Colorado State University

by Victoria Jordan

“We stopped doing field research at Cathy Fromme Prairie because the students had too many rattlesnake encounters,” Carol Seemueller explains. “We moved to other natural areas around the city.”

Carol Seemueller, recently retired biology teacher who spent most of her career at Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, made a habit of taking all of her classes outdoors for authentic field experiences as much as she was able. “Kids would light up, and they were so passionate about learning when they were doing science outdoors,” Carol says.

River Watch

From 1996 through her retirement in 2016, Carol’s students participated in River Watch, a statewide volunteer water quality-monitoring program operated in partnership between River Science and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW). This citizen-science program works with voluntary stewards to monitor water quality and other indicators of watershed health and utilizes this high-quality data to educate communities and inform decision-makers about the condition of Colorado’s waters. Carol had a team of River Watch students every year that went with her to two locations monthly to collect data, one site on the Poudre River in Fort Collins, and another along Spring Creek near the high school. She and the students created wonderful memories together by exploring outdoors.

“One time, the students wanted to do a full moon water sample,” Carol says. “I went along with it! Why not? We had a blast in the dark trying to follow all the protocols to collect the water while laughing and splashing under the full moon. We got back to Rocky at 10 pm, and still had to process all the samples. The kids talked about that for months. Through River Watch, I created vibrant relationships with dozens of students.”

“We had a collection day scheduled shortly after the big flood in 1997. When we got to Spring Creek, it was unrecognizable. The students were so excited to collect the water that we couldn’t resist. I kept them safe, but a city worker reprimanded us for being too close to the floodwaters. “I know those students will never forget the oily sheen on the water’s surface, the dramatic change in substrate, the missing gravity bridge.”

In 2011, the students collected invasive bullfrog tadpoles and brought them back to the classroom to raise. Carol infused lessons on this species into her biology class because of the curiosity of her River Watch kids. After the High Park fire in 2012, there was so much ash in the Poudre River that it really impacted their water quality data. Then, following the post-fire flood in 2013, there were no more bullfrogs in the river!

“Students were curious about things when they could study patterns and ask their own questions. The High Park fire created a lot of interesting questions. Comparing two water sources always produced questions! When students ask their own questions, they dig deeper into the subject and their curiosity inspires learning.”

Learning Outside

“When students read about something, they might learn something about it. However, putting your hands and feet in it, feeling it, and walking with it creates personal knowledge through experience and brings a passion to the learning that will never be forgotten.”

Carol explains that it is much easier to create bookwork lessons than it is to manage authentic science experiences whether they are in-class labs or outdoor field work. Additionally, there are so many barriers these days to getting kids outdoors that teachers often give up. Between composing a permission slip with all the legal requirements included, and then collecting them back from every student; the near impossibility of getting a bus at the times they are needed, and then finding the money to pay for them; figuring out a way to cover classes or students who are not attending the field trip; pushback from other teachers, parents, or administrators who don’t understand the value of the field trip, it’s a wonder we get kids outside at all anymore! Carol managed to do it consistently.

“Field work feeds the teacher’s soul!” Carol exclaims with excitement. “The payback is tremendous! Barriers fall away when I feel the students’ excitement during the trip, and hear kids talking on the bus saying things like, “Why don’t we do this more often?”

Finding Opportunities

Carol was always looking for new opportunities to learn herself, which led her to new opportunities for her students. During the Chronic Wasting Disease outbreak in Colorado mule deer, the Colorado Division of Wildlife offered a few teachers the opportunity to assist with field research, and Carol jumped at the chance. Feeling the blast of helicopter blades overhead as a mule deer in a net was lowered gently for inspection by a wildlife veterinarian was an adrenaline rush she won’t forget.

Later, her biology students got to participate in a wildlife research simulation on the CSU campus by taking fake blood samples from a mule deer model with a CSU graduate student teaching them the protocols.  Because the field experience was so powerful, the students were excited to learn and apply statistics and radio telemetry through hands-on activities at CSU.

“Once people know you like to do extra things, they reach out to you,” Carol says. “I had a lot of people contacting me through the years asking if I wanted to join this or that research.”

Through a GK12 grant opportunity, Carol had 4 graduate researchers from CSU paired with her classes. She traveled to the Arctic for summer research through this connection, and her students were benefitting by having the researcher in the classroom. One of the grad students helped her develop field research protocols for studying plants, insects, and soil nitrogen which she implemented with her classes in a microhabitat study. One parent wrote a note, “My daughter won’t be going because she is afraid of spiders.” Carol managed to convince the parent and the student that she should attend, and through exposure and experience, the student’s fear of spiders was at least abated if not overcome.

“Knowing who students are and developing relationships with them was the most important aspect of my teaching,” Carol claims. “It was easier to develop those relationships when we had authentic experiences together.”

“I found new things to involve myself in, often paying my own way for new opportunities.” For example, Carol took herself to the University of Pittsburgh for three summers to learn how to be a phage hunter! Tuberculosis bacterium are becoming drug resistant, and bacteriophages are the next idea in countering this disease. She was able to train her students to look for and isolate new phages from Colorado soils, and her AP biology students sent several novel phages to contribute to the bioinformatic genomic database at the University of Pittsburgh.

Collaboration

“There is power and possibility in collaboration.” Carol has always been inspired by other teachers and her students. Her partnerships in her school and her community were what kept her ideas flowing. “I was able to endure as a teacher because I was sharing the challenges with other teachers. I never did any of this by myself!” Carol lists dozens of names of those who shared her challenges, her joys, and her students.

Community connections were important resources for Carol. In 1994, she took the Master Naturalist training through the City of Fort Collins. She became passionate about birds, and saw opportunities for more field work with her students. She was good at grant writing, and procured a classroom set of binoculars and bird books as well as bus money for field trips. Her biology classes learned bird identification, and during spring migration they would go out together and look for birds. Carol still participates in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count.

“I still have former students come up to me in the grocery store and tell me which birds they saw this week!”

Connecting her high school students with elementary schools was another collaboration she enjoyed. “When kids teach kids, the happiness is infectious!” Her anatomy/physiology students would teach a heart or lung dissection to elementary students every year. Elementary teachers would contact her with the news that the school PTO had already set aside the money for the hearts for the next year right after her students completed the lessons.

Another collaboration was when her high school students designed and built traps for mountain pine beetles. They brought the traps to a tree farm up Rist Canyon and worked with Stove Prairie Elementary students to set the traps and collect the beetles for a field study. Place-based learning is important to Carol. Figuring out what is happening in our own backyard helps us to act locally to solve important problems. Making science real usually involves looking and wondering close to home.

