Volunteer Training Pre-Reading Assignments

Welcome Trainees! Your Program Facilitator has provided you with a Training Schedule and the designated pre-reading for each training session.

1. These pre-readings are designed to give "basis" information about each topic with which we feel all Trainees should be familiar. Please also take the time to review the related chapter in your Master Naturalist Resource Manual.
2. The Units will not be taught in order.  Not all Units have a pre-reading at this time.
3. Please refer to the schedule in preparing for each class in order to know what pre-reading content to review.
4. The pre-readings are from multiple Instructors and do not necessarily reflect your Instructor's presentation.
5. The supplemental readings are "extra" reading that Instructors thought you might find interesting depending on your knowledge level.
   
6. Note that your Host Site and/or actual session Instructors may have additional pre-readings for you to review.

First Class Orientation: Introduction to the Maryland Master Naturalist Program

• PowerPoint Presentation
  

Unit 1: Natural History

• PowerPoint Presentation (pdf)
• 2 study questions

     Supplemental Readings

• Maryland Weather & Climate

• A Guide To Land Judging in MD

• Tree Tips: Coastal Plain

• Geology & Groundwater of MD, emphasis on Anne Arundel County (pdf)

  What is Groundwater? booklet (pdf)

Unit 2: Flora & Fauna

Taxonomy

• PowerPoint Presentation (pdf)
• "Naming Nature" by Carol Yoon 
• 2 study questions

Ornithology

• PowerPoint Presentation (pdf)
• 4 study questions

Botany

• Botany Chapter (printed in your Volunteer Manual)
• 2 study questions 
  Supplemental Readings

• Invasives ID
• Invasives Control
• List of URLs for Information on Invasive Species in Maryland

Microbes

• PowerPoint Presentation (pdf)
• 4 study questions
• Fungi

Mammals

• PowerPoint Presentation (pdf)
• 2 study questions 
• "Maryland Mammals"
• Key: Guide to Common Mammal Tracks (pdf)

Insects

• Entomology Chapter - in your manual
• Article:  Sexy Beasts:  Finding beauty in small obscure beings, by Jennifer Frye
• Chapter:  Mason Wasps from Fabre's Book of Insects, 1921
• Insects:  Environmental Philosophy
• 2 study questions

     Supplemental Readings

• Ecology of Herbivorous Arthropods

Fish

• PowerPoint Presentation (pdf)
• Maryland Checklist
• Maryland Master Naturalist Fishes Introduction
• Maryland Estuarine and Coastal Fish
• Maryland Fishes Key

     Supplemental Readings

• Key to Freshwater Fishes

Reptiles & Amphibians

• PowerPoint Presentation (pdf)
• 2 study questions
• Reptiles & Amphibians of Maryland's Upper Coastal Plain (pdf) 
• Maryland Herpetofauna Taxonomy Tips: A Reference Guide (Assoc. of Zoos & Aquariums/FrogWatch USA) (pdf)

     Supplemental Readings

• Turtles
• Salamanders
• Snakes
• Frogs
• DNR Website: Discover MD Herps 

Unit 3: Ecology

• Ecology Chapter - in your manual

     Supplemental Readings

• Historical Land Use
• Forest Growth
• Urban Riparian Ecology

Unit 4: Humans and the Landscape

• PowerPoint Presentation (pdf)
• 2 study questions

     Supplemental Readings

• Maryland, Efficiency, and Birds
• Conservation PowerPoint (pdf)
• Overview of Native Americans in MD:  Pre-contact Period (pdf)
• Strategies for Survival - The Nanticoke Indians In A Hostile World by Dr.George Brauer (pdf)
• Native Americans of Maryland:  Tidewater Indians (pdf)

Unit 5: Science of Science

• PowerPoint Presentation (pdf)
• 2 study questions

     Supplemental Readings

• The Earth Is Round
• Point Quarter Lab

Unit 6: Teaching and Interpretation

• Chapter: How to Deliver the Message (Also printed in your manual)
• 2 study questions
• 'Children's Nature Deficit - What We Know and Don't Know' by Cheryl Charles, PhD and Richard Louv

     Supplemental Readings

• 'Last Child in the Woods' by Richard Louv
• Leave No Trace Principles 
• Md Master Naturalist Program Resource Webpage (reading list)