[ToLWeb2.0] educator targets
Hana Kucera
I unfortunately won't be able to make it to a teleconference tomorrow,
however, I just wanted to throw a few ideas your way with respect to
potential educators who might be interested in the project.
Museums and zoos (as already mentioned in the whitepaper), would likely be
very interested in this project. For example, the Smithsonian is already
heavily involved in DNA barcoding (*see below), so I imagine that the ToLWeb
would be a naturally attractive project for them.
Another route to go is via science outreach organizations. These often
consist of university-based programs that have student/faculty volunteers
(or paid staff) produce and deliver educational materials and/or provide
summer camps. Two Canadian examples are Let's Talk Science
(www.letstalkscience.ca) and Actua (http://www.actua.ca/). I am not
familiar with US or European organizations, but I'm sure there are many out
there. The advantage with these is that if they become strongly interested,
they may be able to help secure funding or dedicate staff.
It would also be of benefit to have K-12 educators directly represented
somehow. One route may be through the Discovery Educator Network, which is a
network of teachers who share resources about teaching using digital media.
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/
Last but not least, Rutger, Omar, and I are still working on plans to create
the youth-oriented tree of life education website. We can envision
fundraising and spearheading the effort to build the front-end website
consisting of clickable/playable trees, with links to taxon information and
pictures, lesson plans, games etc.
*regarding DNA barcoding. (Now speaking with my "graduate student in DNA
barcoding" hat on). DNA barcoding was mentioned in passing during the last
teleconference, and I just wanted to include a few words here. I wonder if
the DNA barcode community (though historically at odds with
phylogeneticists), might be interested a partnership. Wouldn't it be neat if
the species on the ToL could be linked to DNA barcode species pages?
(http://www.boldsystems.org) It is important, of course, to realize that a
sound, well supported ToL and DNA barcoding have different goals, but
perhaps there maybe room for overlap.
Thanks,
Hana
--
Hana Kucera
PhD Candidate
Centre for Environmental and Molecular Algal Research
Biology Department, PO Box 4400
University of New Brunswick
Fredericton, N.B., E3B 5A3
Canada
ph 506.452.6086
fax 506.453.3538
Arlin Stoltzfus
Would you like to start a page on the google group site to develop
these ideas?
Arlin
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-------
Arlin Stoltzfus (stol...@umbi.umd.edu)
Fellow, CARB; Adj. Assoc. Prof., UMBI; Research Biologist, NIST
CARB, 9600 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, MD
tel: 240 314 6208; web: www.molevol.org