SD Discovery Center News

Environmental Literacy Plan Listening Session

2012-01-25T13:49:00.000-08:00

Environmental Literacy Plan Listening Session
The South Dakota Discovery Center invites all South Dakotans to offer their input on developing the environmental literacy of South Dakota’s students. Parents, teachers, administrators, natural resource professionals, industry leaders, and citizens interested in the environment are invited to participate in a listening session at one of the following locations.

Spearfish, Black Hills State University
Young Center, Room 206
Monday, Jan 30; 7:00PM

Rapid City, Outdoor Campus West
Tuesday, Jan 31; 9:00AM

Rosebud, Sinte Gleska University
Student Services Building, Room 103
Tuesday, Jan 31; 7:00PM

Pierre, SD Discovery Center
Wednesday, Feb. 1; 9:00AM

Huron Public Library
Thursday. Feb 2; 9:00AM

Huron, SD Math & Science Teacher Convention
Huron Convention Center, Dakota E
Feb 4 1:00PM

Environmental literacy is having the knowledge, understanding, skills and motivation to wisely and sustainably use, enjoy and protect the environment. The K-12 education system has a role to play in developing the environmental literacy of children in partnership with families, communities and government. At the listening session, we want to hear your ideas about what should be included in this plan.
In short, what do you think needs to happen in the K-12 schools in order for kids to become environmentally literate?

For more information please contact Anne Lewis (annelewis@sd-discovery.com) at 605-224-8295 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 605-224-8295 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Lake and Stream Ecology Training

2012-01-24T11:01:00.000-08:00

Apologies for cross posting. Please forward to your networks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Save the Dates!

A two day workshop on lake and stream ecology for watershed project technicians, partners, and residents is planned for Summer 2012. The hands-on, interactive workshop will train participants in the following:

Aquatic invertebrate identification and collecting techniques
Basic limnology principles
Lake and stream ecology
Water quality testing procedures
How to interpret water quality data

The workshop presents the fundamentals of understanding watersheds and water quality. The workshop will benefit any person involved in 319 watershed restoration projects.

The dates are:
June 6-8, Custer @ Outlaw Ranch
July 18-20, Enemy Swim Lake @ NeSoDak

The cost of the workshop is free.

For more information or to sign-up for a workshop
Visit: http://www.neglwatersheds.org/waterquality.html
Call or E-mail:
Dennis Skadsen, Workshop Coordinator
605-345-4661 ext. 118
dennis.skadsen@sd.nacdnet.net

Sponsored by:
Northeast Glacial Lakes Watershed Project
South Dakota Water Resources Institute
South Dakota Discovery Center

Spring/Summer Professional Development Opportunities Announced

2012-01-24T10:06:00.000-08:00

Get out in the field! Go up to the stars! Make this summer's professional development experiential and active.

The South Dakota Discovery Center offers a range of exciting professional development opportunities that will equip you with 21st Century teaching skills. Our content from NASA, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, the EPA, Project WET and the Leopold Education Project uses the 4C's, the 3 R's, technology and media to foster life long learning in your students. Whether you teach 1st grade or 12th grade, we have professional development for you!

Our commitment to you is that everything we offer will be standards compliant, classroom tested, and hands-on.

EE for 4 - 8
DDN Class for Teachers of Grades 4-8
March and April 2011, Monday Evenings via DDN
5 to 8 PM Central, 4 to 7 PM Mountain

In the spirit of "No Child Left Inside," The Outdoor Campus is offering activities, materials and credits for teachers of Grades 4 through 8. No workshop fee; tuition cost only

Get free teaching materials with each of the topics you select
Experience new ways to help young learners understand and find their place in the natural world
High quality professional development without overnight travel
Earn grad credits

Options
1. Select two of the topics (4 three-hour classes) and earn one college credit for $40

2. Select all four topics (8 three-hour classes) and earn two college credits for $80

Call 605-362-2777 or email kay.gannon@state.sd.us for the course syllabus and/or to request a registration form.

Syllabus
Project WET Feb 6, Feb 13
Project Learning Tree Feb 27, March 5
Project WILD March 12, March 19
Leopold, Land and Literature March 26, April 2

NASA in Your Classroom
Bring exciting, current science from NASA into your classroom! Explore free lessons and other resources to enhance many areas of your curriculum.

