Outreach
We have 2 main outreach activities:
BEES Program
The BEES program was developed to allow young students to interact with plants and animals, in hopes of increasing their appreciation for the natural world. We have two types of programs: animal interaction and experiments.
Animal interaction programs are based on crayfish, freshwater mussels, land snails, or insects. If feasible, we set up 2 or three stations and smaller groups of students move among stations. The touch tank or insect handling station is usually the favorite. Click on one of the animal groups above to get a pdf outline of the program guide.
We have developed two experiment programs: (note: click on each for description and materials)
Participation in OAS and BioBlitz! field programs
Although most states have a state academy of science, only the Oklahoma Academy of Science has associated field meetings, where educators and students converge twice yearly at state parks. Field meetings have evening talks, astronomy, and bug lighting, early morning bird walks, and multiple half-day field trips based on flora or faunal groups, geology, GIS and mapping, or other topics. Liz Bergey and David Bass (University of Central Oklahoma) lead the aquatic invertebrates field trip.
BioBlitz! is a 24-hour inventory of the biota of an area- such as a state park or wildlife management area. Biologists around the state (and beyond Oklahoma) converge for this yearly event. Liz Bergey leads the aquatic invertebrates team and sometimes the algae team.
