I've had a lot of fun talking with various non-academic groups over the years. This has nothing to do with broader impacts or necessary outreach. They just seem to pay attention more than academic groups.



I particularly like working with children, largely because I have the maturity of a five year old. People say I'm good with kids, but in reality, I'm just a very large child that gets paid to do the stuff five-year-old kids do for fun. And I LOVE telling other kids that they can grow up and do the exact same thing I'm doing.



It is absolutely amazing how excited children get when you give them animals to play with. And they want to learn!!! Which is pretty easy, because Ecology is a pretty easy science to teach if you ditch all the jargon.



I work with other age groups as well, including adults (on my presentations page, you will find several seminars that I have given to local nature clubs and non-academic organizations). I do a lot of work with local high schools and high school groups, such as Creek Connections, which is a youth outreach organization run by Jim Palmer from Allegheny College. The functions of CC are multiple, ranging from providing high schools with environmental teaching equipment (e.g., tools to measure stream quality) to running a camp for high students during the summer.



Every summer, these camps tour a variety of areas and learn about streams, wetlands, ecology, environmental science, environmental policy, and how to have fun outdoors through hands-on activities. Hell, they get to have more fun outside than I've ever had. At this point, I should mention Laura Branby, who runs many of the projects and does an amazing job with these camps.

Every summer, Laura arranges for the camp groups to visit the Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology to learn about our research and to visit the Spillway, which is an bewildering tourist exhibit in northwest PA. Known as the place where ''the ducks walk on the fish's heads,'' people from miles around bring bread to fish these massive largemouth bass.

It's an interesting lesson in research meets policy:
1) People throw nutrient rich bread to the fish
2) The fish eat the bread
3) The fish poop
4) The poop has nutrients which cause algal blooms
5) The algal blooms die
6) The algal blooms decompose
7) The decomposing bacteria use up all of the oxygen
8) Oxygen levels go down, fish die.
9) Bass don't care. They have lungs and can breathe from the surface.

Here's where it gets interesting. The fish and boat commission tried to outlaw people throwing in bread, since it's destroying the lake and there is research to back it up. The nearby town of Linesville got angry because this would stop all the tourists from coming in.

Guess who won? Hint: the lake continues to degrade.

Anyway, the camp is not about politics, but it is good to give the students a perspective of their future.

The students get to electroshock fish (if you have not heard of this, don't worry - it's not bad for the fish), learn about wildlife, and go canoeing. Pennsylvania has French Creek, which is one of the most diverse Creeks on the east coast, particularly with regard to the mussel species.
 

In one of the pictures above, Brian Pilarcik (orange shirt) is teaching students about mussels. Jim Palmer (head of the program) is in the blue shirt and life vest. I was privileged to canoe with them on one occasion, and had a blast. At one point, you have to just take your shirt off and snorkel. It's too good to see from just a canoe.