Time to play with the new data entry pages! We've been listening to you and watching where the data entry process trips you up. We think we've fixed some things and added some useful features. This is what we did...
Last week at the Maine Science Teachers Association (MSTA) annual conference Rhonda Tate of Dedham School and I got to share Vital Signs with a group of interested teachers from around the state. One of the big topics at MSTA this year was the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the development of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). I was excited to show these teachers some of connections between Vital Signs and the science practices outlined in the Framework. Here’s some of what I shared.
Have you seen the VS species ID cards library lately? For years we had been dreaming of the day when all of our ID card photos and content would be generated by VS participants. We took a first big leap towards that big dream this summer.
“We’d like Vital Signs to be the keynote presentation at our California Biodiversity Citizen Science Meeting at the California Academy of Sciences. We’re so impressed with your amazing program. We admire how you combine many elements we are looking for in our future citizen science program."
I experimented last week with a different webinar approach - a PARTY! of sorts - that would give educators a quick overview of the website enhancements, and serve as a quick refresher just before the start of the spring field season.
You've all probably noticed that the website looks different, feels different, acts differently than it did the last time you played around with it. Here's an official run-down of the changes we launched on March 16, 2012. Since 2009, we've spent a lot of time listening and watching how the site has been used, and hope you find these updates as motivating and useful as we do. Special thanks to Misty, Liem, Neil, and Dana from Image Works for their heroic efforts pulling this off in time for the spring field season!
August was a busy month for the Vital Signs community and the Gulf of Maine Research Institute's Education Group. We concluded the summer with two educator institutes. In the first two weeks of the month, two different and equally engaged and phenomenal groups of educators came through the doors of the big gray building on Commercial Street. Check out some of what we did!
We had 44 surveys completed for our Equipment Use inquiry last week. Thank you so much for your rapid and helpful responses! We'll be using them to streamline our new Lending Library. More on that soon.
Thursday, April 14th, 2011 was a great step for the Vital Signs team, and a greater step for the Vital Signs community. We had 16 out-of-school educators (OOSE) here at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute ready and raring to learn about the Vital Signs program and share their expertise on the informal education setting.
Let's find out what the Vital Signs team thought about the training!
