Kid-Friendly Short Films About NJ Wildlife

From filmmaker Jared Flesher (Hundred Year Films), here are some kid-friendly excerpts from a series he had done called The Creature Show. these are great for kinds who have an interest in the outdoors and NJ wildlife, for kids who don't get many chances to be out in nature, and they would be great for teachers as teaching tools or just as a good story for discussion.

They may be a bit creepy in movies, but bats do a lot of good for us. Do you like mosquitoes? Well, bats love them - to eat!

Check out this kid with Bats in the Bedroom Window and also take a trip to see Bats in the Church Attic.

Do your kids like dogs? What kid doesn't like dogs? Here is a short film where you'll Meet Bear, the Wildlife Detection Dog

You will probably never get the chance to be Releasing a Bobcat into the Wild, but you can in this video. Most kids will never have even seen a bobcat in the wild.

I monitor two local vernal (spring) pools. But in any season, you can watch a trip to see Frog & Salamander Eggs in a Vernal Pool. And you won't get your feet wet.

Snakes are another creepy crawler that gets a bad rap in movies and media. Let's go out in the woods and try Radio Tracking Snakes. Spoiler Alert: they do track and find an endangered corn snake (not poisonous). 

There are more videos on his YouTube channel for kids and adults and on his website at Hundred Year Films

Project WILD Workshop for Educators Offered in November

Project WILD is an interdisciplinary conservation and environmental education program offered by NJ Fish & Wildlife that focuses on wildlife and habitat. 

The goal of Project WILD is to develop awareness, knowledge, skills, and commitment resulting in informed decisions, responsible behavior, and constructive actions concerning wildlife and the environment. 

Project WILD’s mission is to help students learn how to think, not what to think, about wildlife and the environment.

A special PW workshop for educators is being offered on Friday, November 22 in Hunterdon County. 

For more information visit the following links:

Project WILD Information

Hunterdon County Workshop Information

'Hooked on Fishing-Not on Drugs' Team Leader Training Workshop

The NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife will host a 2-day Hooked on Fishing - Not on Drugs (HOFNOD) training for adult staff and volunteers of youth-centered community and/or faith-based organizations looking to offer an ongoing or year-round youth fishing, conservation, and aquatic education program. 

HOFNOD is a great way to introduce youth to fishing, learning about their local waters and other natural resources while supporting positive outdoor recreation activities and life skills. The program is flexible enough to be tailored to fit most organizations.

Participants in this training will be responsible for delivering the program to youth from beginning to end over the course of 22 or more sessions. Organizations that participate in the program are eligible to receive additional professional development in conservation education and angling skills and in-kind support for program materials and supplies including subsidized educational field trips. Supplemental training can be requested for content like fly tying and kayaking.

Hooked on Fishing-Not on Drugs Team Leader Training Workshop

May 17-19, 2019

Lighthouse Center for Natural Resource Education

7th Street & Navajo Drive

Waretown, New Jersey 08758

Your participation includes: two nights lodging, five meals (Saturday breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks; Sunday breakfast, lunch and light snacks) and all workshop activities and materials. Please bring a sleeping bag or bedding, pillow and toiletries; a water bottle and/or coffee cup; a camera; any necessary medications, weather appropriate clothing and muck shoes or old sneakers that you don't mind getting wet. Please dress for the weather as some activities will be outside. This is a rain or shine training and registration is required.

There is a $40 non-refundable deposit to hold your space and to off-set training costs.

For more information on this workshop and to register, 

go to www.njfishandwildlife.com

Species on the Edge 2.0 Multimedia Contest Winners

The Species on the Edge 2.0 Multimedia Contest is a fun and educational way for high school students to work with technology and showcase their talent, creativity, and a love of nature. The contest helps to develop students’ experience in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics). It is free to enter and open to all New Jersey high school students.

Prizes include a 1st prize of $1,000 in scholarship money and a 2nd prize of $500 and a 3rd prize of $250 in scholarship money. And all entries are eligible to win a drawing to spend a day in the field with a wildlife biologist.

This year's first place winner is David Tattoni, a senior at Peddie School in Hightstown, who created a YouTube channel featuring wildlife and wild places. For example, he worked with a piping plover biologist (shown below). The piping plover is a NJ endangered beach nesting bird.



The second place winners are Priyanshi Jain and Victoria Momyer, seniors at Biotechnology High School in Freehold, who developed the website “New Jersey Wilds” and its accompanying Facebook page.

The third place winner is Kayleigh Young, a junior at Cresskill High School in Cresskill, who produced the video "Endangered in New Jersey," which features interviews of her teachers and classmates focused on the importance of wildlife conservation.

More information on the contest and the winners on the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey website.

Green Eggs and Sand Curriculum Workshop

During the full and new moon events in May and June, thousands of horseshoe crabs come ashore to spawn, primarily in Delaware Bay. It is also during this time when migrating shorebirds descend upon the beaches to rest and feed on the horseshoe crab eggs before continuing onto their breeding grounds. This interaction between horseshoe crab, shorebird and humans is what lays the groundwork for the Green Eggs & Sand (GE&S) workshop.

A Green Eggs and Sand Curriculum workshop will be held May 29-31 at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor (Cape May County). 

The workshop will delve into the ecological connections between horseshoe crabs and shorebirds, human connections to horseshoe crabs, and the challenges encountered in managing this resource via presentations, field trips and hands-on activities. Workshop participants will receive the award-winning, Green Eggs & Sand curriculum pack, recently updated with current information and new activities.

The GE&S workshop is a three-day workshop focuses on promoting understanding the issues, the science and the management of the horseshoe crab/shorebird controversy. 

Workshop participants learn from top researchers and natural managers in the field, as well as get to participate in a horseshoe crab count. 

Educators and natural resource managers from Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey developed the curriculum, and designed it for use with middle and high school students. It is broken down into four modules that introduce students to the lives of horseshoe crabs, their extraordinary history, ecological niche, interrelationships with other species and the challenges of managing horseshoe crabs. 

At the end of the workshop participants take home the activity rich GE&S curriculum package and video that has been correlated to the national-learning standards in science, social studies, math and language arts. 

Workshop FAQs (pdf, 43b)

For further information please contact Karen Byrne at 609-748-4347 or via e-mail at Karen.Byrne@dep.nj.gov.

For more information visit http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/greeneggs.htm