Continuing Learning Outdoors

One of Carol’s students, Cassia Rye, entered an essay contest. The prize involved the student and teacher getting to take SCUBA lessons and spending time at the underwater research station Aquarius in the Florida Keys. Carol had never considered diving, having a bit of a fear factor. However, when Cassie won, Carol could not back down! The tables were turned. The teacher became the student. They dove together in the Keys, and even met three NASA astronauts 60 feet below the ocean on the Aquarius. A new outdoor experience led to even more underwater exploring that continues to this day.

Just because Carol is retired from classroom teaching does not mean she is retired from teaching! Carol participated in Monarch Watch with her students for 20 years, with her students raising caterpillars in the classroom. Students could observe how hormones change caterpillars into butterflies just as they move humans through puberty. “Peoples’ appreciation grows as they wonder about things. Studying monarchs is an interesting way to gain that wonder and appreciation for our planet.” Now, Carol has 12 families in her neighborhood participating in Monarch Watch! Together, they plant milkweed and raise monarch caterpillars. She continues to spread the love of science and is helping to create life-long learners in her community.

How can you give your students authentic field experiences?

What opportunities have you found lately to expand your knowledge?

Who can you collaborate with?

“Life is eternally fascinating! Challenge yourself!”

-Carol Seemueller

By Victoria Jordan

“We tried hard to understand the Faraday reaction in this journal article, but we aren’t sure how that affects how much the system will reduce nitrogen oxides in diesel emissions,” explains Anna Kumar and Lucia Noel to an attentive classroom of fellow high school students. “We want to find a way to change everyday materials to make them more efficient and eco-friendly.”

Questions abound following the students’ presentation of a scientific paper to their classmates.

“What are the big take-aways from this paper that will assist you in your research?”

“Is there an environmental aspect of this research that could have a negative future impact?”

“Why are there three Y-axes on the graph?”

“What was it like for you to try to understand this paper?”

Students in Dr. Paul Strode’s Science Research Seminar (SRS) class are learning how to become scientists and engineers in their own right. Dr. Strode explains, “Fundamental knowledge needs to be understood, but for success in research you must learn specific techniques, targeted concepts, and explicit details about your topic that are not part of a regular curriculum. I don’t think my students fully grasp how ‘not normal’ this class is!”

Dr. Paul Strode earned his teaching license in Indiana while majoring in biochemistry at the small college in the town where he grew up. He taught high school near Seattle, Washington, for several years before moving to Illinois for his Ph.D. in Ecology and Environmental Science at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. In 2004 he and his wife, Dr. Sarah Zerwin, and their then 1-year-old daughter, Jane, moved to Boulder, Colorado, for her Ph.D. in English Education. Paul and Sarah now both teach at Fairview High School in South Boulder! In all of his biology classes, but especially SRS, Paul’s goal is for his students to learn to think, talk, and write like real scientists. “If they internalize that, when they talk about their projects to others, they will be understood, and they will be on their way to a future STEM career.”

Let’s see how Paul makes this happen!

Think Like a Scientist

Paul engages students by figuring out what makes them curious about the natural world. “I meet the students coming into next year’s class in May before school lets out for the summer. I give them an assignment to explore science topics over the summer to hone in on their interests. They each pick a non-fiction science book to read over the summer. Then, we have a book talk in September when school resumes, and they get to hear about more topics than perhaps they explored on their own.”

Thinking like a scientist involves understanding process and product. To that end, Paul doesn’t use a textbook in his classes. Instead, he pulls current scientific journal articles, and has students dive into them. They study the methods and materials used in the papers, digging through the technical writing to find details about the process of conducting research. They also compare a variety of papers from different journals on the same topic to answer the question, “What are common elements of the scientific process?”

Data and error analysis skills are essential in science so Paul breaks the class into 4 teams. Each team is given a research paper that uses a different statistical analysis technique; for example: t-Test, ANOVA, or correlation and regression. Students work together to learn the tests and then teach them to their classmates. “Making sense of data allows his students to not only practice science authentically, but also allows them to become constructive, concerned, and reflective citizens,” Paul says. To help with data analysis he has written a 70-page guide for high school students on statistical analysis called, Making Sense of Data: A Statistics Survival Guide.

Talk Like a Scientist

Teaching students how to think like a scientist is challenging. In the process, they begin to understand how to talk like scientists because they are using journal articles with partners and teams and discussing scientific processes and products. Then, they present their findings to the class while receiving real-time feedback from Paul and their classmates.

Scaffolding the learning is key. At first, students are daunted by the technical writing in journals. As they dissect each article, however, they build confidence and begin to see patterns. Paul brings in guest speakers who are professional scientists and engineers and also former students who are pursuing degrees in STEM, and the students experience how scientists talk about their research. Listening to real experts is inspiring because of their enthusiam for their subjects is contagious!

Write Like a Scientist

“The high school lab report does not exist in STEM fields,” Paul laments. “Is it necessary for students to write so many lab reports in their class for an audience of one, the teacher? Instead, students could be spending their time writing research questions that can be tested, differentiating between predictions and hypotheses, designing their own experiments, keeping a science journal, analyzing data, and maybe writing two technical papers styled after professional journal articles.”

Early in the semester in his Science Research Seminar class, students have narrowed down their research topic, and work to generate testable questions, create hypotheses, and begin to think about experiments. At each step, they write as though they are submitting their research to be published in a journal. Throughout this process, students contact scientists and engineers that might be willing to serve as a mentor. Many of the potential mentors have worked with Paul’s students in the past and have learned to trust that Paul has prepared the students to think, talk, and write like scientists, and the students are eager to begin.

Dr. Ryan Langendorf is one such mentor. He has been working with Paul’s students since 2014, and says, “Mentoring gives me such hope for our future. These young people develop fun projects that allow me to grow through collaborative discovery! Paul has an insane amount of success with his students. He maintains his composure through challenges and is relentlessly calm. I wish there were more Pauls out there!”

Paul stresses to his students, “If you can’t write in science, it doesn’t matter what you’ve discovered or what new knowledge you have to share; no one will publish it!” Paul spends hours giving feedback on writing, coaching students through problems, and helping them find resources. One of the most unique aspects of Paul’s class is that the students conduct their research on their own time, not during class. Class time is for honing their scientific communication skills. “Often the most difficult thing for students to write is their introduction because it requires them to weave together numerous previously published facts and ideas about how the natural world works. The students must be creative and hook the reader while being concise. By the time they are writing their technical papers, they have seen so many professional papers that they can model their writing off of others.”

Results

Paul’s students have many outlets for publishing their research to an audience that goes beyond the single classroom teacher. All of them submit their research to Regional and State Science and Engineering Fairs. Some students choose to submit their work to the national Journal of Emerging Investigators. And, at the end of the school year, they present their work at a symposium that Paul and his colleagues at several other District high schools organize. There students share their research with other high school students, teachers, and parents. Paul also has recently started publishing a Fairview High School Journal of Science Research as well, and includes all the students’ research papers professionally formatted to honor  their year of dedicated research.

