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Caitlin Stevenson

LINC-IISG

November 26, 2011

Abstract

This report is a collection and reflection of the work completed by one member of the

IISG section of the Learning in Community program. The following pages will explain the

project and break down what individual marketing work that was completed as well as the

research questions that guided that work and the project as a whole. The methods that we used

just as visiting to answer these questions and fulfill our project objectives are described and the

results of the project are analyzed.

Introduction

The section of LINC that I am enrolled in partnered with the Illinois Indiana Sea Grant

Program. They are an organization that researches and educates people about aquatic invasive

species, the safe consumption of fish, and the proper disposal of pharmaceuticals. Our project

has three main objectives:

1. Our team will aim to increase awareness of the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and their

mission.

2. The Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant will have gained a network of contacts in which they can

expand their educational programs.

3. Our team will create and implement lessons about invasive aquatic species that reach

students in the local area, in addition to giving these students the tools to then teach

others.

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When we first began the project we had five group members and we thought the best rationale

for meeting these objectives was to teach lessons about aquatic invasive species and have

students work on a stewardship project and volunteer recruitment video. My role for this project

was going to be creating and implementing the lesson plans. Unfortunately our group did not

have the proper permission to use any of the student work to help IISG write grants or even for

our own report and poster. In addition to this setback two of our team members dropped the class

leaving us with only three members and no project ideas. As a team we decided that we did not

want to change our project objectives. So we modified our original plan and instead of working

in classrooms we designed and planned an interactive fair that would be held at a local children’s

museum and library. An interactive fair will reach a larger and more diverse group of children.

The stations at the fair will teach children about a variety of invasive aquatic species, their

effects of the environment and what they can do to help this problem. Instead of a large

stewardship project the children who attend the fair will create posters and flyers to be hung

around the community. These will educate others about aquatic invasive species and spread the

word about IISG. We recruited volunteers to help run the fair and in doing so the volunteers will

learn about IISG and their mission. Hosting the event at local venues instead of only teaching in

the classroom also gets parents involved, educating them about aquatic invasive species and the

IISG.

Research Questions

My responsibilities for the project included organizing the marketing aspects of the fairs so in

fulfilling these duties I researched the following questions:

1. Who should our target audience be?

2. What is the best way to reach this audience?

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3. Which venues will draw the most crowds?

4. How do we spread the word about IISG and the fair?

Methods

In answering my research questions I used a number of different methods. One of the

most helpful methods was to visit the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant office here on campus. Our team

met with our partners, Robin Goetell and Terri Hallesy at their office and they showed us many

different activities and talked to us about methods that they personally and other LINC groups

have used in the past to spread the IISG’s message about the environment and reach their desired

audience. This meeting really helped narrow down which audience that we wanted to target and

what were some good ways to reach them not only in a marketing aspect (getting them to come

to the fair) but also what are good methods to get our message across to them. In addition to this

meeting I researched a number of local venues to determine whether or not they would be best

for our events. The Orpheum Museum, The Spurlock Museum, and the local libraries were the

venues that I learned more about by searching their websites and calling these venues. I asked

each venue about their availability and the clientele that usually frequented their establishment.

These emails and calls helped our team narrow down which venues we chose.

Throughout the project I was in contact with the Orpheum Museum coordinator Katie

Hicks working out details of the event and setting up a time to come and view the venue.

Visiting the venue helped in making our plans for the fair because seeing the space gave us new

ideas about how to format and organize the stations. Visiting the museum also gave us a chance

to ask Ms. Hicks about how many children we should expect at our event. This information

confirmed that we chose a good venue but also showed us that we still needed to do some

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additional marketing in order to reach more children and families. With the help of our project

manager Jenna Weidenbenner we created a flyer advertising our event. I then researched and

discussed with my team schools, after school programs, and parenting websites that we should

send our flyer to. Researching these places helped us to pinpoint the audience that we wanted to

target and gave us all of the information to do so. In addition to this I placed a blurb about the

fair on chambanamoms.com, a website geared towards parents living in the Urbana-Champaign

area that offers an event calendar that lists all the events going on in the area that are appropriate

for children and families. In addition to this I emailed the description of our event to the Daily

Illini Newspaper hoping that they will be able to attend and the event and include a story about it

in their paper to showcase or work and more importantly the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Program.

