What a year! All our events have been virtual and safely socially distanced. This resulted in more participation of Ecampus students. We hope to keep this participation up even after we go back to in-person events.

Herbarium Pressing Workshop (virtual) – May 7th & 14th 2021

We hosted two virtual meetings to learn how to press plants and create your own herbarium. The first meeting was discussing how to collect your plants and how you will press them, and the second meeting showed how to mount your plants. This event was hosted by our Club Secretary, Jared Hedges, and our Ecampus liaison, Sara Busmire.

R Studio Workshops – Nov. 16th, 2020 & February 2021

In collaboration with the Fisheries and Wildlife Undergraduate Mentorship Program at Oregon State University, the FW Club hosted a presentation of the virtual Introduction to R Workshop to club members, students across neighboring Oregon Schools, and ORTWS members alike. The workshop offered attendees a first glimpse into R and R Studio in a no-pressure, no-grade environment. Topics included an overview of R Studio, basic R commands and syntax, how to find help while coding, debugging tips, best practices and habits for success, and an introduction to Github.

In February 2021, we hosted a follow-up workshop to teach more advanced R techniques, including an overview of plotting histograms and line plots in base R and in ggplot, customizing graphs, an introduction to mapping, how to find help while coding, and habits for successful plotting.

A recording of the event is also available on the club’s recently revived YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CV6Ps_uFBE&t=2s

Detection Dogs in Conservation, a Guest Presentation by Rogue Dogs – May 17, 2021

We hosted a guest speaker to learn about Rogue Dogs, a non-profit based in Washington that trains rescue dogs as wildlife scat detection dogs to help in endangered species research. Our guest speaker, Suzie Marlow, has been working with the dogs for over 8 years and has traveled to Nepal, Thailand, Alberta, and Yosemite to collect data on wolves, cougar, pangolin and more! In this 1 hour presentation and live Q&A, Suzie shared methods for training the dogs and people, share case studies of how the dogs have helped in wildlife research, and answered all questions from a curious audience. Many students want to train their own dogs to be detectors now! You can watch Suzi’s presentation here.

Guest Speaker: “A Day in the Life of a USFWS biologist” with Nicole Hams  – February 8th, 2021

This was an open forum event with Nicole Hams of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. She came to talk to us about her job as a scientific communication coordinator, and what it is like to work for the service. Students were able to ask any questions they had for her in the zoom chat, and  those questions were then asked verbally to her. It was informative and helped our club members make a new professional contact, as well as give them personal insight on what federal job applications should look like.

Make your own Bird Feeder! – February 2021

Participating Club members received a “DIY bird feeder” kit in the mail. Members then created and hung their own feeders, and reported back on their new bird sightings. Many Ecampus students participated from across the country!