Master Naturalist Assignments
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.
- 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.
- The Units will not be taught in order. Not all Units have a pre-reading at this time.
- Please refer to the schedule in preparing for each class in order to know what pre-reading content to review.
- The pre-readings are from multiple Instructors and do not necessarily reflect your Instructor's presentation.
- The supplemental readings are "extra" reading that Instructors thought you might find interesting depending on your knowledge level.
- 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
Unit 1: Natural History
Supplemental Readings
Unit 2: Flora & Fauna
Taxonomy
Ornithology
Botany
- Botany Chapter (printed in your Volunteer Manual)
- 2 study questions
Supplemental Readings
Microbes
Mammals
- PowerPoint Presentation (pdf)
- 2 study questions
- "Maryland Mammals"
- Key: Guide to Common Mammal Tracks (pdf)
- 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
Fish
- PowerPoint Presentation (pdf)
- Maryland Checklist
- Maryland Master Naturalist Fishes Introduction
- Maryland Estuarine and Coastal Fish
- Maryland Fishes Key
Supplemental Readings
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
Unit 4: Humans and the Landscape
Supplemental Readings
Unit 5: Science of Science
Supplemental Readings
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