Results

Through the visits to the venues, countless emails and calls, and my research I was able

to find answers to my research questions and our team was able to use this information and the

results of my work to create a better project. By speaking with Ms. Goetell and Ms. Hallesy

about their previous work and the times of resources they had to offer us my team and I

determined that children in grade 1-8 should be the audience that we target. In addition to

targeting children they mentioned the need to get this information to adults who are more able to

take the necessary precautions and steps to help stop the spread of the aquatic invasive species.

In researching venues I found the Orpheum Museum and the Spurlock Museum. The Orpheum is

children’s science museum, that the IISG has worked with before and who had an available time

slot that fit with our team’s schedule. Another team member, Jacqui Batts researched the local

libraries and was able to schedule our event at the Urbana Free Library. Hosting our event at

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venues on the weekend and outside of school time means that parents have to take their children

and in doing so we can reach twice as many people and a variety of age groups that our partner

wanted us to reach.

Determining how to reach this audience had me researching programs for children. I

found a number of organizations that looked like our event would be perfect for the children that

attend these programs. I emailed Boys and Girls Club, the Big Brother/ Big Sister program, local

girl scout troops, Fits Kids (an after school athletic program at the ARC), and the University

Primary school. I received responses from the Fit Kids, Boys and Girls Club, and the Big

Brother/ Big Sister program informing me that they would send out our flyer and pass on the

information to the parents and children in their programs. Our blurb about the event was added to

the chambanamoms.com event calendar and the Orpheum Museum sent out an email to their

members about our event. Emailing these programs and websites not only spread the word about

our event but in each email I explained the mission of IISG and attached their website. Doing

this spreads the word about IISG. Through these emails I also realized that the fair itself will

spread the word and create buzz about IISG and its mission. Many of the people I corresponded

with had not heard of IISG or knew little about them. Providing flyers about IISG at the event is

a great way to spread the word about IISG.

Choosing which venues would bring in the most crowds was hard to determine because

there are so many variables that are out of our control but the two venues that we chose have a

history of hosting events like ours and through my emails and meetings we were informed that

the turn outs are pretty high. Also important information that I discovered through answering my

research questions was that of all the venues I researched these two were geared toward the same

audience that we are trying to target. Choosing these venues ensures us that there will be some

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children there already that we did not bring in through our marketing campaign and that we are

almost guaranteed an audience at either one of these venues. Visiting the venues gave us a

chance to speak one on one with the volunteer directors about the usual attendance for programs

like ours. The Orpheum Museum informed us that they usually had 20-30 children come in

during the DIY session that we were filling and the Urbana Free Library told us to expect

anywhere from 10 to 60 children for our event.

Discussion

These events, though small will have a wider impact on our community. The Illinois-

Indiana Sea Grant is an amazing organization that has done so much for this community already.

However, not very many people know about them. By publicizing this event and by educating

the parents and children that attend our fairs we hope to spread the word about IISG and their

mission. In order to hold the fairs we needed to rely on volunteers because our group is so small.

This provides us a great opportunity to help IISG gather a sustainable volunteer force. By getting

volunteers from campus RSOs we have helped link the IISG with the students who populate this

community. IISG relies on volunteers to help spread their message and so giving them this

resource is a way for us to help improve our community.

Another major way that our fairs will impact the community is by giving children an

educational experience. For many children education stops the second they leave their school. By

offering this event we are giving kids a chance to expand their education and to learn something

that they may never learn about in school. The information that we are giving them about aquatic

invasive species is critical to the preservation of our lakes and rivers. By teaching children about

how these species spread, what their effects are, and what they can do about it we hope that they

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will then tell others about this information and take the steps necessary to preventing the spread

of invasive species.

