Online learning using STEAM from McDowell Sonoran Conservancy for all ages.
Brainteaser – Jigsaw!
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Deserts of the World Word Find
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2020 brings change and innovation to Conservancy education efforts
By Nicole Kallman, Education Manager2020 has certainly been a year of change and innovation. The pandemic beginning in March put our teachers and students in an unprecedented and challenging situation, working to navigate virtual classrooms amidst the social and economic impact of COVID-19. Despite these challenges, teachers rose to the occasion, working closely with parents
Ecosystems – Everything is connected
By Nicole Kallman, Education Manager, McDowell Sonoran ConservancyWhen most of us think about ecosystems, we think of the relationships between plants and animals. But the most fundamental relationship in any ecosystem is between the environment and everything that lives there. As the environment changes, whatever lives there must adapt to the changes or be replaced
White-nose Syndrome: A Deadly Disease for Bats
By Marianne Moore, Ph.D., Arizona State University assistant professor Originally published in the Fall 2017 Edition of Mountain Lines Around Valentine’s Day 2007, a phone call from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to my Ph.D. advisor at Boston University, Dr. Tom Kunz, alerted us to unusual bat mortality occurring in New York
Going Batty at Dixie Mine
By Debbie Langenfeld, McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Parson's Field Institute certified citizen scientist Originally published in the Fall 2017 issue of Mountain Lines Photos by Dwight Keller. It’s a hot summer night and the bats in the Dixie Mine wait for sunset to leave their cavern for their nightly excursion in search of an evening meal.
Bats Mean a Healthy Ecosystem
By Ronald Mixan and Joel Diamond, Arizona Game and Fish Department Originally published in the Spring 2018 Edition of Mountain Lines Photo Credits to George Andrejko and Ronald Mixan, Arizona Game and Fish Department Arizona provides habitat for 28 bat species. This diversity is second only to Texas and represents the highest endemism of any
ASU School of Life Sciences Special Seminar – Wealth, race, and wildlife: The impacts of structural inequality on urban wildlife
Grab the downloadable flyer here for this event on September 9 and 10 - ONLINE! Get the Flyer!
Parson’s Field Institute Associate Director Helen Rowe featured in podcast, In Defense of Plants
The human population of the Sonoran Desert is growing quickly, developing the surrounding landscape at an alarming pace. At the same time, botanists are racing to understand the fate of this so called "green deserts flora." In this episode we learn what it takes to properly assess a region's flora for extinction risk and how
Discovering Bats at the McDowell Sonoran Preserve
By: Jessie Dwyer Graduate Student, Arizona State University Last summer, the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy partnered with Dr. Jesse Lewis’ lab at Arizona State University to conduct a pilot research study on bats in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. The goal of the study was to gain fundamental knowledge about bats by determining which Arizona bat species