Congratulations to Tom Wilcox, Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteer. He was named 'Volunteer of the Year' by St Paul Public Library for his weekly work at Collectors' Corner Neighborhood Trading Place. This is a place at the Rice Street library where youth can bring natural objects, or personal art about the object and share what they know to earn points, which can then be used to trade for other natural items.

Click to read a St Paul Public Library story about Tom Wilcox and his award-winning work at the Collectors' Corner.

Visit minnesotamasternaturalist.org to learn more about becoming a Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteer.

The 2012 Minnesota Master Naturalist Conference was a huge success. This year's conference was held in Mankato at the Verizon Wireless center and attended by 115 volunteers and instructors. Participants attended sessions on topics ranging from "leave No Trace", to wild edibles, and odonata research. Field trips were to a local prairie and tree restoration, the city of New Ulm, and Minneopa State Park. Illuminating the conference theme - "Explore", the keynote this year was Greg Petry, kayaker who paddled around Lake Superior. In the words of one participant, "Thanks for your time, energy and effort in putting on the conference this weekend. I give it two thumbs up! The program was strong, presenters were great and the food and arrangements were high quality."

The Annual Conference is a weekend-long advanced training opportunity offered each year to Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteers and Instructors. To learn more about the program, visit minnesotamasternaturalist.org.

Congratulations to the Year 3 group of Adult Leaders and staff, who will complete training this this afternoon at the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve. Over the weekend, the adult leaders have been immersed in learning about citizen science data, conducting scientific investigations, and facilitating inquiry learning with youth. During the coming summer, these leaders will work with teams of youth to collect citizen science data, and conduct science investigations. Some of these leaders will carry the project outside of Minnesota for the first time.

Click the link to learn more about Driven to Discover: Enabling Youth Inquiry Through Citizen Science. This National Science Foundation funded project seeks to expand the reach of Citizen Science for middle-school youth. Typically, citizen science--or public involvement science--involves the general public in collecting data that can be analyzed and interpreted by professional scientists. This project will carry citizen science a step further, enabling youth to design, carry out, and even report on their own research questions under the mentorship of science advisors at the University of Minnesota. By giving them the freedom and responsibility to design their own projects the students will gain a greater understanding and appreciation for science, and will grow to see themselves as scientists.

This event is an annual advanced learning and celebration opportunity for active Master Naturalist Volunteers and Instructors. The 2012 Minnesota Master Naturalist Annual Conference will take place on May 18-20 at the Verizon Wireless Center, Mankato, MN. Session topics include dragons & damsels, edible plants, pollinators, photography, insects, reptiles & amphibians, prairie restoration and others. There will be a choice of three field trips to either tour New Ulm, Minneopa State Park, or native grasses and trees. Pre-Conference workshop sessions are optional and include Digital Photography Bridge to Nature and The Interpretive Equation. Meet other Master Naturalists, learn from outstanding presenters, eat fabulous food, and get revitalized for future volunteering!

VIsit www.minnesotamasternatrualist.org for more information about the Minnesota Master Naturalist program.

On Monday, April 16th, Graduate Assistant, Sarah Shimek, will share her thesis research in SpHC(Sports & Heath Center) room 9A at UMD from 3-4pm. The presentation "Connecting Scientists and Adult Leaders through Technology to Further Authentic Science Inquiry by Youth" will share the results of a recent study exploring the preferences of potential adult leaders towards the use of internet technologies to support connections with professional scientists and facilitate authentic scientific inquiry among middle-school aged youth engaged in citizen science research. Using the University of Minnesota Extension Driven to Discover: Authentic Inquiry through Citizen Science as context for the study, Shimek interviewed licensed teachers, informal science educators, and youth development leaders to answer the research questions:

1. How do adult leaders describe the potential for using web-based technology as a means to achieve the scientist contribution to youth-based authentic science inquiry?


