Discovering ECHO: An Intern's Perspective

The instructions for my arrival at ECHO were complicated. Sent via email from my new boss, they went something like this:

Park in the back of the parking lot.

Find the red door by the loading dock and enter through it.

Turn right, go through a door.

Turn left, go through another door.

Go through a dark room until you see a lobby.

Find the Community Room.

I parked, I went through some doors, I found a room, I sat down. It was my first morning at ECHO, and I was apparently the only one to show up for the staff meeting. The panic induced by this realization, intensified by an eerie quiet that could only exist in an empty museum, quickly subsided at the sound of excited chatter. The room filled; people hugged each other and laughed. I smiled, declaring with a faux confidence to whoever asked that I was “Linda’s new intern.” I answered some questions about myself. I stood up, I sat back down. I shook hands with a friendly man who I now know as Phelan, ECHO’s Executive Director. No one mentioned Linda. But then, in an almost coincidental way, she took a seat next to me and introduced herself.

Since that morning in January, I’ve grown into my role as an ECHO team member and Linda’s intern. We’ve hosted adult science events, created new learning experiences for the museum floor, learned science from experts, kept earthworms from dying at the hands of rowdy children, decorated ECHO’s Action Lab in lieu of “real work,” prepared cheese platters, tasted German beer alongside a man with a handlebar mustache, flung mud off ECHO’s deck, and countless other tasks. We’ve shared awkward moments, confused glances, victorious high-fives and relieved hugs. One time I sat in a hot media closet clutching a radio and waiting for a voice to give me the OK to press just the right button at just the right time or else an entire event would be put on hold. One time I let some kids convince me our horseshoe crab had died on my watch. (It was really just taking a rest… on its back.) One time I thought a turtle was stuck between rocks. (Okay, fine. That has happened at least four times now; I always think the turtles are stuck.) One time I watched a hermit crab crawl into a new shell, change its mind, and crawl back into its old shell. One time I cried in the volunteer lounge because I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing.

Now, with only a couple weeks left as an intern here, I realize that those cryptic first instructions were actually simpler than everything that followed. I realize that all of my achievements and contributions, some great and some minute, were the direct result of both ECHO’s complex nature and a kind of intrinsic chaos that exists only in a truly creative, passionate, and inspiring place.

“Our real discoveries come from chaos, from going to the place that looks

wrong and stupid and foolish.” 
― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters
Blog by: Erin Shetron, Spring 2013, ECHO Education Intern

Congrats to Animal Care Volunteer Graduates 2013!

We, the Animal Ambassadors of ECHO, hereby state our heartfelt thanks and congratulations to some of our favorite caretakers who will be donning caps and gowns as part of the University of Vermont graduating class of 2013.  Although we understand that each of you have lives outside of our little world, we will miss you.  You have kept us fed, watered, and healthy and for that we are grateful.  A few of us would like to say a few words to each one of you:

Ashley returning a baby turtle to a clean tank.

On behalf of this year's group of hatchling Eastern spiny softshell turtles, I'd like to congratulate Ashley Waldron for earning her B.S. in Biology from the School of Arts and Sciences. We wish her luck in her pursuit of career doing and teaching science.  We are glad that she's staying in Burlington to see us off to the wild this June.

-Eastern Spiny Softshell Turtle, no. 4

Brianna and a map turtle.

As part of ECHO's behind the scenes collection of Animal Ambassadors, myself and my fellow turtles would like to say "Thanks!" to Brianna Rainville for helping to keep our tanks nice and clean when she arrives on Sundays.  We hope that she remembers us fondly as she puts her B.S. in Environmental Studies  as she starts her new job working as an Energy Efficiency Represenative at EnSave, Inc. in Richmond, Vermont.

-Map turtle, Upstairs Animal Care

Pat returns a well-fed painted turtle to the Upper River

Although Pat Kemple has just joined us recently, I have been impressed with how quickly he has acquired the skills to keep us turtles in the Upper River fed and healthy.  If only there was an aquarium on campus from which we could watch you receive your B.S. in Wildlife Biology from the Rubenstein School of Natural Resources.  No doubt you'll bring the same enthusiasm to the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary this summer and wherever your westward travels take you after that.