Conclusion

Working on this project has taught me a lot about myself and about working in groups in

general. I can be a perfectionist and my first reaction is to just do everything myself. This was a

tough habit for me to break but throughout this project I have been reminded that it is okay to

delegate and work on things together. As a future teacher this is going to be an important skill

that will help me down the road when collaborating with other teachers and simply interacting

with administration. Teamwork is key to so many different areas of life. I’ve had to do group

work many times throughout my life but never on so extensive of a project. It took us all a while

to realize that this was truly no one else’s project but our own and that we needed to take charge

of it. Handling this responsibility and melding different personalities has been tough but working

together has affected each and every one of us for the better. As I worked in this project I

realized the importance of listening to others ideas and sometimes taking a step back is what is

best for the group.

I have a temper and that is something that hindered my participation in this group at

times. So many things were going wrong in the beginning of the semester; lack of participation

form some group members and our plans falling through are just a few of the setbacks that we

faced. What this project has taught me and really put into perspective is that even the best laid

plans can fall apart and that you need to stay flexible to work through these difficulties. I have

become a better team player. I know I still have areas that I need to improve but working on this

project has taught me how to be a leader without taking over completely. I did not respond to

conflict in an appropriate manner in the beginning of the semester and through that experience I

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have begun to learn techniques for dealing with conflict within a group. There is always going to

be conflict no matter what group or job I am in and these skills will help me to better handle

conflict when it arises. These skills will also come in handy when I am a teacher because conflict

resolution is key to classroom management. This project has also taught me many professional

skills that I will use throughout my lifetime. As the marketing head I had to place many phone

calls and send numerous emails. I have never been confidant when talking on the phone but this

project has shown me hoe essential it is. Calling adds a personal touch and provides an

immediate response. Formatting professional sounding emails has always been a struggle for me.

This class has improved this skill. So many things are sent and decided through email that it is

critical to be able to sound professional and to get your point across clearly.

On top of the professional lessons that this project has taught me I learned quite a bit

about aquatic invasive species and the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant. Coming into this class I had a

very basic knowledge about invasive species. Through our research and our meetings with our

partners I have learned all about the species themselves, how they affect our environment and

some ways the I can help prevent the spread of these species. I had never heard of IISG before

taking this class and going forth once this class is over I view IISG as a great resource for me and

will be happy to be a resource for their organization. There are so many cool things that I could

incorporate into my English class that involves the material I learned from IISG and I would be

happy to continue to work with them again in the future.

References

Katie Hicks:  Interim Education Coordinator at the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum, orpheumkids.education@gmail.com,   (217) 352- 5895  

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Spurlock Museum: (217) 333-2360      

Chambanamoms.com: Parenting website that has a calendar that anyone can post events in the Champaign/Urbana area to.

Bonnie Hemrick: Fit Kids Research Coordinator, hemrick@illinois.edu

Carmelita Nussbaum: director@campusms.org, Director of the Campus Middle School For Girls

Appendices Format of an introduction email to the Orpheum Museum:

Dear Ms. Hicks,

I spoke to a Debbie on the phone yesterday about possibly setting up an event at the Orpheum and was directed to you. I am a student at the University of Illinois and am enrolled in Eng 315, a Learning in Community class. My team is partnered with the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant Program, an environmental organization whose main areas of focus of research and education are safe consumption of fish, proper disposal of pharmaceuticals and aquatic invasive species. We are beginning to plan an educational fair that would consist of four stations that would teach kids about aquatic invasive species, their effects on the environment, and what the kids can so to stop the spread of them. These stations will include demonstrations, games and arts & crafts. Is the Orpheum available to host this event on the weekend of November 12, or December 3? Please let me know if you have any questions about the event and if we can come in and look at the space.

All the Best,

Caitlin Stevenson

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Email marketing the fair to one of many children programs:

Email touching base with the partners:

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Email describing the event to the Daily Illini in an attempt to get them to cover the fair:

Flyer used to publicize the fair: