How do your Forests Change this Year?

 An Update from Our Changing Forests Field Sites

Killingly Intermediate School Photos provided by Ben Silberfarb on behalf 

of Northern Woodlands 

Reports from the Field

Tyngsborough, MA

Used our plot today for a lab where we measured dbh/id'ed trees and then plopped the DBHs into a spreadsheet to calculate carbon sequestration- so cool! Tomorrow we're going to calculate the carbon emissions of our vans and minibuses and try to figure out if our forest (scaling up to the forest from Josh's maps- we have about 102 hectares) absorbs the emissions from them. Cool! (Note the market basket bags covering sneakers, haha).

          

Reported by Teacher, Tara Alcorn
Greater Lowell Technical High School

Student Questions for Project Coach, Fiona Jevon:

 Another report from Tyngsboro, MA:

My class just had an awesome session with Fiona. She was fantastic and looked at their data, gave them feedback, and answered their questions. We also got to walk out to one of our plot sites with her. I've attached a copy of the document where they generated their questions for her so that you can see what they asked. We spent about 20 minutes on questions.

Thanks!

Katharine Hinkle

Innovation Academy Charter School
72 Tyng Road
Tyngsboro, MA 01879
khinkle@innovationcharter.org

https://sites.google.com/innovationcharter.org/mshinklesclasses2018-2019/home

Notes from Project Coach :

10/11/19  Things are going well! I set up plots with Kim at Lexington Montessori on Wednesday after having a blast with Katherine and her students at Innovation Academy. I have now visited every new teacher at least once, and I *believe* everyone has a photo and gps coordinates. 

10/2/19 For the Brockton teachers we bundled a site set-up visit (in the am) in with students visiting and collecting data (pm) so they may  be all set. I'm so glad we are reaching lots of students :) 

Elicia Andrews, one of her students, and I set up one plot at Quabbin Regional High School. She is hoping to set up another plot nearby, which I am hoping to come back and help her with (maybe we more of her students!)

9/18/19  Yesterday at Killingly Intermediate School with Pam Ames and Mike Morrill went great. We first worked with a smaller group of 8th graders who collected data from the plot (including some additional measurements!). We then had a large (40ish) group of 7th graders who were visiting the plot for the first time. I introduced them to the project and they made lots of great observations and questions. The two videographers were extremely nice and everything went very smoothly on that end. Marge and I also found a nearby site for Pam and Mike to set up an additional plot, and I believe they are hoping to get that one up and running this fall as well (yay!)


Killingly Intermediate School Photos provided by Ben Silberfarb on behalf of Northern Woodlands


9/10/19  So far I've done two trips. We set up 2 plots at Acton-Boxborough High School, both with some Hemlocks that are still alive but probably have Woolly Adelgid. They are also close to some of the trees used for the phenology project.

We also set up 2 plots at Innovation Academy in Tyngsboro: one is hardwoods, the other is in a Hemlock grove near some Woolly Bully trees!

Fiona's September Project Coach Schedule:

Fiona  Jevon
Harvard Forest

Data Collection in Peabody, MA:

Here  is our plot data collected today.  We went out in September, but the data was not complete.  We did a second count today, October 10
Plot 1 Tree 1 42cm
Plot 1 Tree 2 23cm
Plot 1 Tree 3 48.5cm
Plot 2 Tree 4 13.3cm
Plot 2 Tree 5 16.5cm
Plot 2 Tree 6  56.2cm
Plot 2 Tree 7 12cm (I think this tree was recorded inaccurately before) 

 

Photos of students measuring in the plots provided by Teacher, Diane Bugler



I will add data to the page hopefully this weekend.   I am hoping to add a third plot in a couple of weeks.


Diane Bugler
Captain Samuel Brown School
Peabody, MA  01960

Killingly, CT:  

Sending along some photos of our photo shoot with Ben (Filmmaker from Northern Woodlands),  Fiona (Harvard Forest Project Coach) and Marge from CT Audubon. They were able to see our students at work in our original forest plot. They (students) can been seen using DBH tape and Tangent Height Gauge. Marge assisted Mike and I in measuring out the 2nd forest plot and Fiona is coming on October 24th to help us properly identify the trees and work with students on our initial measurements.  Additionally, we have received funding from The Last Green Valley to create an interpretive nature trail system that connects both forest study plots. Once it’s complete, this could be another opportunity for Ben to return to Killingly!

Killingly Intermediate School Photos provided by Ben Silberfarb on behalf of

 Northern Woodlands 

Pam Ames
Killingly Intermediate School

Fiona and I just finished up at the intermediate school. It really was a wonderful morning. Not just great weather, but great students and teachers too. I think everything went well!


Marge Porter
Ct. Audubon

Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, MA

We used our two sites this fall to help students learn how to make observations and then to form good scientific questions based on those observations. We had five different teachers engage about 250 students in this activity. It was really nice to have a controlled area for them to work from so they could then easily share their observations and questions with others. We will be taking smaller groups out in the Spring as part of our Citizen Science project to take measurements and make more observations.

Erin BenGiovanni

Explore More ....Related Links:

Northern Woodlands webpage  for more Forest outreach articles and links.

Our Changing Forests Project Webpages for protocols, field sheets and related resources for this Schoolyard Ecology project.

Our Changing Forests School and Town LandUseChangeMaps

view and download GIS maps for all participating schools/towns in the OCF Schoolyard project.

Save the Date!  

Thursday January 9, 2020  Looking at Data Workshop for Teachers at Harvard Forest. Email Pamela to register.