-Painted turtle, Upper River Exhibit

Becca with a hatchling softshell turtle

We long skinny animals know we have a friend in Rebecca Eaton.  Despite her professed love of our warm-blooded mammalian brethren, she keeps my tank clean and tidy each Wednesday.  She has also taken a interest in keeping tabs on the weight of my buddy the juvenile milksnake.  We are confident that her B.S. in Biology from the School of Arts & Sciences and passion for animals will benefit wildlife as she pursues her interests in conservation biology and wildlife management.

-American eel

Teen Leadership at ECHO

ECHO's award-winning teen leadership program, E-Team, is one way that we connect to our communities and ensure that learners of all ages are engaged and empowered to make our world a better place. This year we are starting our recruitment process earlier than in the past.  Recruitment for members of the E-Team is happening now for next fall.  Interested candidates should return applications by May 19th so we can set up interviews and select a team of eight teens in time to work here at ECHO for the 2013-2014 academic year (September - May). 

E-Team member exploring furs with a guest

The E-Team is a great way for teens to directly engage visitors through science-related activities, hands-on crafts, and interpretation of exhibit areas. Over the course of the year, teens participate in weekly training in job skills, environmental science, and interacting with the public. During the weekend shifts, our teens become an essential component of engagement on the exhibit floor: explaining exhibits and leading activities for our guests. In the Spring the E-Team works with other groups to host special programs after hours. This March, the E-Team hosted five-hundred visitors in and event celebrating the mentoring community.  

E-Team teens making buttons

In addition to helping ECHO fulfill its mission, E-Team members gain valuable science content knowledge, job skills, social interactions with new peers, leadership experience, and various experiences that connect them to the lake and our community. They also receive a stipend of $20/week. 

Do you know of any teens that are interested in science and the environment, possess strong interpersonal skills, and are reliable? Applicants should be freshmen or sophomores next year. Please visit our website for more information at: echovermont.org/joinandsupportus/teenprogram

E-Team member presenting at the Champlain Sea Tank.

E-Team adventure on the lake

Action Lab Opens May 18th!

Action Lab Opens May 18th!

ECHO's exciting, new offering for teens and adults - The Action Lab - officially opens on Saturday, May 18th. This new permanent exhibit focuses on how we can all participate in scientific research. Anchored by the Citizen Science bench, visitors can hone their observation skills that can be used out into the world. Different projects will be featured on this bench that you, our members and visitors, can contribute to. The interactivity of the state of the art Virtual Watershed Table will engage you for hours as you learn how water connects landscapes of all shapes.

In ECHO’s Action Lab you’re able to 

virtually visit attractions all around Lake Champlain with our new Spin Browser. Hop aboard the Melosira and join the adventure by pulling away from ECHO Aquarium and zipping under the Champlain Bridge, exploring Fort Ticonderoga and diving into the depth of the lake to visit the shipwreck of the General Buttler.

In addition to multiple engaging exhibit components, we are pleased to announce new educator-led programs are also being developed for this space. Guests will be able to learn how to identify various aquatic macroinvertebrates - which will help us identify how clean our streams and ponds are. Scientists talk about genetics and the role of DNA in our lives - but have you ever seen DNA? You’ll get the chance with the DNA Extraction program that will run periodically in the Action Lab. We’re working to create more and more teen and adult-oriented programming so everyone can learn something new when they visit ECHO.

Join us as we celebrate this long-awaited exhibit which includes special equipment, interactive programs, citizen science projects, and much more, all for our older guests. As a special thank you to our members, we are offering a citizen scientist gift for the first 150 members to visit the lab during the opening weekend.  Make sure you get here early!  

