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May 2009

05/08/09
Shahid Naaem and Marina Cords Interviewed by Voice of America (VOA)
Read and listen to an article by Voice of America (VOA) about mothers and mothering in the non-human world. CERC's Shahid Naaem and Marina Cords were interviewed for the story.

Read/hear article here.

April 2009

04/08/09
CERC Certificate Courses
CERC just announced a new set of Certificate courses to be offered in May and June, unified by the theme of ecosystem services (biodiversity and water respectively) and their role in sustainability and sustainable development.  The courses are:

  

• 
Ornithology (Eric Slayton of Wildlife Conservation Society)
• 
Ethnobotany (Dr. Ina Vanderbroek of the New York Botanical Garden)
• 
Wetlands and Ecosystem Restoration (Dr. James Cervino of Woods Hole Environmental Institute)


• Issues in International Freshwater Resources Management (Dr. Tobias Siegfried of Columbia's Water Center)
• 
Water, Ecosystems, and Sustainabilitly (Dr. Michael  Puma of NASA /Goddard Institute of Space Sciences at Columbia).

Course descriptions are here.

March 2009

03/27/09 - 03/29/09
CERC at National Science Foundation (NSF) GK-12 Conference
Three Columbia University staff members accompanied Columbia fellows and teachers from CERC and LDEO's Learning through Environmental Earth and Field Studies (LEEFS) program to the annual NSF GK-12 conference. Presentations were given by current PhD students and the teachers they collaborate with in middle and high school science and math classes:



• 
Strategies for Connecting Contemporary Research and Technology to Inquiry-Based Learning in an Urban Middle School with Extension to an International Collaboration -- Jeffrey Lancaster with Isabel Ascona and Cristi Rau-Lagos


• 

Exploring Microbiology and 7th Grade Math -- Andrew Mugler with Michael Seymour


• 

Experiential Learning: Sparking Engagement and Creativity through Field Work -- Nadine Els with Susan Vincent



03/15/09
Certificate Program Students Return
The eight enthusiastic students that participated in CERC's spring break field course on Coral Reef Ecology have returned and created a website that documents their time Bermuda. Pictures, videos, and commentary will soon be linked to CERC's website. Hosted by the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, during the course students were exposed to lectures, labs, and field study of this northerly coastal reef system.  This field course is a part of CERC's Certificate Program in Conservation Biology.

February 2009

02/20/09
On the High Seas
Debra Tillinger, a PhD student from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences will soon be leaving on a research expedition to the Philippines. Debra is a NSF GK-12 LEEFS who works with teachers at the Dual Language Middle School – a partner in CERC's Secondary School Program. She will keep in touch with her classroom via a blog "Miss T @ Sea", videos, and remote lab demonstrations in order to enhance the students' understanding of science as it happens in the field. Bon Voyage!

02/01/09
Overbrook Fellows
CERC has recently announced the new class of six young conservationists from Latin America who with $20,000 grants will pursue two-year projects aimed at protecting diverse ecosystems. The grantees are:

German Andrade, Colombia: Ecosystem change and biodiversity conservation in North Andean protected areas. Building an ecosystem approach for conservation practice.

Liliana Ayala, Peru: Interactions between marine wildlife and the industrial anchovy fishing fleet.

Elizabeth Cabrera, Paraguay: Implementation of productive landscapes in the San Rafael buffer zone.

Fanny Cornejo, Peru: Research and conservation efforts for Peruvian primates.

Ernesto Martinez, Mexico: Communicating climate change in the Gulf of California.

Alessandra Nava, Brazil: Conservation medicine in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

Since its inception, CERC, thanks to the financial support of the Overbrook Foundation, has supported 36 Fellows working in 13 nations of Central and South America.

January 2008

01/15/09
Dinner for LEEFS fellows and teachers at CERC
LEEFS, Learning through Ecology and Environmental Field Studies, is a $ 3.2 million National Science Foundation Grant administed by CERC and LDEO that links graduate student fellows to science classes from thirteen middle and high schools throughout the NYC metro area, and one high school in the Dominican Republic. Last month fellows and teachers dined and discussed the challenges and successes they have met with so far in this first semester of the three-year program. Cristi Lagos, from Middle School 88 in Brooklyn shared, "Students are motivated by and excited when Jeffrey Lancaster [Columbia Graduate Fellow] works with us…I am improving my teaching craft and using new technologies including video streaming, scientific models and smart board presentations to enrich learning. Overall, the science classroom environment and culture has improved….I look forward to permanently embedding these learning components into the curriculum." Graduate students in GSAS are eligible to participate in the program, which improves their ability to communicate science while enriching the science learning experience for students in low-income neighborhoods.

November 2008

11/19/08
Research for the Classroom Series: Ethnobotany with Dr. Ina Vandebroek
CERC has just launched the Research for the Classroom Series – workshops designed for teachers to help bring current research and research skills into their classroom on topics relevant to their curriculum and community.

To kickoff the Series, CERC proudly hosted an evening of ethnobotany and Caribbean culture with Dr. Ina Vandebroek from The New York Botanical Garden. Dr. Vandebroek discussed her research into the dynamics of medicinal plant knowledge and use by Dominican and other immigrant populations in New York City. Her ethnobotanical and cultural knowledge, as well as her interview-based survey research and plant collection methods are both interesting and useful for the K-12 classroom.

Download Teacher Resource

11/12/08
CERC Speaker Series – War's Lasting Legacy with Mr. Phung Tu Boi, Botanist, Ms. Christine Aschwanden and Mr. George Lerner
Mr. Boi, a forester and Director of the Center for Assistance in Nature Conservation and Community in Hanoi, Vietnam has been working for the past several decades addressing the impacts of herbicides and defoliants used during the Vietnam War on the Vietnamese forests and its residents. He was joined by reporter Christie Aschwanden and videographer George Lerner who traveled to Vietnam to produce the project “Vietnam: War’s Lasting Legacy,” sponsored by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

http://www.pulitzercenter.org/
http://www.warlegacies.org/

11/11/08
CERC sponsored November Green Drinks at LQ
Every month people who work in the environmental field meet up for a drink at informal sessions known as Green Drinks. There is a lively mixture of people from NGOs, academia, government and business.

http://www.jonvachon.smugmug.com/greendrinksnyc

 

October 2008

10/20/08
Welcome Reception for Dr. Ruth DeFries
The Earth Institute, CERC and the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology (E3B) hosted a welcoming reception for Ruth DeFries, 
Denning Family Professor in Sustainable Development at Columbia University.

Dr. DeFries Bio [pdf document]