“The students’ research projects are not for an audience of one, the teacher. Everything they do is for a bigger audience, whether it be presenting to their peers or to judges at the Science and Engineering Fair. The end goal is not a grade for the class or even a ribbon. The end goal is much bigger: self-fulfillment and authentic experience in science,” Paul explains.

Over the years, Paul’s students have received top awards at their Regional Science and Engineering Fair and  also at the state’s Colorado Science and Engineering Fair (CSEF) run by the Natural Sciences Education and Outreach Center at Colorado State University. Many of his students have had the highest honor of presenting their work at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). He is proud of the continued work that many of these students are doing. Many people are surprised at the types of research his high school students are doing in chemistry, physics, biology, microbiology, geology, engineering, and environmental science. “When students are motivated and interested in something, we can help them work on the fundamentals, but then we need to just get out of their way!” he claims.

“Logan Collins entered the science fair every year in high school and took the SRS class three times in a row. As a junior his project was awarded Best in Show at both the Regional and State Science and Engineering Fairs and Best in Category at ISEF.”

“At ISEF he also received an award to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden. He is now doing doctoral research at the University of Colorado, but it all started when high school Logan figured out a way to cause a bacterium to take in a plasmid that he designed that kept the bacteria busy making nonsense proteins, eventually killing them. It is a potential solution to antibiotic resistance! Doing research in high school supported by a class with other like-minded students gave him what he needed to find his passion and flourish.”

“Vanessa Haggans studied nutrient availability in tundra plants to determine if nutrients were limiting factors. She went on to Dartmouth College for a double major in economics and environmental science. She is now planning to take her science literacy and research skills to law school.” Vanessa recently returned to Fairview and presented her research to Paul’s students.

“Science is such a broad subject,” says current student, Zachariah Nagle, “that we never get to explore our niche interests. Dr. Strode changes all that!”

“Dr. Strode gives us support, helps us work through difficult material, and guides us so we have a clue how to do science,” adds Pragnya Pilli.

Imagine: How would the world be different if every student was at one time a researcher who learned how to think, talk, and write like a scientist?

If you are a student, how can YOU start a research project? If you are a researcher, what can YOU do to mentor a student? If you are a teacher, what can YOU do to develop lessons in your classroom to teach students how to think, talk, and write like scientists? It’s worth the effort!

Please visit Dr. Paul Strode’s amazing website at: https://fah.bvsd.org/about/staff/science/paul-strode

Find information about the Colorado Science and Engineering Fair here: https://csef.natsci.colostate.edu/

and the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair here: https://www.societyforscience.org/isef/

by Victoria Jordan

From Geologist to Videographer

Clinker is the result of coal seams catching on fire and baking the surrounding rock layers into brick-like cliffs and ridgetops. Herb Saperstone’s first job as a US Geological Survey (USGS) geologist in the early 1980’s was to map clinker to identify more accurately the thickness and quality of coal in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.  This field experience was one of many Herb had with both the USGS and industry that laid the groundwork for his future endeavors in geoscience.

“When I was getting my Master’s Degree at CSU in geology in 1982, I had already accumulated several years of academic and field experience from working for the USGS in Denver, so finding my thesis topic was easy for me. I studied 300 million-year-old aeolian rock (ancient sand dunes) in Montana, looking at the source and nature of the sandstones and focusing on their economic potential for hydrocarbon exploration.  The most cited researcher in my thesis was aeolian expert Steve Fryberger. I finally got to meet him in 2022, 40 years later. The story of our meeting takes many twists and turns along the way!”

1986 saw a major downturn in hiring in the energy exploration sector. It was also the year Saperstone graduated from CSU.  So…despite his strong background in geology and extensive field work, he transitioned to science education bringing his passion and knowledge as a working scientist to the K-12 classroom. His life-changing experience happened when two television journalists from Denver taught a week-long class at Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) on “Natural History Video Production.” He lugged a 20-pound VHS camera around the park and learned script writing, storyboarding, interviewing experts, video editing, filming in the field, and audio sweetening (adding music). Naturally, Herb tapped into his geology background. His very first video was a story on the alluvial fan created by the 1982 Lawn Lake flood in RMNP. This video was a pivot point in his life. Scott Resources, a northern Colorado educational supply company, hired him to write scripts for their educational videos based on the Lawn Lake story. A career was born.

Collaboration is Key

“I was so proud of my first educational video. It was over an hour long and chock-full of important information. When I took it to classroom science teacher, Eric Miller for review, I was devastated because Eric said he wouldn’t use it in his classroom. Then, he walked me through my creation and showed me why. I will never again make an educational video without a teacher by my side! Learning the technology was easy. Applying pedagogy is not. Learning how to bring content to life for kids is hard.”

For Herb, everything was a learning curve. He didn’t go to school for this. He enlisted Eric Miller to work with him on over 20 educational videos for Scott Resources with titles like Fossils, Vanishing Forests,  Faulting and Folding, The Rock Cycle, and Thunderstorms: Nature’s Fury. He would go into Mr. Miller’s class and watch students watching videos to see what engaged them. He talked to teachers to find out what they needed. He was constantly growing through collaboration.

“A US Fish and Wildlife Service colleague, Erlene Swann, showed me how to take a script and craft a story with it. The power of story-telling changed everything!” Herb graciously recognizes the people who have influenced him over the years.  Even today, people he meets who were in middle school in the early 1990’s who remember these videos – well before the age of YouTube and streaming video.

When Herb was hired by Poudre School District in 1998, he took another giant leap. “Warren Berman, the director of the district’s educational cable TV channel (PSD-TV), taught me everything I know about how to create engaging content that people will watch.” Herb’s application of the story arc was born. “When the content is story-based, there is engagement- there’s human interest! I had to find an angle that people can relate to.” He also connected the content he created to local stories. More collaborative partnerships developed as he made connections with teachers, scientists, and historians in the area.

Getting Kids Involved

“The projects I am most proud of are the ones where kids were involved.” Herb worked with Brian Jones from the Little Shop of Physics at CSU to produce a series of  kids’ science show on PSDTV, called “Everyday Science.” Elementary and Middle School students would do experiments with Jones, and the process of science in action would come alive as students used data to draw conclusions.

In another monthly show, “Walking Through the Water Year,” students of all ages became meteorologists telling the story of weather and climate through a collaboration with Nolan Doesken, former CSU State Climatologist and CoCoRaHS, a citizen science weather-watching organization. High school and college student interns gained experience as videographers, scriptwriters, and editors in the production room. “I don’t get to see the impact of most of my work,” Herb laments. “But, with the shows where students were directly involved, I got to experience the learning, the joy, the frustration, and finally the understanding through the students’ eyes.”

