This document describes an internship project to create educational resources about invasive species in Florida. The intern created: 1) Four videos (with scripts) about different invasive plant species found in Florida's Natural Area Teaching Lab. 2) An accompanying lesson plan for high school students focused on invasive and native species in Florida. The lesson uses images and facts to teach students about reproductive success. 3) Additional projects at the Florida Museum of Natural History including an interactive magnetic board game and beach bird nest display labels. The goal of the resources is to educate students and the public about invasive species through technology and hands-on learning to promote awareness and prevention. The intern gained skills in science communication, lesson planning

1. RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2012
www.PosterPresentations.com
Majority of an individual’s lifetime is spent outside the
classroom; therefore learning outside of the classroom should
receive just as much attention as education in the classroom
receives, if not more. Venues such as museums, aquariums,
nature trails, symposiums all nurture informal STEM education.
These locations are constantly attempting to improve the way
they present information to the public and are always trying to
assess how much an individual is actually learning.
The purpose of this project is to create a lesson plan coupled
with set of general educational videos about various invasive
species found in the Natural Area Teaching Lab in Gainesville in
order to educate not only students in classrooms but the public
that visits the trails. The deliverables created during the
internship are not limited to the presentation of factual
information but actually challenge the students and viewers
through questions and require them to draw conclusions. To
better understand the flora in the area, research was conducted
on the invasive species in the area to develop cohesive and easy
to understand scripts that were read and dubbed over the
respective photographs and videos. Only the most prevalent
species in Florida were used in order to make the issue more
relevant.
These videos will help educators inform students and the public
about invasive species, challenge their critical thinking skills and
will contribute to the removal and prevention of invasive species
in Florida.
ABSTRACT OBJECTIVES
The 240 internship hours were split between The Natural Area
Teaching Lab and The Florida Museum of Natural History.
At the Florida Museum I created an interactive magnetic board
which requires the public to rate the probability of death by
shark attack versus attack by other animals. All characters and
graphics are hand drawn and graphically edited through Adobe
Photoshop.
INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE CONCLUSION
These are the edited versions of the interactive magnetic board the upcoming Florida Surf
Exhibit. After completing the characters, waves and some text this was sent off to graphics for
further processing and editing.
REFERENCES
Falk, J. H., & Dierking , L. D. (2010). The 95 percent solution . American Scientist , 98, 486-493. Retrieved
from https://elearning2.courses.ufl.edu/access/content/attachment/UFL-EDG4930-24470-
52013/Assignments/c0b45ad3-e0ed-45cd-9518-d40067564340/FalkandDierking95perc.pdf
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• Thank you to my supervisors : Dr. Gillett-Kaufman, Morgan Conn from NATL and Mrs. Tina Choe and Mr.
Ian Breheny from FLMNH for support, feedback, and materials.
• Thank you to the graphic designers at FLMNH for editing and final touch-ups to the interactive magnetic
board.
• Thank you to Larry Lansford from COE for photographs of the creation of beach bird nests.
• Thank you to my professors : Dr. Bruce Macfadden and Professor Sharon Holte for support and feedback.
• Thank you to the NATL committee for feedback on deliverables and thank you to Ethan Carter for
supplying images.
• Thank you to the photographers of Invasives.org database for providing majority of images used in the
videos.
The main objectives for the video series is to educate, inspire
and provoke thought in members of all ages and audiences. It is
hopeful that this information about invasive species will help the
public become more aware and advocate prevention and control
of invasive species in their own communities. The videos will be
posted on Youtube so that can be modified to fit any viewer’s
needs, and are available for the public and for educators to use
alongside the lesson plan or with their own lesson plans. The
scripts for each video will be posted in the description section of
the video for those with auditory disabilities and for educators
who wish to read ahead to gain a better understanding of the
video content, or print out copies for their students. In addition
the videos contain thought provoking questions in order to help
views make meaningful connections.
College of Education, UF Teach, Robert Noyce Foundation, FLMNH and NATL
By: Shivee Gupta
Invasive Species Education Through Videos and an Inquiry Based Lesson Plan
Here are photographs of myself working on recreating faux beach bird nests after
researching their habitat and nests.
For the new surf exhibit I had to research Florida beach birds
and their habitats, and write short descriptions that will be used
as labels for the specimens.
The invasive species lesson plan is focused for high school
students in grade levels 9 -12, and is available to all educators.
This inquiry based lesson plan focuses on invasive and non-
invasive species found in Florida however it can be modified
easily to shift focus onto plant species in any state in order to
make the lesson more relatable for students.
The activities in this lesson are inquiry-based, hands on and
require students to use higher order thinking and draw
conclusions based on qualitative data they obtain by looking at
different pictures and other characteristics (which will be listed
out) of invasive species and native species. The object is to
gather a sufficient amount of data from the pictures and the
additional facts in order to deduce which one would have a
higher reproductive success rate and then explain why this is so.
*A copy of the lesson plan can be found on the table.
METHODS
In order to produce the deliverables at the UF Natural Area
Teaching Lab information was gathered from various sources
including webpages, articles and the natural area itself. This
information was used to create the scripts for the videos.
Many of the photos were taken with an Android camera at
the Natural Area Teaching Lab. Due to extensive
management of the invasive species sufficient photos could
not be obtained through this method. Therefore,
photographs had to be obtained legally through an image
database. The scripts were recorded using an Android app
called Smart Voice Recorder and dubbed over the
appropriate pictures that were obtained from a database
known as Invasive.org using Windows Movie Maker 2.6. A
total of 4 videos were created about: Cogon grass, Skunk
vine, Air Potato and Coral Ardisia.
Selecting appropriate organism slides for
upcoming exhibit pictures on light table
below.
In conclusion, I have created four (3minute) videos about
invasive species in Florida( two other videos are still in
progress), scripts for each video, an accompanying inquiry
based lesson plan for high school students, panoramas of
NATL, an interactive magnetic board game for museum
audience and beach bird nests display and labels for the
FLMNH. The subject matter of the videos is limited to science
however the information is presented through a technological
medium. Both projects at the museum were science based.
I have gained an abundance of knowledge, experience and
skills from this internship. From my work at NATL I have
researched and understood invasive species and their specific
control methods. I am now very comfortable with this topic
and will be able to teach this benchmark to my students in
the near future, using the lesson plan I created. In addition I
have learned quite a bit of general knowledge about fauna
and flora in the NATL area by taking pictures and using social
media to help learn more about them. Through this internship
experience I have really understood the importance and
impacts of social media for informal STEM learning. I can see
how social media and technology could really push the
informal STEM movement forward and reach out to a large
variety of audiences.
I had to translate scientific information into a cohesive and
readily understandable package without losing the scientific
content. This is a crucial skill as an aspiring teacher because
educators must know how to effectively relay a message
across to their audience; the students.
The deliverables show great promise and can be expanded
upon easily. Some ideas for improvement and expansion of the
deliverables was to create an activity for students based on
different control methods, biological, mechanical and
chemical and show why IPM is important and connect these
concepts to conservation issues. The videos could use some
fine editing as well as the lesson plan. More videos about
different invasive species can be made and two of them are
still in the process of being produced. The lesson plan can be
expanded by creating a field trip guide to NATL so that
students can come out to NATL and engage in STEM learning.
Pictures: Screenshots of the invasive species
videos.
UGA2150092 – Chris Evans Illinois Wildlife
Action Plan, Bugwood.org