Hello all,
In response to Jim's query...I am the (newly appointed) Education Director at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach.  We are primarily a sea turtle rehab hospital.  We currently do guided field trip programs led by a volunteer educator.  They are loosely organized tours, usually starting at the beach discussing nesting ecology & marine pollution, moving into the museum to discuss more turtle biology and ecology, viewing a narrated PowerPoint presentation & visiting the turtles in the hospital.  The groups always give feedback that they learned a lot and had a great time but those of us on staff see areas where great improvements could be made (won't we always?!).  I try to do a lot of "vocabulary quizzing" I guess you could say to encourage students to give me the answers instead of me standing there telling them a bunch of stuff.

We currently don't give any hand-outs to teachers or students, but I'm working on those, as well as correlating our tours to meet Sunshine State Standards for grades 3-5 to begin in the coming school year.  I've been hearing a lot that teachers have to "teach to the FCAT" because so much emphasis is placed upon this test so my hope is that aligning to the SSS will help the teachers out.

I think an important part of any field trip experience should include some prep activities the teacher can do before the visit so students are familiar with the concepts they will be learning about during the field trip.  I also think the teacher should be given extension activities to "take the field trip back to the clasroom" and build upon what they learned on their trip.
Just a few of my thoughts...
Leslie

----- Original Message -----
Automatic digest processor wrote:
> There is one message totalling 51 lines in this issue.
>
> Topics of the day:
>
>   1. Another welcome and a question to get things rolling
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date:    Thu, 28 Apr 2005 11:28:25 -0400
> From:    James Wharton <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Another welcome and a question to get things rolling
>
> Sure most of you should know at least a little about me, but I thought I
> would set a good example and introduce myself to the list...
>
> I am the Public Program Specialist for the Smithsonian Marine Station and
> the Smithsonian Marine Ecosystems Exhibit in Fort Pierce. We are a research
> field station of the National Museum of Natural History. We host visiting
> scientists from the Museum and around the world who are interested in
> conducting biodiversity, ecology and life history studies in and on Indian
> River Lagoon and Florida coastal marine ecosystems. We also host a small
> aquarium exhibit that features six habitat-themed exhibits on local marine
> and estuarine ecosystems. Our tanks are model ecosystems, which means
> (without going into to much detail) they are as close as you can get to
> experiencing the real thing without getting wet. If you're interested in
> learning more about our facility, give me a call or check out our web site
> at www.sms.si.edu.
>
> I'll also happily float the first query to the list. I'm curious about how
> informal facilities can improve the self-guided experience for school
> groups. We don't do anything truly "self-guided." What we have is an
> on-site, student-driven activity that, while it could be done independently,
> benefits from a little intro and conclusion by the staff and some
> interaction with the group in the galleries. Obviously, we all would rather
> do something more in-depth and hands-on, but sometimes groups have only a
> limited time to spend at the facility. I like what we do, it focuses and
> engages the students, but it is essentially a fairly traditional
> paper-and-pencil scavenger hunt.  If you are a classroom teacher, what would
> you like to see in a self-guided activity? If you are an informal educator,
> are you doing anything beyond the paper-and-pencil approach?
>
> FYI, the list is now 23 members. There are around 120 current and former
> FMSEA members in our region so I expect the list will grow. Feel free to
> recruit vigorously.
>
> Jim Wharton
> FMSEA - SE Regional Director
> Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce
> (e) [log in to unmask]
> (w) www.sms.si.edu
> (v) 772-465-9994, 772-465-9572
> (c) 775-215-6232
> (f) 772-465-9380
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of MARINESCI-ED Digest - 27 Apr 2005 to 29 Apr 2005 (#2005-7)
> *****************************************************************
>
>

Leslie Figg, Director of Education
Marinelife Center of Juno Beach