Newsletter title

January 2008

In This Edition

2008 Docent Winter Meeting

—Dennis Bires

All Tallgrass Prairie Docents are encouraged to attend the Docent Winter Meeting on Saturday, January 26, at 3:00 p.m., at The University of Tulsa College of Law, in John Rogers Hall, Room 203, on the TU campus. The meeting should last between one and two hours.

As in the past, we are interested in your ideas, concerns, questions, and answers about the Docent Program. There will be a few interesting announcements, and a calendar of spring Docent events. As many of you know, our Winter Meetings are informal, informative, and frequently very productive.

Please let Dennis Bires know of any topics you want to be sure are addressed at the meeting by calling 918-341-3908, or emailing dennisbires@lycos.com. But don’t hesitate to bring up an item at the meeting even without advance notice.

Directions to the Winter Meeting: John Rogers Hall is at 3120 East 4th Place, between Delaware and Harvard Avenues on the northern edge of the TU Campus. Parking is across East 4th Place from the building. (Ignore signs limiting parking to students and faculty; visitors are always welcome.)

See you at the meeting!

Docent Reorientation for 2008

—Dennis Bires

All returning Tallgrass Prairie Docents are invited to attend the Docent Reorientation program on Saturday, February 23, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., at the Ecological Research Station at the Preserve. Please bring a lunch. Feel free to invite a guest to Reorientation, particularly if the guest might have an interest in joining the Docent Program.

We are delighted to welcome as our featured speaker Dr. Carmen Greenwood, Assistant Professor of Entomology and Plant Pathology in the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University. Professor Greenwood has been conducting research at the Preserve on invertebrate communities in patch-burn-grazing sequence habitats.

In addition, we will have updates on the bison herd and other Preserve news, and announcements of upcoming events for docents. Always a highlight of the docent year, Reorientation promises to be a most interesting and enjoyable day.

Kiosk In-Progress Report

—Jamie

Sixth grade students and two Holland Hall teachers are helping create a kiosk for the Tallgrass Prairie Perserve Visitor’s Center. Mr. Andrew Donovan-Shead, a docent at the preserve, is leading the project. The reason we are doing this is to help teach people about aspects of the prairie.

Each person on our team has chosen a topic to focus on for the remainder of the year. Aaron is researching Osage Indians and Ranch History. Ryan is doing reptiles, Rosie is studying butterflies and she is the artist for the group. Jordan is researching bison. Will and Julian are doing underground life; they are also known as the Chthonic Research Group. I am studying grasses and I am writing an occasional paragraph for the docent newsletter. James is doing questions and answers and he is the student computer expert. The teachers involved are Mrs. Karen Moore and Mrs. Margery Armstrong. We are using a program called FreeMind; FreeMind allows us to make a mind map of questions and answers about our topic. The Tallgrass Prairie Kiosk is a weekly project that is ongoing.

Photo collage of kiosk development team at work...

Interactive Information Kiosk

—Andrew Donovan-Shead

As you can see from the pictures taken by Karen Moore, our kiosk development team is hard at work brainstorming the topics they chose for exposition on the forthcoming interactive information kiosk for the Visitor’s Center. Our team is as keen as mustard and, even though they have several other activities that fill their daily schedule at Holland Hall Middle School, they chose to participate in what is proving to be an exciting project.

Our team and we are very fortunate to have the benefit of such enlightened teachers as Karen Moore and Margery Armstrong. Without their willingness to step outside their zone of comfort this project would never have been launched in this manner. This is teaching at its best where the students are given an enriched environment in which to learn skills that will serve them well in future. Development of the interactive information kiosk exposes our team to a real-world project that brings together and teaches diverse skills, including multi-media, history, art, natural science, systems analysis, use of computer software tools, and teamwork focused on an end product, using both computer-based as well as traditional techniques.

The kiosk is an open-ended project and nothing is fixed. We have the flexibility to amend and further develop the interactive content. So, even when members of our team move on to other things, we can continue with new members wishing to participate.

We have invited the kiosk development team to join us at the Docent Reorientation this year when they will give us a brief status report of their activities. I know that they are looking forward to seeing the Ecological Research Station and attending Professor Greenwood's presentation. Please make them welcome and be sure to engage them in conversation as you will find them an interesting group of individuals.

Back Issues

Back issues of the Docent Newsletter, to November 2007, can be found in the two green and one blue zip-binders, stored in the Perspex rack by the file cabinet in the office of the Visitor’s Center.

Newsletter Publication

Deadline for submission of articles for inclusion in the newsletter is the 10th of each month. Publication date is on the 15th. All docents, Nature Conservancy staff, university scientists, philosophers, and historians are welcome to submit articles and pictures about the various preserves in Oklahoma, but of course the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in particular.