Vernal Pool Student Projects

Vernal Pool Student Projects

Concord Middle School Students worked in teams to create slide presentations about Vernal Pools as an enrichment activity related to their Schoolyard Ecology Vernal Pool project.

Teacher Tara Fernandez-Davila set the students the task of developing pages with a graph, an intro. to vernal pools, and one question of interest, using Google.docs.  See samples of their work below. Comments from Project Ecologist, Betsy Colburn and Tara F.D. are interspersed with slides. 

Notes from teacher, Tara Fernandez-Davila: 

• Students visited the vernal pool 5 times (typically) over the course of the year
• Students spent just over a week in the spring working in groups to develop the slides.  The slides include:
• An overview of vernal pools
•  A graph of the data we collected from 2011-2015 (I'd like next years' students to analyze these graphs more)
•   A food web (developed by students using vernal pool field guides)
•   A personal question of interest.  Their questions varied a lot from research-based questions to inferential questions that require long-term study.   Time constraints made it difficult for my students to spend more time in one school year, but I'm excited to have these slides as a base for future students.  

Note from Pamela Snow, Schoolyard Ecology Coordinator:

Ecologist Betsy Colburn and I discussed the fact that the food webs are trickier than one might expect because there are so many species involved and many of the species overlap multiple times in their food chain connections.  I believe it is still a worthwhile exercise as long as you make it clear to students that none of the food webs they created are totally complete or specific to the pool  you are studying as each vernal pool community would vary somewhat.  I like including this aspect in order to have students look closely at the complex way in which organisms are interrelated. Next time, students may perhaps add a note at the bottom of each food web/chain slide indicating that this diagram does not represent every organism or every interrelationship in this vernal pool community (which of course is all we can expect at this level). 

Sample Graph Slides: 

The graphs in figures 1 and 2 make a nice contrast-same set of data, very different looking results! Great examples for comparisons. 

Betsy Colburn

Project Ecologist

Comparing the graph in figure 3 with those in figures 1 and 2 above, shows how scaling on the X axis makes an enormous difference in the result! 

Betsy Colburn

Project Ecologist

This graph is nice in that it shows diameter on each date clearly, and also somewhat gets around the time-scaling problem by showing each year individually with distinct colors for the months. 

Betsy Colburn
Project Ecologist

Notes from Project Ecologist Betsy Colburn regarding graphs:

They (graphs) show very clearly how variable the pool diameter and water depths are over time in a given year, as well as how they differ from one year to the next.  Students could put a few words on the slide explaining what the graph shows (for example, do you consider that the pool depth is pretty stable, or pretty variable, during the time when it is flooded?) In relation to the line graphs, it is interesting that the patterns are not the same in the different graphs of pool diameters over the years, even though (presumably) the students used the same set of data.  And, the question of the scale used on the X axis makes a big difference. Depending on how the data are put in and  how the computer chooses to make the graph, the distances between points on the graph might not represent the relative distances in time between the sampling dates.  There are lots of things that can be done with looking at these graphs and comparing and interpreting them!  

Note from Pamela Snow:

Graphing a real data set is complex and challenging work for middle schoolers and we are very pleased to see such an array of approaches to this task.  Isn't fascinating to see how each group of students approached the work so differently?  In talking with Betsy Colburn, we decided that these graphs provide an exciting learning opportunity.  We have chosen not to provide specific corrections/edits to any of the graphs here, but instead encourage teachers to  encourage a class/group discussions between students and teachers, to see if issues re: accuracy or the ways in which types of  graphs or the way they have been displayed might enhance or take away from the ability to effectively interpret the data.  Having this set of graphs available for the entire class to look at perhaps next year, and think about which one(s) they think most effectively tell the story of what was happening with water levels/diameters at this pool is a wonderful teaching resource.  I could imagine some rich discussions and learning coming from this. I agree with Betsy's recommendation to add a short description of what students think the graph is showing next year. 

