Today, was a great day. It all started last week when I posted my New Year's Resolutions which included speaking and presenting more with my pending graduation. Later that day I recieved an email from the St. Louis Academy of Science Speaker Series Director. She said she had seen my Science Matters interview on the local PBS station and asked if I would speak at an upcoming event for middle schoolers. The program is called Green Your Future - a discussion about eco-related jobs. I spoke to the students about urban ecology.
It was my very first time speaking to a general audience group on request. It was also the first time I gave my Urban Science Adventures! © schpeel to a live audience. The 7th graders from the St. Louis Public Schools were great. They were attentive and asked lots of questions. Great questions. And they offered several of their own Urban Science Adventures! © stories. Many of the kids had their own sightings of urban wildlife including opossums (both roadkill and alive), rabbits, squirrels, and hawks. One student even saw a porcupine once! I'm jealous. I'm a mammalogist and I've never seen a porcupine!
I presented a short presentation that included photos of urban wildlife scences I've captured right here in St. Louis. The kids were really fascinated by by my hands....not really. But I had 2 classrooms of all boys who were impressed that I was holding a frog, a bird and stood close enough to various types of bugs to photograph them. I capped things off by encouraging them to explore and discover nature in urban areas.
I think shooting local scenes was important. A couple of kids knew this spot exactly.
I love outreach. I really do. It was a blast. I'll be traveling this semester - searching for jobs, attending meetings, connecting with fellow bloggers (science/nature/blogging while brown) and outdoor enthusiasts. I've booked one date already to give a formal talk (the dissertation presentation talk). I'm willing to do travel and do some two-fer presentations - the official science talk and the science outreach presentation.
Also, check out my KETC Science Matters video and let me know what you think.Thanks everyone for the support and encouragement.
DNLee
Demystifying nature, letting everyone experience
2 comments:
(fyi - the first comment on this post looks like SPAM!)
but really wanted to say Congrats, Danielle! That's really awesome.. You should check out a friend of mine's org called Nature in the City - based in San Francisco, it's a project of Earth Island Institute that raises awareness about the multitude of ways urban ecology affects humans and vice versa..
thanks FGF...I took care of that SPAM. And thanks for sharing the info. I'll look them up. I'll be in San Francisco in March for a meeting. I'm trying to stay a couple of days and meet people and check out the local outdoor/nature/science ed scene. If you're so inclined please faciliate an introduction. You can email me.
Thanks
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