Headwaters Science Center announces the 2012-2013 fundraising series, "Elements of Our Future"
"Spirited Elements," the first event of the four-part series "Elements of Our Future,” will feature beer and wine tastings paired with local and seasonal food. A live auction of elements from the periodic table and other unique items will take place during the evening, and the BSU Music Department ensemble Voltage will entertain guests with “hands-on” music. Please join Headwaters Science Center, 413 Beltrami Avenue, Bemidji, on November 10th from 7 to 9 pm to be an "Element of Our Future.” Tickets are $25 each and can be purchased in advance via phone 218-444-4472, or in person at HSC, or at the door on November 10th.
Seasonal brews provided by Bemidji Brewing and Leech Lake Brewing Company, and wines from local vineyards, will be available to sample. Bar 209 will prepare local and seasonal foods provided by Natural Choice Farmer's Market and local growers. Dessert from Chocolates Plus and coffee from Cantabria Coffee will complete the evening.
Tammy Tisland and Aasness Auctioneers will be auctioning a limited number of elements at the event. Purchase an element from the Periodic Table and have your name or business permanently inscribed. This is a unique opportunity to become an "Element of Our Future"
Spirited Elements is the first of three fundraising events scheduled for Headwaters Science Center. The common thread among all events is the periodic table of elements. This event will feature a wine and beer tasting with snacks, live music and a most unusual auction. When HSC was founded some 20 years ago there was a public dinner at which donations were offered by bidding on elements from the periodic table.
A successful bidder "owned" the element and his/her name was forever attached to it and displayed at the science center.
Now, 20 years later, we will again hold the auction of elements. Additionally, there will be high-end items donated by local businesses to be sold to the highest bidder. It surely will be a fun and interesting evening, so please plan to attend. Tickets are $25, although if you plan to bid on an element your ticket is free. The fun begins at 7:00 pm on Saturday, November 10th at Headwaters Science Center.
Details and more information are available on the HSC web site.
Follow this link if you are a Facebook user and vote for us! Minnesota Energy is offering a $3000 grant via the Facebook voting app. It starts today, October 16, and closes on November 6. You can vote every day and it only takes a minute. We are competing with 2 other non-profits in Minnesota and have a good chance to win if we can spread the word to all our supporters and friends. Please share and support our awesome programs! Thanks from all the kids and their teachers in northern Minnesota.
Every day brings new challenges and new opportunities for discovery and I’m excited to be a part of the Headwaters Science Center. I would like to thank all the staff, board members, visitors, and community
partners who took time to make me feel welcome in my new position and community. I also would like to congratulate Laddie Elwell on her successful tenure as director of the Headwaters Science Center and give
my utmost appreciation for all her hard work and dedication to realize the vision of a hands-on science center for all in northern Minnesota.
The future of the Headwaters Science Center is full of possibility. Our biggest strength is the personalized visitor experience we provide to each and every guest through our door. Visitors are invited to explore very exhibit, hold a bunny or a snake, and have an opportunity to interact with scientists in a real and meaningful way. Our summer
camps, Discovery Science, and Tots -n- Science programs invite children to go further in their explorations. One of our future goals is to provide opportunities for youth and adults to engage in exploration and discovery through Science After Dark events or a science corps.
Our future also includes strengthening our organizational capacity to undertake challenges and celebrate success as we create a premier visitor experience. The board created a strategic plan to guide us along the road to fiscal sustainability, excellence in exhibits and programs, and regional engagement. I want to congratulate them on their successful undertaking and I am committed to carrying out the objectives of the plan to realize a successful future.
We are very grateful for the ongoing support provided by our community and we are committed to expanding our potential. In the next year, we will need support from our members and region to realize our future. Our 2012-2013 fundraising campaign, “Elements of our Future” is currently in progress and all of you are invited to join us! Your personal invitation to participate in one of our four special events is in the mail and information will be posted on our website and Facebook page.
Headwaters Science Center is proud to be a part of Bemidji and looks forward to providing a world-class visitor experience to our community and our region!
HSC has a two year contract with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to monitor water at six sites in the Mississippi River Headwaters watershed for chemical, physical, and biological qualities.
James Owens is the project leader and several other HSC employees are involved. Students from Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig High School and Camp Rabideau Conservation Academy will participate as volunteers in much of the sampling after they receive training provided by staff members at HSC and at the streams that each team and its teacher or responsible adult will monitor.
This project is an up-to-date extension of the River Watch Program, which was initiated in the late 1980’s and adopted by the Mississippi Headwaters Board in 1989. River Watch is an international collaborative river-monitoring network of citizen volunteers, organizations, government agencies and private interests working together to ensure the health and wise use of streams and watersheds.
In 1996, HSC received a Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant of $465,000 to teach students and teachers about the unique properties of water, water chemistry, invertebrate assessments, soil science, and related topics. The grant allowed HSC to become involved with six schools over a period of five years to carry out extensive hands-on and outdoor field activities, including monitoring, with about 5,000 students and their teachers. This work will now continue, beginning in 2012.
Citizen Scientists
River Watch certified volunteers, referred to as Citizen Scientists, will be trained and teamed with experienced environmental scientists to collect high quality scientific data that will subsequently be used to gauge long-term trends in stream health, develop land management strategies, identify potentially degraded waters, and assess the effectiveness of restoration projects. Through the scrutiny of monitoring and due to their closer proximity to the actual resource, Citizen Scientists obtain a greater understanding and appreciation for our rivers and streams and serve as advocates for the protection of those resources.
Project Goal
A two-year data set will be completed for physical, biological (Escherichia coli), and water chemistry parameters for the Intensive Watershed Monitoring Plan to aid MPCA’s assessment of the aquatic health of the Leech Lake and Pine River watersheds. Six preselected sites will be intensively monitored utilizing MPCA’s Standard Operating Procedure for stream analysis using the ‘pour point’ method of sampling near the mouth of watersheds to evaluate the condition of upstream watersheds in an unbiased manner. This is designed to insure that the goals of the Clean Water Act are being met, which are:
to insure waters “fishable and swimmable”,
to locate possible impairments, if they exist,
to provide information leading to stressor identification and guide subsequent remediation plans.
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