Some broad issues to consider as represented in the set of graphs above and in the larger collection on our website:

• Are the axes labelled?
• Is the reader able to clearly see the information in the graph?  We saw issues with the axes here. Many of the dates on the x axis on these slides appeared too small to read even when expanded to maximum size the blog would allow.  
• Look at the scale of the time axis to see if it properly reflects the time between observations. 
• If choosing a line graph, remember to remove the lines connecting long time periods such as the winter. Lines in areas where data was not actually recorded can show relationships between data points that don't actually exist.  
• Often bar graphs are a better choice for data sets such as this one that have long stretches of time (between Nov. and May) with no data.  
• Graph type such as a pie graph would not make sense given the particular story about water depth and diameter students are telling with this study.
  

After Slides were Completed: 

I had my students do a peer review of the slides today to gather information from each other.  It has been a great process so far, but as a first attempt, I hope Betsy will understand the simplicity of their analysis.   I think these slides will serve as a great starting point for students to study next year because now they will have some resources to launch from for further/ deeper investigation.  Exciting!

-Tara Fernandez-Davila

General Comments From Betsy Colburn on Student Work:  

Tara, I am impressed by the multiple years of data and the results of the measurements, as well as the broad scope of the biological/ecological investigations you have your students carrying out. It is clear that the students are deeply engaged in these studies, and I hope you are finding them useful in meeting some of your goals as an educator. Do you find that having several years’ worth of data on water depths and pool diameters helps you and your students in interpreting what you see going on, biologically, in the pools? It will be interesting if, as you suggest, next year’s class looks more at the data and the year-to-year (and within year) variations in depths and diameters!

I enjoyed going through the slide shows the students prepared. Most of these slides are well laid out and easy to read, with good, clear text. Most of the photographs do a very good job of accompanying and illustrating the written information. 

Some of the slides would benefit from having the sources of information cited on them; others do have the sources right there. I think this is preferable to having the sources cited at the end of the slides, in the case of scientific/biological information. On the other hand, the description by Aaron, Adam, Josh and Garrett in the last slide of their slideshow, summarizing how they obtained their data (primarily from field work at the vernal pool), was useful for clarifying that their reports were largely self-generated, as opposed to having come from online research.

I enjoyed seeing what the students observed, and learning how they interpreted their field measurements. Great slide show! Thanks, Betsy

Wow!  What rich learning you students and teachers  are sharing with us. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for letting us get a peek at your good work!

To Learn More: 

• See ALL of the Slides developed by Concord Middle School students on our website atthe link below. Scroll down to the vernal pool section under "Fernandez-Davila": 

http:// Student Work Samples; Vernal Pool Slides

• See the field site location and data from Concord Middle School and our other vernal pool partner schools at:  https://maps.google.Vernal Pool sites and data

• See more about the Harvard Forest LTER Vernal Pool study at: http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/water-landscape-vernal-pools

If any other teachers have student work, photos, comments to share send them along to me at psnow@fas.harvard.edu

Award Winner: Sharon McDonald, Athol High School

 Schoolyard Teacher, Sharon McDonald, Twice Awarded  

Sharon was nominated by her school principal for one award, and by her students for another.  She is pictured below holding the Award  for Excellence in Environmental Education by the Commonwealth of Mass.   See the photo and article posted in the Athol Daily News on May 22nd. 

RECOGNIZED -- Athol High School teacher Sharon McDonald was honored at the May 20 meeting of the Athol-Royalston Regional School Committee with the Secretary's Award for Excellence in Energy and Environmental Education by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. McDonald was recognized for her work with students at AHS in environmental science and the Environmental Club. 

Left to right -- AHS Principal Steven Meyer, who submitted McDonald's name for the award, AHS Science, Technology, Engineering and Math teacher Jeff Weston, McDonald, and ARRSD Superintendent of Schools Anthony Polito.Photo by Keith Kent *

Sharon was also recognized by the Athol High School Honor Society at Athol H.S.  Unfortunately, we have not yet accessed a photo or any formal write-ups from that event.  Stay tuned for that...

Highlights of Sharon's work at Athol High School :

• Excellent overall science teaching in biology and environmental science 
• Advisor for the Environmental Club  
• Led a "Trash Ball"; Dance in which students dance in "upcycled" attire made from trash.
• Organized a school-wide  environmental fair for Earth Day
• Worked with an outside agency to provide opportunites for students to travel to Central America to engage in ecological research.
• Led 2 Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology projects: Vernal Pool and Our Changing Forests. 

Athol H.S. Principal Meyer sums up Sharon's work as follows:  

Ms. McDonald is able to deliver a message to students that goes far beyond the classroom and truly impacts the way they view the world.

