Advanced trainings are an important part of the California Naturalist biennial conferences! We are thrilled to offer this amazing line up of pre-conference advanced trainings from recognized experts in their fields. All trainings that meet the minimum registration numbers will be held on Friday, September 9. Participants will be notified before August 5 if any changes must be made to the schedule listed below and all those registered for a training will receive detailed instructions and location for each training. Full-day trainings are off-site but allow sufficient time to arrive at Pali for the opening reception.
- California’s Venomous Animals: Fact & Fiction
- Canceled: Acoustic Recording and Analysis of Natural Sounds
- How to Draw like a Naturalist
- iNaturalist 202: Monitoring, Exporting Data, Best Practices for Projects
- Smartphone GPS and Mapping Skills Development Workshop
- The Power of Direct Engagement with Nature: Outdoor Science Instruction
- Canceled: Facilitating Forest Ecotherapy
- Canceled: Facilitation and Collaboration Skills for Naturalists
- The California Phenology Project: Tracking the Effects of Climate on the Seasonal Cycle of Wild Plants
1. California’s Venomous Animals: Fact & Fiction
Instructor: Mike Cardwell, Wildlife Biologist
Timing: Friday, September 9, 2016; 1:30-4:30pm; Location: Pali Mountain
Min/Max enrollment: 15/40; Cost: $60
Nothing grabs people’s attention more than venomous animals. This course offers a chance to deepen your understanding of this amazing group of animals and leave prepared to share these stories with others on the trail or in the classroom. The course will provide a fact-based understanding of California’s terrestrial venomous animals so you can provide accurate interpretation; refute the many myths surrounding these creatures; and respond correctly in case of an envenomation. Specifically, participants will learn to identify medically-significant spiders, scorpions, insects, lizards and snakes; as well as how to avoid injuries by these animals and provide proper first aid in case of an envenomation by a dangerous species. The material presented always stimulates many questions and significant time will be allotted for an interactive discussion at the end of the class. Your instructor, Mike Cardwell, is a wildlife biologist, adjunct professor at Cal State Sacramento, and co-editor of The Biology of Rattlesnakes (2008, Loma Linda University Press). He conducted the only long-term field study of the much-feared Mohave rattlesnake in southern California's desert, was prominently featured in Animal Planet's Venom ER television series, and serves on a national panel formulating medical treatment guidelines for North American snakebites.
http://www.eyncrattlesnakes.com/
2. Acoustic Recording and Analysis of Natural Sounds
CANCELED -- Sorry, instructor withdrew.
3. How to Draw like a Naturalist
Instructor: John Muir Laws, Naturalist Author
Timing: Friday, September 9, 2016; 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m; Location: Pali Mountain
Min/Max enrollment: 15/50; Cost: $60
You (yes, you!) can learn to draw. Discover easy to apply techniques to aid your representational drawing. We will explore techniques to help you capture wildflowers, trees, mammals, birds, landscapes, and more. These techniques are not a formula to create pretty clone pictures, but a structure based approach that helps you to observe more carefully and represent what you see. These techniques are also easily taught to students and program participants if you wish to start your own nature journaling program. Connecting with John Muir Laws and his approach to art and science will help you enter a whole new world. Bring a journal and pencil. www.johnmuirlaws.com
4. iNaturalist 202: Monitoring, Exporting Data, Best Practices for Projects
Instructor: Ken-ichi Ueda, iNaturalist
Timing: Friday, September 9, 2016; 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m; Location: Pali Mountain
Min/Max enrollment: 20/24; Cost: $60
So you've got an iNaturalist account and you've logged a few observations. What's next? This workshop, taught by the original programmer/founder and current co-director of iNaturalist, will go over some of the functionality iNaturalist provides beyond the basic recording of observations. You will also learn some best practices for using iNaturalist in your own citizen science projects. Any and all questions about how to become an iNaturalist power user will be addressed. Such as, setting up your own project to collect data on iNaturalist, adding check lists and more! Participants should bring their own laptop and power cable as we will be using the iNaturalist website exclusively. Your instructor Ken-ichi Ueda is none other than THE co-founder of iNaturalist!
