Three White Cranes Exhibit Update

We wanted to follow up our last blog posting on the Three White Cranes art exhibit with a few images from the exhibit opening last month. We hope that you can join us at the International Crane Foundation (ICF) this summer or fall to view the exhibit first hand (and for those of you that cannot make it to ICF, we hope you enjoy these images and consider hosting the exhibit at your school or city - see our previous posting on how to involve your school in this activity).

Three White Cranes Exhibit Opens at ICF

Are you looking for something fun to do this summer? Starting next week the "Three White Cranes, Two Flyways, One World" art and education exhibit will open at the International Crane Foundation's headquarters in Baraboo, Wisconsin. The exhibit highlights the achievements of the Three White Cranes project and includes artwork created by students in the United States, China and Russia, along with information on our project activities, education resources developed through the project, and a video focusing on the Xianghai Middle School Nature Art Club (click here to learn more about the Xianghai Middle School). The exhibit will open on June 20, 2009 and will show at ICF through October 31, 2009.

The ICF Conservation Education Department is preparing a traveling version of the exhibit to show at project schools and other public locations this fall. Please contact Joan Garland, ICF's Outreach Coordinator, for more information and how you can involve your school.

Tennessee and Florida Students Learn About Whooping Cranes

Like Gilchrist Elementary in Tallahassee, FL, many schools along the eastern crane flyway have been learning about Whooping Cranes this fall and winter. As the young Whooping Cranes completed their first fall migration through the eastern United States, ICF's Outreach Coordinator, Joan Garland, visited schools to share stories and updates on the migration and Whooping Crane conservation. Following are three images from Joan's school visits in Tennessee and Florida. If you would like to share photos or updates from your classroom activities, please email your images and stories to trackingcranes@savingcranes.org.

A student models a crane costume, designed to hide the human form from young Whooping Cranes, at Citrus Springs Middle School, Citrus Springs, FL.

Students learn about Whooping Cranes at McCallie Elementary School, Chatanooga, TN.

Joan and a student volunteer explain the use of the crane costume at Hammett Bowen Elementary School, Ocala, FL.

Golda Meir Craniacs

Jan Weiler, 3rd grade teacher at Golda Meir School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, recently sent us several pictures from her class field trip to the International Crane Foundation (ICF) in October. Jan noted that it was a cool, cloudy day with the students at ICF and in the field in Briggsville, WI, where they learned about the mission of ICF, the cranes on display in the ICF exhibit area, and cranes in the wild in Briggsville, where they saw Sandhill Cranes in newly cut fields.

The students gathered in the ICF Visitor Center to begin their tour - check out their Golda Meir Craniacs hats!

The class then met up with Joan Garland, ICF's Outreach Coordinator, for the tour of ICF. The students learned how scientists dress in a crane costume while raising Whooping Cranes for release into the wild, so the chicks do not imprint on humans.

The students also talked with Zhang Juan, educator from Beijing Brooks Education Center, who taught the students about the migration of Siberian and Red-crowned Cranes in East Asia. Zhang Juan was in Wisconsin for the teacher exchange portion of the Three White Cranes project.

On the way home to Milwaukee, the class stopped at Neenah Creek Elementary School in Briggsville, WI to talk with Anne Lacy, ICF's Sandhill Crane Project Manager. She showed the students how she tracks cranes banded with radio transmitters and studies them in the wild.

Thank you to Jan and her class for sharing their experience with us! If you would like to share a story about a recent class activity or project, please email us at trackingcranes@savingcranes.org.