* Excerpt from the Athol Daily News, May, 22, 2015

Schools Tracking the Woolly Bully-2015

Schools Tracking  the Woolly Bully at field site and field trip

Students from Amherst Regional High School and the MacDuffie School look near and far to find traces of the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid and its impact on our forests.

Amherst Regional High School South Campus students took an up-close look at some mysterious tiny creatures they discovered while searching for the Woolly Adelgid at their schoolyard field site. 

Photos by Alex Walsh

Here are some pictures a student took when we were looking at a woolly hemlock branch under the microscope.  These look like spiders.  We noticed a lot of web-like material in addition to the egg sacs.

Karen MurphyAmherst H.S. South Campus Teacher

Response from Project Ecologist, Dr. David Orwig:

Great pictures of spider mites, which are very common on hemlock branches, and why you observed web-like material.
_____________________________________________________________________________

To learn More about the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid and its Impact on our Hemlock forests:  

See location and data for these schools and others who are tracking the presence of the invasive insect, The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid on our interactive field site map at: 
Woolly Bully sitemap-datalink

View a short video clip about hemlock trees today at:  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGk-VBRDwwo#t=96

See more about the Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology Woolly Bully Project open to any school at: http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/woolly-bully-invasive-pest-hemlock-woolly-adelgid

See the recent book about Hemlock written by Harvard Forest ecologists, at:  Hemlock; A Forest Giant On the Edge

Overlook Middle School Teacher Awarded for Excellence

Teacher, JoAnn Mossman, Awarded for Excellence in Environmental Education

Joann Mossman receiving award from Matthew A. Beaton, Secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Awards at the Massachusetts State House on May 11, 2015

JoAnn was one of 6 teachers in the state to win "First Honors". Read about her impressive work below:

JoAnn does not only tackle environmental education via one or two events or class sessions or by engaging in only one aspect of natural science.  Instead, she partners with local nonprofit organizations and brings her own personal passions to bear in order to engage students in ongoing, long term projects that allow them to go deeper and deeper in their learning process over time. She not only engages students who are academically advanced, but she provides detailed scaffolding to support all levels of learners.  Her lesson plans and activities are well thought out and detailed, addressing all kinds of learning styles as well as National and State Science frameworks. 

JoAnn involves her students in hands-on ecological and agricultural studies all in walking distance to their school.  She and her students participate in a field study called “Buds, Leaves, and Global Warming” looking at how the local growing season of native trees changes over time.  With her leadership, the Overlook School has contributed five years of fall and spring leaf fall and budburst data to the online database that serves an entire network of schools in Massachusetts.   From there, students have been able to download and graph their data, looking for patterns or trends in the length of the growing season.  Along the way, they have learned about identification characteristics and seasonal changes in their own adopted trees. 

JoAnn’s students also get down and dirty as participants in a school garden program.  JoAnn led a group of teachers in writing a grant to their local educational foundation (The Ashburnham-Westminster Foundation for Academic Excellence) to get the funds to build a school garden. Work on developing the garden included involving students in engineering design activities to clear the area and build and install 4 cedar raised bed gardens. The first year JoAnn had the students research native pollinators (bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds), their decreasing population #s and the foods they need at the different phases in their lives. They then researched the plants these pollinators require and came up with a list of the ones that will thrive in their zone in Ashburnham. They then went to the staff for donations, received a bunch, planted and now care for the two beds for the pollinators. Later classes have done population counts and replaced plants that didn't make it.

JoAnn also sets up a worm composting bin in the classroom that her class uses for open inquiry lessons. It ties in with articles from Mother Earth News and Organic Gardening, regarding the severe lack of viable topsoil the world has to grow all the food it needs to sustain all of the living organisms on it. By using the classroom composter they see how easy it is to "make" compost and think about what if every one of the 7 billion humans put just one handful of new topsoil (compost) into the environment? She is trying to get the students NOT to be overwhelmed by the huge problems of the world's environment but to see if everyone did one small action to help.

