How to Participate

FlowerPollinatorLIVE: A Distance Learning Adventure will provide teachers and students with informative and interactive ways to learn about pollinators.  Teachers will be able to use pollinators as a resource to:

  • meet science standards
  • get students involved in citizen science
  • learn outdoors
  • become knowledgeable, engaged, and active conservationists

You may participate in this adventure in a number of ways.

  • Join us for a live electronic field trips for students.
  • Participate in web seminars hosted by the National Science Teachers Association.
  • Check out the resources on this web site for conserving and protecting pollinators.
  • Create your own pollinator and butterfly gardens and outdoor classrooms.  CLICK HERE for helpful information about how to start and maintain a schoolyard garden and CLICK HERE for funding opportunities to get you started. 
  • Take part in a citizen science project.  For a list of opportunities, CLICK HERE.

CLICK HERE to watch a video about how an electronic field trip is produced and the technology that enables Prince William Network and its sponsors to bring this program to you.

There are several things you can do before the webcast to help your students get the most from the field trips and take advantage of the experts during the program.   

Register for PollinatorLIVE

CLICK HERE to register so that you can keep up-to-date on the webcats, broadcasts, and web seminars being offered as part of PollinatorLIVE.

After Registering

Review the web site for information, lesson plans, and links to teach about pollinators. 

Two Weeks before the Webcast

  • Test all of your equipment.
  • Visit us and access the test link to ensure that your connections work.
  • Prepare your students for the webcast by teaching one of the LESSON PLANS. 

Day Before the Webcast

  • Test your equipment one last time to ensure all potential problems have been addressed.
  •  We recommend that you have two computers available:  one for viewing the live program and the other for submitting questions.
  • Have a handful of questions ready to ask the experts.  Questions will be submitted through a form on the PollinatorLIVE web page.

Day of the Webcast

  • Ten minutes before the live webcast, we will put up a test screen so you will know that you have a connection.
  • Submit your questions during the webcast.  The form includes a field for the question and the school, teacher, and student name, and e-mail address.
  • If you experience connection problems or if the screen freezes, please try adjusting your bandwidth settings. Select “Menu” in the video player and then select “Quality.” Adjust your video quality to 300Kbps or 100Kbps and the video should stop freezing.
  • Enjoy the program! 

After the Program

The webcasts will be archived and may be used later in the year or with future classes.


Minimum System Requirements to View the Webcast

The following hardware and software are required to view the webcasts. Viewers must have access to FlashWebTown and a live test webstream is available at http://www.flashwebtown.com/demo_live.php.


Component

Required

Recommended

Operating system

Windows or Mac

Windows or Mac

Processor

A 233 megahertz (MHz) processor, such as an Intel Pentium II or Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) processor

A 1.5 gigahertz (GHz) processor or faster.

RAM

64 megabytes (MB)

512 MB or higher

Internet Connection

Active broadband connection at a minimum bandwidth of 282 Kbps.

Active broadband connection with bandwidth of greater then 768 Kbps.

Sound card

16-bit sound card

24-bit sound card

Monitor

Super VGA (800 x 600) resolution

Same as required configuration or higher resolution

Video card

Video card with 64 MB of RAM (video RAM or VRAM)

Video card with 256 MB of RAM or higher

Sound output device

Speakers or headphones

Speakers or headphones

Internet browser

Flash-capable web browser

Flash-capable web browser