Upper Elementary Campers Have All the Fun

From setting food on fire to pulling catch aboard UVM's Melosira Research Vessel to encountering live birds of prey, our summer camps for rising 3rd-6th graders are my favorite to teach and participate in.  I love when campers curiosity and advancing skill level meets new and exciting opportunities, like producing a real TV news story for WPTZ (see last year's piece below)!  Check out videos and descriptions of my top choice camps for rising 3rd-6th grade below to decide which camp you'll be jealous of your child attending this summer.  Don't miss out, visit www.echovermont.org/camps to register today.

Marine Biology Gets Fresh Camp

Train to be a Marine Biologist

Marine Biology Gets Fresh Camp 
July 8 – July 12, 2013
8:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.Ever dream about becoming a marine biologist when you grow-up? Interacting with live animals from ECHO's collection, campers will learn what it takes to become marine or freshwater fish biologists. While caring for their own aquarium fish, campers will get to know what different fish eat, where they live, and what threatens their survival. Capping off the week, campers will head out on UVM’s Melosira Research Vessel to conduct their very own field study!

Wings Camp

Befriend an Owl

Wings Camp 
August 5 – August 9, 20138:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
It's a bird! It's a plane. It's ECHO Camp! From falcons to fairies to F-15's, this camp will explore human and avian flight. Campers will delve into the history of human flight, discover different birds of prey, and design and build their own air crafts. They will also meet real live hawks and owls from Outreach for Earth Stewardship raptor rehabilitation program! So, what's your favorite pair of wings to wear?

My Sustainable Kitchen Chemistry Camp

Make Insta-Ice Cream

Photo courtesy of hslphotosyn

My Sustainable Kitchen Chemistry Camp 
June 24 – June 28, 20138:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
What happens to cream when it's flash frozen using liquid nitrogen? How can maple syrup crystallize into rock candy? During this ECHO Camp, children will explore the local foodshed at the chemical level. They will visit farms, concoct delectable dishes in ECHO’s state-of-the-art kitchen, and investigate what makes food sustainable from a community and environmental perspective. Working with The Sugarsnap Café, they will also have the opportunity to share their crazy culinary creations with the public. 

Green TV Anchors Camp

Appear on TV

Green TV Anchors Camp with WPTZ
June 24 – June 28, 20138:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Do you have a personality made for television and a passion for the planet? Join Conservation Correspondent Bridget Butler this summer to investigate topics ranging from toxic algae blooms to local black bear sightings. In this incredible ECHO Camp, campers will spend the week developing an environmental-themed news story. They will film their piece for broadcast on News Channel 5 WPTZ and appear in a live newscast with WPTZ.

The Muddier the Better!

Snow seems in shorter and shorter supply today, crocuses are peaking out from the ground, and here at ECHO there are more and more muddy tracks near our front doors. Yes, it seems like Spring has finally sprung, heralding the beginning of Mud Season! Everyone here at ECHO gets excited this time of year because Mud Season leads to our annual Mudfest mayhem!

ECHO’s Earth Weeks’ Mudfest kicks off on Saturday, April 20th. Muddy madness can be found everywhere starting with the popular mud table where guests of all ages can roll up their sleeves, grab a shovel or bulldozer toy, and get elbow deep in mud from 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. If playing in mud isn’t fun enough, we will be flinging mud from our deck twice a day too.  At 11:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. come grab some mud and  throw it thirty feet to the ground and watch it go SPLAT!  In addition to all the mud, ECHO and Re-Bop Records have been digging up musicians for our muddy music series every day at 12:30 p.m.  

Playing in the mudtable

NEW this year will be the presentation of an ECHO ONE DROP short film every day at 2 p.m. in the new Revision Lakeside Pavilion. During Earth Week’s Mudfest we will be hearing about the story of the mink frog and the lessons we can learn by studying the mink frog’s habitat through an ECHO-exclusive short film.  

Though ECHO’s Earth Week’s Mudfest is 9-days long, the muddy fun will be happening for eight days, April 20th through Saturday, April 27th and NEW this year, on the 9th day, Sunday, April 28, we’ll be rinsing off our booth for our first Citizen Science Day!

