PARENT SESSION
Poster Session #11: Education: Post-graduate and Outreach.
Monday, August 5. Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. Exhibit Hall B & C, TCC

Cascade Head, Oregon--Interpreting ecosystem properties and research to the public.

Zobel, Donald^*,1, Zobel, Priscilla¹, ¹ Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR

ABSTRACT- Information from research on species diversity, biomass, primary production, and nitrogen availability was summarized for major ecosystems at Cascade Head, an intensely studied area of forest, grassland, marsh, estuary, and sand dune on the central Oregon coast. The information was summarized into exhibits for a variety of public audiences. A map, aerial landscape perspective, and bar graph were displayed as fabric patchwork wall hangings ("quilts"). The quilts were used to highlight and supplement a poster-format public display of pictures, diagrams showing ecosystem properties, and text. Trail and field trip guides were prepared for elementary to college-level classes, incorporating the research results into the trail guide format. For school children, we used information about Native American uses of organisms to develop a game to enhance and summarize learning. In the game, players were asked to use information about organism distribution, properties, and native uses to plan how they could efficiently gather the resources they would need to live in the landscape. The poster will display patterns in ecosystem properties at Cascade Head and the means we developed to convey them to various groups of the public.

KEY WORDS: Interpreting ecology for the public, Variation among ecosystems