Name These Trees.....

Photos submitted by Maryanne Rotelli, Hollis, N.H.

More Buds Bursting

We're starting in Belchertown.Aspen has already burst.  Red Maple is close on its heels, birch is promising, even the oaks are puffy.Crazy week ... 165 2nd graders, 40 high-schoolers and a whole mess of chaperones = one successful field trip across the street and a whole lot of happy people (except for that one case of poison ivy!)

Louise Levy

Belchertown, Ma.

Yes spring is coming to Drumlin Farm and Lowell slowly. At Drumlin Farm the Black birch has just burst and the sugar maple is very puffy in some buds and not as much in others. I have noticed at great difference among sugar maples, even those side by side!  Our box alder leafed out last week as did the silver maples in Boyce Field. In Lowell, the sugar maple at the Robinson School all buds puffy and at Freshman Academy in Down town Lowell the red maple is puffy too.

Sally Farrow

Lincoln and Lowell

Are Your Buds Bursting Yet?  

Updates from schoolyards in  New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maryland:

New Hampshire: 

• Mostly trees are beginning to flower here in Northeast Kingdom.  Norway maples and box elder are the trees that have begun puffing.  I had to take on some more trees this year because 6 were cut down!  So I now have what I think are beech trees. 

-MaryAnn Postans, Hanover,New Hampshire

• Here in Hollis, NH the red maples have budded along with the white and yellow birches, red oak and shagbark hickory are very puffy. This stand of trees gets full sunlight for most of the day as they are east facing and there are no obstructions to shade them.

-Maryanne Rotelli, Hollis, NH

 Massachusetts:

• very slow here in central mass but we're doing a tues and fri visit since it is finally warming up!

-JoAnn Mossman, Ashburnham, Ma.

• Very puffy but not out yet in Ashburnham

-Kate Bennett, Ashburnham, Ma.

• Birch leaves are out, the maple are very puffy, and the oaks are puffy.

-Melanie McCracken, Groton-Dunstable, Ma.

• As of last week, there was only one tree with buds almost ready to “pop.”I am sure that there will be more changes this week. Based upon the data from last year, we are at least two weeks behind, but we have made four observations so far. We will be doing our next observation tomorrow.

-Chuck Skillings, Holden, Ma. 

• We went out again today. The black cherry was leafed out last week. The red maple has flowered and leaves are very close! The speckled alder also has some leaves. And we have our first Tulip Poplar leaf today- tiny!

- Jane Lucia, Northampton, Ma.

•  We have been going out once a week since before Easter vacation; No buds yet! We had a couple of trees "puffy" . We will go out again this week, but it is AP testing week, so many of my students are not in classes. Also, someone decided to prune about 4 of our study trees; and they removed our tags on the rest. The branches were cut so high that we cannot even access a branch on them. : (  I may be down to 6 trees afterall is said and done.

-Carol Bruell, Chelmsford, Ma.

• only the cultivated species, the Crab apples are fully leafed out, and did so over vacation.  Cherry trees started last week, Maples, have flowered,  hawthorns and hornbeam are getting ready.

-Lise Letellier, Holyoke, Ma.

• We actually mostly missed our leaves opening - happened over break. :-(

- Kira Jewett, Holyoke, Ma.

In Springfield our birch and black cherry have burst. The sassafras has flowers but not leaves. The others range from still closed to puffy.

-Carol Rosenthal, Springfield, Ma.

• The students and I have been discussing the fact that this is the first year we didn't "miss" bud out because it happened over Easter/spring break.

-Maria Blewitt, Reading, Ma.

Maryland: 

• Here in Baltimore, we missed it! It occurred before, during and after the week of the spring break. We had multiple-day residential trips those days so we missed the opportunity. We visited the park last week and Trees are already green. However, we still have our data for fall. 

-Willy Herrera, Baltimore, Maryland

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Photo taken from: Google: Reference: Beagle Project http://www.beagleproject.org/pdf/phenophases.pdf
as found by teacher, MaryAnn Postans.

Spring Phenology-2014-Related Article

You call this spring?

