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Operation RubyThroat & GLOBE
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu (CAROLINA BIRDS)
- Subject: Operation RubyThroat & GLOBE
- From: BILL HILTON JR Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History<hilton@hiltonpond.org>
- Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 23:20:59 -0500
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
CAROLINABIRDERS . . .
Back in the mid-1990s, when I was first thinking about "Operation
RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project," I knew that hummingbirds could
be used as a "hook" to excite students about learning in science and
other disciplines. I also knew that students could be part of the
nationwide network that would supplement hummingbird observations
made by scientists, banders, and other hummer enthusiasts like those
on CarolinaBirds.
As an educator-naturalist, I wanted to reach as wide an audience as
possible, so I created the Operation RubyThroat Web site
(http://www.rubythroat.org) and made it accessible to everyone. Then
I started writing grants that would help fund the project and allow
me to visit schools to recruit teacher and student participants. I
also looked around for partners that would provide a synergy that
could help operation RubyThroat meet its mission, and on a trip last
April to Washington I found a great partner: The GLOBE Program.
GLOBE--which grew out of NOAA--has been around for several years as a
Web-based mechanism for receiving student-collected data about
atmosphere/climate, hydrology, soils, and other natural phenomena you
would expect the weather folks to be interested in. More recently,
Dr. Dixon Butler, GLOBE's chief scientist, saw the value of looking
at biology-related phenomena and correlating them with the GLOBE
data. Bud burst was one of the first life science phenology events to
be added to GLOBE, and when I described Operation RubyThroat to him
last spring, Dr. Butler immediately embraced the idea of having
students collect and submit hummingbird data.
To make the long story shorter, thanks to Dr. Butler and on-going
assistance from GLOBE staffer Becky Boger, I've developed some
Special Measurement protocols that align with GLOBE, and I'm pleased
and proud to announce that as of today, 15 March 2002, those
protocols are available to GLOBE-certified schools across North and
Central America.
Students in GLOBE schools will be able to observe Ruby-throated
Hummingbird ecology, behavior, and migration and report several
categories of data. They'll be on the lookout for color-marked RTHUs
and hummers with unusual plumages (albinos, etc.). They'll also watch
for vagrant hummers of any species, and I promise to report ALL of
those vagrants to hummingbird banders who may be close by. :-)
Although a school must have at least one GLOBE-certified teacher to
submit data electronically to GLOBE, the protocols and data sheets
are posted on the GLOBE WEB site so that anyone--including
adults--can read the materials and submit data forms directly to
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History via
mailto:data@rubythroat.org .
To read more about all this, check out
http://www.rubythroat.org/GLOBEMain.html . Then click on the link
GLOBE Web site and, if you wish, download the PDF files and join the
ranks of Operation RubyThroat observers.
Please also encourage teachers you know to investigate the great
learning opportunity now offered through GLOBE and Operation
RubyThroat. I'm tremendously excited about the potential for the new
collaboration as we try to do something new and different here, and I
greatly value your input and your support. :-)
Happy Hummingbird Watching!
BILL
--
BILL HILTON JR., "The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA
hilton@hiltonpond.org, (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845
Please visit our web sites (courtesy of Comporium.net) at
http://www.hiltonpond.org and
http://www.rubythroat.org
"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to
watch the sunset." BHjr.