The Evolution of a Master

Herb epitomizes life-long learning. VHS equipment was heavy, huge, and cumbersome, but that did not prevent Herb from lugging cameras, tripods, and battery belts in the field. Laser disc technology required a new skill set involving computers and coding, so he figured that out. When Herb taught a geology course at Front Range Community College in the mid 1990’s, he created a website with links to some of his educational videos, but most students did not have computer access at the time, so the website was rarely used by his students. Herb coaxed teachers into the digital age in the beginning of the new century, teaching classes on digital image and video editing.

More recently, he has created a 360 video production for the Museum of Discovery’s Digital Dome Theater in Fort Collins: Melody of our Landscapes and has recently completed an interactive 360 VR website for Dinosaur Ridge, an outdoor earth science museum near Golden, Colorado. He still enjoys creating virtual reality productions, but focuses his time on projects that everyone can access. VR requires an investment in hardware that many  schools and individuals can’t afford. After all, “story” is paramount, and in his world, video does that best. Throughout each of these technology revolutions, Herb reconnects teachers, students, and community members to their natural world through the use of the new media.  Herb is still passionate about science, and particularly geology. While Saperstone has never left his roots, he continues to grow new branches along the way.

Community Partnerships

When the Larimer County Department of Natural Resources needed a geologist to lead some of their nature walks, Herb volunteered. This is one of the few times when he leaves his camera gear at home. He likes to immerse himself in the experience of being with the people who have signed up for the hike. Herb values his community partnerships, having created videos for the City of Fort Collins on diverse topics like groundwater contamination, accessibility to Natural Areas, or explaining how electricity is generated in our area.  He’s even partnered with the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery to tell the story of the black-footed ferret recovery in northern Colorado. “My pursuit is to make meaningful stories with local connections that help people understand our natural world.” Herb is a master at that.

Back to the Beginning

Herb recently earned his FAA license as the next step in his pursuit of video story telling using camera-equipped drones. When a renowned expert on aeolian dunes showed up at Lory State Park asking for a local geologist, the park contacted Herb. Lo and behold, it was Steve Fryberger, the researcher that Herb had cited in his Master’s thesis decades prior! The two struck up a friendship, and are now research partners, with Herb using his drone to capture outcrop images not possible from the ground. With his abilities to tell a scientific story in a unique way, the student has now become the teacher, and the evolution of a master continues.

Visit Herb’s website at herbsearth.com to explore even more.

Watch some of Herb’s videos at this Vimeo link to enjoy his exciting work.

By Victoria Jordan

“Mommy! Come and check this out!” Squeals of delight surround me as I walk into a magical place where generations explore together. Toddlers crawl through an underground maze, poking their heads up into the railyard filled with Thomas the Tank trains. A grandmother helps a child build a satellite while exploring earth and space transportation.

A youngster shoots a spray of water in an interactive display, trying to hit a target while learning hydraulics.

A mother plays a piano while her son beats a rhythm on a drum set.

A college class hopes a live ferret will peek out of a prairie dog tunnel exhibit while listening to a biologist explain how techniques developed locally to save black-footed ferrets are now helping rhinos and other endangered species. Where is this place that brings people of all ages together to explore science, art, and history? And, how did this magical place come to be? Meet the inspiration for the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery, Dee Wanger and her supportive spouse, Mark.

Build It and They Will Come

How did this tree of learning grow? Dee Wanger planted the seed in the 1980s. When Dee visited the Children’s Museum in Houston she was inspired to create a place in Northern Colorado that would bring people together to explore science with hands-on, engaging exhibits. Friends told Dee, “If you start a children’s museum, I will serve as a volunteer.” Since the internet had not yet been born, Dee looked in the yellow pages for examples of hands-on museums to find stories of how to begin and to find a formula, which did not exist. People she spoke to told her to, “Go with what your community will support.” Dee and a group of volunteers designed some transportable exhibits and took them to the 4^th of July celebration and the first New West Fest, and generated excitement for the idea. The University Mall donated space in an empty store as a draw for customers. Mark joined the Exhibits Committee and helped to design and build exhibits. A slew of volunteers gave time, expertise and resources, and the Discovery Center was born.

Partnerships Are Important

As the excitement for a science museum grew, so did the collaborations. “The atmosphere throughout the nation in the 1990’s really supported science and community engagement in a non-competitive manner,” Dee says. Over 200 museums started in every State during this time, and people at the Exploratorium in San Francisco and other places shared their professional exhibits with each other to help expand what the local volunteers had already created. Poudre School District donated space at Barton Elementary, Hewlett Packard and Advanced Energy had volunteers serve on the Board of Directors, donated matching grants, and encouraged employees to help create exhibits. “The community clearly wanted access to great things!” Once the snowball started to roll, it became a “feather in your cap” to be involved, and the momentum brought in leaders, businesses, scouts and schools. “So many people were willing to be worker bees that the talent pool of grassroots volunteers was astounding!” Dee says. “One of the partnerships was with a designer of professional exhibits, and that was when our impact exploded. Things like color and placement of objects and creating themes turned us into a truly professional museum.”

Another theme is the history of agriculture in the Fort Collins area.

Growing Pains

“As the tree grew, we hired arborists to shape it,” Dee explains. Professionals and staff were hired to create, care for, and manage the exhibits. Mark shifted some of his energy to an electric bike trailer project, and Dee stepped back some to manage health concerns. But, they couldn’t stay away for long. “There has been a Wanger on the Board for at least 14 years!” Mark says. Dee returned to manage the astronomy Star Lab program. She also tried to create a kit check out program. “Some of the things we tried were unsustainable,” Dee says. Mark adds, “If you don’t succeed, don’t quit; just shift!” Many exhibits had false starts, but some of the ideas from the early days still exist in the museum to this day.

One of A Kind

In an unprecedented move, the Fort Collins History Museum and the Discovery Center merged to become the Fort Collins Museum of Discovery in 2012. There was city support for the infrastructure as well as a non-profit corporation to receive grants and donations. Companies can support an exhibit to boost their prestige and give back to the community, and there is a stable foundation for operations with a tax base. “The new building opened on my daughter’s birthday,” Dee says, “and she got married in the new FCMoD!”

Traveling exhibits like this one on energy and the environment are paid for by donations from local companies. People of all ages are fully engaged in the exhibits.

Follow Your Passion

“I didn’t feel encouraged to pursue science or math as a girl,” Dee says. “One of my teachers told me to consider studying chemistry, and another told me to look into ophthalmology. But I didn’t believe science was accessible to me. I wanted my daughters to have fun with science, and to see that it was accessible to them if they desired a career in science.”

