audubon pg 5 9-26-24
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- Category: Current Issue
Audubon Center at Pomfret hosts
science teacher ed workshop
POMFRET — On a glorious, sunny September day, local middle and secondary school science teachers met at Connecticut Audubon Society’s Center at Pomfret to attend a free, day-long, indoor/outdoor workshop presented by Harvard Forest staff and Connecticut Audubon Society teacher-naturalists.
Instructors introduced participants to the “Our Changing Forests” long-term ecological research project, teaching them how to establish and monitor a schoolyard plot in order to document forest change over time. This year’s participants were from Griswold, Thompson, Windham, and Woodstock.
Established in 1907, Harvard Forest is Harvard University’s 4,000-acre, field-based classroom and laboratory, located in Petersham, Mass. It has a dual mission of teaching and research. “Our Changing Forests” is designed to answer two questions. How do forests grow and change over time in response to different environments and land use? How will forest composition and growth respond to future natural and human-caused disturbances?
The Harvard Forest/Connecticut Audubon collaboration encourages the expansion of “Our Changing Forests” in Connecticut. Sarah Heminway, the director of the northeast region for the Connecticut Audubon Society, said: “Over the next couple of years, my hope is to get at least one study transect established in each town in Windham County. We currently are about halfway there.”
During the teacher workshop, hands-on training included practice in setting up a study plot, site surveying, tree measurement, plant identification, and data recording. Participants visited the Center’s two study plots. Take-home kits contained all the tools needed to launch the project at their schools.
Teachers learned how to not only implement the project but also actively engage their classes in authentic and relevant scientific research. Their students collect real data and submit it to Harvard Forest’s comprehensive phenology database. A field site survey sheet is used to record data from a plot, such as topography/physical features, forest canopy characteristics, and evidence of distinct types of disturbance. Disturbance might be as a result of forest pests, human activity, weather events, wildlife, and/or invasive plants. There was excitement about getting students outside and recognition of the value of experiential learning and citizen science. Brainstorming generated lesson ideas, including cross curricular learning opportunities.
The aim of collecting, submitting, and studying data is for students to become versed in the scientific process and develop an appreciation of the natural world. While students may not become full-fledged environmental scientists as a result of the “Our Changing Forest” project, they will become good land stewards, with the ability to analyze information as part of real-world conservation decision-making.
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