overall it was a great walk-n-talk. Good job, Zach! I'm totally going to buy your book now.

So, yeah, it was actually a busy week. I have also pinned down wht I'm going to do for my independent "major" project. I'll fill you in on that later. I also got a heads up on another internship opportunity up here. (Have I mentioned yet that internships are a great way to get to know people and network and find out other opportunities?) I'm heading home tonight to get some more books and folders because I'm not organized enough. I've talked enough now though.

Here's some random pictures: more of me working, pretty flowers in the prairie, another milkweed, more mayflies, the Great Blue Heron.