Mark adds, “Asking ‘I wonder’ at the dinner table led to so many exploratory conversations, it inspired us to do little things. All the little things added up to bigger things. The little things gave us confidence to keep trying.” Dee chimes in, “The dream comes out of the process. We followed our passions in the moment, kept shifting, and ended up creating many, many dreams.” Truly, the Wanger partnership continues to impact our community.

Have you ever had one of those lightbulb moments? A good idea can become a great idea in a flash! Every day offers a new opportunity to rethink the future. And, tomorrow is up to YOU.

By Victoria Jordan

Station reports from the CoCoRaHS website:

“KY-LG-10 (12/13/2021)- Community trying to recover from Sunday morning tornado. Lots of damaged trees down, barns destroyed, houses damaged with roofs blown off, garage doors buckled, trees on cars, and houses, travel trailers and motor homes blown over. Probably excess of 100 fatalities – 10 known in joining county. A mile of 3 phase electric lines down-poles twisted and snapped.”

“Dear CoCoRaHS,

My home was destroyed in the recent tornado in Kentucky. My rain gauge vanished like Dorothy’s house. I will have to stop reporting my data for awhile.”

What IS CoCoRaHS?

CoCoRaHS is the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. It is a non-profit, community-based network of volunteers who measure and report rain, hail, and snow in their backyards. CoCoRaHS is the brainchild of Nolan Doesken, retired Colorado State Climatologist. You can read more about the history of CoCoRaHS, check out the data, maps, and educational materials here: https://cocorahs.org/

What CoCoRaHS really is goes beyond the network of over 25,000 volunteer reporters from every State, Canada, Puerto Rico, Bahamas and the Virgin Islands, and its hundreds of users of the data, including The National Weather Service, other meteorologists, hydrologists, emergency managers, city utilities (water supply, water conservation, storm water), insurance adjusters, USDA, engineers, mosquito control, ranchers and farmers, outdoor & recreation interests, teachers, students, and neighbors in the community. Yes, it is all that. But, what cannot be captured in the data is the teamwork, collaboration, and sense of community that brings people together in this seemingly simple citizen science program.

“Nothing I have ever done has resulted in so many friendly collaborations, all with just a simple backyard rain gauge!” says Nolan Doesken, the charismatic founder and backbone of the network. “Our youngest volunteers are 4-5 years old (with parental help), and our oldest is 103.” Nolan writes personal welcome letters to at least 20 applicants each month, and his newsletters contain both scientific information and personal notes about life on the farm that keep volunteers begging for more.

“Dear CoCoRaHS,

My husband recently passed on. For the past many years, he got up every morning at 6:45 so that he could check the rain gauge and report his data. You kept him going. Now, my children want to take the gauge and teach their children how to report data and maintain a connection with Grandpa. How can we transfer his account over to them?”

CoCoRaHS Creates Scientists

As volunteers enter their data, they have an opportunity to comment.

“AL-MG-17 (09/19/2021) –  Rain continued throughout the night. The air is humid but cool this morning. Interestingly, we have 5 garden spider webs around the house. The most before was 2. They all appeared over just the last week or so.”

CO-LR-676 (03/15/21) – 1.62” moisture, snowpack depth 26”; The new snow amount is just an estimate because of drifting. It is likely more due to compacting. I had to go out a window to get to the rain gauge. Snow blocked the door.

“It amazes me how dedicated people are to the process,” says Noah Newman, education specialist with CoCoRaHS. One person wrote that CoCoRaHS is helping them stay sober with their AA commitment because they can’t get up to check the rain gauge at 7:00 am if they are hungover. When Nolan and Noah were trying to fill in some blank spots on the map by recruiting volunteers, one observer told them, “Come on over for dinner. I’ll put you in touch with our County Commissioner.”

One of the highlights for Nolan was when the White House installed a CoCoRaHS gauge in Michelle Obama’s  White House garden, and staff members were reporting the new station data. The Washington Post used their data in their daily weather reports while the station was operated. Nolan was honored at the White House science fair reception that year, and was photo-bombed by Bill Nye!

Noah works with K-12 schools across Colorado and the nation to develop lesson plans that allow students to become scientists. “I have many star teachers that have students report data throughout the school year, and some kids end up starting a station at their house. One particular teacher works at a juvenile detention facility in Oregon. The kids are so proud to be able to report data and learn atmospheric science. One graduate used his CoCoRaHS certificate to help him land a job as a forest firefighter.”

Motivation

CoCoRaHS has one of the largest volunteer networks of any citizen science program. With a 60% retention rate, they rank among the top programs in the nation. Consistency with the staff over the decades has been a key component to the success of the program. In a recent study to determine what motivates volunteers to continue reporting, many people commented on the value Nolan brings to CoCoRaHS.

“I’m reporting data because I was asked to do it by Nolan.”

“My brother roped me in, and I just keep doing it because I’m reminded in the newsletters and blurbs on the site how important the data is.”

“I love Nolan and his newsletter!”

Noah adds that, “CoCoRaHS is a bit ‘gamified’ because each rain event is different, every day the map looks different, and it builds curiosity.” Reporting really took off during Covid because people were stuck at home. “We provided a way for people to be involved in their community in a positive manner, doing something that actually matters.”

What About the Data?

“Without CoCoRaHS, we would not have neighborhood-scale data,” Nolan says. Precipitation is so variable in the span of neighborhoods, that the goal is to have one rain gauge every square mile in urban and one every 36 square miles in rural areas across the nation. “One unique aspect of having this much coverage means that we can replace time with space to gather enough data to adjust historic averages,” Nolan adds. They have done statistical analyses in several parts of the country, and have found that if they have 10 or more volunteers reporting regularly in a 10 mile radius, they only need 2 years of precipitation data to equal the value of 100 years of data from a single “official” weather station. “It doesn’t line up quite right on the extreme ends of the data,” Nolan clarifies, “but, for things like the historic averages and 100 or 500 year weather events, it works great.”

When NASA was still launching space shuttles, they needed to find a way to figure out if hail was damaging the tiles on the shuttle while it was sitting on the launch pad. CoCoRaHS to the rescue! The hail pads that are used, simply heavy-duty aluminum foil covering a square of 1” Styrofoam, are able to record enough data in a hail event to allow scientists to determine whether the shuttle can fly. Insurance companies can use the data to determine car and roof damage, as well.

Quality Control of the data is a big concern, and a lot of manpower is put into ensuring that volunteer data is reasonable and accurate. Coordinators throughout the nation monitor State data, and continue to educate volunteers whenever they notice mistakes. “We have an endless supply of new people who make the same old mistakes,” Noah says. “Data entry has decimal point mistakes. Snow depth gets tricky with wind and drifts. People often read their gauge correctly but enter the wrong day or time.”

