ABSTRACT
CREATING AN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION WEBSITE AT THE SMITHSONIAN ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH CENTER
By Anna Maria Henrica van der Heijden
This report describes my 16-week internship at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) in Edgewater, MD, where I started on 29 January 2001 as an “Education Specialist/Web Developer” at SERC’s education department. I was responsible for the website for the Education Department and for a website related to Watershed Radio, an environmental education project about the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In this report, I describe the five phases of the development of the website, namely the 1) Information Planning Phase; 2) Content-Specification Phase; 3) Implementation Phase; 4) Production Phase; and 5) Evaluation Phase. I also discuss the difference between education and advocacy and how the combination of a non-contextualized model and a website-specific tutorial provides a good basis for developing a website. The internship report ends with the conclusion that my internship was successful; although I could have done a better job of planning and managing my project, I delivered a well-received product, learned a lot, and worked with great colleagues at an interesting organization.
Creating an Environmental Education Website at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center
An Internship
Submitted to the faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Technical and Scientific Communication
Department of English
by Anna Maria Henrica van der Heijden Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2002
Internship Committee: Dr. W.M. Simmons (Chair) Dr. K. Durack Dr. G.E. Willeke Contents
Lists of Figures, Tables, Boxes...... iii
Acknowledgements...... iv
Chapter 1. Introduction to Internship...... 1 1.1 Introduction to Smithsonian Institution and Smithsonian Environmental Research Center 1 1.2 SERC’s Education Department and my Position 2 1.3 Organizational Structure and Culture 3
Chapter 2. Overview of Internship...... 5
Chapter 3. From Idea to Site: Developing the Watershed Radio Website ...... 8 3.1 Introduction to Watershed Radio and Overview of Development Phases 8 3.2 The Information Planning Phase: Defining Goals, Objectives, and the User Experience 10 3.3 The Content Specification Phase: Defining Site Content and Structure 16 3.4 The Implementation Phase: Designing the Site and Writing the Content 21 3.5 The Production Phase: Finalizing and Publishing the Site 29 3.6 The Evaluation Phase: How Did I Do and Does the User Like It? 30
Chapter 4. Evaluation...... 33 4.1 Evaluation of Developing the Watershed Radio Website 33 4.2 What About Next Time? 37 4.3 Overall Evaluation of Internship 37
Appendixes...... 38 Appendix A: SERC Open House Website 38 Appendix B: Watershed Radio Website Plan 42 Appendix C: Short Description of Website Goals and Ideas 52 Appendix D: Finished Watershed Radio Website 56 Appendix E: Press Release Watershed Radio 76 Appendix F: Watershed Radio Fact Sheets 78 Appendix G: Comparison of Website-Development Models 80
References...... 82
ii Figures
Figure 1. Organizational structure of SERC 3 Figure 2. Time spent on various categories of activities during the internship 5 Figure 3. Homepage of the website for SERC’s Open House in May 2001. 6 Figure 4. Timeline of the development of the Watershed Radio website 10 Figure 5. Architectural blueprint of the Watershed Radio website 20 Figure 6. Example of two Watershed Radio web pages 24 Figure 7. Example of a Watershed Radio story page about the Anacostia Watershed Society 25 Figure 8. Time spent on different aspects of developing the Watershed Radio website 36
Tables
Table 1. Overview of four categories of activities during internship 7 Table 2. The Information Planning Phase 11 Table 3. Goals and objectives for the Watershed Radio website 13 Table 4. The Content Specification Phase 16 Table 5. The Implementation Phase 22 Table 6. The Production Phase 30 Table 7. The Production Phase 31
Boxes
Box 1. Example of the text of a Watershed Radio spot 8 Box 2. Example of a user scenario 15
iii Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisor, Mark Haddon, for his guidance during my internship, and thank him, Catie Drew, and Dottie Klugel, for being great colleagues. I had (and have) a great time at SERC and not in the least because of the fun and excitement that is part of our office spirit. And I want to thank Jim DeLorbe and the Sierra Club ducks Chris Bedford, Robin Jung, Janis Oppelt, and Andy Roberts for working with me on Watershed Radio and without whom the Watershed Radio project—and my internship—would not have existed.
Although it has been a year since I left the campus of Miami University, I still, every day, benefit from the intense course work that was part of our Master of Technical and Scientific Communication (MTSC) program at Miami University, and I would like to thank Jean Lutz and the MTSC faculty for helping me develop the skills to undertake an internship like the one described in this report. Special thanks go to my internship committee and its chair person Michele Simmons, for always being helpful and for providing constructive feedback on my draft report. And to Katherine Durack, in whose class I learned the basics about web design and who brought my attention to the important issue of developing websites that are accessible for people with disabilities.
iv Chapter 1. Introduction to Internship
This report describes the internship I carried out at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) as part of the Master of Technical and Scientific Communication (MTSC) program at Miami University, Ohio. On 29 January 2001, I started as a full-time employee at SERC, and in this report I will describe and analyze my activities in my 16-week internship, which began 29 January 2001 and ended 18 May 2001.
In this first chapter I will describe the organization, my position within SERC, and how my work fit with the overall goals of the organization. After this introductory chapter, chapter 2 will discuss how I divided my time between various activities. As we will see, I spent most of my time on developing the Watershed Radio website, a project that I will discuss in more detail in chapter 3. Finally, in chapter 4, I will evaluate this project, as well as my overall internship at SERC.
1.1 Introduction to Smithsonian Institution and Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC)
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) is part of the Smithsonian Institution, a widely known organization that consists of the National Zoo, 16 museums and several research centers. The Institution was founded in 1846 with a gift from the British scientist James Smithson “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge” (Smithsonian Institution 2002). The museums, most of them located along the Mall in downtown Washington, D.C., cover a wide range of subjects including art, architecture, American history, and natural history. While the Smithsonian museums focus on museum exhibits and research, the Smithsonian research centers focus almost exclusively on scientific research, varying from astrophysics and materials research to conservation and, last but not least, environmental science.
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center originated in 1965 when the grounds of an 365-acre dairy farm in Edgewater, MD, were bequeathed to the Smithsonian Institution (Correll 1991). The Institution decided that the area—which included a wide variety of habitats suitable for terrestrial, wetland, and estuarine field biology—could be used for field collecting trips, and it established the Chesapeake Bay Center for Field Biology. Over the years, the center acquired more land, established on-site facilities, and developed research and education programs. In 1983, after being taken over by the Smithsonian Radiation Biology Laboratory, the center was renamed the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Today, the Center has formulated
1 its mission as “increasing knowledge of the biological and physical processes that sustain life on earth” and 14 Principal Investigators and their assistants and interns participate in long-term studies of the aquatic, terrestrial and atmospheric components of the ecosystems around SERC and at other places around the world. The four main research areas that SERC scientists are involved in are typically referred to as the areas of global change; landscape ecology; ecology of coastal ecosystems; and population and community ecology (SERC 2002).
1.2 SERC’s Education Department and my Position
Although SERC primarily focuses on research, the Center offers a variety of education programs for schools and the general public. SERC’s Education Program, according to its mission statement, is “committed to broadening society’s understanding of the environment, communicating an awareness of how human activities influence ecosystems, and training the next generation of environmental scientists.” To accomplish these objectives, SERC provides professional training programs for students and researchers, and SERC’s Education Department has developed several education programs for the general public and students from elementary, middle, and high schools.
The Education Department is currently staffed by four full-time employees. Director Mark Haddon and Education Specialist Catie Drew have been developing and carrying out the Department’s education programs for several years, including hands-on education programs like “Creeks, Creatures, and Canopies,” “Woodland Connections,” and canoe trips, boat trips, and guided tours that highlight science and the natural environment and history of the area around SERC. A long-time favorite is Estuary Chesapeake, a program for children of grades 6 to 8 in which students go fishing, investigate an oyster reef community, and learn about blue crabs. Recently, by hiring a new web developer (my position) and a distance learning coordinator, Dottie Klugel, the department has doubled in size and expanded its role to now also provide education programs for groups that may not be able to visit SERC. In addition to the education staff, many interns and volunteers periodically contribute their time and skills to the work at the Education Department.
My position within the Education Department is described as Education Specialist/Web Developer, and my main responsibilities are creating and maintaining the website of the Education Department—the “education website”—as well as a site related to a new environmental education initiative called Watershed Radio. In the following chapters you will
2 learn more about these two projects and some of the other activities that I carried out during my internship at SERC.
1.3 Organizational Structure and Culture
I would characterize the atmosphere at SERC in general and at the Education Department in particular, as motivational and creative. The organizational culture is one that is very casual and social. Because the Education Department is a 10-minute walk (or 3-minute car or bike ride) from the main complex with the administration building, the library, research labs, and a lunchroom, it took a while before I got to know many people. The informal atmosphere and weekly scientific talks by staff, interns, or invited guests, however, made it easier to meet people outside the Education Department.
Scientific research at SERC is carried out by 14 Principal Investigators, who all have their own lab and staff. In addition to these science labs, SERC has an Information Technology (IT) Department, which develops and maintains the organization’s computer and telephone network; a Facilities Management Department; an Administration Department; a Development Department; a Security Department; and, last but not least, an Education Department. Figure 1 shows the organizational structure of SERC.
Director Assistant Director
Information Facilities Administration Development Education Security Technology Management
Science Programs
• Animal-Plant • Plant Physiology • Phytoplankton • Environmental • Estuarine • Ecological Interactions Chemistry Zoology Modeling
• Plant Ecology • Forest Ecology • Plant • Chemical • Terrestrial • Micro Ecophysiology Ecology Animal Ecology Zooplankton • Invasion Studies • Solar Radiation
Figure 1. Organizational structure of SERC showing the six departments and 14 science programs headed by a Director and Assistant Director
Because the museums and research centers within the Smithsonian Institution operate quite independently from each other, it is hard to comment on the overall organization and culture of the Smithsonian Institution. Though the Institution’s management is certainly working to bring
3 the separate units closer together, for example by planning to reorganize the sciences within the Institution, in my daily work developing the two websites I did not experience a lot of influence from the overall institution; SERC’s physical location 50 miles away from the main hub of museums on the Mall and the Center’s focus on research rather than museum exhibits only adds to the feeling that SERC is somewhat separate from the other units of the Smithsonian Institution. Having said this, I should point out that of course SERC’s budget directly depends on decisions made by the Institution’s headquarters in the Castle at the Mall in D.C. and that SERC is directly affected by, for example, the planned reorganization of the sciences. Also, in my Watershed Radio project, in which SERC collaborates with the Sierra Club, Smithsonian lawyers were involved with writing and approving the official contract between SERC and the Sierra Club. Before we will learn more about this Watershed Radio project, I will first, in chapter 2, give an overview of all the activities I have been involved in during my internship at SERC.
4 Chapter 2. Overview of Internship
During the 16 weeks of my internship, I carried out a number of activities. Although I spent most of my time developing the Watershed Radio website, a project I will discuss briefly below and more in detail in the next chapter, I also developed a website for the SERC Open House in May 2001, worked on the website for the education department, and helped organize the public launch of the Watershed Radio website. In addition, I was also glad to spend some time learning about our own and other organization’s education programs and to attend science lectures and Smithsonian webmaster meetings. I basically divided my internship time between four categories of activities, namely 1) developing the Watershed Radio website; 2) planning the official launch of the Watershed Radio website; 3) developing websites other than Watershed Radio; and 4) general activities. Figure 2 shows how much time I have spent on each of those groups of activities.
Planning the launch of the Watershed Radio website 12% General 30%
Web development Developing the other than Watershed Radio Watershed Radio website 7% 51%
Figure 2. Time spent on various categories of activities during my internship
As figure 2 shows, I have spent most of my time (51 percent) developing a website for the Watershed Radio project. Watershed Radio was a new environmental education project about the Chesapeake Bay watershed and it was my job to create a website that provided the background information to daily radio spots that featured all kinds of aspects of this watershed. Together with the Sierra Club, our collaborators in this project, SERC had decided that the website would be publicly launched on 30 April 2001. I participated in the organization of this launch event by helping to plan for the location and activities, sending out invitations, and developing additional documentation about Watershed Radio to be distributed at the launch. I
5 also prepared for my presentation of the Watershed Radio website, which was going to be part of this event.
After Watershed Radio, my second most important project was developing the website for the education department. Although an education website already existed, I felt that the information in this site, though very useful, was poorly organized. This seemed mainly a result of the fact that several people had been working on sections of the site, and I decided to create a new site that would reuse most of the “old” content. Although I didn’t finish this project during my internship, I did gather ideas and made plans for the new structure and design of the education website1. A small website that I did finish during my internship was a website for SERC’s Open House, which I published a few weeks before the Open House event in May 2001. Figure 3 shows the homepage, and appendix A includes the two most informative pages of this website, the homepage and a page listing the activities at the Open House.
Figure 3. Homepage of the website for SERC’s Open House in May 2001.
Last, but not least, I spent some of the time of my internship on “general” or miscellaneous activities, basically activities that did not fit any of the other categories. Especially in the beginning I spent quite some time learning my way around SERC, getting to know people,
1 The website for the Education Department was published in October 2001 at http://www.serc.si.edu/education.
6 setting up my computer, and buying the software I needed to create the websites. I have also, in the 16 weeks of my internship, attended several meetings of the Smithsonian webmasters group and several science lectures by our scientists or their guests. In addition, I participated in the Open House event and some other activities or events at the Education Department, including being a judge at a local science fair and visiting another, nearby environmental education center. Table 1 gives an overview and short description of those four categories of activities I have been involved in during my internship.
Table 1. Overview of four categories of activities during internship
Categories of activities Description during internship Watershed Radio • Planning, designing, publishing, and maintaining the website for an website environmental education project related to the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Chapter 3 will discuss this Watershed Radio project in detail. Helping to plan the • Help plan location and activities official launch of the • Finding addresses and sending out invitations Watershed Radio website • Preparing my presentation • Developing documentation (other than the website) to be distributed during the launch Web development other • Creating a few information web pages related to SERC’s Open House in May than Watershed Radio 2001 • Planning the information architecture for the education website General • A variety of activities, including o getting to know procedures and people at SERC o attending science lectures o participating in Education Department “fieldtrips” o helping with SERC’s Open House and serving as a judge in a science fair o attending meetings o other miscellaneous activities
As figure 2 already showed, I have spent 51 percent of my time in the 16 weeks of my internship on developing the Watershed Radio website. How I spent all that time is the topic of chapter 3: From Idea to Site: Developing the Watershed Radio Website.
