Schoolyard Ecology Teachers and Students Explore the New England Landscape Using NELF online Scenarios tool

Trying Out The New England Landscape Futures Explorer 

Day 2 Our Changing Forests Schoolyard Eco Summer Institute for Teachers 

Digging Deeper into engaging students in exploring possibilities of what our future landscape will look like

 Josh Plisinski from Harvard Forest's Future Scenarios Research team shared an overview

 of the New England Landscape Futures (NELF) online tool that allows users to see possible

 future change in our landscape based on four possible scenarios.

Three Our Changing Forests project teachers were awarded Schoolyard Ecology mini grants* to develop, pilot and present educational activities that integrate the NELF tool into classroom activities designed for Schoolyard Ecology students participating in the Changing Forests field activities led by Harvard Forest Ecology and Education teams.  

These presentations attracted a wide audience 

of both new and experienced Changing Forest teachers, who are considering what of this

educational content they might be able to use

 in their own classrooms.   

Educators in the audience had a chance to try out the new activities at the workshop. 

 

Links to New England Landscape Futures Resources:

Landscape Future-Scenarios Research at Harvard Forest

New England Landscapes Explorer online tool:

NELF Story Map

 More Resources and Video about how to use NELF Explorer

New teachers to the OCF project
were able to learn how to interpret
the laminated land cover change map series they were provided to help students see how the
landscape at their schools and towns changed
since 1985.

Harvard Forest staff were able to help mentor educators as they
played with the NELF tool to complete the teacher-developed
activities.

What Teachers Said was Most Valuable:

The NELF software and its functionalities was the greatest take away. The envirothon kids will be able to use this tool most effectively in the immediate school year. 

The NELF tool is very exciting. I hope to teach others in my field about it and use it to structure the way we think about conservation and education! 

exciting use of technology and application 


Using NELF Explorer to study landscape changes over time 

Being able to receive the lessons to edit ourselves. 

As my first time diving into NELF, I see how to use this with my classes ... Teacher lessons! 

How to specifically use the NELFS with my 7th graders to graph and visualize possible scenarios for influencing their future 

different approaches to using known tools and introduction of new tools 

Networking with like-minded teachers and having the chance to brainstorm how to implement this tool- and others! 

New resources, NELF, ArcGIS, Tableau See teacher presentations using this information 

How to use NELF explorer in the context of the classroom, how to use data to show how forests are changing 

Links to Teacher-Developed Education Activities using NELF Explorer: 

Lesson Plan and Related Documents by Joe Scanio, Choate-Rosemary Hall School:

 

• Lesson Plan NELF Explorer Tool.2019.Scanio. pdf

• NELF Explorerer Class Handout.2019.Scanio.pdf

• NELF Explorer Graphs-2019.Scanio.png

• NELF Data-Quinnipiac Watershed.2019.Scaniopdf

• NELF Explorer Student Images.2019.Scanio.pdf

Lesson Plan by Jeff Sautter, Athol-Royalston Middle School 

• New England Landscape (NELF) Data Activity Lesson Plan.2019.Sautter

Lesson Plan and Handouts by Tara Alcorn, Greater Lowell Technical High School 

• New England Landscape Town Meeting Lesson Plan.2019.Alcorn.pdf

• NELF Town Meeting Lesson Handouts.2019.Alcorn.pdf

Changing Forests Land Cover Change Maps: 

• Schoolyard and Related Towns Land Use Change Maps

* Funding for the Our Changing Forests Mini Grants for Teachers was provided by the Highstead Foundation

Welcome New Schoolyard Teachers!

Harvard Forest Summer Institute 2019

Our Changing Forests Project Coach, Fiona Jevon, led a new group of teachers in practicing field site setup and data collection

 

Teachers got a chance to try out measuring and marking out 10x10 meter study plots. 

Belchertown High School Teacher, Louise Levy, shared her experience leading the Our Changing Forests project with teachers trying out this project for the first time.

Harvard Forest Ecologist, David Orwig, provided background information indoors, and brought teachers out to see the impact the tiny Hemlock Woolly Adelgid is having on Hemlock trees, one of Massachusetts forests'  foundation  species. 