“We are in an interesting time, with everything going digital,” Nolan says. “Raindrop spacing, drop size, wind all make a difference to the catch. But, what we have found over the years is that our CoCoRaHS rain gauge provides the most accurate data of any type of precipitation measurement device.” He is hopeful that the new generation of scientists and volunteers will be committed to continuing to use the manual gauge. “Being out in the weather allows people to have a rich experience. Every drop counts.”

You can count, too. Visit the CoCoRaHS website https://cocorahs.org/ to purchase a gauge, apply for a station number, find lesson plans, attend an online or in person training, make a donation, and study the maps. Join the CoCoRaHS Juggernaut!

Listen to the original CoCoRaHS song by Dewey Longuski and lyrics by CoCoRaHS volunteer Ann Donoghue (CO-LR-36):
https://media.cocorahs.org/video/ComeHailOrHighWater.mp3

By Victoria Jordan

Dr. Stephen Thompson, Explorer

Microtornadoes, microstalagtites, and microhurricanes are beautiful 3-dimensional gaseous structures created by chemical reactions in Dr. Stephen Thompson’s laboratory. In order to facilitate his explorations of molecular fields, Dr. Thompson built microscopes himself that include high resolution video with fiber optic connectors and various lasers to study chemical reactions on the fly as they take place.

He is exploring anthocyanins (colorful plant pigments) using spectroscopy and chromatography to find mathematical patterns. He is conducting microfluidic electrophoresis of anthocyanins by taping sewing pins onto a microscope slide so he can watch and film the process as it happens under the microscope.

Dr. Thompson is using capillary tubes to view aerosols for experiments with colored lasers, transferring large scale experiments to small scale where the observations can take place on a molecular level. His passion for exploration is never-ending.

Small Scale Chemistry

Dr. Thompson is best known for his groundbreaking development of Small-Scale Chemistry to promote student-centered inquiry in college level chemistry classes. In the 1990’s, he co-wrote a grant to create the Center for Science, Mathematics and Technology Education (CSMATE) at Colorado State University, and helped to design a modern college experiential studio where he utilized Small Scale Chemistry methodologies that encouraged students to learn science by doing science. Thompson shared his educational philosophy through the lens of Small-Scale Chemistry to K-16 public school teachers by offering numerous professional development courses funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and others.  The collaborative partnerships’ that Thompson nurtured with public school teachers helped to transform the way an entire generation of science teachers and their students experienced learning and exploring science.

Tim Lenczycki, a high school chemistry teacher, is one of many teachers that have adopted small scale practices. Tim says, “Dr. Thompson is not only a spell-binding lecturer, but his expertise as an educator really shines one-on-one.  He truly finds importance in student opinions and honestly values their insights.  He empowers students in their own knowledge and skillfully leads them to higher levels of understanding.  I have not met a person who is more well-read than Steve Thomson.  Coupled with his vastly varied other pursuits, he is an authentic renaissance man.”

Dr. Thompson attempted to influence University science education away from the business model where hundreds of students can be packed into a lecture hall to more of an experiential model in which students could scientifically explore natural patterns with guidance from the instructor.  In Thompson’s model the teacher takes on the role of mentor, thus learning becomes a partnership with his students.  His college text, ChemTrek, has been translated into several languages, and is used extensively in Asia. Thompson has carried out workshops in Korea, Japan and Thailand to broadcast small scale approaches across the globe.

The value of Thompson’s Small-Scale Chemistry methodologies are even embraced by schools that have not had the opportunity to learn his student-centered pedagogy.  “Asian schools doing chemistry who were using traditional methods of teaching were generating large amounts of hazardous waste, and they adopted Small Scale Chemistry in order to solve some environmental problems they were having with hazardous waste management in schools and universities. It also happens to save millions of dollars,” Steve says. Small Scale Chemistry allows every student to design and carry out their own experiments using multiple iterations, partly because there is little waste and a huge cost savings. Additionally, Small Scale Chemistry is much safer than traditional chemistry labs that use large glassware and high volumes of potentially dangerous chemicals. Dr. Thompson earned recognition for eliminating accidents in the lab during his tenure at CSU.

Every teacher who has gone through one of Steve’s trainings takes away the importance of student exploration and engagement. A Thompson lesson typically starts with introducing students to a natural phenomenon, which is followed by guided exploration and finally open inquiry.  This process nurtures a student’s ability to discover natural patterns by asking questions and designing experiments.  The hands-on approach also encourages students to think critically about what they claim as knowledge.  “How do you know that?” is one of Steve’s mantras. Getting students to think, to ask questions, and to try to find answers is his forte. “Small scale isn’t just about reducing the size of the experiment. It’s about how teachers and students approach the learning.”

On the Shoulders of Giants

Dr. Thompson surrounds himself with inspiration, and has a very extensive private scientific library. “I am a student of the history and philosophy of science,” he says. “I have every book written on the history of laboratories, and I have an incredible collection of books regarding women in science, astronomy, biology and chemistry. Scientists are people with stories, and I want to know who these people were.” For example, a German scientist, Rafael Liesegang, wrote a paper in 1896 about diffusion gels. Thousands of people reference this work, but very few have ever studied it directly. During the Covid lockdown, Steve translated all 53 pages from the original German to English.  Thompson and colleague Dr. Patrick Shipman are extending Liesegang’s work and developing mathematical models for the pattern systems from that original work.

When Steve looked at the literature from the 1890’s regarding the chemistry of anthocyanin pigments, he analyzed the works of 2 Nobel scientists: British organic chemist, Sir Robert Robinson and a German chemist, Richard Willstatter. Steve found that Willstatter grew flowers by the acre in Berlin and extracted the anthocyanins to analyze their structure. Steve is exploring the concept that anthocyanin associations influence flower color, odor and pollination ecology, and has assisted graduate students including Dr. Wei Yu who recently completed a thesis project on this topic. Steve has taken all the data he can find in the literature, plus his own data, and is coming up with new conclusions and new experiments.

Steve’s work on teaching the chemistry of climate change has been inspired by his favorite chemist, John Tyndall. In an 1880’s book Heat: A Mode of Motion, Tyndall explored climate change by examining the transmission of energy in the form of heat. Steve has taken Tyndall’s original experiments and is translating them to a small-scale version using micro-encapsulated liquid crystal mylar systems to model and explore energy transfer.

Dr. Thompson is never alone in his lab. He always brings scientists past and present into his work. Currently he is working with 2 graduate students as they complete research projects. One is examining the fundamental chemistry of why sinkholes are forming in Horsetooth Reservoir. The other is exploring anthocyanins as phytophoto protection for newly forming organelles in plants. Dr. Thompson loves being a researcher and a teacher, and has no plans to stop doing either.

