LIFE Joins the National Forest Service’s Hands-on-the-Land Network

The LIFE Program recently received a small seed grant from the USDA Forest Service to enable participation in a national network of educational sites on Federal Lands. The grant will help support the costs associated with transportation, field supplies, and teacher professional development connected with the educational use of the Leon Sinks Geological Area within the Apalachicola National Forest.

Teachers Find Their Way

David Anderson from DEP’s Florida Geological Survey conducted a day-long workshop introducing teachers to basic uses of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The workshop also allowed teachers to import data from Global Position System (GPS) receivers (e.g., waypoints) into pre-established maps. Their newfound GPS and GIS skills will help teachers and their students better understand the relationship between the data they collect and familiar locations within their watershed.

Gubernatorial Fellow Joins LIFE

As one of only ten Gubernatorial Fellows selected to work with state agencies this year, Melissa Lilly (shown facilitating an intertidal transect lab) joins the Department of Environmental Protection until May 2007. Melissa will work with the Learning in Florida’s Environment (LIFE) Program, assisting Language Arts and Math teachers to incorporate scientific data gathered from field trips into their classes through journal writing and graphing.

AmeriCorps Members Volunteer for LIFE

As the first AmeriCorps Member to work on a LIFE Program, Cara Ford did not know it but she was setting a trend. In January, three LIFE sites will have AmeriCorps Members supporting their LIFE Program. Environmental Education is one of the many roles of AmeriCorps Members. The LIFE program provides an existing framework that members can quickly plug into and gain valuable experience in the delivery and evaluation of an environmental education program.

LIFE Featured in Florida Stormwater Newsletter

The Stormwater Management Academy at the University of Central Florida published a description of the LIFE program and its role in watershed education in the Wakulla Springs watershed and springshed. View the newsletter and the article [PDF].

LIFE Events

• 18 & 19 October: LIFE Riversprings 6th Grade Field Labs at Wakulla Springs State Park
• 19 & 20 October: LIFE Ichetucknee S.P. Field Labs at Ichetucknee Springs State Park
• 26 & 27 October: LIFE GTMNERR Field Labs at Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas Environmental Education Center