Woolly Bully and the Hemlock, Project Teachers explored a large forest stand of Hemlock trees that is in decline due to the Woolly Adelgid infestation that is impacting much of the eastern U.S. forests.

J.R. Briggs Elementary Teacher, Kate Bennett, shared her 15 years of Woolly Bully project experience with new Schoolyard Teachers.

Buds, Leaves and Global Warming Project Ecologist, John O'Keefe, showed long term trends of the timing of budburst and leaf drop, in order to help teachers understand how warming temperatures are impacting the length of the growing season.

 Dr. O'Keefe shared graphs of his 29 year study at Harvard Forest.

Teachers practiced labelling trees for field study that they will set up at their school sites.
Overlook Middle School Teacher, JoAnn Mossman, left and above, mentored teachers who will be starting this project in September.

  

Hanover High School (NH), Maryann Postans also helped mentor new teachers in the field above.

Harvard Forest Information Manager, Emery Boose, worked with a small group of experienced Schoolyard Eco. teachers to support management of Schoolyard Eco. data.

Survey Says....

Teachers said....

Not only do I feel that I thoroughly learned the protocol, but I also got some excellent suggestions for classroom implementation.

Ecological background knowledge for me is key. I learned a lot from Orwig and others.

This time I was focused on techniques and strategies to improve the process.

I did not know much about trees, I learned a lot!

My ecology background was rusty, and this workshop got me up to speed.

My educational focus has been earth science. I learned a lot about trees and the interaction between the atmosphere and biosphere. So much more to learn!

Outstanding job explaining the science and classroom application of the lessons.

Wonderfully flexible, finding time and space for me to upload my school's data. 

I'm confident that I can set up a plot. 

This has improved so much over the years! 

Today's itinerary seemed like it worked a lot better for getting in sharing between individuals/small groups 

This is the only time my students are outside during their school day.

The buds study relates to their noticing of everyday life

 doesn't last just one class period. I think the longevity of this study is eye-opening.

That the information is being reported to "real scientists" means that students more fully buy in

They (students)will actually be doing the practices (scientific practices as outlined in NGSS and Mass. Frameworks), rather than talking about them in class.

We will be able to set up study sites at Wildlands struts properties and engage students in environmental learning for years to come.

Emery helped me realize why some graphs have dots and why some have lines. John O'Keefe answered a lot of questions from red/black oak to why a graph of growing season might be varied. 

I  told teachers from other schools about this workshop but they were unable to attend because they had already started school. Maybe have the workshop a little earlier. 

I think the date of which the workshop is offered may be challenging for teachers to attend (more and more schools are starting earlier) but I understand why it needs to be where it is. 

I loved every minute of this training. I hope to work out the logistics to get it off the ground.

What did Teachers Value Most? 

How to identify a hemlock tree, how to implement the study in a more complete manner and practical suggestions from a teacher in the field for its implementation.

Learning about the big picture - interaction between the atmosphere and biosphere. Identifying trees and how they change over the course of the year. Adapting the program to support elementary students. (Thanks Joann!)

Having more confidence for downloading and graphing the data. It was helpful to have the lessons being done at Belchertown High School as a model for what I can do with my students at my site

Getting an opportunity to work with an ecologist and ask questions

Links to Ecologists' and Mentor Teacher presentations

Summer Institute Buds-Leaves Scientist Presentation-2019.O'Keefe.pdf

Summer Institute Woolly Bully Project Scientist Presentation.2019.Orwig.pdf

Summer Institute Changing Forests Scientist Presentation-2019. Jevon.pdf

Buds and Leaves Mentor Teacher Presentation. 2019.Mossman.pdf

Woolly Bully and the Hemlock Mentor Teacher Presentation. 2019. Bennett.pdf

Our Changing Forests Mentor Teacher Presentation-Summer 2019.Levy.pdf

• Review of Day 2 of the Our Changing Forests Summer Institute

Thanks to Clarisse Hart for her excellent photo documentation of this workshop! 

