USA NPN National Phenology Network

This one hour intro to phenology and phenophase defintions in Nature's Notebook was presented to the gardeners at the Siouxland Garden Show in Sioux City, Iowa.

This series of workshops was held at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge on March 6th and 7th, 2015.  The purpose of these workshops was to introduce staff and volunteers to phenology monitoring for science and outreach, learn how to use Nature's Notebook, and to develop research questions of value to regional managment needs.

March 6th's audience included Visitor Services and Science/Monitoring staff. March 7th's audience included volunteers from a variety of schools, nature centers, the zoo, and Minnesota Master Naturalist Chapters.

Two 3 hour workshops and a 1 hour evening lecture were presented to a group of volunteers in Central Arizona, in support of the newly forming Central Arizona Phenology Trail. Workshop resources and educational content delivered is posted below. 

Use this Introductory Content with Middle School students as a primer for participating in a semester-long Nature's Notebook observation project. The students will make observations in their outdoor classroom once a week for the semester, and work on phenology as a topic twice a week.

The activities and lessons were done in the order appearing below. 

Class 1: 60 minutes

This 3 hour class was presented as part of the Cochise Master Naturalist Program. 

This presentation was delivered at the 2014 National Science Teacher's Association Area Conference in Richmond, Virginia. 

This 30 minute presentation was given at the Ecological Society of America's Life Discovery Conference for Biology Educators. The presentation covered why phenology is useful as a tool for science inquiry, a background on Nature's Notebook, the USA-NPN resources available for teachers, and examples of ways Nature's Notebook has been implemented by high school and undergraduate instructors. 

Below you will find links to the presentations given during Phenology Week in our lecture series and workshops.  

Here you will find information for creating a phenology course to be used during a Master Naturalist Training Program. Many Master Naturalist Chapters utilize a 40-hour classroom lecture component with 20-40 hours in the field for certification.  The content for this phenology course can be presented in a 2-3 hour lecture/hands-on class, and 2-3 hours outside of the classroom completing data collection for a class assignment.  You may find that it might take you more or less time to cover the material contained in this example, which is fine.

This class was presented as a topical area in the Gila County Master Watershed Steward Class.  Content includes an introduction to ecosystems and phenology, an overview of the USA-NPN and Nature's Notebook, and how collecting observations in a watershed can provide information about the health of your watershed. 

This workshop was hosted by the Santa Fe Botanical Garden and presented by Education Director Mollie Parsons and ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden Education Coordinator Tallie Segel.

The purpose of the workshop was to give an introduction on the goals of the Rio Grande Phenology Trail, the applications of phenology, and how to use Nature's Notebook in the field. A desired outcome of the workshop is that participants would monitor at one of 3 exiting Nature's Notebook sites (the 2 Botanic Gardens as well as Valle de Oro NWR) or set up a new site along the Rio Grande.

As a gardener you've probably notices leaf-out, bloom-time, pest emergence, and pollinator visitation at specific times, related to seasons and environmental conditions.  Believe it or not, these events are important to follow, and are critical to scientists to better understand how plants and animals respond to environmental change.

This 4-hour teacher training workshop provides an overview to phenology, ecology, climate, and the USA-NPN.  Teachers were to come prepared, or do as a homework assignment, a review of the Nature's Notebook website so they were ready for discussion about how to set up a site at their school, how to select species to monitor, and get students ready to go outside.  This workshop was funded by the Office of the Superintendent of Pima County, Arizona, and was held in partnership with our friends at Arizona Project WET.

This 20 minute talk was presented to the USFS Region 9/NPN Phenology Working Group on Tuesday, June 10, 2014.