Dr. Katharine Milton is one of the JASON XV guest researchers, a Professor of Primatology and Human Ecology at UC Berkeley, and was one of our keynote speakers at the October 11 teacher workshop. She is an internationally recognized expert in Howler Monkeys. Here are a couple of articles talking about monkeys which you might find interesting:

Milton, K. "Something to howl about: howler monkeys and their bot fly parasites." Natural History October 2003, pp. 20-24. This issue is on the news stands now. Tells about the howler monkey of BCI and its bot fly parasite, written in a light tone, some photos.

Milton, K. "Diet and Primate Evolution." Scientific American: 269:86-93. 1993. This has a lot about primate diets, the howler monkey and spider monkey diets on BCI and some nice diagrams of the gut of each and also photos.

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Grades 9-12 Lesson Plan-Rainforest Endangered
http://www-sci.lib.uci.edu/SEP/CTS/
K-12 teachers of science in the school districts near UC Irvine have been designing lesson plans that utilize Internet/WWW resources.

• Some of these lesson plans are traditional in approach and some are quite innovative in the methods adopted for incorporating the resources into their classrooms.
• Each lesson plan has the same general format with one or more links to WWW resources that are to be incorporated into the activities as suggested.

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OFRF Research Results: Going Bats
http://www-dateline.ucdavis.edu/011102/DL_barn.html
Bats are fascinating and awe-inspiring creatures. The Organic Farming Research Foundation funded a Bat Conservation International project to install 45 bat houses at 10 organic farms in central California to assess bat house design and measure pest reduction by the bats. This workshop will present an overview of bat biology, offer data on bats and pest control in cotton and pears, and describe bat house construction and installation. Bring your questions about bats!
Moderator: Jane Sooby, Organic Farming Research Foundation, Santa Cruz, CA.
Presenters: Rachael Long, UC Cooperative Extension, Yolo and Solano Counties, Woodland, CA; Patricia Winters (invited), California Bat Conservation Fund, Ross, CA; Mark Kiser, Bat Conservation International, Austin, TX.

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Growth calculator applet
http://www.crfm.org/simulator/
Use the calculator to show sustainability or lack therof, using different cut rates and intervals. You may use the copy and paste keys of your platform to place the results into another word-processing document.

If you don't see the applet, it's time to upgrade your browser!

While the simulation is not entirely accurate, it will give you some idea how the re-entry and cutting rates affect a forest. We are currently working on a more accurate simulation.

Example: The "win/win" solution voted into place for Santa Cruz county on June 6th 1998 allows 50% cutting of trees > 18 inches diameter at breast height, and 40% of trees < 18 inches diameter, with a 10 year re-entry period.

The applet doesn't take into account the size class restrictions which were part of the "win/win" package.

First, try pressing "calculate results" to see what happens when there is no harvesting. Then, enter these figures into the "amount harvested" box to see what percent is left after 100 years.

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Bats
Bats:
Elizabeth D. Pierson, Ph.D.
2556 Hilgard Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 845-5313

William E. Rainey, Ph.D.
2556 Hilgard Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94709
(510) 845-5313

Daniel F. Williams, Ph.D., California State
University, Stanislaus
Turlock, CA 95382

The California Bat Conservation Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of bats. The Fund's major activities include

• dispelling widespread misconceptions about bats through informative presentations and live-bat displays at schools, libraries, museums, and community centers
• restoring injured and orphaned bats to health and returning them to the wild
• working alongside major conservation efforts to replenish shrinking bat populations

If you have found an injured bat in northern California, please contact the California Bat Conservation Fund (or the partner organization located nearest to you) immediately after reading the following:

What to do if you find an injured bat or a bat in your home

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Terrestrial Environmental Science Program
http://www.stri.org/tesp/
This link is a hidden gem among many within the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute family (STRI runs the Barro Colorado-BCI research facility where the live broadcast will take place). Huge amount of data, reports and maps about the BCI area. Grade level is high, 8-9 (remember, these are PhD researchers publishing their work here).

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Panama Canal Live Cam
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html
The main website was featured in the printed curriculum. But this area shows live photos every 10 seconds of what is happening in the two largest locks: Miraflores and Gatun. Requires Nescape version 4.6 or Internet Explorer version 4.0 with Java enabled. The whole site is available in Spanish and English.

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Panama's Cuna Indians
http://www.angelfire.com/tx/CZAngelsSpace/CunaIndians.html

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Extreme Engineering-Discovery Channel
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/engineering/engineering.html

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Kuna exhibit
http://www.conexus.si.edu/kuna/eng/exhibit/3.htm

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California Regional Environmental Education Community (CREEC) Network
www.creec.org
(Click on Region 4 for Bay Area support.)
The CREEC Network is an educational project whose mission is: To develop a communication network, which provides educators with access to High Quality environmental education resources to enhance the environmental literacy of California Students. Many environmental resources, grants, and speakers listed.

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NASA Visible Earth
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/
Gorgeous satellite photos of the earth from space. Download great pictures of watershed runoff, alga blooms, sediment plumes, runoff pollution, storms, etc. All resolutions and sizes. All for free!

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GoWally.com
http://www.gowally.com/wx/satellite.htm
Video loops and photos from the GOES Weather satellites. View the latest weather satellite photos across the US. Included are special Hurricane Regions with graphics and Forecasts. Then check out Doppler Radars updated with 400+ radars across the US.

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Check into the Digital Blue QX3+ Computer Microscope:
Did you ever want a microscope that will show images on a computer screen?This model can view up to 200X, only costs $40, and can be bought at ToysRus.

To view on a computer screen, you need a free USB port. The QX3+ comes with Windows viewing software. For Apple Macintosh or iMac users with OS 10, you will need to download free software called Microscope 1.0.

For more information, go to: http://www.playdigitalblue.com/products/qx3/main

To download the Apple software for the QX3+, go to: http://homepage.mac.com/aireck/

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Chris Hamady, technology coordinator for the Regina Coeli School, raves about a hardware/software combination we mentioned recently:

Having just read your news item concerning the Microscope 1.0 software created by Eric Handstefer, I immediately went out and purchased the Digital Blue QX3+ Microscope from ToysRUs for only $39.95. I downloaded and installed the software, connected the microscope to the USB ports on my iBook, and was completely blown away. I took it to my school and showed it to the science teachers who were equally flabbergasted. Everyone thought that it must have cost me $200.00 or more. This is one serious academic tool and I would highly recommend it to anyone. The software worked flawlessly, and allowed me to make image files and time lapse movies of my specimens. Kudos to Eric for his awesome contribution to the Mac community.

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