{"id":60328,"date":"2021-07-14T09:56:31","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T14:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=60328"},"modified":"2021-07-14T09:56:34","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T14:56:34","slug":"wetlands-center-book-reading-draws-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=60328","title":{"rendered":"Wetlands center book reading draws crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a warm Saturday morning in mid-July, a crowd gathered on the lawn outside of Fort Hays State University\u2019s Kansas Wetlands Education Center to listen to author Mandy Kern read from her newly published children\u2019s book, Ava: A Year of Adventure in the Life of an American Avocet<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nformer science teacher and current FHSU Program Specialist at KWEC, Kern wrote Ava <\/em>to help teach children,\nparents, and anyone who reads it about the Kansas Wetlands. Kern began working\nat KWEC in 2018. She has since received both recognition and awards for her\nwork in environmental education. While speaking to the gathered crowd, Kern\ndiscussed the Kansas Wetlands\u2019 ecological importance and the need to expand\npeople\u2019s understanding of this natural wonder. When asked about the event, Kern\nsaid, \u201cI want to thank the Dorothy M. Morrison Foundation for making this book\nproject possible. I hope that it will spark an interest in Cheyenne Bottoms and\nshorebirds in the students that live in our area and help make them aware of\nthe importance of our wetland ecosystem. The book is truly a work of art thanks\nto the talents of Onalee Nicklin; young and old will appreciate the accurate\ndrawings of the 33 birds depicted in the story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nthe families sat and listened to the story of Ava the Avocet, children were\nable to follow along with their own book thanks to a donation from the Dorothy\nM. Morrison Foundation, which allowed each family to receive a free copy.\nCopies are also being provided to all schools and public libraries within a 70\nmile radius of the center and each K-6 classroom in Barton County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nthe reading, everyone was invited into the center to explore the many displays,\nspeak with the staff, and engage in interactive activities to learn more about\nthe wetlands. Led by illustrator Onalee Nicklin, children learned how to draw\ntheir own Avocet, like Ava. In addition, the many interactive stations\nencouraged people to physically engage with some of the ideas they read about\nin the book. Positioned throughout the center and outside, the interactive\nstations proved to be enjoyable learning experiences for both young and old\nalike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children\nhad the opportunity to build bird nests, take a chance at surviving the dangers\nof migration, attempt to gather food as a bird might, and many other\nactivities. One of the most popular activities was the display of potential\nfood sources for the various bird species. Damselfly and dragonfly nymphs,\ndobsonfly larva, and crawdads were just some of the living food sources with\nwhich the children interacted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KWEC\nCenter Director Curtis Wolf also participated in the activities, helping\nchildren explore the stations while sharing his expertise with visitors. He was\npleased with the large turnout and glad to be able to host events once again.\nKWEC reopened fully on June 1st<\/sup> as part of FHSU\u2019s Phaseout Plan.\nEvents like this one and other FHSU activities provide necessary and enjoyable\nresources for community members excited for a return to normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone\ninterested in purchasing a copy, or incorporating Ava <\/em>into their childrens\u2019 or students\u2019\neducation can find lesson plans developed for this purpose at the wetlands\ncenter website, http:\/\/wetlandscenter.fhsu.edu\/education\/ava-childrens-book\/ava-childrens-book.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kansas\nWetlands Education Center,\naffiliated with FHSU\u2019s Werth College of Science, Technology and Mathematics, is\nlocated 10 miles northeast of Great Bend at the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By UNIVERSITY RELATIONS On a warm Saturday morning in mid-July, a crowd gathered on the lawn outside of Fort Hays State University\u2019s Kansas Wetlands Education… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11722],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60328"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60329,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60328\/revisions\/60329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}