7 Chapter 3. From Idea to Site: Developing the Watershed Radio Website
In this chapter, I will describe the development of the Watershed Radio website, which I would eventually publish online at http://www.watershedradio.org. After a short introductory description of the Watershed Radio project and website, I will show a timeline that indicates the separate phases in the development of the website. In the remainder of this chapter I will then follow these phases to discuss document goals and objectives, site structure, content, design, testing, publishing, and maintenance of the Watershed Radio website.
3.1 Introduction to Watershed Radio and Overview of Development Phases
Watershed Radio is an environmental education project that uses daily one-minute radio spots and a website to educate people—mainly adults and students in the Chesapeake Bay watershed—about environmental issues and the connections between natural processes and human activities in their watershed. The watershed of the Chesapeake Bay is a 64,000-square- mile area of land in which all water eventually, via creeks, rivers, and streams, drains into America’s largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay. Fifteen million people live in this watershed that is part of six statesMaryland, Virginia, West Box 1. Example of the text of a Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and Delawareand Watershed Radio spot in the category of the entire District of Columbia. plants and animals in the watershed
The idea for Watershed Radio was developed by the Red-Tailed Hawk They are watching. As we drive along the Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club, a nation-wide highway it's not just traffic cameras that monitor environmental activist organization. Four members of our comings and goings. Red-tailed hawks, whose distinctive call is heard at the beginning this Chapter were already producing one-minute of each Watershed episode, perch along Watershed Radio spots when they asked SERC to roadways keeping a watchful eye. The red-tail, become involved by creating the accompanying who gets its name from its rust-colored tail, prefers open areas like meadows or roadsides website. The one-minute spots, created by the Sierra where they can use their extraordinary vision, Club, typically feature one of five general categories razor sharp beak, and powerful talons to catch prey such as rabbits and mice. The red-tailed related to the Chesapeake Bay watershed: special hawk can be found throughout North America places and people; scientific research; natural history and is abundant in the watershed. As you drive (also called living memory); animals and plants in the its roads, keep an eye out for the red-tailed hawk. They will be watching you. watershed; and watershed organizations and volunteer (Written by the Sierra Club.)
8 opportunities. Box 1 is an example of the script of a Watershed Radio spot in the category “animals and plants in the watershed.”
At the start of my internship, six radio stations in Maryland and Virginia were broadcasting these free radio spots once or multiple times a day. By the end of my internship, ten stations in all watershed states except Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. were broadcasting the programs, probably reaching tens of thousands of listeners each day. The Sierra Club still actively tries to increase the number of participating radio stations.
While the Sierra Club writes and records the radio spots and distributes them on CD, SERC is responsible for verifying the content of the spots and for producing the Watershed Radio website. In the third week of my internship, developing the Watershed Radio website got well underway when my supervisor and I had a kick-off meeting with Sierra Club representatives Chris Bedford and Andy Roberts. At this meeting they conveyed their ideas about the project. I asked them about audiences and goals and we discussed ideas for the website. Basically, the Sierra Club and SERC wanted a website that would provide information about every Watershed Radio spot broadcast on the radio. For each spot, the website would include the radio spot (as a sound file), additional information about the topic, and references to other information resources on the Internet. In short, the audience for the website and spots was described as “everyone in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, ” and the main goal was described as “reconnecting people to the place they live” by providing information about the natural environment of the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the connection between human activities and natural processes; in the following sections in this chapter I will discuss the goals, objectives, and audience for Watershed Radio in more detail. At this meeting, we also decided to have the website online from 1 May 2001 on forward and to officially celebrate the new collaboration between SERC and the Sierra Club with a public launch of the website the day before on Monday 30 April 2001.
This chapter describes the development of the Watershed Radio website up until the end of my internship, three weeks after the launch of the site. The structure of this chapter is mainly based on JoAnn T. Hackos’ “model of the publications-development life cycle” as described in her book “Managing your documentation projects” (Hackos 1994). I have chosen to compare my activities to this model because it represents what I have learned in my MTSC courses about planning for a publication and because, as I will further discuss in chapter 4, the model is complete; it includes everything from planning the document to evaluating the final product. In
9 line with the five phases that Hackos distinguishes in her model, the following five sections of this chapter will discuss the 1) Information Planning Phase; 2) Content Specification Phase; 3) Implementation Phase; 4) Production Phase; and 5) Evaluation Phase for developing the Watershed Radio website.
The timeline in figure 4 shows how I generally progressed through these phases towards a “final” website, ready by Monday April 30, 13 weeks after the start of my internship.
February March April May
1/29 2/5 2/12 2/19 2/26 3/5 3/12 3/19 3/26 4/2 4/9 4/16 4/23 4/30 5/7 5/14
Information Planning Implementation Launch & Evaluation
Content Specification Production
Figure 4. Timeline of the development of the Watershed Radio website
In addition to Hackos’ model, I will also discuss how I used John Shiple’s “Information Architecture (IA) Tutorial” (Shiple 2001). Although my MTSC course work had prepared me for developing any kind of document, I did not have many resources or experience specifically with developing a website, so I used the tutorial to give me some hands-on advice on how to plan for a website’s information architecture. Although Shiple’s tutorial does not mention the same phases Hackos describes in her model, it was easy to see what parts of his tutorial fitted with what phase of Hackos’ model, and in the remainder of this chapter I will, phase by phase, compare my web development activities with the activities suggested by both Hackos and Shiple. In the evaluation in chapter 4, I will return to these models and describe how they did or did not apply to my web development activities.
3.2 The Information Planning Phase: Defining Goals, Objectives, and the User Experience
The first phase of Hackos’ model of the document-development cycle is the Information Planning Phase in which you develop an information plan that includes a first analysis of goals, audience, medium, and proposed documentation to meet those goals. Of course, for a website, the medium and types of documentation are already determined and Shiple’s IA tutorial only discusses website goals and audience. Hackos’ model also suggests that you use this phase to make a “project plan.” While the information plan lays out what kind of document you want to develop, the project plan lays out how you think you will get there. Although I made some notes on how I was going to manage this project, I did not spend a lot of time creating a project plan,
10 something that I came to regret later in the development process; in the evaluation in chapter 4, I will come back to this issue.
While Hackos’ model provides the overall context for this phase, the IA tutorial by Shiple provides specific advice on how to develop an information plan for a website. After defining the goals, the tutorial suggests you first define your audience by creating a list of potential or desired audiences, and then develop scenarios of how these audiences may want to use your site. In the end, according to the tutorial, you analyze similar (or competitive) websites to finalize your definition of the experience you want the user to have. Table 2 compares the activities of Hackos’ model and Shiple’s tutorial for this phase.
Table 2. The Information Planning Phase: Suggested activities by Hackos and Shiple
Hackos’ publications-development model Shiple’s Information Architecture tutorial • Develop Information Plan • Define website goals • Define user experience: o Define audience o Create scenarios o Perform competitive analysis • Develop Project Plan Source: Hackos (1994), Shiple (2001)
In accordance with Shiple’s tutorial, I will first discuss the goals for the website and follow that with a description of the audience and desired user experience. Although I will discuss goals and audience separately, they are closely related and the audience analysis certainly influenced the goals and objectives of the website. At this point, it is also useful to point out that there is a difference, though not always a large one, between the Watershed Radio website and Watershed Radio as a project, with the project including both the radio spots and the website. Because developing the website was my specific project, I will focus on the website, its goals, audience, and design, but in chapter 4 I will return to this difference between Watershed Radio as a website and Watershed Radio as a project or product.
3.2.1 Defining Site Goals: From Project Guidelines to a Complete Set of Goals and Objectives
The Sierra Club had approached SERC with an idea for “a website to provide extra information in addition to the radio spots.” At the least, the website had to include sound files of the Watershed Radio spots and additional information about the topic of the day including links to other resources on the Internet. Although these “guidelines” were helpful in determining what
11 kind of content I should place on the website, they weren’t very specific about the goals of the website or about how and to whom this content should be presented, so I felt I had to take a few steps back and think about the goals of the website before I could really create it. The first thing I did after the kick-off meeting was to talk more to my supervisor and other staff members at the education department and look at other websites to get ideas for the Watershed Radio website. The websites I looked at were news, entertainment, education, and radio station websites, and sites related to similar projects. At the time, I knew of two other projects, Earth & Sky (www.earthsky.com) and Star Date (www.stardate.org), that used a website connected to daily radio spots, and I looked at their websites to see how they had defined their projects and set up their sites. The Earth & Sky website, for example, does include the transcript and sound file of the daily radio spots, but does not include additional information about the contents of these spots. They do, however, have teacher resources and also sell Earth & Sky merchandise in their online store. Other websites I looked at were news sites (because they present daily news, somewhat like Watershed Radio), radio station sites (because they present audio segments), entertainment sites (because they have to entice people to keep reading and coming back to the site), and education websites (because the Watershed Radio website would be targeting a similar audience).
Eventually, I defined the goal for the website, as well as the entire Watershed Radio project, as “to educate the general audience about the environment and, more specifically, to increase awareness, understanding, and interest in environmental issues and the connection between natural processes and human activities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.” This goal, however, is very abstract and to reach it I set the following, more specific objectives. The website:
§ Includes appropriate content about environmental issues in the Chesapeake Bay watershed § Creates a sense of a “Watershed Community,” the idea that we all share the same watershed and thus together create, but also solve, our environmental problems § Provides navigation and search options that make it easy for people to find the information they need § Has impact § Provides information about the Watershed Radio project itself
12 I included the objective of “creating a sense of a Watershed Community” because I think that if people understand what it means to live in a watershed—everyone, everything is connected— they may be more interested in learning about it. Table 3 gives an overview of these objectives and lists how I planned to meet them.
Table 3. Goals and objectives for the Watershed Radio website
Goal • Educate people about the environment and increase awareness, understanding, and interest in environmental issues and the connection between natural processes and human activities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Objectives • The website includes appropriate content about environmental issues in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, specifically by: o Providing content that is relevant to the Watershed Radio spots and providing further explanation by providing additional information, images, sounds, and references to more information o Providing content that is accurate, understandable, trustworthy, useful, and fair • The website creates a sense of a “Watershed Community” by: o Including opportunities to participate in Watershed Radio o Including maps and explanations of the Chesapeake Bay watershed o Providing teachers with an opportunity to use Watershed Radio in the classroom • The website’s navigation and search options make it easy for people to find the information they need. • The website has impact by: o Attracting new visitors • Other websites link to the Watershed Radio website • The website is listed with major search engines o Encouraging visitors to return to the site by • Providing a good, professional, searchable website • Being a reliable resource for information related to Chesapeake Bay watershed • Frequently adding new information o Encouraging radio stations to start broadcasting Watershed Radio o Stimulating visitors to start listening to the Watershed Radio spots • The website provides information about the Watershed Radio project itself
Although I started with the guideline that the Watershed Radio website should “provide extra information in addition to the radio spots,” I now had come to the conclusion that the website also needed to provide other kinds of content, such as general information about the watershed and information about the project and how to participate in it, to place the radio spots in the right context and create the desired effect of increasing people’s awareness and understanding of environmental issues in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. On top of that, good design and navigation and high visibility for the website should make sure people will actually visit the website and be able to take advantage of its content. But now the question is: Who are these people who might visit the website and learn about this watershed?
13 3.2.2 Defining the Audience and User Experience
Although everyone in the Chesapeake Bay watershed with a radio and everyone worldwide with a computer and connection to the Internet might hear a Watershed Radio spot or visit the website, Watershed Radio was designed specifically to reach out to people in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and help them reconnect to the place they live. In contrast to the “potential audience” (everyone), the “prospective audience” (the audience more likely to visit the website or hear the radio spots) is a more select group of people; they are the general public and middle and high school teachers and students in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Although this significantly narrows down the audience, it is still a large group of people with many different backgrounds and interests. I didn’t have enough time—or so I thought—to interview this audience directly, so instead I used the approach described in Shiple’s tutorial to get a better understanding of what this audience was like. The tutorial suggests that you first define who you want to reach with your website, then describe for yourself what their needs, interests, and backgrounds are, and finally study their needs by developing “user scenarios” that explore what kind of questions and expectations a visitor might bring to the site. Box 2 shows an example of a user scenario.
The results from this audience analysis are not ground-breaking, but I did get a better picture of the websites’ audience—where they are coming from and what their background is. I knew, for example, that any one visitor to the website could have found out about the website by:
§ Listening to a spot on the radio § Surfing on the Internet and using a search engine or clicking on a link on another website § Hearing about the website from someone else or through an ad or press release
14 Those visitors to the website would have a wide range of backgrounds. There would be: Box 2. Example of user scenario
A person driving on the highway hears § People with varying degrees of interest and the Watershed Radio spot. She wants knowledge of environmental issues to know more about this special place that they talk about in the spot. At § People with varying levels of computer skills and home she visits the website. It is easy different types of computers and Internet to find the text she heard on the radio. connections She reads the additional information. § People with different levels of education “But why is this site called Watershed Radio?” she wonders. She then learns § People in and outside the watershed she lives in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. What else is there to learn Guided by Shiple’s tutorial, I also created a list of groups of about this watershed? people who might visit the Watershed Radio website and developed user scenarios to better understand the tasks Appendix B includes more examples of such user scenarios. these visitors would like to accomplish on the website. The following are examples of visitors to the Watershed Radio website.
§ Listeners to radio spots, most likely listeners to NPR-affiliated stations § People interested in the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed § Teachers looking for environmental education tools § School children from middle and high schools (audio may especially appeal to students) § Radio station managers and program directors § Members/volunteers of other watershed organizations and projects § Local press, interested in watershed radio project or one of its topics § Potential sponsors of Watershed Radio
Although I have not surveyed or questioned the potential or prospective audience for Watershed Radio, thinking about their backgrounds and interests did help me to better understand the audience and enabled me to develop the website with the audience in mind. I also, in this and the following phases, benefited from the education experience of other staff in the Education Department and sometimes had an opportunity to meet members of the prospective audience. In early March 2001, for example, I attended a science fair where I met students from middle
15 and high schools who had an interest in environmental issues; and from the end of March 2001 on forward, school groups arrived at the Education Department to participate in our education programs. These encounters were very useful because I could see how much knowledge and interest the students had in environmental sciences, even though I didn’t talk to them specifically about Watershed Radio.
While I was using Shiple’s tutorial to define the goals, audience, and user experience for the Watershed Radio website, I wrote part 1 and 2 of a “Watershed Radio website plan,” which is included as appendix B.