As if studying the ecology of trees, complete with data management;  writing a grant; building a school garden with worm composting were not enough, JoAnn and her teammate created a computer course called "Researching Your Environment" in which students choose their research topic from a number of native plant and animal species who are listed as endangered or threatened. They research the organism, the reasons why they are endangered or threatened (mostly human impact: habitat loss, pollution, etc.), and come up with some solutions to help the organism better survive. Along with their solutions, students have to come up with both positive and negative implications for their ideas. The students really get into it; they create Microsoft brochures and PowerPoint projects to see how different information can be conveyed in different ways.

     

JoAnn takes a leadership role in all of these ongoing projects.  She is called on by both Harvard Forest and MAC to mentor other teachers as a presenter at workshops, as well as a contributor of lesson plans and learning resources that all teachers can access.  JoAnn has taken the Mass Agriculture in the Classroom (MAC) graduate course for the past 3 summers visiting a number of different farms all over Massachusetts She hosted one of the MAC workshop days at her family’s 96 acre tree farm/ 4 acre- vegetable, fruit and perennial garden. She has been invited to present her worm composting lesson at additional MAC workshops. She has presented at several spring workshops for teachers at Harvard Forest as well as mentored new teachers at the Schoolyard Ecology Summer Institute. The quality of her presentations and the resources she generously shares is really makes JoAnn stand out.   

According to JoAnn, her primary motive driving all of this work is “getting kids to see what is right in front of them and right around them here in New England, and how their actions, both positive and negative, can make such an impact...it is so important to me.”   In other words she would like them to learn to take civic responsibility through individual choices and actions drawn from knowledge gained through their multifaceted education at Overlook Middle School. 

Senator Anne Gobi personally commended JoAnn for her achievement.  The senator provided a guided tour of the State House after JoAnn received her award in the Great Hall. 

Student Samples- Growing Season Graphs and Conclusions

Holyoke Catholic Ninth Grade Student Graphs and Data Analysis from the Buds, Leaves and Global Warming study from 2012-2014

This series of graphs, result statements, and conclusions were created by HCHS H.S. freshman led by Schoolyard Teacher, Lise Letellier.   

I am posting these samples with comments from Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology project ecologist, Dr. John O'Keefe to serve as models for other schools implementing schoolyard projects. These students worked hard practicing graphing real data collected at their field sites, and trying to analyze the data and form conclusions about it. 

Note From Harvard Forest Project Ecologist, Dr. John O'Keefe:

Hannah, check data for tree HO-7 in 2012-It looks very late.

Notes for Hannah from project ecologist, Dr. John O'Keefe:  

• Title of the graph should be Growing Season by "Species"-same word for singular and plural. 
•  Growing season by tree generally is quite variable with little consistent pattern
• Most species had a long growing season in 2013 esp. Exotic Cherries (EC) and red maples (RM).  
• 2012 and 2014 were generally shorter with 2012 shortest in hornbeam (HO) and red maple (RM).
• Hard to say much with only 3 years ( and only 2 for some species and individuals) of data.
• Differences might be obvious if the scale ranges were reduced , i.e. Julian Date budburst 80-160 rather than 0-160. Even more relevant for leaf fall, i.e. 250-350 rather than 0-400.  

 Note to Claire From Project Ecologist, Dr. John O'Keefe:

Budbreak 2012 was the earliest year.  Check data for tree HO-7.  
2013 was intermediate and 2014 was the latest. 

Notes to Claire from Project Ecologist, Dr. John O'Keefe:

• Leaf Fall : Tree EC-10 has the earliest leaf fall, but there was little pattern across years. Generally exotic cherries (EC) had early leaf fall and hornbeams (HO) had late leaf fall. 
• Growing Season: Generally 2012 was longest and 2014 shortest but not for all individuals.
• Analysis by Species:  Hard to say much here with only 3 of the study's species having all years worth of data.  

Thanks so much to Claire, Hannah, and Lise for sharing this important work!!!

We so much appreciate the depth of the work you are doing in Holyoke, and very much hope that it serves as a model for other schools.  

We invite other schools to send us comments about these models or samples of student work, lesson plans, resources or photos from their schools by emailing to psnow@fas.harvard.edu

In Memory of a Harvard Forest Schoolyard Teacher and Mentor; Bill Van Valkenburg

 Bill Van Valkenburg's Obituary is available online at:  http://www.Van Valk Obit

Return to the Pools

Spring 2015 Vernal Pool Updates from the Field