A NASA Educator will lead this exciting exploration!!
June 14 & 15, 18 & 19, 2012
8:00 AM-3:00 PM
Chester School, Chester, SD

Target Audience: All K-12 Educators!!
2 Graduate/undergraduate credit hours are pending
$100 stipends for all participants with a teaching degree

Fee: A $35 non-refundable registration fee. If you complete the 30 hour workshop, the $35 registration fee will be returned with the stipend.
Payment Methods:
1) Credit Card - Please call the SD Discovery Center 605-224-8295 ;
2) Check: Mail to SD Discovery Center, 505 West Sioux, Pierre SD 57501.

To Register:
Online Registration
Call 605-224-8295

This workshop qualifies for the SD NASA Stellar Educator program.

Earth Systems K-5
June 4-6 2012
2 credits
Registration
- Online
- Call 605-224-8295

Spend one day in the classroom and two days in the field doing earth systems activities for the youngest learners using the Elementary GLOBE curriculum.

The field session consists of kayaking one of South Dakota's gorgeous rivers doing field studies along the way. No experience is necessary but a sense of adventure is as the campsites will be primitive. The trip is outfitted, no gear required beyond your personal effects.

Advanced Environmental Education
June 11-14
2 credits
Grades 5-12
Registration
- Online Registration
- Call 605-224-8295

One of our popular workshops that gets you out into the field. This multi-disciplinary workshop utilizes 21st Century skills to integrate the 4 C's (critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity), the 3 R's, and media/technology use to promote life long learning skills. Spend one day in the classroom and two days in the field doing research that you can bring back to your classroom.

The field session consists of kayaking one of South Dakota's gorgeous rivers doing field studies along the way. No experience is necessary but a sense of adventure is as the campsites will be primitive. The trip is outfitted, no gear required beyond your personal effects.

WET Roundup
June 19-20
1 credit
Grades 3-12
Registration
- Online Registration
- Call 605-224-8295

Get three of Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) curricula resources including the all new guide version 2.0. This two day session will provide you with the all new full color WET guide, Healthy Water, Healthy People and Discover A Watershed: Missouri River. We will be out in the field on day 2 but will not be overnight.

Lake and Stream Ecology
Two Dates: June 6-8, Outlaw Ranch @ Custer
July 18-20, NeSoDak@ Enemy Swim Lake
Grades 6-12
2 credits
Free! (includes lodging)

Do you work with surface water resources? Do you teach middle or high school science classes? Do you own lake property? Do you care about South Dakota’s lakes, rivers, and streams? If yes, you need to attend one of these workshops!!

Learn:

Aquatic invertebrate identification and collecting techniques

Basic limnology principles

Lake and stream ecology

Water quality testing procedures

How to interpret water quality data

Environmental curriculum and classroom activities

To Register:
Dennis Skadsen, Workshop Coordinator
605-345-4661 ext. 118
dennis.skadsen@sd.nacdnet.net

Family Fitness Festival

2012-01-06T12:24:00.000-08:00

For Immediate Release
Contact: Anne Lewis 605-224-8295 annelewis@sd-discovery.com

Fun and Fitness at Discovery Center

A free family fitness festival will be held at the SouthDakota Discovery Center on Monday, January 16 from 1-5PM. The festival is the grand opening of the newtraveling exhibit “Let’s Move South Dakota.”

Let’s Move South Dakota has hands-on activities to involvethe family in being fit. “This exhibitwill help your children ‘do fitness’,” says special projects director AnneLewis. “It’s one thing to tell them theyneed to get active and eat healthy, it’s another to do it in a fun way togetheras a family.

“This is for parents and kids to do together,” saysLewis. Families can sign up for acooking opportunity with a recipe from Food Revolution. They can make a spinner of simple activitiesto do during commercials or get a sneak preview of Harvest of the Monthproduce. Best of all, it will be free admission thanks to our sponsor,Coordinated School Health.”

Lewis expects that the impact of the festival will go beyondthe few hours families spend at the Festival. “We are encouraging people to sign up for Presidential Active LifestyleAward Plus as families. To earn the award,get the whole family active at least five days a week for six weeks. At the same time, make some simple eatingchanges such as choosing lower sodium versions of food and eating smallerportions. Our goal is to get 50 familiesearning their award by spring. We evenpay for the award patch and certificate.”

Event specifics:

Family Fitness Festival
Monday January 16
1PM – 5PM
Free admission
224-8295
805 W Sioux Ave.

