Master Naturalist Training - Week 2

This week was the second of eight days of training to become a Master Naturalist in Maryland. Like last week, the day was sandwiched between snow days; the roads were clear but snow was still piled up and salt was being sprinkled on walkways. We keep saying that hikes are part of the training days but it hasn’t been possible so far. I took a few pictures in the morning as I walked into the classroom building at Belmont. The cypress stands at the edge of the ice covered pond (above); we noticed the knees on a hike down to the pond last spring. A pine provides some contrast to the bare trees and white ground looking over the hill toward the forest. Since the class, another 3 inches of snow has fallen. The forecast does appear to be warming - but will it all be melted by next Wednesday?

My preparation for the second class included reading the Science of Science section of the notebooks - which was provided to us during the first class….and I did the web based pre-reading as I had done before. The area I spent the most time looking at was web-based: Criticalthinking.org - I read the complementary articles.

When I got to class - the topic for the morning was focused on local activism toward sustainability using Bethesda Green as an example. The presentation then small group collaboration on specifics for our county was invigorating. Now I’m dangerous and thinking about what to do next to further sustainability. I am already consciously making changes in the way I live but it is clear that there are challenges that cannot be addressed by individuals acting alone. Even some well-intentioned actions at an institutional level can go awry; we heard examples of a university cafeteria providing compostable to go cartons….and then not providing a bin for compostables (so they were treated as trash); a corporation having recycle bins in offices but the maintenance people emptying everything into the trash as they cleaned the offices at night.

In the afternoon - we looked more closely at rocks in our area. At mid-afternoon we were looking at bins of rocks and trying to identify them. We have a field trip in late March which will take us through areas where we should see many of the rocks along the trail! I bought the Maryland’s Geology by Martin F. Schmidt, Jr. (our instructor) to refresh my memory before the hike.

The second class was an intense and the first. I am very glad that the class days are a week apart. This is the type material that could not be absorbed in back to back days!

Master Naturalist Training - Week 1

I became a Master Naturalist trainee last week….1 of 8 day long classes finalized with an exam. It is a good thing that the classes are spread out over 9 weeks (longer if there are snow days) since there is a lot to absorb if the first today is the norm.

The topics for the first class were geology and insects…and it was intense. I appreciated the renewal of note taking skills that the Coursera work had prompted since these lectures were fast and furious even though I had done the pre-reading and had previous exposure to both topics. The day after the class I transcribed my handwritten scribbles into my computer - realizing that I would not be able to decipher them once it wasn’t ‘fresh’ in my mind. I also went off onto tangents following web resources the instructors referenced.

The most time consuming tangent was the Maryland Geology for Education site which provides layers of information overlaid on a zoomable map. The map had been used during the lecture so I knew a little about how to operate it. I looked at the ‘Piedmont Counties Geology’ overlay (with transparency at about 50% so I could see streets and structures through the colors) for around my neighborhood. The major rock under my house is schist; taking a short walk from my backyard down to the river passes over a granite intrusion; to the east across the street from house gneiss is the major type of rock. Within less than a mile - where the Community Supported Agriculture farm is located - there is quite a mix of gravel, sand, and clay (sedimentary rock). Wow! I’m amazed at the geologic variety close at hand.

Another tangent - on the insect side - I read an article referenced by the instructor Attracting Beneficial Insects with Native Flowering Plants and then proceeded to spend a lot more time browsing the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. I am still looking at new items from the site. One of the first things I looked at was one of the identification guides (under publications): Field Guide to Migratory Dragonflies. I can hardly wait to get identifying photographs at Kenilwork Park and Aquatic Gardens this summer.

Some other observations from the first class:

• I am not used to sitting for most of the day. Even though there were plenty of breaks and some activities that had us moving around the classroom - it was a more sedentary day that I prefer. Will I get up and pace around the back of the classroom next week?
• The final exam is take-home and open book. Hurray! If it was more like the SAT, I probably would not have signed up for the program! Tests might be necessary but it is certainly not something anyone enjoys.
• I enjoy the before and after days of the class as much as the class day!

Stay tuned to my continuing adventure as a Master Naturalist Trainee.

Coursera - February 2015

Only two courses in progress for me right now! It takes a lot of will power to not sign up for more; there are competing activities this month: travel and classroom-based courses. Here are the two that will keep me busy in February.

Circadian clocks: how rhythms structure life (from Ludwig-Maximilians - Universitat Munchen (LMU) is off to a good start with a mix of history of the research and vocabulary. It’s a topic that is interesting and has lots of implications for health and well-being.

The Land Ethic Reclaimed: Perceptive Hunting, Aldo Leopold, and Conservation (from University of Wisconsin-Madison) started off by having student pick an avatar that reflected their perspective of the course topic. I chose ‘naturalist;’ it will be interesting to see the demographics of the other students in the course. I like the way the instructors are using surveys and probing questions along with the typical MOOC videos, reading list, and discussion forums.

Two courses finished in January:

Recovering the Humankind’s Past and Saving the Universal Heritage (from Sapienza University of Rome) was a more philosophical course than I expected. It included discussion of the science/technology of archaeology and how it developed over time which is what I expected. But the more thought provoking parts of the class were about the concept of ‘universal heritage’ and why it is important; the relationship of wars and destruction of material culture of the past is striking. It happens alongside the human lives lost and plight of refugees in Syria and Iraq.

Origins - Formation of the Universe, Solar System, and Life (from University of Copenhagen) was a very broad course taught by a team of people from the Natural History of Denmark. It was a good update on what has been discovered since I was in college in the 1970s. Scanning Science Daily over the years helps - but it was refreshing to get a fresh update that tied it all together in an organized way.

As usual - I thrive on having some new topics to learn about and Coursera is a prime avenue for that. Hurray for Coursera!

Coursera - January 2015

The beginning of January is the lull period for Coursera courses just as it is winter break/between semesters for the universities that provide the content. I did two on-demand courses during the lull. I’ve finished all the videos for Introduction to Sustainable Development from Columbia University and am enjoying the first modules of the Astrobiology course from the University of Edinburgh.

The Sustainable Development course more about ‘why’ we need to do it rather than ‘how.’ It meshed well with the course from National Geographic about Water and the US Food System course from Johns Hopkins earlier this year. It is almost overwhelming how the big issues of our time are so interrelated.

The Astrobiology course also links well with other courses: The cosmology section of Philosophy and the Sciences (also from University of Edinburgh), Origins (from University of Copenhagen) and the Exoplanets course (from University of Geneva) that I finished last summer.  Having some of the same evidence discussed from a slightly different perspective deepens my overall understanding.

I struggle a little with the accented English of the lecturers in the Recovering the Humankind’s Past and Saving the Universal Heritage from Sapienza University of Rome…but I am still filling in some gaps in my knowledge.  It too links to some other courses from earlier this year - particularly The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Nubia from Emory University and Archaeology’s Dirty Little Secrets from Brown University.

Two new courses will start in January. Both are quite different that the courses I have taken recently….and are from universities new to my Coursera experience.