Civic Engagement Project Celebrates Biodiversity
With the help and support of more than two-dozen Castleton students, the Vermont National Geographic Alliance, based out of Castleton University, recently sponsored a BioBlitz event at the Helen W. Buckner Nature Preserve in West Haven, Vermont.
A grouping of like-minded science-orientated individuals of various ages, the event was planned as a Civic Engagement project by 28 students in Professor Scott Roper's Globalization and the Environment course and Professor Chris Boettcher's Expository and Argumentative Writing class during the spring semester. The gathering was one of over 100 events planned across the U.S. this summer.
“The purpose of a BioBlitz is to catalog the wide variety of species found at a location. The ultimate goals are to promote an understanding and appreciation of the environment while fostering ‘citizen science’ and lifelong learning in students,” said Roper, whose students spent time linking biodiversity to the problem of global biodiversity loss throughout the semester.
Working in conjunction with the National Geographic Society and National Park Service, approximately 35 students from Fair Haven Union High School and Castleton Village School took part in the BioBlitz, along with four teachers, twelve expert scientists, and four Castleton University students. Expert scientists included Cynthia Moulton, Brad Coupe, Mary Droege, and Ann Honan, all faculty and staff from the Castleton Department of Natural Sciences.
The effort was funded primarily by a National Geographic grant to the Vermont Geographic Alliance, with additional funding from a Campus Compact Campuses for Environmental Stewardship sub-grant.