Education and Outreach News

Andrea Armstrong has been a graduate research assistant with iUTAH since the Fall of 2012, and will complete her doctorate in Sociology at Utah State University this summer. Her dissertation research examines how local water organizations, such as irrigation groups and municipalities, manage water resources in northern Utah. As a researcher with iUTAH, she partnered with the Utah Stormwater Advisory Committee to conduct a statewide survey of stormwater managers and conducted over fifty interviews of local water managers. In the fall of 2015, Andrea is taking the position of Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. There, she will continue to work with undergraduate students on research surrounding water and land use policy. 

March 14 marked the day of iUTAH’s spring Taking Learning Outdoors Workshop at the Ogden Nature Center.  Teachers investigated and measured water quality from various water bodies around the property, honed their bird watching skills, discovered the problems of invasive plant species, and even tried their hand at removing these plants. The Cache Valley teachers, who have been participating in outdoor field workshops and classroom visits with the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) educators since September, had the opportunity to learn from iUTAH and Nature Center experts about ecological processes in northern Utah. They also learned how water impacts everything from biological diversity to bird migration.

The Spring T.L.O. Workshop is the last interaction teachers have with NHMU educators and iUTAH scientists before the final symposium May 21 at Utah State University.  At this symposium, teachers will share what they discovered throughout their yearlong program participation and highlight their experiences engaging their students in outdoor learning while using the natural world as a classroom.  

Weber State student and past iFellow, Alexa Pierce won first place in the undergraduate category at the sixth annual Intermountain Sustainability Summit poster session held on March 5, 2015. She not only won first, but also snagged the People’s Choice Award for the 2015 poster session at the Summit.

This month’s Science Unwrapped tackled the topic of Utah wetlands and the invasive Phragmites plant. iUTAH had a booth at the event with a simple experiment to explain the importance of wetlands in the Great Salt Lake ecosystem. We demonstrated how wetlands act as a natural filter or sponge by absorbing rain and floodwater, using a household sponge and muddy water to create a mini wetland ecosystem. iUTAH EOD staffers Caitlyn Lewis and Mark Brunson were at the booth to explain the experiment and answer questions about the iUTAH project.

“Wetlands are among Utah’s most critical ecosystems,” says Utah State University wetlands ecologist Karin Kettenring, feature speaker at this month’s Science Unwrapped. During this event, Kettenring explained the importance of wetlands and the role of wetland ecologists. She also described that the Great Salt Lake wetlands are vulnerable to a number of threats, including pollution and loss of habitat from development, climate change and invasive plants such as Phragmites.

There were many booths at the event that provided information and hands-on activities for the whole community. A Phragmites maze showed kids just how tall the pesky plants can be, while Kettenring’s graduate students taught about different wetland plants, animals, and soils. Science Unwrapped continues throughout the spring semester with the theme of “Great Salt Lake Today” during the USU “Year of Water".

Look at what past iUTAH undergraduate researchers are doing now!

Timothy Beach, 2014 iFellow

Tim is currently studying Watershed Sciences at Utah State University with a minor in GIS. His project with Dr. Sarah Null as an iFellow last summer involved using GIS skills learned on campus to create and manipulate spatial information about Utah’s water situation. Thanks to this experience with iUTAH, Tim will have an internship, this upcoming summer with the Bear River Canal Company in Tremonton, Utah. He’ll be using GIS to help their coordination with the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. In addition to his summer internship he will also be working at the USU Water Quality Extension office, helping to create outreach materials for the iUTAH program. Tim is hoping to apply to graduate schools in the near future, most likely starting the fall of 2016.