We've been customizing presentations to each school and classroom's individual needs lately, and practicing intensively.  We're basically making a master slideshow and master list of activities, then removing or adding slides and/or activities depending on what each teacher tells us about his/her class and the current topic the class is studying.

Teachers have also discussed the optimal setting for presentations with us: auditorium or classroom, as well as how many students should attend.  We wanted at first to reach as many students as possible with our presentations, but then we reasoned that it was more personal and compelling if we focused on conducting many presentations to many smaller groups.  Activities would also be easier to manage.  Thus, many of our presentations will take place in individual classrooms with individual classes.

After sending multiple emails, our local schools have responded!  Our liaisons are currently discussing the possibilities of incorporating our presentation with the curriculum and classroom material students are studying.  In this manner, we are determining the optimal times for our presentations.  We're also learning what area of conservation to focus on, and trying to narrow our subject matter to around 15 minutes of meaningful, compelling speech. 

This is just so important that people understand what's going on with burrowing owls today, and what kind of adversity they are facing.  It's just something our community has to fix, and though we've managed to slightly slow the decline of burrowing owls, we could still use all the support we can get!  The saddest thing is that our neighboring counties of Orange and Los Angeles have completely lost their burrowing owl populations, and visiting there over the weekend was saddening and energizing at the same time.  The environment in Los Angeles is especially well-known for its poor quality, and the loss of the burrowing owl certainly hasn't helped this condition.  But seeing these conditions, we became even more set in our determination to save the burrowing owl and help protect our environment as much as we can.