What I Learned from Bay Backpack

When Lindsay and I were approached with the opportunity to work on Bay Backpack I was immediately excited and ready to get started as soon as possible. I had attended the launch event for the website in January 2010, and was so impressed with how much work Krissy had put into creating this database. Now, I would have a chance to help Krissy’s project continue by spreading the word about Bay Backpack everywhere I could.

During my time helping with Bay Backpack, I mostly handled the Twitter and Facebook accounts. I also promoted Bay Backpack at conferences I attended (see guerilla-marketing blog post). Working on the site gave me a lot of experience in a field that I am newly interested in, environmental communications. Managing the social media platforms for Backpack allowed me to learn first hand how useful they can be for marketing a product and how quickly information can spread through them. It was always rewarding when I was able to have information I had sent out duplicated and republished by other Twitter and Facebook users. This let me know that what Bay Backpack was providing was important to people and they were genuinely interested in using the site.

During the time that I have been involved with Bay Backpack, I have always received a lot of great feedback when I talked to teachers and environmental educators about the site. When I went to the North American Association for Environmental Educators (NAAEE) conference in Buffalo, NY, I talked to so many educators who were thrilled by the fact that there was a website that compiled environmental education resources. Most of them did not even live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, but knew that any of the lessons and activities on the site could be adapted to apply to any watershed. Many of these educators were so interested in the site that they wrote blogs that you may have read.

I have really enjoyed working on Bay Backpack. It has really given me a lot of experience in a field that I hope to enter into in the future. More importantly, it gave me an opportunity to work on something that I know can have a major impact on the education of our youth and the health of the Chesapeake Bay. My hope is that Bay Backpack continues to grow in the coming years and is utilized by teachers and environmental educators throughout the watershed, especially in Maryland, where it can be a great tool for teachers to help fulfill the new environmental education requirements.