A little more than halfway through we have accomplished so many of our goals already!  Today we had a little check-in talk to remind the students about classroom standards to start the day.  Then we dove right in, talking about policy and laws surrounding invasive species.  We watched Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill” to give the students a taste of the process for an idea to become a law.  There are quite a few steps!  This showed how pressing of a matter invasive species must be for it to have multiple laws and regulations over the past 2 centuries.  We even became policy makers and in pairs cultivated a new idea for an initiative to help manage invasive species.

We continued our day with a guest speaker, Bernadette Harvey, a Senior Director from FTI Consulting.  She shared her expertise in the field of map making, sharing resources, and guiding a mapping exercise with a real-world example to track the growth and spread of invasive species.  This paper and pencil exercise explains how computers are now able to take the data humans input and make gorgeous maps with complex calculations.

Here are some of the websites Bernadette shared with us as resources:

https://search.landinfo.com/  – purchase imagery https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/wayback/#active=39767&mapCenter=-115.29850%2C36.06400%2C15 – view available historical imagery https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/topomapexplorer/  – view historical topographic maps https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/landcoverexplorer/ – view landcover maps

Finally, we heard from Dr. Jen Wollenberg, who walked us through her career path and explained how the public’s view on natural resources has shifted throughout her time working. She is also a prime example of trying different careers till you find your fit.

Some follow-up questions to ask your students:

Tomorrow, we will consider how climate change affects invasive species, doing a lot of hands-on learning, critical thinking, scientific reading, and a fishbowl debate!