Linking Science with Education

Bear Trust International is developing a new science-based education program rooted in bear research and ecology.  This education program will include a compilation of narratives about wild bears written by bear scientists, and a teacher’s guide that includes 12 lessons linking directly to the narratives.  Lessons will target high school learners, help youth develop conservation awareness through scientific inquiry, address STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math; a US campaign to help our students become more competitive in science and math) goals, meet National Science Standards, and address goals outlined by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE).

Our science-based program will be web-based, project-based, and free to educators.

Flow of Learning:  Maximizing Impact

From lesson development to implementation, our education program is designed to maximize impact.  For example, bear scientists will share stories and data, Bear Trust will collaborate with graduate students for lessondevelopment, high school teachers will be given professional development opportunities and “teach the teacher” workshops, high school teachers will teach lessons in-class to high school students, and high school students will teach a lesson to middle school students.  To further maximize impact, Bear Trust is collaborating with Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center who receives 225,000 visitors annually and who will house our science-based lessons in their upcoming B.E.A.R.S. (Bears, Education, Awareness, Research, Sanctuary) facility.

B.E.A.R.S. facility at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center:

Bear Trust is collaborating with Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC), who is currently expanding with a focus on building the B.E.A.R.S. (Bears Education Awareness Research Sanctuary) facility.  AWCC currently hosts 225,000 visitors annually.  The B.E.A.R.S. facility will provide unparalleled opportunities for education outreach using lessons that Bear Trust develops based on field research on wild bears around the world.  In addition, Bear Trust and AWCC are joining efforts to provide interface systems in the B.E.A.R.S. facility, with direct connections to bear researchers and studies being conducted on wild bears in real time.  In one comprehensive facility, AWCC visitors will be able to immerse themselves in, and interact with, exciting research conducted by top bear scientists around the world.   Moreover, visitors will have opportunities to view Kodiak bears and American black bears onsite (AWCC is home to animal ambassadors used for education outreach), and to learn about onsite behavioral research essential for understanding components of bear ecology.

Examples of Lesson Topics:

1) Population Demography:

Using real capture-recapture data to estimate population survival and growth rates for bears

-How does hunting affect population demography?

-What are the economic and ecologic costs/benefits of using hunting as a conservation tool?

-How does the availability of natural food resources affect population demography?

2) Bear Movements:

Using real GPS locations to estimate habitat selection and home ranges of wild research bears

-How does availability of natural food resources affect bear movements?

-How does availability of human trash affect bear movements?

-How do roads affect bear movements?

3) Carbon Footprint Lesson:

This lesson will link to a story about polar bears and will include 4 web applications:

A.  Current Country Emissions: This section will feature a spinning world where the student can click on one of ten highlighted countries. When selected, a content box will display a graphic that demonstrates the levels of emissions produced by that country and what the primary emission sources are.

B. Calculate Your Family Footprint: This will be a survey form with about 30 questions regarding the student’s personal carbon footprint.

C. Take the One Ton Challenge: Students select areas of savings from a predefined list.  As items are selected the program displays the level of carbon savings based on the consumption base line from Section B.  Drag and drop feature will be used for adding items to a “savings bucket” to make a difference.

D.  Scale It Up: Based on the savings from Section C, the program will show those savings extrapolated for the student’s community, state, country, and the world based on population estimates. It will also show the information from Section A as the baseline compared to the new reduced numbers.

Please help us!

We are well on our way to making The Bear Book Volume II and Curriculum Guide a huge success.  We have a successful project template, we have 11 of the 12 authors we need for chapter development, and we have a “teach the teacher” workshop format to maximize education outreach.

To make this innovative education program a reality, we need a little financial help.

Bear Trust recently received a $10,000 grant from a generous foundation (that wishes to remain anonymous) and $5,000 from a Bear Trust Board Member to help defray the costs associated with editing and compiling the upcoming book (THANK YOU!!).

Want to help?  CLICK HERE

To learn more, please contact Bear Trust’s executive director:  Melissa Reynolds-Hogland 406.523.7779; melissa@beartrust.org