3.3 The Content Specification Phase: Defining Site Content and Structure
In this Content Specification Phase, I used the goals and prospective audiences defined in the previous planning phase to specify the content and organization of the website. It is especially in this phase that I found Shiple’s tutorial to be very helpful. As you would expect from a content specification phase, the tutorial helps define what content to include in the site, but the tutorial goes further and makes clear that you also need to consider the websites’ functional requirements. Next, the tutorial helps you use the lists of content requirements to develop clusters of content and define how (in what order and on what level) you are going to present these clusters of content to the website visitor. In the end of this phase you have an architectural blueprint of the website that you will build in the following Implementation Phase. Table 4 shows a comparison between Hackos’ model and Shiple’s tutorial for this phase.
Table 4. The Content Specification Phase: Suggested activities by Hackos and Shiple
Hackos’ publications-development model Shiple’s Information Architecture tutorial • Develop Content Specification • Define site content: o Identify content and functional requirements o Group and label content • Define site structure: o Develop site structure and architectural blueprints o Design global and local navigation systems • Revise Project Plan Source: Hackos (1994), Shiple (2001)
Following Shiple’s tutorial, I will first, in section 3.3.1, discuss the content and functional requirements for the website and then, in section 3.3.2, discuss how I organized the content to create a logical organizational structure for the Watershed Radio website. In section 3.3.3, I will
16 briefly discuss what is involved in preparing for the fact that the Watershed Radio website was going to be a large site that would grow in size by five pages each week.
3.3.1 Content Inventory and List of Content Items
Based on the goals, expected audience, and the ideas I got from studying other websites (mentioned in section 3.2.1), I drafted a long list of content items that the site would need (section 3.1 in appendix B). After creating the list, as suggested by Shiple’s tutorial, I ordered these content items in logical groups, which resulted in defining the following three main sections of content for the Watershed Radio website.
1. Watershed stories
This section contains the core information of the site: the archive of old and new Watershed Radio “stories.” Each story includes the script and audio file of the radio spot, additional information about the topic in the spot, photos or other images, and references to other resources on the Internet. This is also the section that will keep growing after the site is published; every week five new pages, related to five new Watershed Radio spots, will need to be added to this part of the site.
2. Information about the Chesapeake Bay watershed
This section describes what a watershed is and includes a map of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. To appreciate information about the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the audience needs to understand what and where this watershed is.That there is a need for general information about watersheds is shown by the results of a NEETF/Roper Starch study of environmental knowledge, which found that only 40 percent of adult Americans could identify the correct definition of a watershed when having to choose from a list of four choices (NEETF 1999).
3. Information about the Watershed Radio project and how to get involved
The information in this section gives information about the project and encourages people to become involved by joining an e-mail list and contributing ideas for Watershed Radio spots. Together with the information about the Chesapeake Bay watershed, this section enhances the visitor’s idea of a “Watershed Community.”
17 In addition to deciding what content to include, I also decided what not to include in the website. Within the three above-mentioned content areas, the website should focus on its strong point: providing information about the Chesapeake Bay watershed (not watersheds in general). In my opinion, the site also should not try to redo what is already explained well on other websites, such as those of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation or Chesapeake Bay Program, but rather focus on bringing reliable information connected to the radio spots and serve as a gateway to other relevant websites with information about the watershed.
3.3.2 Functional Requirements and Navigation
In addition to content requirements, the website also has a few “functional requirements” in order to support all of the website’s goals and objectives. Most importantly, users should be able to find the information they need. To facilitate this, I decided to create three ways for a user to find the information in the Watershed Radio “archive”—the collection of Watershed Radio stories. First of all, users can see the list of Watershed Radio spots that are broadcast this week; second, they can search the archive of Watershed Radio spots by topic or date; and finally, they can use a search engine to find any topic of their choice.
In addition to finding the information they need, users also need to be able to listen to a radio spot and sign up for an e-mail list to receive Watershed Radio information. For sound files I decided to use Real Audio (.ra) files because the Real Audio player is free, available for both PCs and Macs, and—while download time of the files is small—the sound quality is acceptable. To enable people to sign up for a weekly e-mail that would inform them about the five latest Watershed Radio spots on the website, I created a page that explained what they would receive if they signed up, which they could simply do by sending an e-mail to me through a [email protected] e-mail address.
Other technical requirements I identified for Watershed Radio were that the website should be accessible for PC and Mac users, display well in all browsers, download fast over a slow modem, be accessible for people with disabilities, be easily found by search engines, and have a way of tracking how many users visit the website. I felt that meeting these technical requirements, which I based on topics addressed in MTSC courses and by reading about web development, was very important in order to reach our goal of educating students and the general audience in the Chesapeake Bay watershed who, as discussed in section 3.2.2, have
18 different levels of experience with computers and different computer hardware and software at school or at home.
While I was using Shiple’s tutorial to define content and functional requirements for the Watershed Radio website, I wrote part 3 of the “Watershed Radio website plan” in appendix B.
3.3.3 Planning for Website Management
In addition to the content and technical requirements, I also had to take into account that the Watershed Radio website was going to be a fast-growing site. Because there was going to be a new radio spot for every weekday, the website would have to provide a new story for every day from Monday to Friday, which means I would have to add 5 new pages every week; about 19 to 22 a month; and about 260 a year. Because of this, I decided not to design a website that had the “radio spot of the day” listed on the homepage because then I would have to update that web page every day2. Instead I decided to have a section called “This Week’s Programs,” which I would not have to update every day because I could link to upcoming stories in advance. To manage the large bulk of web pages that I would have to develop in the future, I also decided to use templates for the design of all the pages, including the Watershed Radio story pages. With a template, it would be much easier to change one aspect of the design for all pages.
Now that I had listed the content items and ordered them in logical groups (section 3.3.1), listed all the functional requirements (section 3.3.2), and decided I was going to have a page for “This Week’s Programs” (section 3.3.3.), I was ready to draft the structure of the Watershed Radio website. Figure 5 shows the architectural blueprint for the Watershed Radio website, representing the three main areas of the website—Watershed Radio stories, information about the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and information about the Watershed Radio project and how to get involved.
2 Although it is technically possible to use a database and have the homepage always link to the latest radio spot, at the start of the project I did not have the technical skills to set the website up like that.
19
Home
Archive of Watershed Radio stories on the website Listening to the Watershed List of Radio Stations Radio spots and reading additional information
This Week’s Programs
Search the Archive
Programs by Topic
Programs by Date
Information about the Chesapeake Bay watershed What is a Watershed?
Teacher Resources for Using Watershed Radio in the Classroom
Maps of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Information about the project and how to get involved
Information about the Project
Information on E-mail List
How to Contribute Ideas
Contact Information
Figure 5. Architectural blueprint of the Watershed Radio website
20 The blueprint shows the pages within each section. The sections on “information about the watershed” and “information about the project” only include three or four pages. The largest— and still growing—section is the “archive of Watershed Radio stories.” The blueprint shows that a person can find a particular radio spot by checking a list of radio stations that broadcast the spots, or by searching through the website’s archive by looking for “This Week’s Programs,” “Searching the Archive” with a search engine, or using a list of “Programs by Topic” or “Programs by Date.”
At the end of this Content Specification Phase, I sent the ideas about goals, audience, and content, which I developed in this and the previous Information Planning Phase, to the members of the Sierra Club (appendix C). I also showed them a possible page design and explained my vision on the different parts of the site, including the maps and the e-mail list. When the members of the Sierra Club had no comments and indicated they agreed with the plan, I moved on to the next phase: Designing the Site and Writing the Content.
3.4 The Implementation Phase: Designing the Site and Writing the Content
Now that the planning was done, the actual design and development took place in the “Implementation Phase.” Because Shiple’s tutorial only addresses information architecture, it ends in this phase after it guides you through determining the rough layout of the page, doing the first design sketches, and creating a web-based prototype of the site.
Because the tutorial ended, I started looking for other online articles that would help me with specific aspects of developing the website. I used, for example, an article on search engines to learn how to make sure they would find, crawl, and index my site (Boutin 2001), and another article about different kinds and versions of browsers to learn how I should design the site to best accommodate the various browsers that people are using (Mulder and Brandt 2001). These and other articles, like Shiple’s tutorial, provide website-specific advice, and in this and the last two development phases—production and evaluation—I will compare these “website- specific activities” to Hackos’ publication’s development model. These “website-specific activities” are a compilation of multiple sources.
Table 5 first compares Hackos’ model with Shiple’s tutorial, but when Shiple’s tutorial no longer applies, the third column lists two other website-specific activities that I carried out as part of this
21 Implementation Phase. These two activities—not mentioned in Shiple’s tutorial—are writing the content and testing your design and content for usability.
Table 5. The Implementation Phase: Suggested activities by Hackos and Shiple
Hackos’ publications-development Shiple’s Information model Architecture tutorial • Actual design and development • Define visual design: take place o Determine layout grids o Create design sketches • Deliverables could include: and page mock-ups o Designs for multiple o Create web-based publications prototype o Prototype sections
o Series of drafts for review (IA TUTORIAL ENDS HERE) Website-specific activities (informal and formal) • Write content • Test for usability
Source: Hackos (1994), Shiple (2001)
In this phase I created series of drafts for the design as well as the text. I will first discuss the visual design of the site, then discuss the development of the content, and finish this section by discussing the testing of design and content.
3.4.1 Defining the Visual Design
I created three different designs, respectively for the homepage, the template for the general content pages, and the template for the pages that would include the many Watershed Radio stories. These “general pages” include the sections on the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the Watershed Radio project, and the pages that help users find the radio spots either on the radio or in the archive. The final look of the Watershed Radio website, shown in figure 6, and 7, was influenced by the ideas I got from looking at the radio, news, and entertainment websites, as well as by the following four factors: goal and objectives of Watershed Radio; technical requirements including accessibility guidelines; available time; and my own web design skills.
First of all, the design should support the objectives that were listed in section 3.2.1 and provide an easy way for people to find the information they are interested in. This means including a good navigation system and designing the pages so that people always know where they are within the site and where they can go next (Fleming 1998). In addition, the website should also
22 look “good” and professional to show credibility and entice readers to read the information that is provided. The ultimate goal is that the design supports the content in every way and, together with the content, makes users return to the site for more information.
The website should be accessible to all users, not just because Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, amended in 1998 to address website accessibility for people with disabilities, is a requirement for all government sites published or significantly changed after 21 June 20013, but also because I think it is a good design practice. Although more can be done to make the website compliant with Section 508, I have incorporated many of the standards. The website for example does not include frames and uses other “good design” practices such as alternative (
Last but not least, the website’s final design was also influenced by the available time in combination with my own web design skills. During the project, I continued to learn more about Macromedia’s image editing software “Fireworks” and its HTML editor “Dreamweaver.” If I had started with the skills I have now, I would perhaps have taken a different approach and created a database of stories rather than separate web pages. However, I think it is only a normal part of any learning experience to develop new skills and then wish you had had them all along.
Figure 6 shows the Watershed Radio homepage and an example of a “general page,” in this case the page that gives a definition of a watershed. The homepage includes a short description of the content of the website and an image map, showing a map of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, that links to the different sections of the website. Not in the picture is the extra navigation bar at the bottom. The “What is a Watershed” page (figure 6B) shows the navigation bar on the left, a feature repeated on all pages except the homepage so that a users always knows where to find the navigation and what the main sections of the website are. For a closer look at both these and other pages, please refer to the printout of website pages in appendix D.
3 The Smithsonian Institution is not a Federal agency but follows the Federal government in many of its regulations.
23 A B
Figure 6A. The Watershed Radio Figure 6B. An example of a general page “What is a Watershed?”
Figure 7 shows the design of a page that includes a Watershed Radio program and background information. The box on the first page includes the transcript of the radio program (written by the Sierra Club) and a link to the sound file of the radio spot. The remainder of the text is the background information. The web page ends with an overview of used resources and references to other relevant websites. Except for the transcripts of the radio spots, I developed all the content on the website and in the next section we will learn more about that.
24 A C
B D
Figure 7. An example of a Watershed Radio story page. “Anacostia Watershed Society” was broadcast and published online on May 14, 2001
3.4.2 Writing the Content
Before the launch of the website I would have to create the content for the general pages, describing the Chesapeake Bay watershed and the project itself, as well as the first six Watershed Radio stories. First I will briefly discuss how I went about writing these stories, then I will describe what guidelines I developed for the content of the site.
Each story page was supposed to give some background information or explanation of the content of the short one-minute Watershed Radio spots, so I started writing each story by reading the transcript of the radio spot. The transcripts were written by the four members of the Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club, but I had seen and approved all the radio spots before they were recorded. Sometimes I had suggested changes to the script to improve its accuracy
25 (often based on comments by SERC scientists) or to improve its educational value (more on this below). Based on the content of the radio spot, I searched for additional information on the Internet and in SERC’s library, though within a few weeks I almost exclusively relied on the Internet because going to the library for each daily story turned out to be too time consuming. Also references to online resources would be more practical for the website’s visitors.
Because a single radio spot could lead to multiple background stories, I decided on the specific angle for the story based on the text of the spot, the available information, and what I thought would be interesting information that would support the website’s goal of “increasing awareness, understanding, and interest in environmental issues and the connection between natural processes and human activities in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.” Next, I would write the story and look for interesting images to illustrate it. I usually used pictures on the Internet that were either copyright free for educational usage or pictures for which the owners had given me permission to use them on the website. Writing the stories took (and takes) a considerable amount of time. Thirty-four percent of the time spent on the Watershed Radio website was spent on researching and writing the Watershed Radio stories. Initially, writing a single story could take perhaps two or three days. Later on, after the launch of the website on 30 April, I decreased the time spent on researching and writing these stories when I stopped going to the library, got into a bit of a routine, and simply decided I couldn’t spend so much time on them anymore; I had to learn how to write stories within a time span of three to seven hours, depending on the complexity of the topic.