Local Residents Win Fitness Award

2011-08-31T06:40:00.000-07:00

For Immediate Release
Contact: Anne Lewis, annelewis@sd-discovery.com, 605-224-8295

Local Residents Win Fitness Award

Allycen Herrman already has her topic for her “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” essay. Allycen earned a Presidential Active Lifestyle Award this summer by swimming, taking walks, and jumping to 1000 with a jump rope. Allycen was not the only member of her family to be an award winner. Her mother Kim earned an award as well walking with Allycen and taking classes at the Y.

“The Presidential Active Lifestyle Award motivates you to get active and fit,” said Anne Lewis award coordinator at the South Dakota Discovery Center. “Kids earn Presidential Active Lifestyle Awards by being active 60 minutes a day, five days a week for six weeks out of eight. The minimum for adults is 30 minutes a day but it’s easy to do more.”

Judy Rieger is an adult who has done more, a lot more. Rieger regularly walks an hour to an hour and a half a day on a treadmill, logging more than 138 hours of walking since she signed up for the President’s Challenge in late April. Rieger, a self-described senior citizen, walks to help manage her diabetes. “Walking helps keep my diabetes under control,” she said. “But I’ve always been a walker. I just feel better when I walk.”

The next achievement for this group of award winners is to participate in the President’s Challenge earning medals for points earned for exercise. Allycen hopes to be a gold medal winner by next summer just in time for the 2012 summer Olympics.

Finding ways to add activity to your life is not that difficult said Lewis, “You can log housework, gardening, walking. Even sandbagging could have been logged as lifting and hauling.”

Lewis said that the most challenging part of earning the award is remember to enter the workouts on the President’s Challenge website. Kim Herrman said writing down the workouts and entering them twice a week was her secret to staying current. Judy Rieger entered hers more frequently.

The award is administered by the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition and is part of a national initiative to address America’s increasing rates of obesity. The South Dakota Discovery Center is sponsoring the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award locally as an outreach of the Body Carnival exhibit they are hosting this summer.

Lewis said exhibit co-sponsors Coordinated School Health, St. Mary’s Foundation and Healthy Communities/Healthy Youth were looking for a fun way to promote family fitness. “The Discovery Center will continue sponsoring the awards as part of our Let’s Move traveling exhibit for as long as we can. We would love to see more kids, families, singles and seniors earn their awards.”

You can sign up for either the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award or the President’s Challenge online through the SD Discovery Center’s website. Lewis said that in order to receive the awards, you have to join the Let’s Move SD Discovery Center group.

Award winners: Anne Lewis, Allycen Herrman, Kim Herrman, Judy Rieger

Award winner Thomas Kropp

Dirt the Movie

2011-04-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Anne Lewis. annelewis@sd-discovery.com 224-8295

Dirt the Movie Showing

Dirt the Movie will be shown Monday, April 11 at 7:00PM at the CUC auditorium. Sponsored by the South Dakota Discovery Center and the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service, this free screening of the award winning movie is a fun, thought provoking look at soil, the substance that literally supports us all. You are invited to make this part of your Earth Day observance or as the kickoff to gardening season. To learn more about Dirt the Movie, go to www.dirtthemovie.org.

Family Event - Sunday at Discovery Center

2011-02-02T11:34:00.001-08:00

PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 2, 2011

Contact: Kristie Maher – 224-8295, kristiemaher@sd-discovery.com

Pierre, SD – Parents have a great opportunity to log in some quality time with the kids before the Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 6. Visiting scientist, Ed Sobey, will be at the SD Discovery Center from 1pm to 3pm to lead families in creating and testing cars, rockets and other things that move.

Ed Sobey, a self-dubbed global evangelist for creative thinking, is a scientist, inventor, and educator. He has authored numerous books for kids including “The Way Toys Works” and “Fantastic Flying Fun” and teachers guides including “Inventing to Learn.” He is a founder of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, the National Toy Hall of Fame and co-creator of Camp Invention and Kids Invent! Workshops. Sobey developed and hosted a kids television series on inventing called , “The Idea Factory.”

This is the third time Sobey has visited the SD Discovery Center. “He’s one of our favorites, “ notes Kristie Maher, director of the SD Discovery Center. “He’s gets you working the second you walk in the door, he has you build things you never thought you could and you have a ton of fun the entire time.” It is often that kids go home from Sobey’s workshops and continue to make things. His materials are basics like cardboard, old toys, glue, straws, and plastic bottles so kids can come by an endless supply of building materials for nothing.

The event is free to SD Discovery Center members. Non-members must pay admission of $3 for children and $4 for adults or purchase a $40 membership. No registration is required.

