Dan Ardia
CEIRP Project

BOCES New Visions, Ithaca, NY
The New Visions program brings together motivated students from across Tompkins, Seneca and Tioga counties to study environmental science and government. I've been working with students to help build experimental design and sampling skills. We conducted an exercise on life tables using data collected from Ithaca City Cemetery and tested a series of hypotheses about age and sex-specific causes of mortality.
I developed a simple protocol to assess wild animal signs and tracks which we used to compare animal populations across an elevational gradient in the Adirondacks.

East High, Rochester, NY
Working with Margaret Brazwell's Environmental Science class, I used the program Ecobeaker to allow students to determine patterns of predator-prey dynamics. After describing simple patterns, we used the program to test some basic hypotheses by manipulating model variables. In combination with CEIRP fellow, Ellie Rice, we developed an interactive game to teach linkages between the immune system and parasite exposure. We found that by allowing students to participate in the dynamic nature of disease and health they learned basic concepts and had fun.