Because at the time I was the only writer of the Watershed Radio stories, I didn’t put any “official” guidelines on paper, but I did start a style guide and took notes about my editing decisions and, over time, developed some ideas on how the stories should be written. Basically, the content of the stories should be in line with the website’s goal to be an environmental education website that increases awareness and understanding of environmental issues in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. In the online Environmental Education Handbook (NAAEE 2001), the North American Association for Environmental Education lays out guidelines for environmental education and, based on their guidelines, I decided that the content in the
26 Watershed Radio website should:
1. Accurately describe environmental issues 2. Increase understanding of environmental issues and concepts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed 3. Be fair in reflecting the diversity of perspectives on these issues
4. Promote personal responsibility and encourage learners to use their knowledge, skills, and assessment of environmental issues as their basis for problem solving and action 5. Be easy to use in the classroom by teachers and students and fit with national, state or local science learning outcomes
Item three in this list refers to the difference between education and advocacy. Initially, I wasn’t aware of this issue, but as more and more Watershed Radio spots were developed and I discussed some of them with the members of the Sierra Club who wrote those scripts and sent them to SERC for approval, I learned about the difference between education and advocacy, which I feel is well described in the following quote from the online Environmental Education Handbook (NAAEE 2001):
“As educators on environmental topics, we sometimes walk a fine line between education and advocacy—a line that we can cross without even being aware of it. Education involves giving students access to information, opinions, and interpretations so they can develop their own conclusions. This may require the presentation of information, data, or views with which the instructor does not agree or that the instructor would rather not acknowledge. Advocacy involves giving students access to information with the intent that students reach a specific conclusion or hold a particular opinion.”
The issue between education and advocacy is not restricted to environmental communication and education projects, but is a theme within the sciences themselves. An article in Science (Brown 2000) discusses the debate around “ecologists on a mission to save the world” and asks to what extend scientists should be involved in environmental policy and advocacy—the underlying concern being that scientists may not be objective anymore if they engage in political debates. For two reasons I felt that it was important for Watershed Radio to try to represent both or multiple sides of an issue and to not advocate for one position or another. The first reason is that it is, as described in the NAAEE quote above, a requirement for education to show different sides of the same story and give people the opportunity to develop their own opinions based on accurate, fair information. If I, for example, provide information about the negative effects of
27 burning fossil fuels and explain that alternative, renewable energy sources exist, readers can make up their own mind whether or not they are interested in alternative energy sources; I don’t have to tell them they should buy solar panels, I can only tell them they are available or give suggestions on how to reduce energy consumption. The second reason for providing balanced information is that Watershed Radio is produced in part by SERC, an environmental research center, and advocating a certain position on the website would suggest that it was an official opinion of SERC or the SERC scientists. SERC, however, does not have a preference one way or the other and “simply” creates and disseminates information on the effect of human activities on the environment. Education versus advocacy, however, is a complicated issue and it may be hard to completely steer away from advocacy. Not only because the Sierra Club, an advocacy group, is our collaborator in this project, but also because Watershed Radio—as well as SERC’s research—is about the impact of humans on the environment. In the Watershed Radio stories, however, I always try to provide balanced information about the environmental issues. With information about environmental issues, people can form opinions; with suggestions for personal action (item four in the list above) people can, if they want to, take action and reduce their contribution to existing environmental problems.
3.4.3. Test Early, Test Often
Although more testing is always better, I did not test with an outside audience before the launch of the website because during the development of the website and even in the first few weeks after its launch, there was hardly enough content to make it worthwhile to test it with an outside group. Also, there wasn’t enough time to do it, so for both these reasons I felt I might as well do a test with a group of people other than the staff in the Education Department or the Sierra Club after the launch of the website. I did, however, test early and often by sharing drafts of the website with people within SERC and the four members of the Sierra Club involved with this project. The scientists at SERC also helped me check the scripts and Watershed Radio stories for accuracy. I also tested the website and sound files on multiple computers and platforms to make sure the site displayed well on different computers and with different browser types and versions.
At the end of this Implementation Phase, the design and text for the website were finished. The final design and text of the website can be seen in appendix D, which shows a selection of the pages that I developed during my internship. To see all the stories that I wrote during my
28 internship, please refer to the Watershed Radio website at http://www.watershedradio.org. All pages before 18 May 2001 were created during my internship.
3.5 The Production Phase: Finalizing and Publishing the Site
Of all phases in Hackos’ model, the Production Phase was the hardest to apply to the development of the Watershed Radio website. At first, I was thinking that “production” would only refer to the physical production of materials, such as books, brochures, or CDs, and for my website I didn’t really need to multiply anything in order to distribute it. I found, however, that the following website-related activities are part of the Production Phase.
§ Creating a list of topics (analogous to creating an index) as one of the ways for people to find a particular Watershed Radio story
§ Reviewing the final draft of text and design for the general web pages and the first six Watershed Radio stories. I tested the text and especially the design on several platforms and with several versions of the browsers Netscape and Internet Explorer
§ Conducting a final test of the technical requirements, for example checking if all the links work, verifying that images are connected to explanatory ALT text, and listening to sound files to make sure they are available, download fast, and provide good sound quality
§ Publishing the website by saving the HTML files on the public server and making the homepage available from the URL http://www.watershedradio.org
§ Submitting the website to search engines
Table 6 shows these activities in relation to the Production Phase described by Hackos.
29 Table 6. The Production Phase: Suggested activities by Hackos and the website-specific activities that I carried out as part of this phase
Hackos’ publications-development model Website-specific activities • Actual production of document; prepare final • Finalize development of design and content copy of text and graphics. • Test technical requirements • Publish online • Submit website to search engines Source: Hackos (1994)
After the site was published, it was time for a celebration. SERC and the Sierra Club had originally planned a press conference in downtown Washington, D.C., but SERC’s media advisors did not feel that the event was “press-worthy” because at the day of the launch only six Watershed Radio stories would be available online. Instead, we decided to celebrate the official launch of the Watershed Radio project and the collaboration between SERC and the Sierra Club at SERC’s Education Department, and we invited state and county officials and SERC scientists to join the event. About 50 people, including many SERC staff, attended and listened to a few talks by our SERC director Ross Simons; Sierra Club representative Chris Bedford; The Honorable Janet Owens, County Executive Anne Arundel County—the county in which SERC is situated; and Ed Vinson, Chair of the Smithsonian Environmental Leadership Council. After the talks, which were held outside on SERC’s dock, I gave a brief presentation of the website. The event went well, but unfortunately created no press coverage for Watershed Radio. Our press release (written by Elizabeth Tait, public information specialist at the Smithsonian Institution, based on a draft by the Sierra Club) is attached as appendix E. Although I did not write this press release and only contributed to it in a minor way, I have included it to show how the Watershed Radio project was announced to the media. Appendix F includes two fact sheets I wrote about Watershed Radio, which we also distributed during the launch event.
3.6 The Evaluation Phase: How Did I Do and Does the User Like It?
The last phase in Hackos’ documentation development model is the Evaluation Phase, a phase to evaluate the document that was produced as well as the development process that was used to create it. When the evaluation of the past is complete, Hackos’ model suggests you start planning for the next version of the project. In this section I will only discuss the evaluation of the document, the Watershed Radio website. The second part of the evaluation will take place in chapter 4 where I will evaluate the process of developing the Watershed Radio website. Table 7
30 shows the suggested activities by Hackos, again compared to website-specific activities that I think fit this evaluation phase.
Table 7. The Evaluation Phase: Suggested activities by Hackos and the activities I carried out
Hackos’ publications-development model Website-specific activities • Evaluate current project • Evaluate the product: • Plan for next version of the project o Track web trends o Continue user testing o Refine audience, goals, design, content • Evaluate the process (discussed in chapter 4) Source: Hackos (1994)
There are two ways to analyze the effectiveness of a website: looking at visitor statistics that show the number of people who have visited the website, and testing the website with actual users. First I will discuss the numbers, then the user testing.
3.6.1. Visitor Statistics
Visitor statistics show how many people have found the website and browsed through its pages. The statistics can show how many people return to the site, but in the beginning primarily illustrate the number of people that visit the site for the first time. From the data I collected on the number of people who visited the website, I gathered that their number is low, but growing4. While these visitor statistics are certainly useful and show how many people have visited the site, the numbers don’t indicate what these visitors thought of the information they found. A usability test, however, provides just that kind of useful, quantitative information.
3.6.2. Usability Testing
Hackos writes: “Although the most effective usability testing of a publication and the accompanying product takes place during earlier development stages, you may also want to consider evaluative testing at the completion of the project” (p. 507). Because I did not do any testing of the website with an outside audience in any earlier phase—because there was not enough content and not enough time—the usability testing that I referred to in the
4 The number of visitors to the Watershed Radio website increased from 397 in May to 5,660 in November 2001. The number of hits increased from 2,176 to 32,488 over the same time period. While “hits” refers to the number of files—pages, images, sound files—that people have requested, the number of "visitors" is an estimate of the actual number of people that visited the website and is defined by a formula that uses website hits and other web statistics. Although not exact, the number is proportional to the number of actual people who visited the website.
31 Implementation Phase will happen in this evaluation phase, after the publication of the website. It would have been good to test with the prospective audience and especially with teachers to hear their opinions, but there wasn’t enough time, and it also wasn’t till after the launch of the website and—not in the least—the low visitor statistics that I realized how crucial the teachers are as an audience. Now that there is a substantial amount of content, however, teachers and other users may be in a better position to comment on the project and the website. Any test results and refinement of audience and goals can be incorporated in the website, which will always be a work in progress.
32 Chapter 4. Evaluation
Looking back at the development of the Watershed Radio website, some things went well, while other aspects didn’t go as I would have wanted. Overall, the development of the website went all right; I delivered a product “on budget, on time” that so far seems to have pleased my employer as well as the members of the Sierra Club. In this final chapter, I will first evaluate the development of the Watershed Radio website, then discuss how I would do it next time, and finish with an overall evaluation of my MTSC internship at SERC.
4.1 Evaluation of Developing the Watershed Radio Website
In chapter 3, I discussed my web development activities using the five phases of Hackos’ model of the publications-development life cycle and compared my activities to Shiple’s tutorial for developing a website’s information architecture. In this evaluation, I will analyze how I developed the Watershed Radio website by discussing how the model and tutorial, each in their own way, helped or did not help me develop the site. Understanding the limitations and strengths of Hackos’ model and tutorials like Shiple’s will create a good basis for future web development projects. I should point out, however, that I am talking about strengths and limitations of the two models in the context of my own purposes; both models may be very good, I am only assessing them in the light of my activities, which were aimed at developing the Watershed Radio website. Appendix G includes an overview of the comparison between Hackos’ model and Shiple’s tutorial for each phase of Hackos’ publications-development life cycle.
The main difference between Hackos’ model and Shiple’s tutorial is that Hackos’ model is a heuristic and not contextualized, while Shiple’s tutorial is specifically geared towards web development. Also, Hackos’ model is complete; it addresses the whole documentation development cycle from planning to evaluation and includes guidelines on how to manage the entire project. But while Shiple’s tutorial is not complete because it only addresses information architecture, within the larger framework that Hackos provides, Shiple’s tutorial and tutorials and articles like it are extremely useful because they give you step-by-step advice to accomplish your goals.
Even though Hackos’ model applies well to web development, I got the impression that the model is more appropriate for developing print documentation or an online document on a CD
33 than for developing an ongoing website like Watershed Radio. A website, unlike a print document, is not finished when it is published because content and design can easily change and content can be added. This is especially true for the Watershed Radio website where the development phase is short compared to the time that will be spent maintaining and updating the site. Developing a website that will be maintained and updated has consequences for all phases of the publications development cycle. In the Planning Phase, you have to start planning for site maintenance, and decisions made about maintenance can and should affect later decisions about information architecture and design. Designing a page, for example, with daily news updates is not a good idea if there will be no one available to update the site after it is published.
I also felt that Hackos’ model applies more to documents that accompany a product, rather than a document like a website that is a product by itself. This again has implications for planning and managing the publication. The activities suggested by Hackos assume—if a need for documentation is established in the planning phase—there is an audience that is waiting for the documentation, for example because they have bought a product and need a manual to go along with it. The Watershed Radio website, however, does not accompany another product, but rather is the product itself and therefore needs to be “sold” to its prospective audience. In section 3.2 I wrote about the Planning Phase: “… for a website, the medium and types of documentation are already determined,” and although that is true for a website as a document, it is not necessarily true for a website as a product. If I had thought of Watershed Radio as a product, I would, perhaps, have developed a set of documents including a website, a fact sheet, a brochure, and a press releases, all useful to “sell” the website. During the development of the website, I simply assumed the website only had to accompany the radio spots and the spots would simply send enough visitors to the site to warrant its existence. When it turned out the visitor statistics for the first month were low (397 in May 2001), I realized that “just” creating a website is not enough and I should think of ways to advertise the site to encourage people to visit it and take advantage of its environmental education information. As a result, I started thinking of creating Watershed Radio postcards, which would serve as a kind of brochure that people could mail to each other, and developing education materials that could encourage teachers throughout the watershed to use the Watershed Radio spots and website in their classrooms. (Both postcards and education materials were developed after my internship.)
34 As mentioned before, Hackos’ model includes guidelines for creating the document, as well as guidelines for managing the project. While Shiple’s tutorial only addresses document development by discussing goals, audience, content specification, and site structure, Hackos’ project management component adds the manager’s perspective and discusses milestones, tasks, planning, and deliverables. I wish I had paid more attention to that part of Hackos’ model because the project management of Watershed Radio was not as successful as I would have wanted. When I started my internship and this project, my MTSC courses were still fresh in my memory and I was well aware of the fact that I should plan carefully and think of the content before rushing in and putting text on paper. I roughly sketched out the time I had available and wrote down some milestones. But just after starting the implementation phase, I didn’t plan or manage my project so carefully anymore and spent too much time, I think, on creating a nice- looking website. I think this happened because I did not have a lot of experience in graphic design and had to learn the software to create it. Also, other people seemed to focus a lot on the design of the site, rather than its content, and I wanted to show I could design a professional-looking site. Figure 8 shows how I divided the time that I was working on the Watershed Radio website and shows that I spent 16 percent of the time spent on the website on developing the design. Though 16 percent may not seem that much, I was working on the design on and off for about seven weeks (see the timetable in section 3.1), and now, with more knowledge about web design, I am not even that satisfied with it anymore. I would, for example, like to include more content on the homepage.
35
Setting up the domain name Maintaining the 2% website 9% Planning and Writing content content (other than stories) specification 13% 26%
Writing Watershed Designing the Radio stories website 34% 16%
Figure 8. Time spent on different aspects of developing the Watershed Radio website Designing the site and writing the stories and the content together form the Implementation Phase. Setting up the domain name, which was part of the Production Phase, refers to he time I spent straightening out some technical difficulties with using www.watershedradio.org as our web address. Site maintenance is not part of any of the development phases and happened in the three weeks after the site was published.