The Center is taking donations of empty cereal boxes for this event and a subsequent teacher workshop. If you can bring your empty boxes to the SD Discovery Center by Sunday at 1pm.

"Legoborgz" Wins Award at Tourney

2011-01-21T12:23:00.001-08:00

January 21, 2011

For Immediate Release

Contact: Kristie Maher 605-224-8295, kristiemaher@sd-discovery.com

Legoborgz won the Team Spirit Award at the SD First Lego Leagues Tournament held in Sioux Falls January 15. First Lego League introduces younger students to real-world engineering challenges by building LEGO-based robots to complete tasks on a thematic playing surface. FLL teams, guided by their imaginations and adult coaches, discover exciting career possibilities and, through the process, learn to make positive contributions to society.

Elementary and middle-school students get to:

    * Design, build, test and program robots using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technology
    * Apply real-world math and science concepts
    * Research challenges facing today’s scientists
    * Learn critical thinking, team-building and presentation skills

Participate in tournaments and celebrations

Professional Develoment: Roll, Rattle and Shake

2011-01-04T09:28:00.001-08:00

Roll, Rattle & Shake: The Science of Motion

Date: Sunday, February 6 – 3:30pm to 8pm and Monday, February 7 – 8am to 5pm.

Location: SD Discovery Center, Pierre, SD

Credit: Graduate and undergraduate credit approval is pending. $40 fee is expected. To earn credit completion of a pre-workshop activity is required.

Register by 1/17/11: Call SD Discovery Center – 224-8295
e-mail Kristiemaher@sd-discovery.com
Register online: http://www.sd-discovery.com/Forms/Form_TeacherWorkshopRegistration2011.shtm

Make, think and wonder every moment of this workshop. Create models that move, solve problems, exercise critical thinking skills, and be creative as you learn the science of motion along with 21^st Century Teaching Skills.

Ed Sobey, teacher, author, inventor & global advocate for creative learning, models how to replace rote memorization of facts with understanding based on real experiences. Experiments will include investigation of motion, measurement, data collection and analysis, electrical circuits, flight and lift, energy, energy transfer, and the methods of science.

This workshop is useful for educators of all grades, youth program leaders, afterschool program staff, scout and 4-H leaders.

Each participant receives a free teacher guide and a free rental of the SD Discovery Center’s Inventing to Learn teaching kit.

Sponsored by SD Space Grant Consortium, SD 21^st Century Community Learning Center Grant and the SD Discovery Center.

Christmas Gifts

2010-12-06T08:53:00.001-08:00

We just reorganized the Discovery Center gift store. Many, many items are on sale for 25% off.

We have a terrific promotion on Strider PreBikes for toddlers - $99 bike plus a free bell, seat quick release (for quick hight adjustments) and an XL seat pole (to use as your child gets taller)come free with purchase. Toddlers love, love, love this bike. We do have two of the new "hot rod" KTM models - orange with more graphics to look like a big kid bike.

LEGO League Research Presentation Scrimmage

2010-12-06T08:50:00.000-08:00

Lego Team Members & Coaches - Due to many conflicts on weekends in December, we have cancelled the scrimmage for your research projects. Instead, please call Kristie, 224-8295 or kristiemaher@sd-discovery.com, to schedule a time for a private judging of your presentation. We will score you as in competition. Hopefully this will allow you opportunity to make improves that will be beneficial.

Come See Jump to Japan!

2010-12-06T08:39:00.001-08:00

Jump to Japan is the latest hands-on exhibit at the South Dakota Discovery Center. Visit a Japanese shop on a city street, learn how to do anime animation, get your picture taken with anime star Totoro! This fun, hands-on exhibit will give you a taste of Japan in the middle of South Dakota.

Jump to Japan will be at the SD Discovery Center until mid-February. Winter hours: Sunday - Friday, 1PM - 5PM. Saturday, 10AM - 5PM. Closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Helloooo, Summer! Birthday Bash at SD Discovery Center this Weekend

2009-05-18T13:14:00.001-07:00

It’s the South Dakota Discovery Center’s 20th birthday. Consider it your birthday, too. You are invited to the first birthday party of the year. The “Helloooo, Summer! Birthday Bash is this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This birthday party will include lots of birthday classics: a jumping castle, cupcakes and soap bubble blowing. Plus, the fun traveling exhibit, Toy Tech is featured in the exhibit hall. You can even enter to win a free birthday party of your own at the SD Discovery Center.

