Progress 07/01/07 to 06/30/09
Outputs
The community based project, Exploring Elk in Eastern Kentucky, involved four schools, Boyle County High School (BCHS), Harlan Elementary School, Leslie County High School, and Jackson Independent High School. One of the schools is in central Kentucky and the other three are in eastern Kentucky. Partnering agencies included the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR), the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Kentucky Coal Association, University of Kentucky (UK) and the University of Kentucky's Cooperative Extension Service. The students and teachers studied numerous topics over the 24 months including how to capture and tag elk calves, dissect elk and deer brains to look for meningeal worms; conduct studies to find meningeal worms in snail habitats; cervid anatomy, behavior, and ecology; coal mining and reclamation practices; and track elk to release zones. The students also learned life skills and lessons like re-teaching material they learned to other students in the program, conducting research and making career choices. Each year of the project, students were offered different opportunities. In June of 2007, students and teachers participated in an elk calf capture with biologists from KDFWR and UK. During this two-day event, a biologist spotting from a helicopter using a forward looking infrared scope relayed calf locations to teams on the ground. Through constant communication with the helicopter, teams traveled to the calf site forming an ever-shrinking circle around the calf. Once the calf was secured, crews collected blood samples, made measurements and released the calf unharmed. During the school year, experts from UK and KDFWR traveled to each school to talk about different facets of the project. Students traveled the UKs Robinson Forest to begin work on the ecology surrounding elk and threats to the local population facilitated by experts from the real world. Dr. Karen Alexy described her work with the meningeal worm from the whitetail and elk population. This prompted a student-driven study of the prevalence of meningeal worm larvae in snail/slug populations and the implications to whitetail populations. After designing and implementing an experimental design, students discovered that snails and slugs preferred tree-line habitat concluding that deer are at a greater risk of ultimately contracting meningeal worm larvae from the snails/slugs. During the fall of 2009, students traveled to Frankfort to work with Dr. Alexy and KDFWR biologists in removing whitetail brains in search of mature meningeal worm. Upon finding the worms, students would record the gender and age of the deer and the number of worms found. Each year of the grant, several BCHS students traveled to Harlan County to work with 4th grade students. After their presentation, the group traveled to Robinson Forest for elk viewing, calling, review of the presentation and an in-depth comparison of the topography of the home counties. PRODUCTS: Web pages and wikis Channel 36 Exploring Elk in Eastern KY Project, What's Cool In Your School OUTCOMES: Statistically significant increase in students knowldege about elk Change in students view about careers but not statistically significant DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Students and teachers presented at 2007 and2008 Kentucky Science Teachers Accociation Conference and the 2009 National Science Teachers Association Conference regional Dr. Hanley will present at the 2009 KSTA and the 2010 NSTA Dr. Hanley presented at 2009 GeoEd conference in Louisville Kentucky Dr. Hanley and Brian Radcliffe presented at the Kentucky State Technology Conference in 2008 FUTURE INITIATIVES: This is one of many in the genre the Farmer Institute and College of Ag call community-based projects. It is also one that can easily incorporate GIS technology. It will be used as an example of the type of project that can use GIS technology for a state scale up grant.
Impacts
The students showed an increased achievement in hteir knowledge of elk and elk biology. the showed a change in their attitudes toward wildlife biology and studying outdoors and improved research skills. Although not research, I belive they had increased empathy for their peers living in eastern Kentucky and an increased understanding of issues regarding the use of coal for electricity and reclamation.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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