Although figure 8 shows I have divided my time well between different phases and spent ample time at the important Information Planning and Content Specification Phases, I could have planned better to include more milestones and to simply be more on top of the schedule. I kept track of time and was ready for the official launch of the website, but I had to rush in the end and I had not included a formal usability test. What contributed to my not-so-great project management was that I had no experience with similar projects, which made it hard to estimate the time I would need for each step. Planning was a lot of guessing and because I worked alone I didn’t feel the need to write down all the planning and stick to all the self-imposed deadlines. What also took considerable time was planning for the official launch of the website on April 30—discussing where to have the event, what to do, what to eat, who to invite, and then searching for addresses and mailing the invitations. I didn’t “plan” for this and was surprised by the amount of time it took, especially in the weeks just before the event. At this point, I felt I had “no time to plan,” there simply was too much to do. Although this is a poor excuse for not planning properly, I will say that I roughly set some milestones, pretty much kept to them, and published a reasonable website on time.
36 4.2 What About Next Time?
Developing the Watershed Radio website and comparing my activities to Hackos’ model and Shiple’s tutorial has increased my understanding of the process of developing a website. The combination of a heuristic like Hackos’ model and one or a number of specific tutorials like Shiple’s IA tutorial has proven to be very useful; the tutorial provided the step-by-step information and Hackos’ model provided the bigger framework. In future web development projects I will continue to use both Hackos model and specific tutorials, but add two steps to the Planning Phase. First, I would consider if the website is simply a document (perhaps an online help document or a document on a CD) or a product that needs additional documentation and perhaps marketing as well. Second, I would assess the need and resources for website maintenance after the website’s publication and use this assessment to plan the information architecture and design of the site. Last but not least, I also “plan” to take better advantage of Hackos’ guidelines for managing the documentation-development project.
4.3 Overall Evaluation of Internship
Because developing the Watershed Radio website took more time than I had anticipated, I had less time available for my other activities, specifically developing the education website. Overall though, I was very satisfied with this internship at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. I got to work in an area that I want to work in—at the crossroads of environmental science and technical communication—and I learned a lot. I expected to get more experience in writing, editing, information architecture, web design, and environmental education, and my internship certainly was an opportunity to increase my skills in these areas. I very much enjoyed the wide range of skills I needed to use as well as develop over the course of the internship; on a single day I could be learning a new software program and be reading about the geology of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The one thing I missed in my internship was working together with other technical writers, editors, web developers, or graphic designers. Although I enjoyed the freedom of working on my own, I would have liked to be part of a document development team to take advantage of other people’s skills and learn about developing documentations in a team. Nonetheless, I very much enjoyed my internship at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center; I worked on an interesting project, I had (and have) great colleagues, and SERC is beautifully located on the edge of the Chesapeake Bay. What more can you wish for?
37 Appendix A: SERC Open House Website
This appendix shows part of the website that I made to provide information about the SERC Open House in May 2001. The appendix includes the homepage of the site and information on some of the activities that would be available during the Open House. Though this website certainly wasn’t my major project during my internship, I have included these pages to show that I have been working on other projects besides Watershed Radio. In addition, these pages will show a little bit more about the kinds of education activities that are offered at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.
38 SERC Open House May 2001
Saturday May 12th, 2001 10 am to 4 pm Welcome! Edgewater, MD (ca. 10 miles south of Annapolis) The staff of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) welcomes you to an open house of our grounds and (regardless of the weather!) facilities. You can participate in all kinds of events that will illustrate the wide variety of research done by scientist at SERC Take a look behind the scenes at the and around the world. Smithsonian Environmental Research SERC has prepared activities and displays for a wide range of Center and join us for great activities in ages and interests; most will be accessible for people with the labs, on the water, and up in the disabilities. Visitors are advised to dress for the weather and for trees! the activity level in which they are interested. ● Activities ● For their own safety, all children under 16 years of age must be Directions to SERC accompanied by an adult. ● When you're at SERC... Please be further advised that since SERC's grounds are ● Special needs? research areas, pets are not allowed. We love them as much as ● Last year's photo's anybody else, but all pets must stay at home. At the Open House, you will receive a pamphlet with all the information on this website and information on how to sign up for some of the activities.
On this website you can read about our Open House Activities, get directions to SERC, and find out what happens when you're at SERC. Please contact us in advance if you have any special needs or questions.
Have a look at the pictures of our Open House last year.
SERC's Open House 2001 is made possible in part by the generosity of the National Soft Drink Association.
At the SERC Open House you can participate in many scientific activities; like using a seine net to catch interesting bay creatures, as show in the picture above.
http://www.serctest.si.edu/education/openhouse/welcome.htm (1 of 2) [2/11/2002 7:21:46 PM] SERC Open House May 2001
SERC Open House Saturday May 12th, 2001, 10 am to 4 pm
| Open House 2001 | Open House Activities | How to get to SERC | | When you're at SERC | Special needs and questions? | | Pictures of Last Year's Open House | SERC home page |
Activities at SERC's Open House
When you arrive at SERC on Saturday May 12th, you can participate in a whole range of activities. Whether you would like to go for a guided walk on our trails, go sampling on a boat, or get lifted into the forest canopy for a birds eye-view of the world, we think we have some great adventures for you.
Please note: Some of the guided activities require that you sign up for them once you get to SERC. In the pamphlet that you receive in the shuttle bus to SERC or when you arrive, you will find the full details on how to do this. All Open House activities are described below.
Activities that you Activities that you don't need to sign up for: have to sign up for: ● Mathias Lab Tour ● Marsh Walk on Java trail ● Discovery Trail ● Up in the Trees ● Java History Trail ● Invasions Biology Boat Trip ● Hog Island Fish Weir Demonstration ● Canoeing ● Children's Activities ● Children's Nature Crafts ● Tales of the Blue Crab Display ● Science Displays at the Wetlab ● Scales and Tales ● SERC Hay Ride
http://www.serctest.si.edu/education/openhouse/activities.htm (1 of 5) [2/11/2002 7:21:49 PM] SERC Open House May 2001
Activities that you need to sign up for:
Activity or Tour Starting Times
Marsh Walk on Java Trail ● 11:00 am (1 mile, ca. 1 hour) ● 1:00 pm ● Join a short guided walk that winds through trees and along the 2:30 pm Rhode River to a boardwalk/ observation deck on a salt marsh.
Up in the Trees! ● Every 15 (15 minutes) minutes, from 10 am to 3.45 New this year: See with your own eyes how scientists study pm. forest ecology, particularly the canopy where we find the upper reaches of the branches and leaves. There will be an opportunity for the public to put on a safety harness, get into a metal cage along with a serc ecologist, and be lifted up to the forest canopy. Spend 15 minutes learning about trees and vines, as well as the different layers of the canopy.
Invasions Biology Boat Trip (45 minutes) limited to 15 participants Take a short cruise to find out about invasions by foreign plants per trip and animals. Learn about study methods and the environs of the Rhode River and the Chesapeake Bay. ● 10:30 am ● 11:30 am ● 12:30 am ● 1:30 pm ● 2:30 pm
Canoeing limited to 17 (.3 miles, ca. 1 hour and 15 minutes) participants for each tour Take a guided canoe trip along Muddy Creek and learn about plants and animals in a tidal marsh. ● 11:00 am ● 12:30 pm ● 2:00 pm
http://www.serctest.si.edu/education/openhouse/activities.htm (2 of 5) [2/11/2002 7:21:49 PM] Appendix B: Watershed Radio Website Plan
The information in this document is a collection of notes and ideas for the Watershed Radio website. I have written this plan while I was using the Information Architecture tutorial by John Shiple (Shiple, 2001), and the three parts of this plan—goals, user experience, site content— correspond with this tutorial. Although the content of this appendix is largely consistent with the information in chapter 3 in this report, this appendix, however, should be seen as a rough draft of that chapter. I have included these notes in addition to chapter 3 only to show how I developed the final design and content of the Watershed Radio website.
Part 1: Goals
Content goals:
§ Influence people’s thinking/awareness o Make people aware that they live in one (big) watershed area (…Discover where you live…) o Raise awareness of environmental issues in Chesapeake watershed area § Show connection of processes within watershed area § Show connection between people, people’s activities and watershed area o Stimulate interest in area and Chesapeake watershed information o Raise environmental awareness in general § Provide background information to daily radio spots; connect well with radio spots § Expand on radio spots by proving additional information, photos and illustrations, references, sound and movies § Provide useful information, understandable at a novice level § Provide ‘unique’ service – all content is related to Chesapeake watershed § Serve as a resource on Chesapeake watershed information (to what extend?) § Provide results of quality (SERC and other) interdisciplinary ecological research § Serve as gateway to more Chesapeake (and general?) watershed information
Publicity and functional goals:
§ Support radio spots – connect well with spots § Provide current information. Site will be updated (at least) once a week to publish scripts and text for the next week.
42 § Stimulate listening to radio spots (provide radio info) § Encourage radio stations to start broadcasting watershed radio § Easy to be found through web search engines (AltaVista, Google, etc.) § Provide information about contact info for Watershed Radio project § Increase in size and number of hits § Make it easy to find information on a topic, even though site increases in size § Make people refer the site to each other § Make people come back (good info and make pages ‘bookmarkable’) § Bring attention to SERC and Sierra club (short info- link to web sites) (NB: Watershed Radio site not meant to directly increase sierra membership numbers) § Acknowledge sponsor
Provide extra services (?):
§ Provide teachers with an opportunity to use watershed radio spots in the class and the site as a resource § Serve as an umbrella for other watershed activities in this area? § Work with schools?
Appendix to part 1: Goals inventory
Mission Sierra club:
§ Protect environment § Raise environmental awareness
Mission SERC:
§ Provide quality interdisciplinary research § Increase knowledge of the biological and physical processes that sustain life on earth. § Apply long-term studies to examine the ecological questions about landscapes of linked ecosystems, especially those impacted by human activities
Strong site aspects:
§ Radio spots draw attention § Spots and site are related to a specific area; the Chesapeake watershed is a logical area
43 Short-term goal:
§ Support radio spots § Encourage radio stations to start broadcasting Watershed Radio § Raise awareness of environmental issues in Chesapeake watershed area; show connection of processes within watershed area and between people and area
Long-term goals:
§ Be resource on Chesapeake watershed information? § Serve as an umbrella for other watershed activities in this area? § Work with schools?
Intended audience of web site:
§ Listeners to radio spots – not necessarily much involved in environmental activities § NPR radio listeners § Teachers § School children; audio may especially appeal to kids § People interested in Chesapeake watershed/ everyone in the watershed… § Potential sponsors? § Radio stations that could start broadcasting the spots (Note: expected audience: NPR listeners (regional and perhaps nationwide) and teachers.)
Why will people come to the site?
§ Interested in more info or in project after listening to radio spots § Referred by other people § For teacher resources – to use watershed radio in the class § Interested in Chesapeake bay § By chance
Why will they come back?
§ Find useful information / to learn § Daily reminded by spots § ‘Unique’ service – all related to Chesapeake watershed
44 § To use it as a gateway to more watershed information
How to measure success? (Spots and site need each other)
§ Positive feedback § Number of radio stations that join § Number of hits § Best: number of people that come back. (How to measure?)
Site goals: § Protect environment § Raise environmental awareness § Provide results of quality interdisciplinary research related to the biological and physical processes that sustain life on earth and landscapes of linked ecosystems, especially those impacted by human activities § Make people aware that they live in one watershed area § Support radio spots § Encourage radio stations to start broadcasting Watershed Radio § Raise awareness of environmental issues in Chesapeake watershed area § Show connection of processes within watershed area § Show connection between people, people’s activities and watershed area § Be a resource on Chesapeake Bay watershed information? § Serve as an umbrella for other watershed activities in this area? § Work with schools? § Provide background info to daily radio spots; connect well with radio spots § Make people refer the site to each other § Provide teachers with an opportunity to use watershed radio spots in the class and the site as a resource § Provide Chesapeake bay info § Can be found through web search engines (AltaVista, Google, etc.) § Provide useful information § Teach people about watershed issues § Provide ‘unique’ service – all related to Chesapeake watershed § Serve as gateway to more Chesapeake (and general) watershed information
45 § Ask feedback § Stimulate listening to radio spots § Increase number of radio stations that join § Increase in size and number of hits § Make people come back
Part 2: User experience
So who will be using the site? And why? To accomplish what?
2.1 Who is the audience?
All possible audiences of the web site:
§ Listeners to radio spots – not necessarily much involved in environmental activities; they are probably all NPR radio listeners § Teachers § People interested in Chesapeake watershed § School children; audio may especially appeal to kids § Everyone in the watershed… § Potential sponsors? § Radio stations who could start broadcasting the spots § Members/volunteers of other watershed organizations and projects § People interested in contributing to project § Researchers interested in information § School children who need resources for projects § Local press, interested in watershed project or in one of the topics
2.2 Scenarios for some potential listeners
(Trying to imagine why people come to the site, what they would expect, and what they are looking for…)
Listener to radio spot
Person is driving on the highway and hears the spot for the second time. Wants to know more about this special place that is discussed. Knows the special place because she grew up there.
46 She visits the Watershed Radio site to learn more about that location. If she goes to the site, she can find the text for today. She reads it again and looks at the additional information. She hadn’t realized till now she lives in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. She wants to learn more about it and starts searching through the site.
Listener to radio spot
Person listening on Internet radio (RNR or other station) – hears the web address and without being actively interested, surfs to the watershed web site. The first page looks attractive and the link titles seem interesting. What is this project, he wonders – and why is his radio station broadcasting it. Is it a commercial, do the get paid?
Teacher
Referred to web site by other teacher. He is skeptical about yet another web site with environmental information. When he gets to the site, he can immediately see there are sound files. Maybe he could use sounds. He wonders if the information can be trusted. Ah, a project of SERC and Sierra, that seems OK. So how can he use this info in his curriculum? What are other teachers doing with it? Can he use the information that is on the site? Are there activities for kids? How can he show his class they all live in the same watershed area?
School kid
I have to go here for my teacher. She said it would be a good resource of information. Hey, there are sound files here. Watershed radio. What is a watershed? Is there one nearby? Where can I find information to write my paper? Can I download these images? (Copyright?)