Toy Tech is a neat exhibit from the Ed Sobey, founder of the Northwest Invention Center and the author of many great science books for kids including, Fantastic Flying Fun! and Inventing with Toys. Adults and kids enjoy viewing some of the World’s Greatest Toys. How Toys Work has toys pulled apart so you can see “magic” that happens inside them. At the Toy Workshop, guests can design paper helicopters and fly them in the wind tunnel or paper rockets that can be launched to reach the Center’s 2-story ceiling!

For this birthday weekend the SD Discovery Center is open from 1to 5pm on Friday, 10am to 5pm on Saturday and 1-5pm on Sunday. The birthday party will be over, but the Discovery Center will still be open on Monday (Memorial Day) from 1pm to 5pm. As always, members and children up to 3 years old get in free. Adult fees are $4.00 and fees for children age 4-12 are $3.00. Rates for groups of 10 or more are available.

For more information on the SD Discovery Center, memberships and future birthday celebrations, go to www.sd-discovery.com. The birthday celebrations are supported by the SD Department of Tourism’s Governor’s Million Dollar Challenge program.

Crevier to speak to public

2009-04-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

For immediate release
Contact: Kristie Maher, 224-8295

Tanya Crevier, the world's best female basketball handler will perform at the PILC auditorium Tuesday, April 7 at 6:30PM. Crevier has traveled throughout the US and abroad, challenging young people to overcome obstacles to realize their dreams. Crevier is in town to speak at the Expanding Your Horizons conference where middle and high school girls can explore careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Tanya Crevier is from Elkton, South Dakota and is a graduate of SDSU. She has performed at all levels of basketball games including NBA. Her performances are interactive and high energy.

Crevier's performance at PILC is sponsored by the SD Discovery Center and the Pierre-Fort Pierre Tobacco Prevention Coaltion. A freewill offering will be taken.

Frisbee: April's Green Hour

2009-03-26T10:00:00.001-07:00

Give the Kids a GREEN HOUR!

A GREEN HOUR is one hour per day for kids to play outside! The National Wildlife Federation initiated the GREEN HOUR network as a way to get kids active, healthy and enjoying nature. Here are some ideas from NWF & the SD Discovery Center.

Yes, it’s cold out. Bundle up anyway and give your kids the healthy and joy-filled memory of playing outside with their favorite adult.

Rediscover the Fabulous Frisbee!
In the park, your yard or on the beach… With a friend or your dog… frisbees are fun! Dig that frisbee out of the the garage (or purchase one at the Discovery Center) and take your kid outside to play. It is a wonderful, simple pleasure.

Or, try the modern evolution of frisbee, disc golf. The Pierre–Fort Pierre area features two disc golf courses.

The game is simple: Players take turns throwing plastic discs — Frisbees — at a metal basket. Each player then throws again from wherever his disc lands, until he lands the disc in the basket. At the end of the course, typically nine “holes,” the player who finishes the hole in the fewest throws wins.

Play at Oahe Downstream and Steamboat Park disc golf courses is free; at Oahe, a valid state park entrance license is required. Both parks have discs available for check-out. Contact the Pierre Parks Department for more information: (605) 773-7445.

Stop in the SD Discovery Center for your set of rules with score cards today!

This GREEN HOUR tip is provided by the SD Discovery Center, 805 W. Sioux, Pierre, SD, www.sd-discovery.com.

2009-03-17T13:21:00.001-07:00

Press Release – For Immediate Release

Contact Information: Danette Jarzab or Kristie Maher, SD Discovery Center, 224-2895 or danettejarzab@sd-discovery.com or kristiemaher@sd-discovery.com

World’s Best Female Ball Handler to Keynote Conference for Young Women

The little town of Elkton, SD is home to a woman with big time talent. Tanya Crevier, a native of Jefferson, SD and resident of Elkton, SD, is known as the World’s Best Female Basketball Handler. Crevier will provide the keynote performance for the South Dakota Discovery Center’s Expanding Your Horizons Conference (formerly Women in Science) on Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at the Ramkota.

Crevier, a graduate of SDSU, is a professional ball-handler, performing all over the world at all levels of basketball games, including the NBA. She played three years in the Women's Pro Basketball League before performing her current basketball show full-time. Crevier spins, dribble and juggles balls. She even performs a trick that includes her handling 10 basketballs at once.

“When it comes to ball handling, Tanya is one of the best I have seen.” says former NBA star Michael Jordan, according to Crevier’s website, www.enthusiasminternational.com.

