Research•Conservation•Education by Niki Barnett, Interim Education Manager Winter 2011
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TOURS a destination for all seasons research•conservation•education By Niki Barnett, Interim Education Manager winter 2011 a short time ago we remember the Center being blanketed by thick plastic tarps during the fall and winter seasons. This did not make for the most ideal experience for our supporters who visited during those months. Lemurs Live: Fast forward. Now, the DLC is an ideal place to visit All ages; Year round; $10/adults, $7/seniors and year round. We have a variety of tour experiences that children (maximum 30 participants) are designed for all seasons, ages, and lemur enthu- siasts. Our new buildings enable us to view the lemurs both indoors and out and to offer more in depth AgesBehind 10 and theolder; Scenes: October-April; $65/person experiences to our guests. If you have not visited the (maximum 8 participants) Center since the new buildings have become a reality, I encourage you to do so. If you have, I would invite Walking with Lemurs: in this issue you to take a more in depth tour of the Center. Ages 10 and older; May-September; $95/person teacher all season presence in As always tours are available Monday-Saturday by (maximum 8 participants) appointment. We now offer gift certificates as well for training destination madagasgar our premium tours. Stop by the Lemur Landing gift shop Monday through Friday 10-4 to get a great gift AgesLearning 12 and older; with Year Lemurs: round; $150/person for that lemur enthusiast in your life! Call 919-401-7240 (maximum 2 participants) or visit lemur.duke.edu to find out more! AgesKeeper 13 and for older; a day: Year round; $350/person (maximum 2 participants) GIVING ink. soy with and free chlorine processed paper, recycled pcw 100% using printed was publication This Lari Hatley, Editor • David Haring, Photographer • Design work donated by Hilliker Designs lemur.duke.edu Hilliker by donated work Design • Photographer Haring, David • Editor Hatley, Lari Byan Gaiatri unusual - age 8 birthday present On my 8th birthday instead of getting presents, I sent in money to help the aye-ayes. The idea to help the age- ayes came from a book about endangered species. I had a hard time deciding between long furred chinchillas and aye-ayes. I had to flip a coin to choose which one to help. Heads = aye-ayes. Tails = chinchillas. The winner was… Later we got to get up close to an aye-aye without glass aye-ayes! between us! I was so happy when it came within 2 feet of I told my mom I wanted to help the aye-aye, and then us. In the beginning the aye-aye was afraid of us because on my birthday I collected money and sent it to the Duke the lights were on. We turned them out, and it came up Lemur Center. Later, I got a free pass to the Duke Lemur to a bowl placed five feet away from us. In the bowl there Center. I begged my mom to take me there. Finally, over were : nuts, honey and….mealworms! spring break I went there. The aye-aye’s trainer shook a blue bag hung on a stick When we went there we began with a regular tour. I in the enclosure and out came a grumpy looking slow saw blue-eyed lemurs and ruffed lemurs and ring-tailed loris! He ran in circles and still looking grumpy, sat on a lemurs. One had an adorable baby. box. Meanwhile, the aye-aye was eating a nut and I heard 27705 NC Durham, Then we went on a litter patrol and found bottles, it tap with its middle finger against the nut! After finishing Road Erwin 3705 baskets with eggs inside and an old wallet. We did not the nut, it ran around a branch and came to investigate Center Lemur Duke think we would find much in the beginning but then we us! It tried to leave its enclosure but the trainer gently University Duke left the path because we saw some bottles. We recycled pushed it back in. them. It felt so good to help the earth. That day was the best day of my life! 3911919-693600 FROM THE TRAINING DIRECTOR strategic planning teacher training begins! By Charlie Welch, Conservation Coordinator Our new conservation initiative in the SAVA region of northeastern Madagascar has taken its inaugural step in the form of teacher training in environmental education! After extensive planning, in August we sent three Mala- gasy teacher-trainers to the town of Sambava. The three Two words that belong in the Department of have had years of experience with Madagascar Fauna Redundancy Department, do they not? Why would Group (MFG) teacher training workshops, and were lead you strategize without planning, and why would you by our long time colleague and environmental education plan, if not strategically? And so it is that I have tended specialist André Ratsimbazafy. The first phase of the to scoff at this phrase. But here I sit, at exactly 7:47 training program was not actually conducted with the p.m. on Friday night, November 18, 2011, having just teachers, but rather focused on training of the future train- completed the final FINAL version of the DLC Strategic ers- 33 education professionals from the CISCOs (school Plan. It has been an arduous process, beginning on districts) of Sambava and Andapa. October 24, 2010, with an email to Peter Lange that The keystone of the week-long training is the teacher’s said the following “This spring semester, I wish to begin manual to environmental education, which was developed a strategic planning process for the DLC. The ESAC by the Madagascar Fauna Group (MFG) education team, (External Scientific Advisory Committee) has been and approved for use in public schools by the Madagas- pushing for this for some time, and I believe that the car Ministry of Education. The manual was designed to time is ripe. I have never led or participated in such a dovetail with the existing primary school curriculum, and process, and I want to do it right. I have human re- gives the teachers a source from which to teach their stu- sources within both the ESAC and my Director’s Board, dents about Madagascar’s environment and ecosystem but I also wish your input. Are there campus resources relationships, topics which are overlooked in Malagasy available to me? Do you have any particular advice?” primary school education. Eventually, each of the 2,431 Little did I know what would be involved! The process The plan is built on four fundamental themes: scientific teachers in the two districts will receive a copy of the began in earnest in December 2010 when I contracted inquiry, scholarship, information, and global engagement. manual, and training in how to use it in their classes. Teachers are often the most respected Ross Simons, of Simons and Associates, to assist me It takes advantage of many existing assets at the DLC, In the next phase of the program, the newly trained members of rural communities, so if they as a consultant. Soon afterwards, we together launched but equally importantly, of its unique place within the trainers will lead workshops for the school directors. In the are trained and convinced of the value of a public survey in which many of you would have par- broader Duke community. It will enrich the lives of third and final phase, these directors will train the teach- conservation themselves, the message ticipated. And so it is, nearly a year later that I sit at my students and researchers, while opening new opportu- ers in their schools. The experienced MFG trainers will is conveyed not only to students, but desk, having just emailed the final version to the Pro- nities for our conservation mission in Madagascar. The periodically oversee training sessions to assure quality also to adults in the communities. vost’s Office in preparation for my presentation to the plan extends into the year 2017, which, as luck would and consistency. This method of teacher training, using Provost’s Academic Affairs Committee on November have it, will mark our 50th anniversary! We are excited the teacher’s manual, has been successfully implemented 30th, and to the Academic Affairs Committee of Duke’s about the future, and the insights and impacts that lie by the MFG in the Tamatave area for a decade, and we Board of Trustees on December 2nd. ahead are truly beyond imagining. are all excited to now be transferring that knowledge and So what is in the plan, you are (hopefully) ask- On this note, I bid you adieu until Fall of 2012. I will experience to a different region of the country! ing yourselves? It is an 18-page document, so a bit be undertaking a period of scientific refreshment for Experience has taught us that teacher training goes challenging to summarize in this short space, but the spring term (aka, sabbatical). Beginning in January, far beyond the transfer of information to students here are the essentials: The plan is entitled “Revo- I will be working in the UK with my colleague, Ziheng only. Teachers are often the most respected members lutionary Opportunities” and reflects the fact that Yang, at the University College London. I have a list of of rural communities, so if they receive environmen- the DLC is on the cusp of a new phase in its distin- projects that is way too long to be realistic, but oh the tal education and become convinced of the value of guished history. Though research has always been joy of data analysis! I can hardly wait.