Hands On, Plugged In: Life on the Prairie

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SILICON CARBON CULTURE/Madden Initiative
"Living on the Prairie" Status Report
January 31, 2003

Activity since August of 2002: We have had many organizational meetings and emails since August 2002 with all or most of the "Prairie Partners": Allerton Park (Kim Petzing); Department of Atmospheric Sciences (Walt Robinson); the Environmental Council (Lisa Merrifield); GSLIS' several programs--The Inquiry Page, VR Savvy, and Telebotany (Ann Bishop, Chip Bruce, Umesh Thakkar and Bryan Heidorn); and the School of Architecture (Sharon Irish). In late September 2002, we hired Aparna Raghunathan as the graduate assistant for the project. She brings web design skills and a perspective from landscape architecture.

Aparna, with Steve Poulakos, built our website and worked out the kinks: http://www.isrl.uiuc.edu/~prairie/. On November 18, 2002, Sharon Irish met with the Illinois Chapter of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators to discuss the exhibit portion of our project and possible involvement of illustrators in classrooms. The co-president of the Guild, Carie Nixon, works with the Illinois Natural History Survey. While the Survey has not been at organizational meetings, their role in the teacher workshop and in the classrooms is very important, both with hands-on activities and with the availability of the Mobile Science Center.

In December 2002, various "Prairie Partners" met with teacher groups in Monticello and Urbana and with the Prairie Flowers staff to solicit input on the teacher workshop. In the process we found a new collaborator in Grand Prairie Friends, which is having their central Illinois conference at Parkland, September 20-21, 2003. Following these meetings, we organized the format and selected dates for teacher participation in 2003. We drafted and distributed the Call for Participation with a deadline of Feb. 14. CfPs were sent to: DIME (Dialogues in Method of Education) teachers http://www.inquiry.uiuc.edu/partners/dime/dime.php3 as well as teachers associated with the Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC) in Chicago, Prairie Flowers, Chickscope, Illinois Art Educators' Association (see newsletter item) and EC Dispatch. Other educators were contacted through the Champaign, Urbana and Monticello districts. Ann Bishop did an Inquiry Page demonstration for PRCC teachers in Chicago on January 25, 2003.

We have now begun the process of building an online clearinghouse of resources related to the natural and cultural history of central Illinois. Sharon and Ann contacted Cecilia Vicuna about her participation in the web-based project, based on her art work and poetry related to the environment. We have also confirmed Bruce Hannon's participation in the teacher workshop and confirmed that the Barnhart Prairie (south of Urbana) is available for field activities, given a modicum of advance notice.

Upcoming Activities and Dates, times, locations with web links: Aparna Raghuanthan will collect and post resources for the online clearinghouse, including interviewing faculty and community folk who may not realize their work dovetails with our project. (A preliminary handout was prepared in November.) The project will review applications from teachers after February 14, and notify participants by February 22. The Inquiry Page meetings for these teachers are March 11 and April 8 OR May 6 at GSLIS; the two-day workshop will be held on the UIUC campus and at Allerton on July 7-8; and on August 9 there will be a fall preparation "booster" session. The details of all these meetings have yet to be worked out. The other big task ahead is to organize the Chautauqua. We are still trying to select a date, decide on the format and set-up. Sharon Irish is the liaison with Guild to coordinate the exhibit of framed illustrations at the Chautauqua with explanatory texts. Guild members and Sharon are contemplating applying for a small community grant to help support the Guild exhibit.

Plans for culminating SCC event on Friday, October 3 and Saturday, October 4: We would make available the Guild exhibit and demonstrate the Inquiry Page units prepared by participating teachers and their students, if possible. Teachers and students could be invited to the event.