Spring Workshop April 9, 2020 Preview

What to Expect for Spring Workshop 2020

Bud burst Preview with Dr. John O'Keefe

Teachers practice identifying trees and the stages of Bud burst using help of experienced teachers, staff and field guides.

 Field Walks with Project Ecologists

T

Buds, Leaves and Global Warming Group explored the stages of

 Bud burst outdoors as well. 

   

DRAFT AGENDA 2020:  

Reminder : This workshop is Free of Charge to all active Schoolyard Ecology Teachers

Whole Group Discussions

 Student Work "Poster Session"

 Teacher Presentations

 5 and 10 Year Teacher Achievement Awards

Lightning Rounds Slides from All Teacher Participants

What Teachers Said Last Year:  

Teacher comments about Project Breakout Sessions and Field Walks:

• Great to be able to see specimens and ask questions about the development of the buds

• Helpful to see woolly bully to help with my identification. Helpful to walk with other teachers and discuss how they are using these projects to teach

• Awesome part of the day! There is nothing better than getting out and seeing and hearing things directly--thank you!

• As a newcomer, I felt like I was able to get some understanding of how to lead students in counting buds, and which buds. I also have the context of the work to share with students.

• I really liked listening to the other teachers share their stories

• I learn so much every time I listen to John present - I filled up 2 pages with notes and ideas to bring with me. It's always enlightening to look at branches that are being forced, challenging my ability to identify and notice details

• John gives a renewed energy for the spring with his experience and expertise

• The walk with Audrey was fabulous. It was so good to have a chance to listen to Audrey share her knowledge and have a chance to ask questions. 

 

Comments on Last Year's  Teacher Presentations:  

• I loved hearing what other teachers are doing--I can't wait to re work some curriculum for next year.

• Graphing literacy is becoming more and more important on the MCAS, good to have this information

• Joe's work was something I might be able to scale down for middle school and Mary's was something I might try to scale up.

• Mary did an amazing presentation! I really appreciate seeing how this project's data is being used to expand understanding at the elementary level. I loved the chance to see all the ways to use this project in student's learning.a of putting together a book for the students to see their work over the course of a school year.

How are Teachers Looking at Schoolyard Data?

Schoolyard Ecology Teachers from New York, Connecticut. and Massachusetts returned to Harvard Forest this January to deepen their understanding of project data.  Here is a snapshot of what they worked on...

Brooklyn Technical High School Teacher, Elisa Margarita, chose to adapt the new online graphing tool exercises for use by her students.  Above are some excerpts from what she was able to draft during the data workshop, using her school's Buds, Leaves, and Global Warming project data and the northern most site as found on the field site map and data base. Elisa will also incorporate some of the content from Dr. Betsy Colburn's workshop slides to help students better understand visualizations of project data. 

Greater Lowell Technical School Teacher, Tara Alcorn, worked with Project Ecologist, Dr. David Orwig to create this representation of data collected at Harvard Forest using the Schoolyard Ecology Woolly Bully and the Hemlock Tree protocol.  Using a trend line, Tara is able to show a relationship between the number of egg sacs and the amount of new growth of  Hemlock trees.  Not surprisingly, the more egg sacs, the lower the amount of new growth is found.

Groton-Dunstable High School Teacher, Melanie McCracken, was mentored by Choate-Rosemary Hall Teacher, Joseph Scanio in working with a data visualization software, called  Tableau.  The three figures above were among the data representations they created.  While Melanie was impressed with the potential using this tool, she was disappointed to learn that it is very challenging to access it on Chromebooks, which is the hardware her students use at school.  Another teacher had hoped to participate in the Tableau session but when he found out about the issue with Chromebooks, he moved in to another break out session to work on graphing with Google Sheets.  We are finding most teachers especially in the public schools, relying solely on Google hardware and software.  This, brings up issues of who controls what students have access to in the classroom, that are beyond our control in providing professional development to teachers.  Given that limitation, there is still the possibility that these teachers could: A. Find a workaround to using Tableau on Chromebooks and B.  Develop visualizations like this on their own PCs, etc. in order to use as teaching tools that ask the students to interpret the representations rather than create graphs themselves.

Massachusetts Audubon Educator, Sally Farrow, made progress in graphing her impressive vernal pool data sets from Drumlin Farm and Concord Middle School using Excel, with the help of Dr. Betsy Colburn.  These data representations will serve as teaching tools for the hundreds of students that come to Drumlin Farm each year to participate in data collection there.  Concord Middle School students will have a new tool to better understand patterns of water level changes over time even given years of missing data using the bar graph above.

Connecticut Audubon Educator, Marge Porter, with the help of  Schoolyard Ecology Project Coach, Fiona Jevon, was able to create pie charts showing species composition of both study plots and a a bar graph  of tree diameter by individual trees over 2 years.  Marge is learning how to add data representation to the ways she coaches teachers at nearby schools in Connecticut, in participating in the Our Changing Forests project.

Williston School Teacher, Jane Lucia, was mentored by HF Research Assistant, Joshua Plisinski, and Project Ecologist, John O'Keefe, in developing this series of graphs showing how the timing of leaf drop differs by species at her site over time, using Buds, Leaves and Global Warming data.

Harvard Forest staff and Mentor Teachers supported participants in reaching their data management and representation goals as needed.

 

Ecologist, Dr. Betsy Colburn provided an Introduction for all participating teachers and then teachers broke into self designated breakout groups by experience and focus.

 HF Information Manager, Emery Boose, introduced first year teachers to the process of data input and management, using the online database he designed for HF Schoolyard Ecology.

Links to Explore More:

New This Year:

Boose, E. 2020. HF Schoolyard Carbon Biomass Reference Graph.

