Resources
Here are resources that will be useful background for developing iSWOOP programs and partnerships. They are grouped by central ideas.
Getting Started, Pointers for Scientists
Getting Started, Interpreters
Considering adding iSWOOP to what you do? Here are some ideas for how to begin.
Interested in on-line professional development?
Download our flyer for info.
Work with the participants’ packet. We have two versions of the participants’ packet. Both give some background on the iSWOOP approach and walk readers through constructing an iSWOOP program. The first is the participant packet designed to accompany the iSWOOP Online course. It assumes multiple sessions with synchronous presentations by scientists. The other works as a resource for a face-to-face series of professional development sessions or as a workbook for a self-directed ranger.
the Participant Packet designed to accompany the iSWOOP Online course
the Participant Packet for a face-to-face series of professional development sessions or as a workbook for a self-directed ranger.
Would you like to receive a copy of the facilitator’s manual? Email martha_merson@terc.edu
Developing an iSWOOP program
Ranger Melinda McFarland reflects on her process developing a program to highlight park-based research on landscape succession. With some trepidation, she takes on geology and the challenge to make her evening program interactive.
Searching for the Primeval Forest (Outline)
Searching for the Primeval Forest (Slides)
Looking for inspiration, sample questions, ideas for how to launch an iSWOOP program or prompt visitors to observe and interact? Check out the collection of outlines from interpreters at five parks. For each program, you can read a short bio of the interpreter, reference a handy table with line numbers pointing to important iSWOOP features, and imagine yourself leading or participating in an inspiring ranger program. Enjoy!
Other reports and publications are available here.
Finding Cool Science
Louise Allen, iSWOOP, Winston-Salem State University faculty and wildlife biologist, shares tips for finding cool science.
The pdf version
The handout
Find more resources on the Common Learning Portal. Email Martha_merson@terc.edu to join the iSWOOP group.
Visual literacy
http://ymm.yale.edu/spring2014/people/reunion/191342/
Science literacy
- Randy Olson on connecting with audiences, Talking Substance in the Age of Style https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjaTDA-9_sk
- iSWOOP’s four beliefs about science, See Science Messages in the packet Packet_Kick-Off_FINAL_May11
- National Academy of Sciences promoting Science Literacy – National Academy of Sciences: Science Literacy
- Assessing Curiosity–see weible_zimmerman_science_curiosity
Visitor interaction
- Tips for Roving with an iPad
- Visitor Interest Activity
- Face to Face: Benefits of Live Interaction
- What Leads to Better Visitor Outcomes in Live Interpretation?
- Stern&Powell_2013_modelsStern&Powell_2013_programs_1
- Pattison_Dierking_Staff_Mediated_abbrev
- PattisonDierking2013_VS_StaffMediatedLearning
- Engaging Latino Families Migratory_Bird_Latino_USFWSReport2012
Indigenous PERSPECTIVES for a Sustainable Environment
Indigenous people share their view of the environment. This series explores how Indigenous Science can help to manage our resources for a sustainable future. Through five sessions, we compare Indigenous and Western Science, examine language and cultural bias, and discuss food systems, land management techniques, gardening, and more! Co-sponsored by the Dunes Learning Center, Indiana Dunes National Park and iSWOOP
Science Content
Amphibians
A library of frog calls
Please credit Dr. Robert (Bob) Brodman
Not only can wood frogs survive freezing temperatures, but they benefit from cold weather. Check out this video on wood frogs(http://www.biographic.com/posts/sto/invisible-nature-return-of-the-wood-frog)
Annotated _INDU-iSWOOP-VisualLibrary_June2017-TEMPLATE1-mm_annotated_LAmm (keynote) & _INDU-iSWOOP-VisualLibrary_Julu2017-TEMPLATE1-mm_annotated_LAmm (pdf) of the visual library (June 2016 version).
Jug-o-Rum, an article discussing the purpose behind frog songs and vocalizations. Written by Susan Shea as featured in The Outside Story, a weekly ecology essay series published by Northern Woodlands magazine.
