drsplatt
Paul ColomboAbout RoadKill 2012
The RoadKill project started 20 years ago as part of a National Science Foundation teacher enhancement grant called EnviroNet, awarded to Simmons College in Boston. Brewster Bartlett, also known as Dr.Splatt, began the idea of monitoring dead animals along the roadway as he traveled back and forth from his school. He thought it would make a good project for students to not only learn the different kinds of animals that are found along the roadways but also to keep in touch with each other via the Internet.
When the project was first conceived in 1992 there was no access to the web and the only means of keeping in touch and sending along various data was via email messages that were posted to a bulletin board. As the web became available the project went through a series of modifications and changes for collection, submittal and retrieval of data and as a result communication between students and schools was greatly enhanced.
In the late 1990s the RoadKill project lost its technical support and the submission of data to an online database was no longer possible. Many classrooms still participated but were finding it hard to “see” the bigger picture not having access to data from others.
The project has now moved to the server of EduTel Communications Inc. Once again it will have the needed support of online databases and of course updated pages. The project also includes this moderated interactive Message Board system for all that visit the site.
We hope the revised project will be useful to all that participate and please let us know if we can improve upon any of the site’s features.
Dr. Splatt's RoadKill '12 ~ Message Board 
Hi All!
Paul is doing a fantastic job updating the website and has assured that it will be up and running by March 5th….For those that are interested, I was featured in the Book of Odds website! The first link (see below) mentions the Roadkill Project and a few comments from students about the project. This also gives you a reason why this project is important.
http://bookofodds.com/Accidents-Death/Accidental-Deaths/Articles/A0066-Splat-Odds-from-the-Road-Kill-Database
Dr. Splatt
A comment from a graduate student at the University of Vermont. She is currently working on the Northeast Wilderness Trust to develop a citizen science-based reporting system for roadkill and live wildlife road crossing data. This will inform conservationists on how to make it easier for wildlife to cross roads (and safer for drivers).
This email came from her today: I had a funny thing happen: I gave a presentation to a UVM class and one of the students explained how she did roadkill surveys in elementary school. I said, “did you grow up in southern New Hampshire?” and of course she did. She said she’s much more conscious of roadkill now.
You never know how this project can impact others….Dr. Splatt