Training Design Tips
Section Four. Training Design Tips
Navigating the Biocontrol In Your Backyard portal
Introduction to Training Design Tips
There are four training design tips in Section Four to help you continue accessing media elements, lesson plans, videos, and resources to help you design project and field trips. You will see how a teacher uses a variety of resources and new ones outside the portal to prepare for a visit to Beus Park and the Nature Center in North Ogden, Utah. The Section Four objective is for you to see how a teacher and a summer science academy designed a field trip to learn biological weed control skill sets.
You will review a PowerPoint Presentation that is part of the classroom instructions for students in Grades 6 through 12 prior to heading out with the gear to a field of Dalmatian toadflax to find the Mecinus janthinus toadflax weevil. You will watch a short movie clip from the field trip to learn how Dalmatian toadflax seeds form and spread.
Training Design Tip #4.1. Know your audience. Sixth Grade teacher Eric Bingham recognized his students' interests in science fiction films. To prepare them for a field day collection biological weed control insects, he engaged them with their science fiction thirst for alien species. Download the PowerPoint presentations Invasive Species Part I and Invasive Species Part II.
Review the PowerPoint that Eric used to introduce 36 students across Grades 6-12 to biocontrol and the site they would visit and why. Imagine what questions you might ask students about how invasive species get here and what impacts they might have between watching clips fron "Gremlins", "Superman", and more. Clips of these movies are available on Youtube. As you go through the slides, think about how your audience's interests might shape your choices for a presentation.
Training Design Tip #4.2. Provide safety training, have a plan in case someone gets hurt, exit routes and options. Make sure there is food and water for everyone before embarking on the field trip. Comply with the rules and regulations of the host organization and have permissions in place for photos and interviews. If you have short training clips of other students doing what they will be doing, play them before you leave to elevate interest and excitement. Next year, Eric will use some of the movie clips he made in 2012 to show to his students in 2013. You can take a look at one of his short clips at Movies or open a second tab (window). In a second window you can view the clip selected for you, Dalmatian toadflax plant and seed identification.
You can also, optionally, view the clip on YouTube [1]
Be sure to come back to Training Design Tips to continue with Section Four.
Training Design Tip #4.3. Biocontrol In Your Backyard will soon launch from the home page of [Bugwood Wiki]. From The Bugwood Wiki home page you can link to other weed management biological weed control resources like EDDMaps where you can upload and manage your own weed mapping data. Check it out.
Training Design Tip #4.4. You can assemble elements from this portal and create your set of biological weed control media and lessons on your computer or backup drive. Think about how you might organize your library: by weed, by insect, by method, or all of the above? By geographic location, by project...there are all kinds of ways to organize content in the way that works best for you. The only secret is to put things where you can find them when you want them. Perhaps this could be a class project in which students might create a resource library for a specific topic or student project.
RECAP: Section Four. Training Design Tips
Section Four. Training Design Tips
- Tip One. Access Points in Biocontrol In Your Backyard
- Tip Two. Customizing lesson plans using stand alone elements
- Tip Three. Access to biocontrol resources in The Bugwood Network
- Tip Four. Creating your own biocontrol resource library
- Content for Biocontrol in Your Backyard is provided by individual program sponsors.
- Content is formatted and uploaded by InterMedia
- The Biocontrol In Your Backyard Portal collaboration with The Bugwood Network and its content accessible
- format are sponsored by USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Protection, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team.