Snow, P., Boose, E. 2020. Buds-Leaves Online Graphing Exercises.(Draft)

Snow, P., Boose, E. 2020. Hemlock Woolly Bully Online Graphing Exercises.(Draft)

Snow, P., Boose, E. 2020. Changing Forests Online Graphing Exercises. (Draft)

Snow, P. 2020. Teacher Created Graphs 2020.pdf

Updated this Year:

Boose, E. 2020. Intro to HF Schoolyard Data Management. Presentation

Colburn, B. 2020. Intro to Data Visualization Workshop. Presentation.

Colburn, B. 2020. Show Me a Picture, Tell Me a Story; Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology Program: Level II & III Data Analysis Workshop. Presentation.

Existing Resources Used at This Year's Workshop:

Colburn, B. 2019. Data Workshop Graphing Exercises.

Snow, P. et al. 2019. Teacher Developed Graphs and More; Harvard Forest Looking at Data Workshop.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

Harvard Forest Spring Symposium; March 17, 2020  including Education panels and discussion
Phenocam Workshop for Teachers:  Northern Arizona University, March 12-14, 2020
Spring Workshop For Teachers:  April 9, 2020
Summer Institute for Teachers :  Tentatively scheduled for Aug.18 and 19, 2020.  

Samples of What You Can Create Using Tableau at Data Workshop

Choate Rosemary Hall Teacher, Joe Scanio, is ready to teach you how to use a new tool for Schoolyard Data Representation 

Introducing Tableau; A Breakout Group for Level 2 and 3 Schoolyard Teachers at Looking at Data Workshop, January 9th

Learn about the benefits for using Tableau to create  spatial representations of data as well as for bar graphs, and scatter plots.  

 Map by J. Scanio showing Our Changing Forest Field Sites: 

•   Average Stand Density by shades of blue
•   Average Carbon Biomass by size of dot

Bar Graph of Land Use Type ( Edge, Natural or unidentified) by J. Scanio

Average Carbon Biomass by Stand Density  Scatter Plot by J. Scanio

To sign up for Joe's Tableau Break out group at the upcoming Looking at Data Workshop at Harvard Forest on January 9, 2020,  email Pamela at:  psnow@fas.harvard.edu

See more of Joe Scanio's work with Tableau at:

Using Tableau and ARC GIS to represent Schoolyard Eco Data.Scanio.2019.pdf

Looking at Data Workshop Levels 2 and 3 Preview

Here's What We are Planning for the January 9th Workshop at Harvard Forest

HF Ecologist, Betsy Colburn will lead a presentation and work session to help teachers look more deeply
at their Schoolyard Ecology data.

NEW This Year!  Representing Schoolyard Data with Tableau

Choate-Rosemary Hall Teacher Joe Scanio will lead a new breakout session where teachers can practice creating visualizations of their Schoolyard Eco. data using Tableau.

Woolly Bully Teachers Will Work with Project Ecologist
David Orwig to find ways of representing HWA data.

Graphing Activity above developed by Lowell Regional Technical High School Teacher,
Tara Alcorn 

Buds, Leaves and Global Warming Project Ecologist, John O'Keefe, will be available to consult on Phenology-related questions. 

Our Changing Forests Project Coach, Fiona Jevon, will be supporting OCF teachers as needed.

 Teachers will share what they were able to produce during the data 

workshop with peers as part of this learning community.  

See examples of their work in the link below.

Links to Learn More about Level 2 and 3 Data Workshop

• Teacher Created Graphs from Last year's Workshop.pdf

• Using Tableau to Explore Schoolyard Data.Scanio.2019

• Student Buds, Leaves Graphs-Middle School-Mossman 2018.pptx

• Hand Graphing Growing Season Lesson-Mossman.2019.

What Level 2 and 3 Teachers Said about Last Year's Workshop:

• Dr. Colburn explains things so crystal clear. Every time I hear her presentation, I learn how important it is to represent the data visually.
• Good conversation and information. It would be helpful to also have the graphs she (Dr. Colburn) presented with and without the labels so we could discuss this kind of graphical analysis with our own students as well.
• It was helpful to see different types of graphs, how to interpret those graphs and data as it's been a while for me. 
• I enjoy working side by side the Harvard staff and being fully supported.

•  I came up with a series of lesson ideas that I will hopefully have time to use this year.
• I have a much better understanding of how to present data and the importance of first thinking about what it is you want to show what is the story what is the question
• More confident because I took time to prepare something I will use. Also seeing and hearing similar as well as different ideas from the other teachers and scientists!
• All staff and mentors were positive and extremely responsive

• The workshop was a great motivator and boost!
• Learned so much, became more confident in using graphs, the day flew by!
• Even with the technology issues the workshop was hugely valuable. I came with several questions and all were answered. I had a chance to speak with many teachers and staff members, networking is so important.
• Thank you for offering many opportunities for supporting teachers. The multiple workshops offered at various levels gives many opportunities for everyone to learn more, reflect on teaching activities and make contacts with colleagues
• Today seemed perfect (except for internet connection)- I really appreciated the "one-minute" teacher presentations as well as the overview by Betsy. Good availability of mentors! large block of time to work on our next graphing steps in the company of inspiring fellow teachers!

To Register:  Email Pamela Snow at psnow@fas.harvard.edu  with:

• Your name
• Name of school
• Project that you will focus on during this session
• Level you are registering for 

 Reminder that Level 2 is for completing Graphing Exercises; Level 3 is for representing data based on your individual educational goals. Level 1 is for learning overall data management process for Schoolyard Ecology data, including time to enter your project data.

Teachers in levels 2 and 3 must submit data onto the online database by December 15th.