Why a basketball handler as a speaker for a science and math conference? “Our conference is about motivating girls in science and math.” says Kristie Maher, executive director of the SD Discovery Center, host of the conference. “To find success in these areas, girls have to set goals, get involved, develop confidence and expect a lot of themselves. Tanya has done this to become the best in her field. The concepts transfer to any goal.”

The conference committee expects that middle and high school girls will be excited to see Crevier perform and will listen to her message. Throughout her performance she discusses the importance of teamwork; commitment to goals; good attitude; making positive choices for direction in your life and staying away from drugs and alcohol.

During the rest of the conference, middle and high school girls will participate in hands-on sessions led by professional women in science, math, technology and engineering careers. These sessions and an exhibit hall demonstrate career opportunities, help the girls network with like-minded peers, introduce the girls to colleges, and to potential employers who offer internships and hands-on learning opportunities.

“You don’t have to love, or even like, science and math to benefit from this conference. Girls who don’t have a clue about what career they want are highly encouraged to attend conference,” says Maher. The conference is designed to let girls learn about fields they may have never considered. It also demonstrates the benefit of taking science and math courses to build skill sets that are valuable in other career areas.

Careers featured at the 2009 conference include paleontology, nursing, computer technology, horticulture, massage therapy, cosmetic research and development, game theory, renewable energy, wildlife biology, computer networking, robotics, environmental science and laboratory technology.

“The hands-on portions of our conference are the favorite of most girls.” says Maher. This year Aveda Cosmetics chemists will involve the girls in the creation of lipstick. In a session lead by nurses from Augustana, the girls will act as nurses in a different country and use technology and teamwork to save a non-English speaking patient. Jane Stewart of the Hughes and Stanley County Extension services will challenge the girls to program Lego robots to complete a series of tasks.

An exhibit hall will host universities, technical schools, associations and businesses that have even more opportunities to offer.

Any 6th -12th grade girl and her parents or teachers are invited to attend. On-line registration will begin February 1, 2009 at http://www.sd-discovery.com/EYH.htm. There is no registration fee.

Conference sponsors include: SD NSR EPSCoR, SD Space Grant Consortium, SD Knights of Columbus Native American Cultural Exchange Program, SD Department of Education, SD Discovery Center, Natural Resource Conservation Service, SD Women Work! Women’s Educational Equity Grant, Pierre-Ft. Pierre American Association of University Women, Pierre-Ft. Pierre Tobacco Prevention Coalition.

Tanya Crevier of Elkton, SD, the World’s Best Female Basketball Handler, will keynote the Expanding Your Horizons Conference for 6^th -12^th grade girls on April 7. Registration is now open at http://www.expandingyourhorizons.org/.

Nurses from St. Mary’s Foundation showed conference participants how to take each other blood pressure. Hands-on experiences are an important part of the Expanding Your Horizons Conference.

Call for proposals for small watershed information projects

2009-03-02T12:39:00.001-08:00

The SD Discovery Center announces it is receiving proposals for small watershed information projects. Applications must be received by May 15, 2009 with a project start date of July 1, 2009. Up to $5,000 may be requested. Requests should be no more than 60% of total project costs.

Projects should focus on one of the following:

Wetlands and Watershed ecology
TMDLs
Nutrient and manure management (no demonstration projects)
“Smart Growth” and low impact development
Volunteer monitoring
The value of keeping land in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)

Projects should seek to increase:

Knowledge and awareness of local or statewide watershed issues and concerns related to watersheds and nonpoint source pollution.
Knowledge and awareness of urban and innovative agriculture watershed protection activities.
Participation in activity or activities that maintain, protect or restore watersheds.

Please see the link for complete application requirements: http://www.sd-discovery.com/watershed_minigrant_RFP.shtm

Contact Anne Lewis (annelewis@sd-discovery.com) at the SD Discovery Center (605-224-8295) for more information.

Ecology Action for 4th-5th Grade Girls

2009-02-24T09:21:00.000-08:00

Fourth and fifth grade girls will have a chance to learn about what they can do to help the ecology this Saturday, February 28, at the SD Discovery Center from 10AM – 12PM. Girls will learn about water and energy conservation through hands-on activities and do a fun craft to help the family remember to bring their re-useable shopping bags to the grocery store.

Girls who are Girl Scouts will be able to use this opportunity to work on the Eco-Action badge, but being a Girl Scout is not a requirement for participation. All girls may attend.

There is a $9.00 non-refundable fee. To register, call the South Dakota Discovery Center at 224-8295.