2. How do adult leaders perceive plans to develop a website to facilitate the ongoing relationship of scientists, adult leaders, and youth? What do they perceive as needs and barriers for using this planned website? What website characteristics would encourage them to use this planned website?

Visit Driven to Discover:Enabling Youth Inquiry Through Citizen Science to learn more about this project, funded in part by the National Science Foundation. Sarah Shimek is a graduate student in the University of Minnesota Duluth Center For Environmental Education.

Keep your fingers crossed. The Minnesota Master Naturalist Program is a finalist for the 2012 Environmental Initiative Award in the Environmental Education category. Click to learn more about this award. The award site also details some impressive program outcomes for 2011.

• Master Naturalist Volunteers reported 28,529 hours of service in the state of Minnesota in 2011 for a value of $596,256.00 (www.independantsector.org).
• Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteers self reported teaching 392,359 people across Minnesota in 2011.
• Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteers self reported providing stewardship projects in 2011 on 277,567 acres (both public and private) in Minnesota.

Congratulations to team members and over 1000 Minnesota Master Naturalist Volunteers on their nomination for this respected award. Award recipients will be announced at a special event on Thursday, May 24, 2012.

Extension Educator, Stephan Carlson, helped to coordinate the first Snow Snake Festival at the new Circle of Life Academy outside of White Earth last week. The festival culminates a curriculum that interweaves cultural and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) lessons.

Snow snakes, called goonginebigoog in Ojibwe, is an Native American game that was once popular in upper-Midwestern tribes. Students grades four through eight from Naytahwaush Charter School, Pine Point and the Circle of Life Academy worked around ten hours to gather, shape, paint and wax their snakes - long, thick sticks. At the festival, they then competed in games for distance (which snakes travel furthest on a plowed snow path), and accuracy (who can toss the snake through a rolling hoop).

You can read more about the festival in a Detroit Lakes Online article.

The Minnesota Master Naturalist Program is a volunteer program that trains adults about Minnesota`s natural resources, teaches how to educate others, and provides opportunities to do conservation projects. We rely on a corps of trained instructors, who deliver Mastre Naturalist courses across MN. Your organization can offer these 40-hour courses by sending a staff member to the Instructor Training course.

A few seats are left in our February 9-10 Instructor Training in Minneapolis. You must have a letter of support from your agency or organization and pay 75.00 to participate in the training. If you conduct a training of your own within one year, you will receive a refund of the 75.00. Students are asked to bring their own laptops and LCD projectors if they have one. The focus of the training is to teach you to use the materials prepared by the Master Naturalist program, not content. We ask that potential instructors have a degree or experience in a related field. Lunch and snacks are provided. If you have special dietary needs please let us know. Scholarships are available. If you have questions, please call 1-888-241-4532.

Earlier this month, a small group of experts announced a new framework for assessing environmental literacy. It is one of the resources that Extension staff will consult in developing and evaluating Environmental Science Education programming.

Whether working with passionate volunteers or natural resource professionals, one of the chief aims of University of Minnesota Extension Environmental Science Education programming is to improve environmental literacy. What exactly do we mean? Environmental literacy is a complex set of values, knowledge, and skills that enable individuals to act intentionally toward the environment. But resources like the new framework help us improve our aims, and impact.

A series of report cards on environmental literacy have consistently suggested that Minnesotans score above average on a general assessment of their literacy. But we have significant room for improvement. Improvements in environmental literacy can subsequently better prepare us to effectively tackle natural resource issues.

More than one-thousand passionate volunteers have now participated in the Minnesota Master Naturalist program. They have reported a total 130,810 hours of volunteer service, valued at $2,794,102 by www.independentsector.org. Master Naturalist volunteers have collected data for scientific research, restored native habitat, developed and taught natural history education programs. They are organizing and operating chapters for camaraderie, continuing education, and service. We congratulate them for exploring, teaching, and conserving Minnesota's natural resources.

Learn more about the Minnesota Master Naturalist program at www.minnesotamasternaturalist.org.