From Then to Now

Born in a small mining town in northern England, Dr. Thompson earned his PhD from the University of Birmingham, England. From there, he dropped out of academia to grow bananas and play tennis on St. Vincent in the West Indies. When he decided to re-enter society, he came to America on a post-doc fellowship to the University of Arizona in Tuscon, and then became an Assistant Professor at the Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland. When a professor at Colorado State University saw him eating fire at a demonstration in 1969, he reached out and said, “I think you would be a great teacher in our freshman courses,” and Steve never looked back.

Dr. Thompson claims his methods are not special. “If you want to find out what’s going on, you have to start with what you know. All we do in science is take something we don’t know anything about and put it next to something we know something about and find the similarity.

The history of science is really the history of containers,” he claims. When he first started teaching chemistry at CSU, everyone was using large amounts of chemicals in large containers to prove a concept. “Now that we are working on the molecular level to explain and prove concepts, we can use very small amounts of materials in very small containers. Take a drop of water. In that drop, there are billions of molecules to study!” Steve exclaims.

True to his nature, Thompson studied another English scientist, Michael Faraday. Faraday viewed chemical reactions as molecular fields in the early 1800’s. Small Scale Chemistry came out of the methodologies Faraday used as an experimenter, and Steve’s perusal of Faraday’s notebooks helped him create his methods. A S³TAR was born. The S³TAR (Small Scale Science- Teachers As Researchers) program brought together middle and high school science teachers to learn Small Scale methodologies in summer programs, and those teachers went on to train their departments, influencing an entire generation of science teachers.

The Future

Smart Scale Sustainable Science and Mathematics (S⁴M) is Steve’s latest iteration of how he would like to see science and math taught in schools. “The walls that separate the traditional sciences are beginning to crumble. The compartmentalization of the disciplines needs to go away, and mathematics, the language of science, is the thread that ties them all together.”

The pandemic brought to light all the failings of the educational system, and Thompson is currently researching better ways to get students to learn, to explore, and to embrace science and math. “The fundamental problem is that most classrooms are lecture-based. We need to infuse phenomena and exploration into every lesson. Experimental work is disappearing in classrooms, and I am hopeful that S⁴M can do away with lecture and provide ways for 100% of the students to engage in explorations of their world 100% of the time.” He is working on a book with the working title of Existential Education. In his 60 years of investigating chemistry and 40 years in education, Steve has continued to grow, explore and learn while inspiring teachers and students to do the same.

Stay tuned, as Dr. Stephen Thompson’s Opus has yet to be concluded.

See more of Dr. Thompson’s work at these links:

Small-Scale Chemistry Webpage

Thompson and Shipman’s paper in the Journal of Chemical Physics on the counterdiffusion of HCl and NH₃

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5083927

Engaging Teachers and Students with Authentic Field Work

By Victoria Jordan

Because I DID in Africa!

“That’s what field researchers would do!” science teacher Mary Richmond calls to her class as she coaches them to sketch macroinvertebrates from the Poudre River, collaborate about a plan for an experiment, and explore the school grounds to find a good place for a photo post. She should know. She IS a field researcher!

Ms. Richmond recognized that she wanted to infuse more authentic science experiences into her classroom teaching. So, when a National Science Foundation grant was awarded to CSU professor Dr. Randy Boone in 2011 to take a science teacher along to Africa to study wildebeest migrations, Mary applied and found herself cavorting with wildebeests.

She learned how to use telemetry equipment, collected plant and fecal samples in the field, and tried to figure out how roads and fences were affecting wildebeest migration. The Serengeti ecosystem of Kenya became her classroom for three weeks in the summer, and she was the student.

In excerpts from her journal, her wildlife encounters add up:

• As we drove down a desolate road, we found a leopard. It was in a tree, sleeping. Its paws and tail were hanging off the branches.

• We saw more giraffes, elephants, and hyenas. The local water hole we arrived at was a den of activity. Elephants were playing in the water, giraffes were on guard and under the bushes, on a rock wall were 2 lion cubs! Wow!

• I think Alfred got a little lost because we ended up in Tanzania. Oops! But we found the Mara River where we saw vervet monkeys, baboons, and hippos. The wildebeests will probably cross the river tonight or tomorrow morning.

Field research can be a messy business. It is experiences like these, however, that Mary could use to encourage her students to stick it out when the scientific process becomes challenging.

• Paul’s backpack got pooped on by vervet monkeys, and he had to change his shirt twice.
• We got stopped by the local conservancy wardens. We were not allowed to continue tracking the wildebeest in this area until we got permission from the head man.
• Dusty, dusty, dusty! My snot is even brown and Amboseli red.
• We started this morning searching for the wildebeest we could not find yesterday. We spent hours, and did not find him today, either.

The cultural experiences were equally enthralling. The research team stayed in a Masai village.

• Masai dancers greeted us at the entrance, and Masai people took our luggage to our rooms. I think they are half my size and two times stronger!

• Milk was warmed up over an open fire and diluted with water. Green tea in the milk, then strained and poured into metal cup. Served with chipati hot off grill.
• We had an interesting conversation with Sauna, Alfred, and Joseph about marriage, polygamy, and children.

• Swahili words: Asante – thank you; karibu – you’re welcome; simba – lion; mazongoo – white man

Forward-thinking Ms. Richmond had her Colorado students draw pictures of what their life is like, and contribute their favorite books to donate to a school in Kenya. When she visited the school in Kenya, the students exchanged pictures and books, and she brought a bit of Kenya back to her students in this manner.

Because Mary DID field research, her students see her as a scientist.

Code Switching in Guatemala

“The world is a smaller place than we sometimes think.” One of Mary’s many field experiences was a summer Spanish Language and Cultural Immersion Program to Guatemala in 2014. Naturally, Mary focused on ways to bring her experiences back to her science classroom.

From her journal:

• One coffee tree produces enough beans for one small bag, or 32 cups of coffee.
• Musical instruments were made from conch shells, turtle shells, animal hides and tree trunks.
• Textiles from different regions in Guatemala have different patterns, and warmer climates near the ocean use more white fabrics for their clothing.
• There are 33 volcanoes in Guatemala. One is huffing and puffing in the distance.

Mary taught a 6^th grade class a lesson on natural selection, in Spanish. She struggled with the language barrier, and recognized that the students who were trying to learn English struggled with verb tenses, just as she was doing in Spanish. There was a lot of code switching, blending Spanish and English to get points across. Getting jostled by crowds in an open-air market, taking photos with chickens on a bus, and roasting marshmallows in the vent of a caldera were all experiences this Colorado girl will never forget.

Toolik, Alaska

In a Research Experience for Teachers (RET) with the Natural Resources Ecology Lab at CSU, Mary did phenology and soil studies at the Long-Term Ecological Research Station in Toolik, Alaska in 2016.