Endlessly waiting for ‘leaf out,’ flowering in Boston and beyond

May 1, 2014 | Popular

By Alvin Powell, Harvard Staff Writer

After a harsh winter and an April reluctant to warm, New Englanders are keeping their eyes peeled for signs of a lasting spring. Among them is Elizabeth Wolkovich, a Harvard assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology who observes changes in trees and other plants with more than casual interest.*

* copied from the Harvard Gazette...  see the rest of the article at:

Harvard Gazette Phenology article

Overall, the sap was sweet but didn't flow all that much

 Joshua Rapp

Harvard Forest Post-Doctoral Researcher 

Sugar maples are economically important in the northeastern U.S. and adjacent Canada because of maple syrup production, and concerns exist about the viability of maple populations and the maple syrup industry under a warming climate. I am collecting long term records on sap flow and sap sugar content from across New England to understand if these records reflect the resource status of trees and whether this is correlated with variation in seed production across years. This regional study is complemented by detailed observations of sap production, flower and seed production, and pollinator populations at the Harvard Forest to investigate how stored resources and pollination limitation influence masting in sugar maple.

*Excerpt from Harvard Forest researcher profile at: 

http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/joshua-m-rapp

Museum Institute for Teaching Science (MITS)   Middle School and High School Teachers at Harvard Forest 

               

 Ecologist John O'Keefe and Schoolyard Coordinator Pamela Snow engaged the group in budburst activities and a field walk...See more at:

http://mits.org/teachers-experience-harvard-forest-mits-spring-course-science-next-generation-science-engineering-practices-across-disciplines/

Spring Workshop for Teachers-2014

  

  Spring Workshop

Sights and Insights 

 

                      

• Being able to hear from other teachers about what is working for them and what they plan on doing in the future - Thank you to JoAnn Mossman for all her ideas and help!!

Jane and JoAnn's presentations were full of ideas and activities that I will be able to immediately use with my students ... they certainly got me thinking about how to use middle school tactics to reach my reluctant students
•  Jane's activities for the database look great
• 
• ! I can't wait to try them.
• I would like to show the students the HF data and give them the opportunity to interpret it

 More comments about teacher presentations:

• Vernal pool walk and Jud's presentation Both great
• I was impressed by the High School field guide that was shown. I'm planning to follow the idea and do something for the younger students.
• Teachers sharing how they do things in the classroom and outdoors is sooo helpful and encouraging.
• Hearing all the other teachers and their approaches to similar problems was really useful.
• I also find the presentations are a super way to learn from experienced teachers. I wish I could have heard every presentation
• Teacher presentations are great. You learn so much from all levels. The idea sharing is great.
• By seeing how others tackle similar tasks gives me ideas to try and expand upon.

Comments about field walk with Project Ecologists:





Photo by Karen Murphy

• I especially appreciated being able to spend time in the field with Dr. Orwig and a small number of like-minded HWA fans. I got a lot of details cleared up about the protocol and was able to discuss research questions concerning possible ways to combat these bugs. I also found a new way to document our findings on the egg sacs





Photo by Clarisse Hart

 The forest walk was excellent. Such a great opportunity to view the forest site and have an opportunity to speak and share with everyone

• I always appreciate time with Betsy! This time we also got to spend time in the lab with her looking at invertebrates under the microscope. this was very interesting and it would be most useful to have the opportunity to spend longer doing this in the future. In addition I also very much enjoyed hearing from teachers doing the other ecology projects. I would love at some point to be able to do some of these or take bits to use with my students

Photo by Maryanne Rotelli

• Always the session with Dr. O'keefe- new information in the ppt presentation and great to walk outdoors with him. Teachers sharing how they do things in the classroom and outdoors is sooo helpful and encouraging.
• John's explanations on what to look for when collecting information on the bud burst was wonderful, especially since it is the first time doing it.
• Dr. O;Keefe's explanation of how trees and forests impact water flow and cloud cover- a great bigger picture!

Suggestions Anyone?

•  more time with Betsy and her specimens. Also visiting other vernal pools with her. She spoke of some really good ones in Leominster. Maybe it would be possible to organize a trip there with her so we can see different types of pools including ones with fairy shrimps.
• Give each presenter a set amount of time that includes Q + A.
• It would be great to have a workshop on pond creature ID.
• Time is always an issue, but trying not to overlap presentations would be the only improvement. It's hard!
• My colleagues may not like this suggestion, but I'd love to do a workshop during April break ... so that I don't have to miss school (which is always 120% as much work as being there)
•  maybe a little longer lunch time to informally connect with teachers, but not a great deal longer. I do not want to lose the other parts either!
• Keep the teacher presentations, maybe add some specific meeting time for each group to chat quickly.
• I know the weather is a challenge but I was hoping to do more outside but appreciate that we got so much information from one tree.
• Perhaps a trouble-shooting session where veteran and new teachers exchange concerns, offer practical advice, etc. outside of the formal presentations.
• Add another time for VP to look at critters under the microscope
• Possibly separating the teacher presentations but all were very interesting even if it was not about our section

What will teachers bring with them back to their Schools?