Citizen science is an important part of data collection for scientists all over the world. ECHO guests will learn about the various projects they can be involved in to help scientists gather data and study local and national science projects on a myriad of topics. Citizen science is a fun and engaging way to be involved and make it easy for each of us to act as stewards for our environment.

Listening to Muddy Music

So, whether you love playing in mud, listening to great, family-friendly music, flinging mud from high above or want to be a scientist, ECHO is the place to be during ECHO Earth Weeks’ Mudfest April 20 through April 28!

And, while you are enjoying all the muddy fun, check out the current traveling exhibit, Strange Matter, which is all about the science of “stuff”. All included in ECHO’s admission price.

ECHO Partners with Vermont Atlas of Life

ECHO has joined one of the most ambitious conservation projects Vermont has ever seen: an online inventory of every living thing in the state. The new Vermont Atlas of Life is collecting sightings from citizen naturalists and professional biologists and presenting them in the form of maps, photos, and even social networking. From mushrooms to maples, moose to microorganisms, everything counts.

“What’s amazing about the nature of Vermont is how little we know about it,” says Kent McFarland, conservation biologist at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE), which launched the project on January 1. “We can’t recognize all the risks to biodiversity in this state without a better understanding of what’s here and where it lives.”

ECHO will be featuring the Vermont Atlas of Life in the new Action Lab opening this spring. Each season the Citizen Science station in the lab will highlight a project that nature enthusiasts cam participate in to help scientists gather much needed data. For the opening of the Action Lab, ECHO is delighted to showcase a Vermont-based project.

Anyone can participate in the atlas online through iNaturalist, an online platform designed for data gathering projects like the Vermont Atlas of Life. Although the atlas may never actually identify every last species, the atlas will grow into the most complete accounting of life in Vermont.

Bumblebees respond to changing land use practices and other human-induced pressures. 
Yet we know little about the bumblebees of Vermont. Credit: K.P. McFarland

Ultimately the project will generate research-grade data to help citizens and scientists discover, track and conserve Vermont’s biodiversity. If a destructive invasive insect appears in Vermont, for example, the atlas can accept reports from anyone around the state and allow researchers to track movement of the pest. Biologists monitoring the effects of climate change use the atlas data to generate real-time distributions of rare plants and animals and how they may be declining or advancing.

Participants can submit sightings to the project with a smartphone application as well, which McFarland says will encourage more young people to observe nature. “We’re bringing the virtual world to the natural world,” he says.

VCE already manages a popular online bird inventory project called Vermont eBird and has recently helped to launched a similar butterfly project called eButterfly. The new atlas project extends this kind of citizen discovery to everything from common plants to obscure lichens, from microscopic animals called “waterbears” to agricultural pests. It is among the first attempts to document each and every plant, animal and otherwise in an entire state.

“This may seem to be an odd analogy, but we should be like big, national box-store chain with an inventory of every product in the warehouse,” says McFarland. “In fact, since we’ve launched the atlas, we’ve already discovered new locations for an endangered plant and a rare dragonfly.”

Many naturalists have noted that Pine Grosbeaks from the north have
arrived in Vermont this winter.Credit: Bryan Pfeiffer, Wings Photography

At the Vermont Atlas Life web site participants can to enter the name of species they discover, its location and an optional photograph. The project also allows experts to corroborate or correct the on-line reports or even to identify a participant’s photo of an unidentified species.

“We often hear about biologists studying the incredible biodiversity found living on a single tree in some far-flung tropical forest,” said McFarland, “but rarely do we investigate the complete diversity here at home. Now we will.”

In the months following its launch, the atlas soon attracted support from an array of Vermont conservation organizations, including: the North Branch Nature Center, Keeping Track, Four Winds Institute, ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, Vital Communities, Northern Woodlands magazine and the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum.

“Over the next few years, we’re hoping everyone teams up to help discover, map and conserve our natural heritage in Vermont,” exclaimed McFarland.