• Mary taught a fire ecology unit in her middle school classroom, and was interested in how fire affects the arctic ecosystem.
• She participated in soil studies in Alaska to compare carbon and nitrogen in severely burned, moderately burned, and unburned soil.
• She learned about photo posts which allow researchers to take pictures of the landscape at various times of the year from the same location and do comparative analysis. This aids in phenology studies of seasonal latitude changes as well as long term changes.
• Her science notebook allows her to recall details, share with her students how “real scientists” keep notes, and question and reflect on her own learning.

Bringing it Home

“My science travel experiences have kept my science teaching invigorated.”  Mary taught at Cache La Poudre Middle School in LaPorte, Colorado for decades. The school includes property that borders the Poudre River, and is an ideal outdoor classroom. “I can take kids to the river anytime!” she remarks. She encouraged teachers in her building to use the river for any discipline, not just science. Her department developed lessons using the river for chemistry, physics, geology, biology, and ecology. Taking kids outside made science relevant and real. She used her field research experience to help her students do their own field research. Students conducted site analyses, used field notebooks, collaborated with others, used photo posts and game cameras to collect visual data, used dip nets, dichotomous keys, and probes to collect quantitative data. Students would refer to data collected by students in years past, mimicking the Long-Term Ecological Research that Mary participated in at Toolik.

Some teachers are concerned about taking students outside. One thing Mary Richmond was able to do at her school was to get teachers comfortable keeping an entire class engaged in learning while staying safe in an outdoor setting. Even though she is now retired, she hopes to continue to help teachers get kids outside, take field trips, and find ways to use their school grounds and surrounding neighborhoods as outdoor classrooms.

Field Work in a Pandemic

“The important thing is to get kids outside!”

How can you do this when learning is remote and on a computer screen? Mary Richmond figured out ways to make it happen during the pandemic. Phenology studies became one way for students to share data by taking pictures of the plants in their yards and posting them throughout the year. She played “Nature Bingo” where students had to explore their neighborhood taking pictures of things on a class list, and then sharing their findings by playing bingo together on their computer screens. Mary continues to ask her kids to get wet, get dirty and get excited about science!

Go For It

Do you want memories of science field experiences around the world when YOU retire? If you are a researcher, consider offering an opportunity for teachers to join your team in the summer. If you are a teacher, start looking for research opportunities now.

• Take the plunge with a NOAA research vessel.
• Go out on a limb in a rainforest in Costa Rica.
• Grow with the maize in Mexico.
• Go ape with gorillas in Rwanda.

Stay fresh with field work.

The Synergy of Art and Science with Gary Raham

By Victoria Jordan

Your inner artist wants to meet your inner scientist. Won’t you invite them to come out and play?

WHY BOTHER?

Scientists who understand the synergy of art and science tend to be more imaginative and creative in thinking about solutions to tasks and world problems. The Apollo moon missions were inspired by science fiction writers dreaming about space travel. HG Wells’ aliens in the War of the Worlds were defeated not by human military forces, but by bacterial infections that wiped them out; a pandemic scientist’s nightmare. Scientists are often drawn to their fields by the creative wonder of science fiction or an inspirational piece of art that is based, in part, on science fact. Gary Raham is a master of both.

GARY RAHAM EXPLAINS HOW

Gary Raham, a Northern Colorado artist/scientist/author, has been gifting his skills to our community for decades. Gary writes both science fiction and non-fiction, illustrating both with remarkable images that spark imagination and curiosity. You can find a number of his works on his website (https://www.rgaryraham.com). He leads trips and hosts workshops as a Master Naturalist with Larimer County, and encourages participants to engage all of their senses when observing nature. Gary suggests keeping a naturalist’s notebook to awaken and nurture your inner artist.

Don’t be afraid to make drawings that are not perfect renditions of what you see. Start somewhere! The important thing is to pay attention to the details. Does that flower have 4, 5, or 6 petals? Do the stamens rise above the petals, or are they below the pistil? You don’t have to be able to name something in order to sketch it. Did that beetle rise vertically off of the ground, or did it take off parallel to the ground? What did the beetle sound like as it flew away? Notice the behaviors and jot them down. What odors are present on the forest floor? How does that odor differ from the algae in the creek? If your notebook is full of these sensory details, when you read your journal years from now your memory will be enhanced, helping to transport you back to that place and time.

ENGAGE POWERS OF TEN THINKING

Another way to rouse your inner artist is to think about your surroundings in powers of ten. Focus on something, and then change your perspective by factors of ten (x10 or x10^-1). For example, if you are examining a rock, by shifting your focus x10, you will bring your eye up to the landscape. You may then notice that you can see tilted layers in the hogback in the distance. Conversely, if you see some bright yellow splashes on a log, concentrate on the world at 1/10^th your size (10^-1), and you may notice sporocarps on a slime mold.

By altering your perspective, you can offer a new perspective to your work and to the way you are thinking about your projects. This can inspire creative ideas and refresh your own curiosity.

ASK, “WHAT IF?”

Scientists who ask, “What if?” questions also increase their creativity and curiosity. This is another way to engage your inner artist. Gary wrote a science fiction trilogy where he asked, “What if an asteroid impact destroyed human civilization?” In his books, humans were set back to nearly stone age technology, paving the way for an alien race to move in and make humans their pets. By staying true to the scientifically verified facts, his aliens and the new world are both believable and fun. His illustrations make it all come to life. You don’t have to write a science fiction novel in order to be inspired into new ways of thinking by “What if?” questions in your field.

In another illustrated science fiction novel, The Deep Time Diaries, Gary transports a family back to prehistoric times. As the family uses the time machine to jump between the Cenozoic, Mesozoic, and Paleozoic eras, they explore the very real prehistoric plant and animal communities in each time period.

Middle school classrooms around the country have used this novel to study geologic time and the evolution of life while creating opportunities for students to collaborate across the disciplines of science, English, and art. This collaboration has been one of Gary’s most influential methods of motivating future scientists as well as scientific illustrators.

INCREASE THE “A” IN STEAM

Scientists and students do not need to fear the inclusion of art in their work. By merging art and science, innovation is often the result. What can you do to increase the “A” in STEAM?

• Know what to look for. Each discipline has different details. Become well versed in the details of your discipline, and then really look to see specifics.
• Make detailed drawings, even if you are uncomfortable doing so.
• Practice makes perfect. Draw something every day.
• Sign up for one of Gary’s workshops through the Larimer County, Colorado Master Naturalist program. (https://www.larimer.org/naturalresources/education)
• Check out the STEAM kits from our lending library at the EOC. (https://www.cns-eoc.colostate.edu/) Every kit includes a journaling expectation, offering opportunities for students in grades 6-12 to practice not only the scientific process with data collection and analysis, but also sketching experiments and scientific samples.

YOUR INNER ARTIST IS READY TO PLAY. WILL YOU INVITE THEM TO YOUR NEXT PROJECT?