• I can now clearly find and identify the scale insects and talk about their relevance to the HWA's and pretty generally discuss just about everything involving the life cycle o these creatures.

I am looking forward to trying out my idea of using the student cell phone in order to easily document the egg sac hunt and then to count them by marking their presence on the photo of the branch.

• I have some samples of lesson plans I may adapt for my classes and more resources. I have more background knowledge on vernal pools which will be helpful in answering student questions and designing lessons. I also got useful feedback for my question for my presentation about incorporating the Next generation science standards

• We are already incorporating our vernal pool studies into our pond ecology programs but I am looking forward to including the Changing Forest and including the effects of farming on our water.
• Joann and Jane's and John's pointers have given me confidence to move forward with this project.
• Need to get those kids in the woods!

Want to see and hear more?

Here is the link to all the presentations' slides and audio per Clarisse Hart:

http://harvardforest.adobeconnect.com/p6ljgqx3ekn/

Watch and listen to them all at once or you can easily navigate to individual talks within this one file. Once the program loads, look on the left hand side of the page and click the little triangle next to “Lobby.” You’ll get a drop down menu of all the individual talks, and clicking one will take you directly to that talk.


We now have the individual talks split out as individual PDF files at: http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/schoolyard/lesson-plans  
Look for them by project theme, teacher name and year. 

 

Harvard Forest  Schoolyard Ecology Spring Teacher Workshop

Thursday, April 3, 2014

8:45 a.m.         Registration: PDP and Laptop registration

9:00 a.m.         Welcome Circle: Brief update on status of each participant’s study

9:40 a.m.         Field Walk: Break up into protocol groups with project Ecologists: John O’Keefe, David Orwig, Betsy Colburn, Ed Faison and David Foster. Walks will relate to spring project cycle/ field issues.  

Protocol Group Name	Project Ecologists
Our Changing Forests	David Foster, Edward Faison
Woolly Bully; Hemlock Woolly Adelgid	David Orwig
Vernal Pools	Betsy Colburn
Buds, Leaves and Global Warming	John O’Keefe

12:00 p.m.  Lunch- Dining Area or outside (weather dependent) 

12:30 p.m.                              Teacher Presentations

	Presentation	Location
12:30 p.m.	Challenges and Successes in Piloting the Our Changing Forests Project                              Wayne Kermenski, Mohawk Trail Regional High School	Fisher Museum
12:50 p.m.	Integrating Our Changing Forests project into H.S. Ecology Curriculum Nicholas Kostich, Oakmont High School	Fisher Museum
	Concurrent Sessions Begin. Please attend the session that best fits your educational objectives. Note the location.
1:10p.m. (concurrent session)	Tree group presentations … The Story of Our Tree  (Buds & Leaves) Louise Levy, Belchertown High School	Fisher Museum
1:10 p.m. (concurrent session)	Transitioning a 12 Year Investigation of a Vernal Pool into the Era of Next Generation Science Standards Judy Gibson, Francis Parker Charter School	Seminar Room
1:30 p.m. (concurrent session)	Exploring the Database (Buds & Leaves) Jane Lucia from the Williston School	Fisher Museum
1:30 p.m. (concurrent session)	Comparing Hemlock and Deciduous Forests; Show us the Data! (Woolly Bully: Hemlock) Karen Murphy, Amherst Regional H.S., S.E. Campus	Seminar Room
1:50 p.m.	Buds and Leaves and Real Students; Wisdom Gained and Shared                                          JoAnn Mossman, Overlook M. S.	Fisher Museum

2:10pm           Wrap Up: Tie up loose ends from the day and discuss next steps for projects.

2:30p.m.         Evaluation: We highly value your input on what worked and what didn’t this year in order for us to plan an even more successful project year next year. We ask that you bring a laptop computer in order to complete the online survey.

                       

Williston School students checking on Buds in March

Photo by Jane Lucia

Late Sap Flow-Maple Syrup Phenology

According to Harvard Forest researcher, Joshua Rapp, Maple "sap is flowing, but we are way behind this time the last couple of years at this point. This figure shows just how slow the things are going this year."  See his figures below:

Teacher Resource:  Weather Underground Climate Change Blog

Here is a really interesting climate change resource that Dr. O'Keefe told me about. I think your students would really find it engaging- hook them in with great graphics tied to very updated climate information. Great practice analyzing data graphs, maps, etc.   Dr. Jeff Master's blog is connected to  the Weather Underground website. Right now he is featuring an article about the famous Keeling curve study related to CO 2 in the atmosphere: having its funding cut...check it out at :

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html