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In This Issue:

	Voices for the Lake Celebration August 20th!
	Interns Bring New Energy to ECHO
	Insect of the Month: Cicada
	New Funding for Teen and Adult Programs
	What's Happening in August
	Friends & Sponsors

YOU'RE INVITED!
Voices for the Lake Sunset Celebration August 20th

Please join us for a Sunset Cocktail Party on August 20th from 6-9 p.m. to celebrate the summer and Voices for the Lake! Enjoy an evening on the Lake and try our new interactive multi-media exhibit that features stories from across the Lake Champlain watershed. RSVP here: http://conta.cc/a8uY5o

Voices for the Lake launched a website on Earth Day designed for the community to share stories about Lake Champlain and its rivers, connect with others who cherish water and affect the health of our waterways. We've seen the collection grow over the summer and are excited that this unique new exhibit on ECHO's floor supports the opportunity to share even more stories!

Join us on August 20th for hors d'oeuvres, a cash bar, a night of storytelling and interactive fun topped off by a phenomenal sunset from ECHO's deck overlooking Lake Champlain!
 

Pictured: Top: Stand Up Paddleboarding, a contribution to Voicesforthelake.org, and part of the new exhibit at ECHO, © Jason Starr; Sunset from the deck at ECHO, ©  Nick LaVecchia 2006.

INTERNS BRING NEW ENERGY TO ECHO

This summer, ECHO welcomed eight new interns to the Education Team to assist with programming and bring new energy to our busy season. The team includes five college interns majoring in Environmental Studies, Chemistry and History. It also includes three recruits from ECHO's teen environmental literacy program, who spent the last academic year studying environmental science and leadership. In June, interns participated in ECHO's week-long informal learning training, which prepared them to coordinate daily activities on ECHO’s exhibit floor, facilitate interactive activities and develop and deliver daily public programs.

Here through the end of August, interns bring fresh, new programming to ECHO's daily schedule. A few examples:

• Look for "Wacky Wednesday" programs, each Wednesday at 1:00 p.m., when college interns engage family audiences in fun, creative, hands-on programs, such as the ECHO Egg Drop, where visitors used recycled materials to design, construct and test a contraption to help a raw egg survive a three-story drop from ECHO's balcony.

• At 1:00 p.m. every day (except Wednesday) join ECHO's teen interns for ECHO Outdoor, which gets visitors playing with science in the fresh air!

• At 2:00 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, UVM Chemistry students (sponsored by a National Science Foundation grant) facilitate "Green Chemistry" laboratory programs for teens and adults, which demonstrate the recent steps scientists have made to create safe and environmentally friendly laboratories and products.
   

Pictured: Education Intern Sara leads a Wacky Wednesday on Far Out Fish; Michelle performs a Green Chemistry demonstration.

INSECT OF THE MONTH
The Cicada

By Bridget Butler, Voices for the Lake Project Manager

During the run of Backyard Monsters, our latest changing exhibit, ECHO Update features a different insect each month — some local, some exotic and some available to see at ECHO. For August, we’ll profile the cicada.

Cicadas are part of the Hemiptera order—“hemi,” meaning half, and “pteron,” meaning wing—and are closely related to true bugs, leafhoppers, spittlebugs, and aphids. There are two kinds of cicadas—annual and periodic. Annual cicadas, sometimes called dog-day cicadas, are the species we hear as the summer heat peaks. Periodic cicadas get all the attention, however, because they emerge in large numbers in 13 or 17 year cycles. The last big periodic cicada party happened in 2004 on the East Coast, which gives us about 11 more years to plan for their next appearance. Until then, they’ll remain as nymphs underground.

Right now, you can enjoy the singing of the male dog-day cicadas who are the percussionists of the summer insect band. The fiddlers in the band are the crickets and grasshoppers who use stridulation, or the rubbing of two body parts together, to make sound. Cicadas have timbals, complex drum-like membranes, which create sound when they flex the muscles in their abdomen. The cicada’s body acts as a resonating chamber which amplifies the sound. Cool, huh? And, get this: the hotter it gets, the more they like to sing!
 

Pictured: Cicada, © Bruce Marlin; Cicadas, © Flickr User Anita363.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN AUGUST?

This month, things are still “getting buggy” with our Backyard Monsters exhibition, as well as a variety of daily ECHO Encounters including our famous Wacky Wednesdays! As always, you can visit our website calendar for a complete listing of all the happenings at ECHO. All of these activities are free for Members and included with ECHO admission.

• Science and Stories: Sink or Float
  
  Tuesday, August 17, 2010
  Start: 11:00 a.m.
  
  When an object floats, it can stay on the surface of a liquid all by itself. We will explore sink and float properties of different objects, make predictions and test our predictions.
   

• Meet The Scientist: Green Chemistry
  
  Thursday, August 19, 2010
  Start: 2:00 p.m.
  
  What recent steps have scientists made in creating safe and environmentally friendly laboratories and products? Come join Matthias Brewer as he explains and demonstrates how he can make a polymer from common kitchen ingredients. Appropriate for children 14+.
   

• How do Sailboats Use the Wind?
  
  Saturday, August 28 and Sunday, August 29, 2010
  Start: 11:00 a.m. & 1:00 p.m.
  
  How close can you get to the wind? Come learn the exciting ways that sailboats move through the turbulent waters of Lake Champlain and some of the trials and tribulations of sailing when the direction of the wind is constantly changing. Join the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center staff at ECHO.

Friends & Sponsors

SUPPORT ECHO ON TOURISM SITES

ECHO, like so many of Vermont's attractions, relies heavily on the tourism audience. Many travelers these days are choosing destinations via the Internet and through online reviews by the general public, so we could use your grassroots support! Please visit your favorite travel website and add another positive voice to our attraction reviews — and encourage relatives or friends who have experienced ECHO to do so too! This greatly helps bring folks to both Vermont and to ECHO. The following are a couple of websites to get you started — thanks in advance!

IgoUgo
Find & Go Seek
TripAdvisor
Yahoo! Travel
Yelp

Photo: © Jeff Clarke 2007

WPTZ/NewsChannel 5 Live at ECHO

Mark your calendars to watch WPTZ/NewsChannel 5 on the second Thursday of every month, when Chief Meteorologist Tom Messner traditionally broadcasts his Precision Weather forecast live from ECHO during "First at Five," "5:30 Now," and "NewsChannel 5 at 6PM."

ECHO Update Feedback
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Click here to send us your feedback. Thanks for your input.

Update Staff:

Contributors: Bridget Butler, Voices for the Lake Manager; Molly Loomis, Director of Education; Kate Villa, Director of Development
Design: Travis Cook, Information Technology Coordinator