http://www.inaturalist.org/
5. Smartphone GPS and Mapping Skills Development Workshop
Instructor: Sean Hogan, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Division
Timing: Friday, September 9, 2016; 1:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m; Location: Pali Mountain
Min/Max enrollment: 15/30; Cost: $60
Put your smartphone to work while you are in the field and produce your own detailed maps for your favorite outdoor projects. You will learn how to use free and inexpensive mapping applications, collect map data in the field, and then use this data to easily create your own digital maps. Following a brief presentation, a hands-on exercise will have you collecting GPS data outside with your smartphone. Data collection will be followed by time to practice processing this data before using it to create your own custom maps via Google Earth Pro, Google My Maps and/or iNaturalist. Bring mobile device with the iNaturalist application, and either the Orux Maps app (for Android) or MotionX GPS app (for iPhone) loaded on it. Also, bring a laptop computer to the workshop with Google Earth Pro installed on it. No previous digital mapping experience required. Instructor Sean Hogan works for UC ANR’s Informatics and GIS Program as a GIS training coordinator and remote sensing expert and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Geography at UC Davis.
http://igis.ucanr.edu/
6. The Power of Direct Engagement with Nature: Outdoor Science Instruction
Instructor: Kevin Beals, Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley
Timing: Friday, September 9, 2016; 9 a.m. - 3 p.m; Location: Big Bear Discovery Center
Min/Max enrollment: 20/40; Cost: $90
The best thing outdoor science instructors can do is empower students, young and old alike, with tools to directly engage with nature, forming an ongoing relationship that continues after they leave a program. Kevin Beals, Lawrence Hall of Science at UC Berkeley, is a leader in outdoor science curriculum development and instruction, and will provide tools to think about and improve your own questioning and discussion-leading strategies, and how to appropriately use questions that incite student curiosity and wonder, a foundation to feeling connected to nature. Specifically, participants will learn how they can encourage others to engage in science practices, like making observations, asking questions and making evidence-based explanations to attempt to answer questions. Professional learning activities will include exploring typical roles instructors can take (“sage on the stage,” “guide on the side” or “entertainer”) and how taking on these roles can either draw out questions from a group or, in the extreme, shut them down. The day will include modeling activities for students and discussing the benefits for meeting Next Generation Science Standards. This is a highly recommended training for CalNat instructors, docents, interpreters, formal and informal educators. Kevin Beals is a curriculum specialist, professional developer, educator, and director of the BEETLES (Better Environmental Education, Teaching, Learning, & Expertise Sharing) project. His specialty is generating and implementing creative ideas to make learning engaging and pedagogically sound. http://beetlesproject.org/
7. Facilitating Forest Ecotherapy
CANCELED -- Sorry!
8. Facilitation and Collaboration Skills for Naturalists
CANCELED -- Sorry!
9. The California Phenology Project: Tracking the Effects of Climate on the Seasonal Cycle of Wild Plants
Instructor: Dr. Susan Mazer
Timing: Friday, September 9, 2016; 9 a.m. - 3 p.m; Location: UCR Botanic Gardens
Min/Max enrollment: 14/40; Cost: $90
Here is a great opportunity to get a thorough introduction to plant phenology, climate change, and the origin and scope of the California Phenology Project from the project leader. Participants will learn how to contribute to a nationwide program to track the effects of climate change on the seasonal timing of budbreak, leaf expansion, first flowering date, pollen release, fruit development, and the appearance of ripe fruits. Topics will include the link between phenological events and climate; the long-term effects of climate change on plant phenology; and the risks of phenological mismatches induced by environmental change. The workshop will prepare participants to conduct their own phenological monitoring, as well as to train California Naturalists, educators, others to record phenological observations of native plants in urban and wild habitats. The workshop will offer guidance on data analysis and reference materials including the standardized protocols of the USA National Phenology Network, and on-line resources. An afternoon field exercise will allow for hands-on phenological monitoring. Please bring laptop computer and smart phone if you have them to work on phenology data projects. Dr. Mazer’s research integrates the tools of genetics, comparative biology, artificial selection, plant population dynamics, pollination, and phenology, and ecophysiological surveys with the aim to detect how plants adapt to the real-world ecological risks and opportunities they encounter.
http://www.usanpn.org/cpp
Questions can be directed to the Advanced Training Committee Chair, Janice Alexander; 415-473-3041