Listener to radio spots
I listen to these radio spots everyday. They are really good, but I have some ideas for them. I can’t call them anymore because the phone number is gone. So now there is a website apparently, so inconvenient. How do I get there? I need to ask my younger nephew (or go to library). (Gets to site). So how does this help me? Perhaps I can listen to the spots I missed. Oh, I can send this website to my brother in Canada so he can listen too. I want to tell these people I like the project. How do I contact them?
Potential sponsor –was listening to radio
Interesting, this watershed radio project. Who is doing it? Are they having any effect? Is this a worthwhile cause to support? Who would I contact for more information?
47 Radio station manager
This is an interesting ad. Let’s go to the site. Are these spots on other radio stations as well? Which stations are broadcasting these spots? Shouldn’t we be doing this? Would it be a good thing for our station to do? Who is behind this, someone trustworthy?
Someone referred to site
So what kind of information is here? Who is responsible for the information? I want to know more about the Chesapeake Bay. What special places can I visit? What kinds of animals are there? What is the current state of the bay?
Radio listener
I am interested in more information about this animal. I will read the background info to today’s topic. Would there be more info on the blue crab on this site? How do I find it?
Radio listener
I heard this really interesting spot last week. What was the name of that plant again? This is a useful site. How do I get back here? When is this site updated?
2.3 Evaluating ‘competitive sites’
There is not really a similar site. There are however:
§ News sites that provide current info § Radio sites that provide sound files § Chesapeake bay sites § Teacher resources sites
( I have used these sites to get ideas for the Watershed Radio site).
Part 3: Site content
3.1 Content inventory (still needs to be grouped)
(Question marks indicate that I am not sure whether the website should include this item)
§ ‘This weeks topics’ overview § Page for each topic. Each page includes: o Script
48 o Background info § Text § Visuals § Sound/video o References o Links § ‘Find content’ pages o Find spot by topic (and subtopic): § Science spots (science, processes, terms) § Special places and people § Creatures § Environmental memory/Living memory § Volunteer opportunities and watershed organizations o Find spot by title? (not useful I think, who knows the title? ) o Find spot by keyword (alphabetical list) (Include page for each keyword – or list all on same page) o Find spot by date § About Watershed Radio project page / why does this site exist? § Info on Watershed Radio ‘successes’ (nr of stations –people listening?) § Information on SERC and Sierra § Copyright notices and information on how info on this site can be used for educational purposes § Radio station broadcasting information § Sponsor acknowledgement § Watershed area map that indicates sub watersheds and cities, maps of sub watersheds. § Provide information on volunteer opportunities (?) and watershed organizations (?) § Page about other activities in the area? (Perhaps longer term idea) § What is a watershed – explanation § Where is the watershed? / Illustration that people live in the watershed – what does it mean to live in a watershed? § Page with links and suggestions for further reading
49 § Teacher information–-how to use Watershed Radio in the classroom—what do other teachers do? § Activities for kids? § Ask for topic suggestions (people, places, history, creatures, organizations) § Watershed news? § Contact information § Info on how to participate in project § Option to e-mail this site to someone else § Explain the sound (red-tailed hawk)
3.2 Functional requirements
Technological requirements:
§ Include sound files and images – create ‘archive’ for sound files § PC and Mac accessible § Work well in Explorer and Netscape (versions?) § Pages and sound files downloadable over slow modem § Accessible by people with disabilities § Count hits/ get other computer stats on users
Site is easy to find:
§ Make ‘bookmarkable’ § Enable people to forward the site to each other § Make sure site is found by major search engines
External links
§ Link to sierra club § Link to SERC § Links to radio stations § Links to related sites (on each topic site)
Make topics easy to find
§ Make site searchable (perhaps search engine in addition to search by topic)
50 § All topic pages somehow indexed § Pages refer to related items about same subject and/or related topic type. (e.g., blue crab refers to other blue crab stories and/or to other creatures)
Site character
The site should be about knowledge sharing. The topic areas are:
§ Science spots (science, processes, terms) § Creatures § Special places and people § Environmental memory/Living memory § Volunteer opportunities and watershed organizations
The topics illustrate that scientific knowledge about ecosystem processes and human impact is valued, as well it is valued how people experience the watershed (special places, environmental memory). It will be important to illustrate that everyone in the watershed area is related. Natural processes and human activities are connected through history and chemical and biological processes.
Strong part of this site:
§ It is all related to the Chesapeake bay watershed § It is people, living in the watershed, who produce this (not scientists) § Yet, the information is trustworthy and up to date because SERC is involved
51 Appendix C: Short Description of Website Goals and Ideas
The text in this appendix is what I e-mailed to the members of the Sierra Club at the end of the Content Specification Phase to inform them about my plans for the Watershed Radio website and to solicit their comments about these ideas.
Goals of Watershed Radio website
Content goals
§ Provide background information (at a novice level) to daily radio spots § Increase environmental awareness by making people aware that they live in one (big) watershed area (…Discover where you live…) and by bringing attention to environmental issues in the Chesapeake watershed area § Provide a 'unique' service—all content is related to Chesapeake watershed § Stimulate interest in watershed area and related information and serve as a gateway to more Chesapeake (and general) watershed information
Publicity and functional goals:
§ Stimulate listening to radio spots § Encourage radio stations to start broadcasting watershed radio (e.g., by listing radio stations that participate) § Provide information about watershed radio project; give people the opportunity to participate (see below about this) § Bring attention to SERC and Sierra club
Site Character
With these goals in mind and thinking of other websites related to the Chesapeake Bay and watershed, I think the watershed radio website should focus on its special, unique, characteristics:
§ Focus on one area: Radio spots and web site both focus on the Chesapeake Bay watershed (rather than watersheds in general). § Engage a broad audience: The website has great publicity through the radio spots and because of that may get visitors with a wide range of backgrounds.
52 § Focus on both science and people: The spots & website pay attention to both science (e.g., through the topics 'science' and 'creatures') and to people in the watershed (e.g., through topics as 'special places,' 'special people,' 'living memory,' 'creatures,' 'volunteer options and organizations'). The collaboration between SERC and Sierra also supports this interesting combination. § Share positive stories about the watershed area: Although radio spots and the website will address the negative consequences of human impact on the watershed, the underlying thought is that it is wonderful (or at least interesting) that the lives of people and creatures are connected because we all live in the same watershed area.
Site Content
TOPIC-OF-THE-DAY-PAGES. Central in the site are the pages that discuss the 'topic of the day.' These 'topic-of-the-day' pages include the script, the audio file, and background information (including e.g., drawings, photos, video, more audio, and links to related sites and organizations) to each topic of the day. Every week (on Friday or Monday?) five pages related to the five spots of the coming week will be added to the site.
People can search through these 'topic of the day' pages in several ways. They can see what today's or this week's topics are and visit those pages to learn more about the topic.
They can also search in the watershed radio archives. I imagine people should be able to search by (1) topic (special places, special creatures, science, living memory, and watershed organizations/volunteer options), by (2) key word (e.g., blue crab, Roanoke), and (3) by date (in case they missed one, or remember the day they heard the spot). When the site gets bigger and bigger, we can add a search engine to enhance searching. (Note: In the end, I did add a search engine to the website a week after its launch.)
In addition, the site will include the following information on separate pages:
§ About watershed radio: Why does this site exist? Who is behind it? Copyright and contact information, sponsor acknowledgement, etc. § Radio station information: Information on when and where the watershed radio spots are broadcasted. (By listing the radio stations, their call numbers and frequencies, and linking to their sites, we may also encourage radio stations to start broadcasting watershed radio. We could even highlight one station each week (without endorsing it).)
53 § Information on SERC and Sierra. Probably a paragraph (or so) for each organization within the watershed radio website, and, of course, links to the individual homepages. § “Watershed radio in the classroom”—information on how this site can be used for educational purposes. We can give suggestions and perhaps teachers can share ideas. We could for example create “questions of the day” that we would e-mail to teachers and post on the web. Before listening to the spot, kids could listen to the question and see if they can find the answer to it when they listen to the spot. § Some general background information on the watershed area. Something about “what is a watershed,” and maps of the watershed and its sub-watersheds.
Other ideas—creating a Watershed Radio community?
If we want, there are two good ways of involving more people. Involving more people, I think, would be a great way to carry out the thought that “we all share the same watershed.”
§ Ask Topic suggestions We could specifically ask people to mail us with topic suggestions. Perhaps someone's neighbor is a “special person,” or maybe a school just did a whole project on a “special creature”. We could also consider (now or in the framework of a contest?) giving the requirements for a radio spot (e.g., the five topic categories, one thought per spot, and 42 seconds maximum) and ask people or school classes to send in possible scripts. We could then for example publish these scripts on the web and use one or two, at your discretion, on the radio. § Watershed Radio e-mail list We can ask people to sign up for an e-mail list (list of addresses that I would keep). We could use this list to send out a weekly e-mail with a teaser, a list of topics, reference to the web site, info for teachers, etc. An example teaser would be: Do you know why the English colonists who settled Roanoke Island in 1585 all of the sudden disappeared? - For an answer, listen to this week's watershed radio…
An e-mail list like this can be useful for people who would like a reminder or want to use the site in their classroom. For us, a list like this will be very good to have if we want to learn more about our audience, get feedback on the project, and (at a later stage perhaps) announce events.
About links to other organizations
The site will provide information on other watershed organizations and volunteer options, but for now ( I think) only if it is related to a particular topic (e.g., related to the red tailed hawk, or if the
54 radio spot is about a particular organization). We can always later create an overview of “interesting sites and organizations” but for now, we better focus on what makes us unique, rather than be too much like the other (very good) Chesapeake bay sites that provide lots of information and links. In other words: there will be plenty of links to other sites, but not as a link to "other organizations" from the home page.
---Please e-mail me with your thoughts and suggestions ---
Anna van der Heijden [email protected] 301-261-3368
55 Appendix D: Finished Watershed Radio Website
This appendix shows several pages of the Watershed Radio website. I have include the homepage, several pages from the “general” section of the website, and two Watershed Radio stories in the categories “scientific research,” and “watershed organizations.” For more information and more Watershed Radio programs and background information, please refer to the Watershed Radio website at http://www.watershedradio.org. All pages until May 18, 2001 were created during my internship; I would encourage the reader to specifically look at Roanoke Island as an example of the category “history,” Sideling Hill Creek in the category “special places and people,” and Bats Return in the category “plants and animals in the watershed.” This appendix includes the following pages:
§ Watershed Radio homepage General pages: § Programs organized by date This page provides one of the ways a visitor can find a page in the archive. § Radio stations This page lists all the radio stations that broadcast Watershed Radio. § What is a watershed? This page provides background information about watersheds in general. § Watershed Radio in the classroom This page has suggestions for teachers on how to use Watershed Radio § Contribute your ideas to Watershed Radio This page describes how people can become involved in this project. § What is Watershed Radio? This page describes the goals of the project and provides more information about SERC and the Sierra Club and the people who create the project. Watershed Radio stories § Hitchhikers (category: scientific research) Watershed Radio spot about SERC’s invasive species research. § Anacostia Watershed Society (category: watershed organizations) Watershed Radio spot about the goals and activities of this organization in a sub watershed of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
56 Watershed Radio - Exploring the Chesapeake Bay watershed
www.watershedradio.org Watershed Radio is an environmental education project about the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Daily one-minute radio programs and this website highlight different aspects of the watershed: scientific research, animals, plants, special people and places, natural history, and watershed organizations.
Start with this week's programs or search through our archive of stories. One story will take you to another and soon you'll see the connection among the animals, plants, people, and places in this wonderful watershed.
| This week | Search the archive | Radio stations | | What is a watershed? | Maps | In the classroom | Resources and links | | Your ideas | E-mail list | About us | Contact us | © 2001, Sierra Club and Smithsonian Institution: Copyright statement Watershed Radio, including the programs and www.watershedradio.org, is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and the Sierra Club.
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/index.htm (1 of 2) [2/11/2002 8:16:25 PM] Watershed Radio: Every day a new program on the Chesapeake Bay watershed
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Archive >>Programs organized by date | Archive Home | Programs by Topic | Programs by Date | Programs organized by date Home
This week May 2001 Search the archive May 1: SERC and Sierra Club create Watershed Radio Radio stations May 2: Red-Tailed Hawk May 3: Roanoke Island What is a May 4: Hitchhikers watershed? Maps May 7: Neighborhood Nestwatch May 8: Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania In the classroom May 9: Bats Return Or see an May 10: Walkerton's High Tides Resources & links overview May 11: Migratory Bird Day of:
● Your ideas May 14: Anacostia Watershed Society This Week's May 15: Turkey Vultures Programs. E-mail list May 16: Sideling Hill Creek ● Programs by May 17: Just Say No to Water About us Topic. May 18: Nittany Lion ● Programs by Contact us Date.
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For more Watershed Radio programs, search the Watershed Radio archive or see a list of programs by date or by topic.
| Home | This week | Search the archive | Radio stations | | What is a watershed? | Maps | In the classroom | Resources & links | | Your ideas | E-mail list | About us | Contact us |
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/date.htm (1 of 2) [2/11/2002 8:16:55 PM] Watershed Radio: Radio stations in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. skip to content skip to navigation
Radio stations
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"The Watershed Radio series on WRNR Annapolis Home Baltimore is like a fresh drink of water in the midst of sailing a sea of great music. We've got people's attention and they are expecting This week something inspiring, provocative, heartfelt...and Watershed delivers on all counts. Bravo! Keep Search the archive on rockin' Watershed!" Michael Buckley, Producer/Host The Sunday Radio stations Brunch on WRNR . What is a watershed? Ten radio stations spread out over the Chesapeake Bay watershed are currently broadcasting Watershed Radio. Use Maps the list of radio stations below or check the map to see if there is a participating radio station nearby. Remember, if In the classroom you are outside the broadcast range of these radio stations, you can also listen to their live broadcast on the Internet or Resources & links simply visit this website at www.watershedradio.org.
Your ideas If you work for a radio station and are interested in broadcasting the free one-minute Watershed Radio E-mail list programs, contact us.
About us Program Radio Stations broadcasting Watershed Radio Contact us Times
WTMD 89.7 FM Towson, MD 2.30pm, 5.30pm www.towson.edu/wtmd
WRNR 103.1 FM Annapolis, MD 9.25am, 4.00pm www.wrnr.com
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/radiostations.htm (1 of 3) [2/11/2002 8:17:09 PM] Watershed Radio: What is a watershed? Learn more about the Chesapeake Bay watershed
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What is a watershed?