Data Workshop in Review

18 Educators from Mass., Vermont and New Hampshire, gathered at Harvard Forest  on December 15, 2016 to  learn how to work with Schoolyard Ecology Data

Dr. Betsy Colburn Introduced Looking at Data 

• It was great to hear where other people are with citizen science and to see that I have done some good work and that I have great areas for expansion of all of this too. I liked looking at examples of graphs with Dr. Colburn and talking about how we all interpret them. .

• It created a great mindset for the importance of data and the stories they can tell.

• It is always wonderful to learn something new that you can use immediately. And I liked how some of the participants talked about data being a story. I will use that in my practice.

• Just seeing other ways of presenting the data helps me bust out of my fixed point or line-scatter plots

 Dr. Emery Boose introduced beginning Schoolyard Teachers to Data Management and Input

•  Dr. Boose did a wonderful job starting from the beginning and being very patient and clear.

• I especially enjoyed the importance placed on making copies and keeping track of metadata. This is an important step to stress with students as well.

• I wish could have started entering data sooner in the day.

• Needed more time working with my data.

Harvard Forest Staff  Mentored Teachers in Working with Project Data 

•  I was supported fully.
• It was very nice to have such experts on hand.
• Thank you for having so many ready to help out!!!!
• We had a great time together.
• Matthew was terrific helping us interpret our own pond data and instructed us on using pivot tables to create graphs. Excellent!
• All were incredible patient in giving us the tools to communicate science effectively to our students.
• Everyone is sweet, kind , responsive and professional.

• I learn best by hearing, seeing, doing, messing up, fixing and shouting "yeah!"

• It helps me to see the exercise being done and to walk through it with a mentor helps be understand the process.

• It was very valuable to have time to "do the work".

• I was happy to have time to work on google docs and google sheets. I identified that I definitely need more practice manipulating data in this way.

----------------

• Today was very helpful since I practiced making graphs on excel and really did not know how to do that before today. I also worked with my own data and that was very helpful to work on making graphs that can help my students interpret the data from our school.

• boy, did I ever graph!

• I was able to get wonderful guidance entering my data and beginning to use the graphing tools on the websites. I simply ran out of time and would have loved to ask more question about graphing.

• I enjoyed hearing about the different graphing techniques and seeing the presentations from Betsy and Emery. I also enjoyed talking and sharing with other teachers over lunch.

• I tackled Google sheets for the first time - and had it crying "Uncle!"

• I never did this before so the practice was so helpful

• It was great to have time to do this work not isolated at school but in a community of like minded teachers and expert ecologists. In addition, I am very grateful for the ecologists taking the time to patiently explain.

• I have realized how much I need to learn about working on google sheets. This is a good thing, especially because this is the spreadsheet system available to students at my school and I am glad to know I need more practice before I introduce it to them.

• we already are, we will continue. They will presenting the story of their tree to their classmates next week!

• I think I will certainly show them graphs and other representations of the data. I'm not sure I will have them analyze data this year.

Related Links

Emery Boose Data Workshop Level I Presentation .pdf  2016 Data Management, Data Entry Intro.

Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology Database  to download or graph project data. 

Fall Phenology Summary and Graphs 2016.pdf . Dr. John O'Keefe's updated Phenology graphs.

Coming Soon

Later this winter, look for updates to our:

Dr. Betsy Colburn's Updated Looking at Data  Presentations

Schoolyard Ecology Field Site Map

Branch To Tree Level Data Conversion Sheet

Compilation of Teacher-Created Graphs from 2016 Data Workshop

Schoolyard Ecology Data Synthesis for the Buds, Leaves and Global Warming Project

Announcement of Spring Workshop for Teachers

The Our Changing Forests Schoolyard Ecology Project Is Growing

New Beginnings for the Our Changing Forests Project

With an expanded online database and project coach on board, a new group of teachers participated in a 2 day Our Changing Forests Schoolyard Ecology Summer Institute at Harvard Forest.

After spending 2 days at Harvard Forest learning from experts such as project ecologist, Joshua Rapp and author, Tom Wessels, teachers are beginning to bring students out to monitor their study plots in woodlands throughout Massachusetts.   Students in grades 6-12, from as far southeast as Middleborough and as far northwest as Charlemont  will be joining forces to paint a picture of our region's changing forests.

