Someone to Be Thankful For: Carey Lang, Project Coach

Field Support

Teachers at schools throughout Massachusetts are thankful for the help provided by Schoolyard Ecology Project Coach, Carey Lang.   With the support of the Hightstead Foundation, Carey has travelled to field sites from as far Southeast as Middleborough, to Beverly in the Northeast, and to South Hadley and Belchertown in Western Massachusetts, Carey also visited sites in Fitchburg, Lowell, and Worcester, helping to set up new plots for teachers participating in the Our Changing Forest plots.

Note that Tree Icon shows existing field site locations and yellow dots show new sites added in 2016.

Specifically, Carey has supported plot setup and/or data collection at the following locations this fall: 

South Hadley High School;  Hunking Middle School in Haverhill ; Applewild School in Fitchburg; Bartlett Community Partnership in Lowell; Middleborough High School; Worcester Academy; Belchertown HIgh School; Drumlin Farm  in Lincoln. and Glen Urquhart School in Beverly.  

Photos by Sally Farrow, Drumlin Farm, Massachusetts Audubon 

I was very excited to meet with Carey yesterday afternoon and get started on the Changing Forests Project- I think it is a perfect fit with my curriculum and she was a lot of help. 

-Emily Chamas, Applewild School, Fitchburg

Thanks again for sending Carey our way. She is wonderful and it was so great to have her working with our teens... we had a great session with the wildlife biologists.

 -Sally Farrow, Carrie Webster and Flavio Sutti, the leaders of the Wildlife Biologists club Drumlin Farm, Mass. Audubon 

Carey has been amazing! ... helpful, affirming, fabulous to have another adult, adding legitimacy because the kids know that there's a real scientist helping us do the project!

-Louise Levy, Belchertown High School

Online Support

In addition to visiting field sites in person, Carey has also reached out to all participating  Our Changing Forests Teachers throughout the fall.  

After helping to mentor teachers during the Summer Institute for Teachers in August, Carey reached out to all of the new Changing Forests teachers. Here is a short excerpt of her outreach at that time:

Hello all!  It was great to meet everyone today at the teacher workshop and I’m excited to get started on helping you set up your plots! I had the chance to speak with several of you before you left at the end of the day, but I did miss a couple of people....If you DO want my help setting up a plot, please reply to this email with several tentative dates and times....Also keep in mind that I am always happy to answer questions/help with plant IDs/troubleshoot problems over email or phone.

Once most of the plots were set up and data had been collected at field sites, Carey reached out to the group again to prepare them for entering project data. 

I want to start off by saying that it’s been really great to work with all of you and your students these past couple of months! I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you, and I’m happy with how each of your projects seem to be coming together. As we wrap up the field season, I wanted to leave you with some next steps for the database to help organize you. I know submitting your data might seem daunting, but the database is really very user friendly and, as always, I’m here to help if you need me. 

I’ve gone ahead and added both you and your school to the database, which means that you are now able to go in and add both your field site information, your site descriptions and your DBH measurements. 

Harvard Forest Demonstration Plot for Field Trip Groups

Carey also worked with Pamela Snow in creating a demonstration plot at Harvard Forest that can be used by visiting groups who would like to participate in hands-on citizen science as part of a field trip experience.  Some teachers do not feel comfortable leading a project at their school, but want their students to experience field ecology as an activity led by Harvard Forest staff.  

Carey developed a simpler version of the Our Changing Forests protocol for use by students visiting Harvard Forest. Students use the same type of field sheet as the Changing Forests students use.  She developed a field guide specific to the tree species present in the HF plot in order to make tree identification much more accessible to students.  

Carey worked with Pamela to set up 4 contiguous 10x10 meter plots at Harvard Forest, following the same protocol as the Our Changing Forests plots in order that data can contribute to the Schoolyard Ecology database.  Corner markers and tree tags are all in place for the next group who is ready to participate in monitoring this plot. Pamela has piloted this activity with 2 field trip groups and is looking forward to offering it as choice for future groups seeking a hands-on activity at the Forest.

Related Links for More Information

Our Changing Forests Project Information and Resources

HF Demonstration Plot Tree Guide by Carey Lang

Schoolyard Ecology Database  to download and/or graph Our Changing Forests Data

Highstead  to see other work related to natural landscape conservation, research and education.