Northwest Center
for Sustainable Resources
About Us
Chemeketa Community College
Salem, Oregon
"NCSR-Education for a Sustainable Future"
Current DUE # 0757239
NCSR is a National Resource Center focused on creating, disseminating, and supporting adaptation of natural resource curriculum materials. These materials feature topics including environmental monitoring, habitat preservation and restoration, mapping, instrumentation, and other related skills woven within the context of managing complex ecosystems. Established September 1, 1995 with funding from National Science Foundation's (NSF) Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program, the Center has become a national collaborative of partners from education, business and industry, American-Indian tribes, and government agencies, providing a unique national natural resources-based education information network. Materials developed are used in college programs in the major subject areas of environmental and biological sciences and natural resource technical courses in fisheries, forestry, wildlife and environmental science programs. Other materials focus on integrating natural resource management concepts into secondary science courses such as biology to ensure a wide range of understanding of ecosystem-based resource sustainability.
To maintain and enhance its prominent role as a resource center for the nation, the Center continues to improve and expand natural resources education materials. NCSR is revising existing materials to reflect current practices and developing new materials that incorporate recent scientific research focused on increased resource sustainability and use. As an example, the recent wildfires have caused major changes in national policy. These changes include the "Healthy Forest Initiative" which implements forest thinning as a tool to reduce the risk of catastrophic fire. Additionally, the new science of restoration ecology is being applied to the renewal of burned areas for both ecological and economic health. NCSR is addressing these and other areas in its new products
KEY ACTIVITIES
Curricula development: With support from its partners, NCSR continues to develop state of the art educational materials to support teaching. The Center uses a development model that emphasizes:
- Scientific principles of ecosystem management which promote accommodating human uses within constraints of maintaining biodiversity, ecological processes, long-term site productivity;
- Managing ecosystems over appropriate temporal and spatial scales;
- Higher levels of mathematics, science, and technology;
- Communication and writing skills; and
- Secondary education programs using a hands-on, community-based approach to science and natural resources.
Professional enhancement institutes: Field and laboratory-based experiences covering environmental and natural resource topics are offered for teachers from all levels of education during Summer Institutes.
Dissemination: NCSR educational materials are available free-of-charge through its National Clearinghouse. Material abstracts and copies are posted and available on the Center's electronic clearinghouse (www.ncsr.org) or by mail.
For more information contact:
NCSR Chemeketa Community College
P.O. Box 14007, Salem, OR 97309-7070
Email: wynn.cudmore@chemeketa.edu
Phone: 503-399-6514
Updated December 2007.
Copyright 2007 Northwest Center for Sustainable Resources, Salem, Oregon.