The 2009 Fall TIC Teacher conference was a huge success.

On Tuesday October 13, 2009 over 180 TIC educators, supporters and volunteers from New York City, the New York City Watersheds and beyond gathered at The Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home for the Fall 2009 TIC Teacher Conference.  The conference was a huge success, with many interesting and thought provoking presentations and a great amount of interaction among the attendees before, during and after the conference.  

This year's conference featured workshops which were created and presented by veteran TIC teachers:

• "Drawing Water: Collaborative Artworks of the NYC Water Supply System" by Emily Hartzell from The Neighborhood School,

• "Connections: Tanks to Ecosystems" by Janine Guadagno from Tabernacle Christian Academy,

• "Flyfishing 101: It’s More Than Just Catching Fish" by Stacey Suffridge Wierl from Fox Meadow Elementary School,

• "Water Quality Management in a Closed Recirculation System" with Phil Dickler and Steve Perry from John Bowne High School and 

• "TIC Lessons and activities across the curriculum" with Veronica Rowe, Melissa Johnson and Jane Wolfrom from Phoenicia Elementary School. 

Other workshops included "Stream Studies" with Dan Davis a NYC DEP Stream Management Scientist and Min Kan the NYC DEP Director of Education,   "Knowing your Tank" and "Tank Maintenance" with John Fischer the TIC Technical Advisor and "Healthy Streams -Healthy Bugs: A look at Stream Macroinvertebrates" by Lisa Jemison, Education Coordinator at the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, and Paul Thiesing, Environmental Educator from NYC DEP.

I would like to thank all of the presenters, resource fair representatives, volunteers, teachers and everyone that attended for making it the friendliest event I have ever been involved with. I would also like to thank our generous sponsors, including the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP), New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) and Catskill Watershed Corporation (CWC) for helping to make this conference a success.  I am looking forward to another great conference next year! 

--Lilli Ayvazian, NYC and NYC Watersheds TIC Coordinator

Teachers spent the day . . .

searching for aquatic macroinvertebrates . . .

learning trout anatomy through cookies . . .

learning to fly cast . . .

. . . and picking up trout eggs for their classrooms.

(all photos courtesy of NYC DEP)