A watershed is… Home A watershed is an area of land This week that captures water in any form, such as rain, snow, or dew, and Search the archive drains it to a particular stream, river, or lake. All land is part of Radio stations the watershed for some creek, People use many different stream, river or lake. words for "watershed." What is a watershed? Some watersheds are immense; Some other words you others are quite small. The may come across are: Maps Chesapeake Bay watershed is an ● river or lake basin area of 64,000 square miles and In the classroom ● drainage area includes parts of six states Resources & links (Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, ● catchment area Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New ● headwaters (for an Your ideas York) and the entire District of upper watershed) Columbia. ● river valley, or E-mail list A watershed is more ● a river and its About us tributaries
Contact us More than just an area of land, a watershed also provides us with a very useful way of looking at the area where we live. Rivers and lakes don't stop at a state border, and neither does a watershed. If you know in what watershed you live, you know your ecological address, so to speak.
Because all water in a watershed eventually drains into the same creek, river, lake, or bay, everyone in the watershed is connected through the water we use for drinking, recreational activities and industries.
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No matter where you are, you are in a watershed!
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/watershed.htm (1 of 2) [2/11/2002 8:17:13 PM] Watershed Radio: What is a watershed? Learn more about the Chesapeake Bay watershed Watersheds and subwatersheds
Within the Chesapeake Bay there are many smaller watersheds, called subwatersheds. So in addition to living in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, you also live in, for example, the watershed of the Susquehanna River, the Anacostia River, the Severn River, or the Potomac River. These smaller watersheds are all part of larger watersheds and together form the 64,000-square-mile watershed of the Chesapeake Bay.
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What is your ecological address?
One great way to find out in what watershed you live is to visit Surf Your Watershed from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Other good resources are Know Your Watershed and the Science in your watershed website from the US Geological Survey (USGS).
Search the Watershed Radio archive or see a list of programs by date or by topic.
| Home | This week | Archive | Radio stations | | What is a watershed? | Maps | In the classroom | Resources & links | | Your ideas | E-mail list | About us | Contact us |
© 2001,Sierra Club and Smithsonian Institution: Copyright statement Watershed Radio, including the programs and www.watershedradio.org, is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and the Sierra Club.
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/watershed.htm (2 of 2) [2/11/2002 8:17:13 PM] Watershed Radio: Environmental education in the classroom (elementary, middle, high school)
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Watershed Radio in the classroom
Watershed Radio wants watershed residents to open their Home eyes, look around, and see the watershed as the special ecological place that it is. Watershed Radio provides science-based information about different aspects of the This week Chesapeake Bay watershed. Search the archive Watershed Radio is particularly suited to be used in the classroom as a recurring environmental education moment. Radio stations Watershed Radio programs can support students in developing reading, writing, and listening skills as well as in What is a watershed? developing a deeper understanding of the complex interactions between people, animals, plants, and water and Maps other non-living components of the watershed. We've listed a few suggestions below. In the classroom We are inviting teachers in the watershed to become Resources & links involved with Watershed Radio and use it in their classrooms. You haven't received a letter yet? We have one Your ideas for you too; please download the letter to teachers (pdf). E-mail list You can also read (and distribute) our Watershed Radio factsheet (pdf). [How do I open a pdf file?] About us
Contact us
NEW: TEACHER ADVISORY GROUP for Watershed Radio. If you are interested in becoming more actively involved in Watershed Radio, please consider joining our Watershed Radio teacher advisory group. We envision Watershed Radio to be an excellent environmental education tool for students in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, but we need your professional ideas to connect Watershed Radio with state and national science learning outcomes. If you are interested or have questions, please contact us.
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http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/classroom.htm (1 of 3) [2/11/2002 8:17:17 PM] Watershed Radio: Environmental education in the classroom (elementary, middle, high school) Using Watershed Radio in the classroom
We have listed here some of our suggestions for using Watershed Radio in the classroom, but we strongly encourage you to contact us and tell us your plans or experiences with using Watershed Radio in the classroom. ● Practice finding specific information in a text or website. This website is a growing source of information (see archive) on the Chesapeake Bay watershed and students can practice finding specific information in the site or in the scripts of the Watershed Radio programs and the accompanying background information.
● Develop listening and comprehensive reading skills The short one-minute radio spots provide the opportunity to develop reading and listening skills. As a teacher, you could ask a question related to the text of the program and then have your students specifically listen for the answer.
● Develop research and writing skills Students can research a watershed-related topic and contribute the topic idea to Watershed Radio. Your students could also write their own one-minute script for a program, a challenging activity (as the Watershed Radio producers experience every day) from which your students will gain writing experience.
Please note: We can't promise to use scripts that are developed this way, but we are very interested in any school's research or writing project that relates to Watershed Radio. If you are using Watershed Radio in the classroom, please contact us. back to top
Search the Watershed Radio archive or see a list of programs by date or by topic.
| Home | This week | Archive | Radio stations | | What is a watershed? | Maps | In the classroom | Resources & links | | Your ideas | E-mail list | About us | Contact us |
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/classroom.htm (2 of 3) [2/11/2002 8:17:17 PM] Watershed Radio: Contribute your ideas
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Contribute your ideas to Watershed Radio
We share the watershed Home Because we all share this watershed, we would like This week everyone to contribute to the Watershed Radio programs.
Search the archive Do you know an interesting person or place in the Chesapeake Bay watershed? Or do you have special Radio stations expertise on a creature in the watershed? These are the general topics that Watershed Radio covers: What is a ● Special Places & People watershed? ● Science Maps ● Living Memory In the classroom ● Watershed Creatures ● Organizations & Volunteer Opportunities Recources & links
Your ideas How to contribute your ideas
E-mail list First, listen to some of the Watershed Radio programs to find out what they're like. Although many topics are About us interesting, we do focus on topics that are about the environment and can educate people about Contact us watershed-related issues. After that, contact us and let us know how you'd like to contribute. You can give us suggestions for a program or point to interesting information. Please don't send us complete scripts because we can't promise that we'll use them. If your are a student or teacher interested in using Watershed Radio, please read our suggestions for using Watershed Radio in the classroom or contact us to talk about the possibilities.
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/contribute.htm (1 of 2) [2/11/2002 8:17:23 PM] Watershed Radio: About this environmental education initiative skip to content skip to navigation
About Watershed Radio
Home What is Watershed Watershed Radio is a production of the Sierra This week Radio? Club and the Smithsonian Search the archive Watershed Radio is an environmental Environmental education project that explores the Research Center Radio stations Chesapeake Bay watershed. The (SERC). daily programs focus on natural What is a events and processes, scientific watershed? research findings, a specific species, personality, or an environmental Maps memory native to the watershed.
In the classroom The goal of Watershed Radio is to educate people about the natural Recources & links environment within the Chesapeake Bay watershed and to show the Your ideas connection between human activities and the natural processes. E-mail list On About us
Contact us The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center's (SERC) participation in Watershed Radio is made possible in part by the generosity of The Mills Corporation , Arlington, Virginia. Mills is also the underwriter for April 30, 2001, the launch of the SERC's Neighborhood Watershed Radio website was celebrated Nestwatch, and the Tales at SERC's dock. The Honorable Janet of the Blue Crab Traveling Owens, County Executive Anne Arundel Exhibit. County; Ed Vinson, Chair of the Smithsonian Environmental Leadership Council; Ross Simons, Director of SERC; and Chris Bedford of the Sierra Club addressed the audience about this new watershed-wide environmental education back to top project. Read Watershed Radio's factsheet
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/about.htm (1 of 4) [2/11/2002 8:17:31 PM] Watershed Radio: About this environmental education initiative (pdf) or read Watershed Radio's press release (pdf) issued on April 30, 2001 where we announce the collaboration between SERC and the Sierra Club and the start of this exciting environmental education project. To read a .pdf file, you need Acrobat
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Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and the Sierra Club
Watershed Radio is a collaboration between the Sierra Club and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). The Sierra Club produces the daily one-minute radio programs, and SERC creates and maintains this website.
The Watershed Radio ducks who create Watershed Radio. From left to right: Anna van der Heijden (SERC), Andrew Roberts, Robin Jung, Chris Bedford, and Janis Oppelt (Sierra Club). Not in the picture: the many scientists at SERC who contribute to the content of the Watershed Radio spots and website. About SERC SERC is the nation's leading coastal zone environmental research facility. SERC is headquartered on a 2,700 acre facility on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay south of Annapolis, Maryland. SERC's scientists investigate the complex interactions of coastal ecosystems in research programs conducted worldwide. For over 35 years, SERC has provided analytical tools enabling public policy makers to formulate appropriate environmental strategies.
For more information, visit the SERC website at www.serc.si.edu
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http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/about.htm (2 of 4) [2/11/2002 8:17:31 PM] Watershed Radio: About this environmental education initiative The Sierra Club is the nation's largest grassroots environmental organization with 650,000 members nationwide, which includes nearly 70,000 members in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Maryland chapter, which produces the program, has 13,000 members that live in every county in Maryland. The Sierra Club is the most democratic environmental group in the nation. Volunteers make policy and do most of the work of the Club at all levels. The Watershed Radio programs are created by four volunteers from the Maryland Chapter : Andy Roberts, Robin Jung, Chris Bedford, and Janis Oppelt (see the picture above). For more information, visit the Sierra Club website at www.sierraclub.org
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About this site
To navigate this site and to be able to open all its sound and text files, please read the following information:
The little exit symbol in front or after a link indicates that this link will take you to a website outside the Watershed Radio website. SERC nor the Sierra Club is associated with or responsible for the content of these websites. We do not endorse these sites, we only provide the links as a service to our visitors.
Links without the little exit symbol will take you to another page within the www.watershedradio.org website.
To listen to the Watershed Radio programs in the Archive section of this website you need to have RealPlayer installed. A free (basic) version of RealPlayer is available from the real.com website.
To read a .pdf file ( ), like Watershed Radio's factsheet (pdf), you need to have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. A free download of this program is available on the Adobe website.
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Copyright statement
Copyright © 2001 Sierra Club and Smithsonian Institution.
We encourage you to use text and images from this website for educational purposes. Many images on this website, however, are not the property of either the Smithsonian Institution or the Sierra Club and, therefore, cannot be used without the permission of the original owner. (Original owners and, if available, their website
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/about.htm (3 of 4) [2/11/2002 8:17:31 PM] Watershed Radio: About this environmental education initiative addresses are listed next to the image or at the bottom of the page.) If this website does not give courtesy to another person or institution, the image is the property of either the Smithsonian Institution or the Sierra Club and can be reproduced on the web or on paper for educational purposes only. Follow these links for examples of: ● An image owned by either the Sierra Club or the Smithsonian Institution ● An image copyrighted by someone else
When using text or images from this website, please cite: "Watershed Radio at www.watershedradio.org."
The Watershed Radio (duck) logo: This logo is copyrighted by the Sierra Club and cannot be used without permission. We are, however, happy to give you permission to use this logo on your website or on paper for the sole purpose of advertising Watershed Radio. Please contact [email protected] for permission.
If you have copyright-related questions, please contact the Watershed Radio webmaster at [email protected].
Search the Watershed Radio archive or see a list of programs by date or by topic.
| Home | This week | Archive | Radio stations | | What is a watershed? | Maps | In the classroom | Resources & links | | Your ideas | E-mail list | About us | Contact us |
© 2001,Sierra Club and Smithsonian Institution: Copyright statement Watershed Radio, including the programs and www.watershedradio.org, is a collaboration between the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and the Sierra Club.
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/about.htm (4 of 4) [2/11/2002 8:17:31 PM] Watershed Radio: Invasive Species (Hitchhikers) in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
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Archive >>Hitchhikers | Archive Home | Programs by Topic | Programs by Date |
Home Hitchhikers
Listen to the This week program: Search the archive Program aired on Friday May 4, Radio stations 2001.
To listen to the program, you need Real Player. Click on the What is a image for a free download. watershed? They hitchhike from around the world. Maps Scooped up from European bays and In the classroom estuaries, these plants and animals travel to the Chesapeake Bay in the ballast water of Resources & links foreign ships. Each year, 15 million metric tons of this ballast water containing these hitchhikers are released into the Bay. Many Your ideas arrive well adapted to their new environment. The Smithsonian Environmental Research E-mail list Center has identified more than 160 of these non-native species in the Bay's waters. Once About us here, these foreign species may outcompete Contact us their native counterparts. Or introduce diseases like those that are currently decimating the Bay's oyster population. The long-term impact of these invasions remains unknown.
| Background info | References and further reading |
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/may2001/050401hitch.htm (1 of 5) [2/11/2002 8:17:55 PM] Watershed Radio: Invasive Species (Hitchhikers) in the Chesapeake Bay watershed Invaders in the Bay
The arrival of non-native species, species that do not naturally occur in a certain area, is not a new problem for the Chesapeake Bay. Researchers at the Marine Invasion Research Laboratory at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) have reconstructed the pattern of invasions over the past four centuries, beginning with European colonization.The researchers have now identified approximately 160 species that are nonindigenous to the Chesapeake Bay, and scores of other species that are of unknown origin. Today, the global movement of ships has increased the distribution of species all over the world. non-native species don't just swim across the ocean; they can conveniently ride with large cargo vessels that are crossing the ocean from port to port. "All aboard!" When cargo ships are not carrying a load, they need to carry other weight in order to remain stable and be able to adjust the balance of the ship for optimal steering and propulsion. So after ships deliver their cargo at a port and head home, they fill up enormous tanks on the ship with water from the port or coastal region.
Picture: Researchers taking a sample of the ship's ballast water. With the ballast water, as it is called, the ships also pump up the animals and plants that are in the water. When the ships then get to the next port to load cargo, they release the water (with the animals and plants in it), either in the port or along the coast. As a result, the ships pick up, transport, and release marine organisms around the world.
Researchers at SERC's Marine Invasion Research Laboratory measure
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/may2001/050401hitch.htm (2 of 5) [2/11/2002 8:17:55 PM] Watershed Radio: Invasive Species (Hitchhikers) in the Chesapeake Bay watershed the supply and fate of these foreign species to the Chesapeake Bay, and elsewhere in the country. SERC researchers examine many different aspects of the big journey of these organisms from their origin to the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
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Picture:
Researchers at SERC's Marine Invasion Research Laboratory examine many different aspects of the big journey of the invasive species from their origin to the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and elsewhere in the country. The researchers, for example, track where the ships are coming from, what percentage of the animals and plants survive the trip, which creatures can actually reproduce after they arrive in the Chesapeake Bay, and how many new invasions are discovered. Although the effects of many introductions remain unmeasured, it is clear that invasive species can have significant economic and ecological impacts as well as human-health consequences. Invaders like the zebra mussel in the U.S. Great Lakes, toxic dinoflagellates in Australia, and the oyster parasite MSX in the Chesapeake Bay have had tremendous ecological and economic impacts. Is there a way to stop this worldwide transport?
