Title:

G01-NPS-02 Urban Conservation Education and Information (Discovery Center, Kansas City)

Sponsor:

Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation

Project Manager:

Kit Freudenberg
320 North Main
Springfield, MO 65806
537-751-4115

Project Period:

9/1/2000 - 12/31/2002

319 Grant Funds:

$103,200

Project Description:

URBAN CONSERVATION EDUCATION and INFORMATION

The Discovery Center, located in Kansas City, Missouri, has a mission to educate the urban public, especially youth, through school and community involvement and conservation activities and programs. The goal is to increase knowledge and understanding among city residents of fish, forest wildlife resources, natural communities and ecosystems and the relationship of people to the natural resources. The facility will contain a teacher resource room with environmental education materials and curriculum. Total cost for the center is anticipated to be $3 million.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

This project will partially fund the construction of a 290-ft. long boardwalk and interpretive features located within a 1.5-acre wetland. Workshops and curriculum that teaches participants about aquatic plants and animals, the dynamics of streams and other aquatic ecosystems and their relationship to water quality will be conducted on site. Information and education programs and projects will emphasize conservation, habitat, ecosystems with special attention to water quality and urban problems with nonpoint source pollution. Information from another exhibit inside the facility will emphasize the importance of wetland aquatic vegetation to water quality. The public will learn the terrestrial and aquatic species that rely on wetlands and water quality for habitat and species production.

OBJECTIVES

The boardwalk will allow visitors to closely interact with the wetland and learn to: distinguish among producers, consumers and decomposers in a pond; recognize three common Missouri fish; analyze a pond water sample; identify three aquatic invertebrate organisms; identify three aquatic plants; measure two physical and two chemical conditions of pond water; recognize three characteristics of a healthy pond; predict the effect of removing a link in an aquatic feeding relationship; predict how land use practices affect the quality of watersheds including nonpoint source pollution and its effects on water quality; compare and contrast five fishing lures with five aquatic organisms.

PRODUCTS

1. A 290-ft. long t-shaped boardwalk constructed of western cedar and metal.
2. Interpretive signs describing elements of the wetland and it's importance to water quality.
3. Brochure describing the water quality benefits created by wetlands.
4. A self-evaluation form to determine if educational objectives have been met.

PROJECT SPONSOR

Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation

COOPERATING AGENCIES

Missouri Department of Conservation and the Ewing Kauffman Foundation

CONTACT

Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation
320 North Main
Springfield, Missouri 65806
Kit Freudenberg 573--751-4115