Tim Gibb (who owns the barn where I keep Abby) is a Purdue University entomology professor. About two years ago, he received a significant grant from the National Science Foundation to create a free curriculum for all high schools in Indiana. Called the Purdue Pollinator Project, it is designed to raise awareness and educate students about the need to protect our state's pollinators.
The high school curriculum for the Purdue Pollinator Project was introduced at HASTI (Hoosier Association of Science teachers, Inc.) in Indianapolis yesterday.
Since I am writing the elementary curriculum which should be rolled out next year, I went along to watch and to see how the high school lessons compared to mine.
Craig came with me - I had had four (yes, FOUR!) migraine headaches Sunday and then one that morning. (I had another after we got home.) He drove, just in case I got sick on the road.
There was good attendance and I felt the presentation went well.
The lessons were outlined and a brief explanation given about each one.
Purdue's Envision Center had created some games. I though the one titled "The Plight of the Foraging Bumblebee" would work well for elementary kids - it was an interactive game where you could fly the honeybee all over the countryside with the goal to make it back to the hive with pollen.
Tim was there (he is the one who wrote the grant for Purdue) and was handing out flyers for the summer seminars.
Everything is being made available to teachers for free, even attending the seminars.
I have been splitting my time between working on the elementary curriculum and writing the history of Great Lakes Congress, the longest running model horse club which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. I will polish the final draft of that today and send it to the printer, and then begin devoting all my writing time to the Pollinator Project.
It's a good thing I like to write!
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