Bats
- LAllen_Papers on stress and reproduction among Brazilian free-tail bats
- Hristov_etal_2010_JMamm_mmcomments Hristov2008Integrative and Comparative Biology
- Bat Research at Congaree National Park https://www.nps.gov/rlc/ogbfrec/bat-research.htm
- Saving Bats One Cell Phone at a Time http://www.interpnet.com/nai/docs/Publications/Legacy-v24n5-SeptOct13.pdf Legacy-v24n5-SeptOct13(1)
- Beyond Human Senses: Beyond Human Imagination http://www.interpnet.com/nai/docs/Publications/Legacy-v24n5-SeptOct13.pdfLegacy-v24n5-SeptOct13(1)
- Go Bats!Researchers and interpreters share how they interpret bats for public audiences, especially when visitors lead off with a question about diseases like rabies, white nose syndrome, or Covid-19. The zoom session recording
Joshua Tree
Bringing Together Art and Science to Save Joshua Trees, essay by Juniper Harrower
Juniper’s slides on moths and fungal interactions:
Paleoecology
- Annotations to Acadia’s iSWOOP-developed Visual Library July 2018
- Acadia’s iSWOOP-developed Visual Library
- Map of the Mile-Thick Ice Sheet that Made Modern Manhattan
- LiDAR information on Mount Desert Island
- College of the Atlantic LiDAR map of Mount Desert Island
- Low Elevation Alpine Love – Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie
- How fast can trees migrate?/
- Jacquelyn’s recommendations for reading on paleoecology:
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- —After the Ice Age
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- —Forests in Time
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- —Twilight of the Mammoth
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- —How to Clone a Woolly Mammoth
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- —Ice Ages and Solving the Mystery
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- —Once and Future Giants
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- —Changing Nature of the Maine Woods
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- On using charcoal to understand the past Patterson_charcoal_fire_1987
- On the Patterson_Fire_Regimes_Coastal_Maine_Forests_of_Acadia_-_1983 (since settlement mainly)
- Jacobson and Norton articles and ppt presentations
- Jacobson presentation 24may2017-COMBINED
- On Spruce Schauffler & Jacobson 2002
- Sargent Mountain Pond JPL_Norton et al on phosphorus
- Phosphorous Dynamics Wilson_JOPL_2010[1]_Norton
- Geology of Mt Desert Island, presentation from Duane Braun
Dunes
The Mystery of Why This Dangerous Sand dune Swallowed a Boy
Prothonotary Warblers
Researcher Katie Percy’s Annual Report for 2017
Researcher Katie Percy’s Annual Report 2016
Read more on the Birds of Louisiana’s Coast: A Landscape of Virtual Habitats
To learn more about nano-tags and bird identification, Katie recommends the following links:
- Update about Louisiana’s network of receiving towers: http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/
news/41502 - The Lotek site describes the nano tags. http://www.lotek.com/
avian-nanotags.htm - Lotek and BioTrack are the only companies currently manufacturing nanotags that are compatible with the Motus network:https://motus.org/tag-
deployment/ - Motus has animations of migration routes by individual birds and bats. Very cool. https://motus.org/data/
tracksSearch
Herpatology
The Salamanders that refuse to grow up
Sea Level Rise
- Interactive Maps
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association
Climate Odyssey Interactive Map
Soundscape—Crash, BANG, Chirp
iSWOOP sponsored a series on soundscape, a truly under-appreciated resource in national parks. Every so often a sound artist or sound conservationist like Bernard Krause or Gordon Hempton makes news, but it’s a tiny blip compared to the attention paid to iconic vistas and recreational opportunities in parks. When visitors to a park ask for advice about what to do, they often want to know what to see. What if they asked, “What should I hear?” Do you have favorite sounds and listening spots?
Get informed with
and
Speakers and Links to Recordings of the Sessions
Jacob Job, Developer of immersive sound experiences at Sequoia Kings Canyon, and coordinator of Voices of a Flyway, Member of the Sound and Light Ecology Team, Colorado State University & NPS
Victor Minces, Developer of listeningtowaves, tools to measure and play with sound, UC San Diego
Slides https://593de9.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Listening-to-Waves-in-the-Parks.pptx
Aaron Corcoran, Prof of Biology, Univ. of Colorado, and author of studies on sonar jamming and other unexpected behaviors in moths and bats
Eve Payor and Ranger Ashley Lord on the Young Sound Seekers program with blind and partially sighted youth at Canaveral
Young Sound Seekers contact:
Eve Payor at epayor@atlanticcenterforthearts.org
Video https://vimeo.com/514359517
Slides https://593de9.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Sound_Seekers_CrashBangChirp2021.pdf
NPS Natural Sounds & Night Skies Division https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1050/index.htm
Contact https://www.nps.gov/subjects/sound/contactus.htm
Young Sound Seekers program
https://atlanticcenterforthearts.org/youngsoundseekers/
Audio postcard by Jack Hines, 2019 artist-in-residence at the ACA Soundscape Field Station at Canaveral National Seashore https://www.nps.gov/cana/getinvolved/air-creative-contributions.htm
The Nature Fix by Florence Williams https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Fix-Happier-Healthier-Creative/dp/0393242714
The Great Animal Orchestra by Bernie Krause https://www.amazon.com/Great-Animal-Orchestra-Finding-Origins/dp/031608686X
World Forum for Acoustic Ecology https://www.wfae.net/journal.html
Digital High Fives: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/sound/ juniorrangersound.htm
Purchase the Junior Ranger book: https://nps.nationalservicegear.org/store/catalog/ Junior-Ranger
Female Birdsong: They do too sing with Lauryn Benedict, University of Colorado
Kathleen Soler, Outdoor educator and coordinator of the Singing Insects Monitoring Program, a citizen science effort to support the work of Carl Strang
Singing Insects, a new film! https://vimeo.com/582921445
Sound of Crickets, more on crickets as an indicator of temperature https://593de9.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Sound-of-Crickets_tst0911_37-3.pdf,
Singing Insects of the Chicago Region,
updated annually by Dr. Carl A. Strang. Contact Carl at wildlifer@aol.com to be added to his mailing list. Also visit his blog https://natureinquiries.wordpress.com
Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States, John L. Capinera, Ralph D. Scott, and Thomas J. Walker. Cornell University 2004.
Songs of Insects by Lang Elliott and Wil Herschberger. Houghton Mifflin 2008. Also http://songsofinsects.com
Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, www.mwsae.org
Singing Insects of North America, https://www.orthsoc.org/sina/index.htm
Cesar Alemeida, Teaching artist specializing in recording and preserving cultural soundscapes. Cesar Almeida graduated from Northwestern’s School of Education and Social Policy in 2018 with a concentration in learning sciences. While studying at Northwestern, Almeida also pursued his interests in music as evidenced through his time as a creator at Solidarity Studios as well as his time as a DJ on WNUR and now private events. By the time he graduated, he had secured over $20,000 in research grants to pursue his work integrating ethnography and music production by creating culturally relevant sample packs or, in other words, sample packs that seek to historically and socially contextualize the music that they record.