The only effective way at the moment to reduce the risk of introducing more invasive species is called "ballast water exchange." Ballast water exchange means that ships on their way to the next port release the coastal water they pumped up and replace it with open-ocean water. Although this measure is not perfect, it at least reduces the number of potentially invasive species in the ballast tanks and replaces them with
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/may2001/050401hitch.htm (3 of 5) [2/11/2002 8:17:55 PM] Watershed Radio: Invasive Species (Hitchhikers) in the Chesapeake Bay watershed oceanic organisms that are less likely to survive in the near-shore waters of the next port where the ship will dock. Although alternate methods to treat ballast water are not yet available, the researchers at SERC are carrying out extensive laboratory and field tests to examine the many possible treatments.
Picture: A ship is exchanging its coastal ballast water with water from the open ocean to reduce the chance of transporting any invasive species to the next port. References and further reading...
For more information about invasive species and ballast water exchange, visit the web pages of the SERC Marine Invasion Research Laboratory .
(Pictures courtesy of SERC's Marine Invasion Research Laboratory.) Back to top
For more Watershed Radio programs, search the Watershed Radio archive or see a list of programs by date or by topic.
| Home | This week | Search the archive | Radio stations | | What is a watershed? | Maps | In the classroom | Resources & links | | Your ideas | E-mail list | About us | Contact us |
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/may2001/050401hitch.htm (4 of 5) [2/11/2002 8:17:55 PM] Watershed Radio: Anacostia Watershed Society in the Chesapeake Bay watershed
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Archive >>Anacostia Watershed Society | Archive Home | Programs by Topic | Programs by Date |
Home Anacostia Watershed Society This week Listen to the Search the archive program: Radio stations Program aired on Monday May 14, 2001. What is a To listen to the program, you need Real Player. Click on the image watershed? for a free download. Maps It was called the "Forgotten River." Though it flowed within sight of the U.S. Capitol, no one paid In the classroom much attention to the polluted Anacostia until Robert Boone came along. In 1989, he founded Resources & links the Anacostia Watershed Society to make the river and its tributaries swimmable and fishable. In the Your ideas 11 years since, the Society has transformed the watershed, mobilizing 17,000 volunteers to plant E-mail list 10,000 trees, remove thousands of tires and tons of debris and winning the United Nations About us Achievement Award and the President's Volunteer Action Medal. The Anacostia Watershed Society is Contact us an example of how citizens can work to protect their environment.
| Background info | References and further reading |
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/may2001/051401anaco.htm (1 of 4) [2/11/2002 8:18:45 PM] Watershed Radio: Anacostia Watershed Society in the Chesapeake Bay watershed back to top Restoring the forgotten river
Since its start in 1989, the Anacostia Watershed Society has been dedicated to protecting and restoring the once "forgotten" Anacostia River and its watershed. The Anacostia watershed, a subwatershed of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, includes an area of 170 square mile in the District of Columbia and Maryland.
Picture: Map of the Anacostia watershed and its location within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Picture courtesy of the Anacostia Watershed Society. Through education, action, and advocacy, the Society brings together residents of the Anacostia watershed and actively involves them in the Society's mission to again make the Anacostia and its tributaries a safe place to swim and fish. The Society regularly organizes river cleanups, tree plantings and storm drain stenciling activities. Over the past 10 years, more than 23,000 volunteers have planted 10,352 trees and removed 311 tons of debris and 7,000 tires from the Anacostia River and its watershed.
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/may2001/051401anaco.htm (2 of 4) [2/11/2002 8:18:45 PM] Watershed Radio: Anacostia Watershed Society in the Chesapeake Bay watershed Picture: Volunteers are cleaning up the river. One of the many activities of the Anacostia Watershed Society. Picture courtesy of the Anacostia Watershed Society. The Anacostia Watershed Society also actively educates the watershed residents about the Anacostia watershed. Volunteers go into the classroom and take groups out on guided canoe trips to show them the beauty of the river. One of their latest educational projects is a community gardening project with fifth graders of the River Terrace Elementary School. Through hands-on organic gardening and discussing the underlying scientific principles, school youth is learning about local ecosystems and the relation between people's activities and the health of the watershed. The hard work of the Anacostia Watershed Society and its volunteers has not gone unnoticed. In 1999, the Society was named one of 21 honorees of the very prestigious 1999 President's Service Award for volunteer efforts directed at solving critical social problems. In addition, the Society also has won the prestigious United Nations Achievement Award and the Sierra Club Outstanding Achievement Award.
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References and further reading
● For more information about the Anacostia Watershed Society and its activities, visit their website at http://www.anacostiaws.org .
● To find out more about organizations in your watershed, visit Adopt your Watershed , and you will find out in what watershed you live and learn 15 things you can do to make a difference .
For more Watershed Radio programs, search the Watershed Radio archive or see a list of programs by date or by topic.
| Home | This week | Search the archive | Radio stations | | What is a watershed? | Maps | In the classroom | Resources & links |
http://www.wsradiotest.si.edu/internreport/may2001/051401anaco.htm (3 of 4) [2/11/2002 8:18:45 PM] Appendix E: Press Release Watershed Radio
______SIERRA CLUB AND SMITHSONIAN LAUNCH NEW RADIO AND INTERNET ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PROGRAM. ______
Contact: Sierra Club - Chris Bedford (301) 277-7111 Smithsonian – Elizabeth Tait (202) 357-2627 ext. 129
April 30, 2001.
Beginning May 1, 2001, the Sierra Club and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) will launch a new collaboration to promote environmental awareness and education in the Chesapeake Bay watershed through a unique use of broadcast radio and the Internet. The initiative, called the Watershed Radio Project, features a daily, one-minute radio program (produced by the Sierra Club) and a Web site, www.watershedradio.org (developed by SERC scientists) to expand on each day's radio segment. Each program examines scientific, cultural and historic aspects of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed as well as personalities and volunteer opportunities.
“The Chesapeake Bay watershed extends from New York to Virginia and is home to more than 16 million people,” said Chris Bedford of the Sierra Club and Executive Producer of the Watershed Radio program. “Yet it is a home many of us know little about. We have produced the radio series to help people open their eyes, look around and see our watershed home in new ways - to understand what a special and fragile ecosystem we inhabit."
Visitors to the Web site will find a page corresponding to each daily radio program with a Real Audio version of the program, a copy of the program’s script and detailed support information about the program’s content including links for more information.
“The Smithsonian's role in the Watershed Radio Project is to provide listeners and educators with access to science-based information about different aspects of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, " said SERC Director Ross Simons. "We hope the radio program will pique people’s
76 interest in a topic, and that the watershedradio.org Web site will allow them to learn more with relative ease. Teachers will find it a particularly useful resource." Simons added, "One of SERC’s primary missions is public environmental education of this kind.”
The Watershed Radio program is broadcast on an increasing number of radio stations and it can be heard in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and Virginia. Since January 2000, a team of Sierra Club volunteers have produced more than 300 of the programs. The new Sierra Club/SERC collaboration came about because listeners wanted to know more about many of the topics broadcast. “SERC was a natural partner for us in this effort,” said Bedford. “For more than three decades, SERC scientists have been doing pioneering environmental research from their base on the Rhodes River in Edgewater, Maryland.
“The Watershed Radio project is a new dimension of public outreach in environmental education for SERC,” said Simons. “It builds upon the strong regional constituency developed by SERC over the past decade, particularly by education director Mark Haddon.”
“We see this program as strengthening and expanding our relationships with schools," Simons added. “We plan to convene a teacher advisory group to help make the entire program increasingly supportive of classroom efforts.”
Eddy Yinkey, a high school science teacher in Gaithersburg, Maryland who uses the daily radio program to start each day’s classes, said “I play the program a couple of times to get my students to focus their minds. Then, we have a short discussion about the topic. The new Web site will be a great addition for my students.”
The Sierra Club volunteers who produce Watershed Radio include: Robin Jung, a scientist with the US Geological Survey, Andrew Roberts, an independent audio engineer and writer, Janis Oppelt, a science writer and Chris Bedford, an independent film and video producer. Founded in 1893, the Sierra Club is an environmental organization with over 650,000 members nationwide organized into 66 chapters. The Maryland Chapter has over 13,000 members.
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) is in its 35th year of studying the relationships between land and estuarine environments; the interactions of fresh and salt water; and the impact of human activity on coastal ecosystems.
77 Appendix F: Watershed Radio Fact Sheets
Watershed Radio
Watershed Radio is a production of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and the Sierra Club.
www.watershedradio.org
What is Watershed Radio? Watershed Radio is a new environmental education initiative launched on April 30, 2001 by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and the Sierra Club. The initiative promotes public awareness of environmental issues in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, an area including parts of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New York, and the entire District of Columbia. Using a unique combination of broadcast radio and the Internet, Watershed Radio examines scientific, cultural and historic aspects of the Chesapeake Bay watershed as well as special places, personalities and watershed organizations.
Daily Radio Programs and www.WatershedRadio.org Every day, a new Watershed Radio program (produced by the Sierra Club) is aired on radio stations in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Visitors to the www.watershedradio.org web site (created by SERC) will find a page corresponding to each daily radio program with a Real Audio version of the program, a copy of the program’s script, and additional information about the topic including links for more information. The web site also provides suggestions on how to use Watershed Radio in the classroom and encourages visitors to contribute their ideas to Watershed Radio.
Participating Radio Stations Watershed Radio is broadcast several times a day on an increasing number of radio stations and it can be heard in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and Virginia. For an up-to-date list of all participating stations and their frequencies, please visit www.watershedradio.org.
More Information For more information about Watershed Radio, visit www.watershedradio.org or contact: Anna van der Heijden E-mail: [email protected] Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Tel: 301-261-3368 P.O. Box 28 Fax: 301-261-3415 Edgewater, MD 21037 Radio stations that are interested in broadcasting Watershed Radio for free, please contact: Andrew Roberts Rockville Music Service Tel/Fax: 301-762-4335
78 Watershed Radio
Watershed Radio is a production of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and the Sierra Club.
www.watershedradio.org
Overview of radio stations broadcasting Watershed Radio Watershed Radio is broadcast several times a day on an increasing number of radio stations and it can be heard in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and Virginia. For an up-to-date list of all participating stations, please visit www.watershedradio.org.
Station Frequency Organization, City Times WTMD 89.7 FM Towson University, Towson, MD 2.30 pm, 5.30 pm WRNR 103.1 FM Annapolis, MD 8.00 am, 3.00 pm WCEI 96.7 FM Easton, MD 12.30 pm WFWM 91.9 FM Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD 5.59 pm WHFC 91.1 FM Harford Community, College, Bel Air, MD 8.30 am WESM 91.3 FM University of Maryland, Princess Anne, MD 4.49 pm WTJU 91.1 FM Charlottesville, VA 8.59 am WRHO 89.7 FM Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY Frequently WHRW 90.5 FM State University of New York (SUNY), Binghamton, NY Frequently WVTF Roanoke-Lynchburg Radio Reading Service Cafe Eclectic Internet-based radio station: www.cafe-eclectic.com Frequently
Contact Information For more information about Watershed Radio, visit www.watershedradio.org or contact: Anna van der Heijden E-mail: [email protected] Smithsonian Environmental Research Center Tel: 301-261-3368 P.O. Box 28 Fax: 301-261-3415 Edgewater, MD 21037
Radio stations that are interested in broadcasting Watershed Radio for free, please contact: Andrew Roberts Rockville Music Service Tel/Fax: 301-762-4335
79 Appendix G: Comparison of Website-Development Models
Hackos’ publications- Shiple’s Information development model Architecture tutorial The Information Planning Phase • Develop Information Plan • Define website goals • Define user experience: o Define audience o Create scenarios o Perform competitive analysis • Develop Project Plan The Content Specification Phase • Develop content specification • Define site content: o Identify content and functional requirements o Group and label content • Define site structure: o Develop site structure and architectural blueprints o Design global and local navigation systems • Revise Project Plan The Implementation Phase • Actual design and development • Define visual design: take place. o Determine layout grids • Deliverables could include: o Create design o Designs for multiple sketches and page publications mock-ups o Prototype sections o Create web-based prototype o Series of drafts for review (informal and formal) (IA TUTORIAL ENDS HERE) Website-specific activities
• Test for usability • Write content
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Hackos’ publications- Website-specific development model activities The Production Phase • Actual production of document; • Finalize development of prepare final copy of text and design and content graphics • Test technical requirements • Publish online • Submit website to search engines The Evaluation Phase • Evaluate current project • Evaluate the product: • Plan for next version of the project o Track web trends o Continue user testing o Refine audience, goals, design, content • Evaluate the process Source: Hackos (1994) & Shiple (2001)
81 References
Boutin, Paul. 2001. Search engine optimization. [online] Lycos, Inc., 2001. [cited 17 January 2001]. Available from World Wide Web:
Brown, Kathryn S. 2000. Ecologists on a mission to save the world. Science, vol. 287: 1188- 1194.
Correll, Dave. 1991. Early history of SERC. On the Rhode, Newsletter of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Summer: 1.
Fleming, Jennifer. 1998. Web navigation: Designing the user experience. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly and Associates, Inc.
Hackos, JoAnn T. 1994. Managing your documentation projects. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Mulder, Steve, and Michael Brandt. 2001. Sizing up the browsers. [online] Lycos, Inc., 2001. [cited 17 January 2001]. Available from World Wide Web:
National Environmental Education and Training Foundation (NEETF) and The Henry P. Kendall Foundation. 1999. Visual Tools for Watershed Education, National Leadership Forum Report. Washington, DC: NEETF.
North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). 2001. Environmental education workbook. [online]. NAAEE. [cited 20 August, 2001]. Available from World Wide Web:
Shiple, John. 2001. Information architecture tutorial. [online]. Lycos, Inc., 2001. [cited 7 February 2001]. Available from World Wide Web:
82 Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). 2002. Research at SERC. [Online]. SERC, 1999. [cited 11 January 2002]. Available from World Wide Web:
Smithsonian Institution. 2002. About the Smithsonian. [online]. Smithsonian Institution 1995- 2001. [cited 11 January 2002]. Available from World Wide Web:
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