Snow and Sleet Did Not Stop Schoolyard "Spring" Workshop  

 April 9, 2015

To see the PDFs of Teacher Presentations, visit our website at: 

Levy. 2015. Micro-directions for Buds and Leaves Related Activities.pdf

Bennett. 2015.  9 Years of "Woolly Bully" Integration In Brief

McDonald. 2015. Forest Ecology Unit- Woolly Bully.pdf

Gibson. 2015. Starting The Our Changing Forests Project-Year 1.pdf

Kostich. 2015. Changing Forests Challenges and Successes-Year 2.pdf

Gibson. 2015. Life in a Wicked Big Puddle-VP.pdf

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.

                       

Preview of Teacher Presentations

Schoolyard Ecology Spring Workshop for Teachers

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Introducing our Newest Project: Our Changing Forests

Challenges and Successes in Piloting the Our Changing Forests Project

Wayne Kermenski, from Mohawk Trail Regional High School in Shelburne Falls, will explain the new project/protocol, how he sent it up in the classroom, challenges/successes, and how he uses the research in his class.

Integrating Our Changing Forests project into H.S. Ecology Curriculum

Nicholas Kostich, from Oakmont H.S. in Ashburnham-Westminster, will share binder resources he developed, and his thoughts on long term data use within the school, as well as overall  project integration into his Ecology class' curriculum.

 



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Vernal Pool Presentation:

 Transitioning a 12 Year Investigation of a Vernal Pool into the Era of Next Generation Science Standards.

Judy Gibson,  from the Francis Parker Charter Essential School in Devens will show what can be accomplished in 12 years of leading a vernal pool project with  Middle Schoolers.  Judy will share her 6 week vernal pool unit that she has lead every two years in the spring for the past 12 years, which focuses on making observations and inferences of the pool and animals that live in it. She  will bring samples of students work and the assessment and some of logistics of how to cycle 150 students through multiple field trips to the pool.  She will discuss how she has run an after school group collecting data for the schoolyard project in the last 5 years. She will show photos and explain how this has worked. She will share some of the thinking the she and her colleagues are doing about the dilemma this year in how to adapt her unit to tie more closely to the NGSS and to start to make use of the data they have accumulated whilst still recognizing the strengths of the old unit, which has historically been one of the most popular units by students and teachers alike.
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Buds, Leaves and Global Warming Presentations: 

Buds and Leaves and Real Students; Wisdom Gained and Shared

JoAnn Mossman, Overlook Middle School teacher in Ashburnham, has gained a lot of wisdom over 6 years of leading the Buds study with her Middle Schoolers. She has offered to share it with you! Here is some of what you can expect from her: Lessons to do with the students to get them thinking about “fall,” why leaves change color and why trees lose their leaves; an article assignment, outdoor and indoor protocol practice; rubrics to go along with the different activities. This presentation is well suited for teachers who are new to the Buds protocol. It will help them get their students ready to go for the fall observations.

 

Tree group presentations … The Story of Our Tree

Louise Levy, in her 7th year of leading the Buds study at Belchertown High School will show you how she has engaged her students in communicating scientific results as part of their   There’s nothing quite like a presentation in front of the class to get high schoolers to check the quality of their work!  Louise will share the activity, the discussion, questions and worksheets that scaffold the activity for the students, and some of the work the students have done in the past.  The overarching goal is to invite the students in to the community of BLG contributors, both at BHS and the wider BLG community … to give them a sense of how their efforts fit into the project as a whole and the legacy they leave behind for next years’ students.

Exploring the Database

Jane Lucia from the Williston School will share a classroom activity she developed to help students discover the benefits of long term studies and a large database.  This activity is designed to encourage students to explore some of the cool features of the HF Schoolyard LTER resources, following  data submission.

 

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Woolly Bully; Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Presentation:

Comparing Hemlock and Deciduous Forests; Show us the Data!

Karen Murphy, Amherst Regional HS – South East Campus, teacher
will present her lesson plan for a plot study in which her students compared the ecology of a hemlock vs. a deciduous forest. The purpose was to use the scientific method to answer the question: "How will New England forests change if hemlock forests are lost to the hemlock wooly adelgid?" Karen will discuss her methods for data collection used for spider and insect abundance, understory plant abundance, soil temperature, pH, nitrogen and phosphorus levels.  She will also share journal articles used to provide background information, and describe  how her students used Excel to graph the data, and write lab reports to report their findings.