Evening Events
Friday Opening Night for Teaching Outside the Box!
Join us on Friday April 27th for a fun and educational evening at Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch in Loveland, Colorado to kick-off this year’s Teaching Outside the Box Conference! Set in a beautiful outdoor venue along the Big Thompson River, this evening includes FREE food and drinks, fun, educational sessions, and chances to relax and network with friends old and new! Don’t miss the opportunity to hear a presentation by David Armstrong, Co-Author of Mammals of Colorado.
To check out Sylvan Dale visit their website at http://www.sylvandale.com
LOCATION: Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch, 2939 North County Road 31D, Loveland, CO 80538 Click here for a PDF map or use google maps to find directions.
(PLEASE NOTE: The Friday Evening Reception is at a seperate location from the conference hotel, which is where the rest of the conference sessions and activities will be taking place Saturday and Sunday.)
This evening is free to those registered for Teaching Outside the Box. If you’d like to bring a friend, spouse, or coworker (no children please), the cost is a mere $10! Click here to register a guest for the evening event.
Schedule of Events:
5:30-6:30 – Conference Check-in/Registration
6:00-9:00 – Ongoing Reception/Networking/ Evening Sessions
6:15 – Welcome from CAEE and Dave Armstrong
6:30-7:15 – First Round of Evening Sessions
7:30-8:15 – Second Round of Evening Sessions
Session Options (you can choose to participate in two out of three).
The first round of evening sessions will start at 6:30 and the second round will start at 7:30. For those seeking out CSM credit, the evening event will count for 1.5 hours of credit.:
Option 1: Hayride “Field Trip”: Seeing Sylvan Dale Whole
Dave Armstrong, Resident Naturalist, Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch and Professor Emeritus, CU-Boulder
Hop on the hay wagon for a leisurely ride up through the Home Pastures. We’ll stop from time-to-time to look, wonder, and unpack geological, ecological, and cultural stories behind the scenery. The intended take-home lesson is simple: environmental patterns imply processes on all timescales, from moments to millennia and eons.
Option 2: Real Students. Real Science. Real Results.
David Neils and Amy Schmer
Sixth grade science students from Amy Schmer's class at Preston Middle School have been engaged in an authentic project on the ranch to improve wildlife habitat. This will be a multi-year project with subsequent groups of students building on the work that preceded them. Learn and be inspired by what these students have accomplished since September while working with mentors and local experts. From installing the first of three wildlife guzzlers, improving forage for target species, and building nesting sites for owls, falcons, and other birds on the ranch. Every action the students take requires advice and guidance from mentors. To learn more, check out the active projects at: www.telementor.org
Option 3: Aquatic Ecology on the Big Thompson
Greg Sheets and Bill Franz, Sylvan Dale Fishing Guides
Learn about aquatic ecology from local experts! You will experience aquatic life forms found in a typical free-stone river. The group will participate in (or observe) seining of insects from the river bottom and sort them into their species categories. Discussion will also contrast the biomass of insects of free-stone rivers relative to tailwaters and spring fed rivers.
Saturday Night EE Celebration!
Plan to stay after Saturday’s sessions to be a part of the Saturday Night Social. There will be FREE food and a cash bar, fun and educational sessions, and a silent auction to raise money for scholarships for TOTB 2013!
This evening is free to those registered for Teaching Outside the Box. If you’d like to bring a friend, spouse, or coworker (no children please), the cost is a mere $10! Click here to register a guest for the evening event.
LOCATION: Regency Ballroom, La Quinta Inn, Fountains of Loveland Building, 1450 Cascade Ave Loveland, CO 80537
Schedule of Events:
Evening Reception: Plan to stay after Saturday’s sessions to be a part of the Saturday Night Social. There will be FREE food and a cash bar, fun, educational sessions, and a silent auction to help raise money for conference scholarships.
5:30-9:00 – Ongoing Reception/Networking/Visit Exhibitors/Silet Auction/Educational Sessions
5:30-7:00 - Silent Auction
Evening Activities: Evening Activities have two start times- 7:00 and 8:30pm. Evening Activities can count towards CSM credit. The number of hours you receive will depend on what educational sessions you attend and their length.
7:00–8:30pm – Green Fire Film and Wild Wings Environmental Education Presentation
8:30–10:00pm – Green Fire Film, Wild Wings Environmental Education Presentation and Outdoor Astronomy Session
Educational Session Descriptions:
Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time
An amazing movie about an amazing man. This is the first full-length documentary film ever made about legendary environmentalist Aldo Leopold. Green Fire highlights Leopold’s extraordinary career, and tracing how he shaped and influenced the modern environmental movement. Leopold remains relevant today, inspiring projects all over the country that connect people and land.
Wild Wings Environmental Education Presentation
Join Wild Wings Environmental Education for an inspiring program hosted by the organization’s founder Deanna Curtis. Come meet Sophie the great horned owl, Karma the red-tailed hawk, Foster the rough legged hawk and Cliff the peregrine falcon and learn about humankind’s beneficial and adverse impacts on the wild world.
Outdoor Astronomy Education: The Art of Looking Up
Join Teresa Jiles, Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator at the National Park Service Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division, to learn about how the night sky is part of animals natural habitat and how to connect visitors with the night sky using everything from cultural connections of star stories to more technical experience of using binoculars and telescopes.