Ecologist, Joshua Rapp introduced the Our Changing Forests Protocol and driving scientific questions to teachers in the Fisher Museum

 A cow in this wooded pasture was a great window into how historic land use has impacted the New England landscape we see today.

Ecologist Josh Rapp showed examples of Wildlife sign such as these woodpecker holes that can be reported on the site survey data included on the Harvard Forest online database.

The group looked at an example of beech bark disease
 as an example of pathogens to be reported on the
 site survey.

Teachers practiced measuring 

diameter at breast height.

Teachers practiced aligning plot lines with cardinal directions using a compass. 

Tree diameter and Species I.D. are among the data students will be collecting in order to monitor species composition, density, carbon biomass storage, etc. of their local woodlands.

        

 
Each teacher had an opportunity to participate in practicing setting up study plots in small groups,
with assistance from project staff.

What Teachers said about Day 1 of the Our Changing Forests 

Summer Institute:

•  I am very excited by all the aspects of this research with regards to my curriculum.

• Interacting with ecologists and colleagues interested in the same topics has given me suggestions for activities that I can implement in the classroom in addition to the Changing Forests program.

•  I appreciate that every opportunity was taken by the staff to give us the most pertinent information in order to get started.

• I am looking forward to using the many opportunities for students to experience real world science practice with all of its challenges and pleasures.

• I love that you already have identified the new MA ST/E standards that connect to this project

•  I think it is great that Carrie (Project coach) will be available as I think that having that help will be useful as we start off. 

• A much more finely honed sense of how to frame the project for my students, and how to integrate the Changing Forests project into my curriculum, and how to flex my curriculum to be inspired by the project!

• The ability to set up a plot and the confidence to have my students identify and track the trees in the area. I feel confident that I understand what is asked of the program and that my students will enjoy the process of being out in the field.

• The ability to set up a plot for a field study and the tools necessary to accomplish that.

• All 3 parts were valuable, the background knowledge, practicing the protocol and looking at the database.

• Participation in a LTER (Long Term Ecological Research site).

Reading the Forested Landscape with Tom Wessels

Day 2 of the Summer Institute for Teachers was spent immersed in interpreting the Forest with author and Professor Emeritus, Tom Wessels

Teachers were busy writing notes at each of the 

many stops in the forest.  

Teachers told us what they appreciated about their time with Tom Wessels

All participating teachers rated their time with Tom Wessels as "Extremely Useful".

• Exploring forests gives you an infinite subject for study. I love the idea of land-use history as a mystery that we can solve, in this case using Forest Forensics

• Hints on what to key in to when determining previous use of the land.

• EVERYTHING!!! I learned so much in that session!

• The talk of land use over time and how the species all interact, no species lives independent of others

• Better able to identify trees and more knowledgeable about their characteristics. Understanding land design and history. 

• The skills, equipment and access to knowledge and support to create a meaningful field research experience for my students.

• Split the plot into 4's. Use Oliver for land use through time. Changing Forests protocol may be discrete, localized data collection, but the opportunities to branch out (changing climate, land-use planning, biodiversity, etc.) are infinite!

• I appreciated the emphasis on observation skills and the intelligence of the trees which we can use to build upon the data collection and analysis

• Confidence that I can teach children about our changing forests.

 

Teachers are now set to begin marking study plots and  engaging their students in collecting forest data tracking change over time in their local woodlands. Project Coach, Carey Lang, is visiting school based field sites this fall to help teachers get started.  We look forward to supporting these citizen scientists throughout this school-year and hope that  we will be working with these schools for years to come.

The expansion of our outreach capacity for this project is made possible with support from the Highstead Foundation in addition to ongoing support from the National Science Foundation's Long Term Ecological Research program and other private funders.  

Learn More about the Our Changing Forests Schoolyard Ecology Project:

• Northshore Magazine Article featuring this project:  :http://www.nshoremag.com/September-2016/student-scientists
• Project Protocols and Resources: Our Changing Forests Webpages
• Online database: Harvard Forest Schoolyard Database