Thanks to Well Fargo and Earthwatch for Making this all happen!

It's time for goodbyes. That is sometimes a tough thing, and in this case it leaves us feeling that some wonderful things took place here in these two weeks. We need to take this positive energy and carry it forward for years to come. The question is, were some changes made?

Do people change? We had some conversation at the dinner table one evening about how these Earthwatch expeditions can potentially change the way people view conservation and the environment and that that can spread to others. The ten of us teachers know that understanding how the natural world interacts is a powerful thing. Certainly we all came with a common goal: to do real science and learn new methods of conservation while sharing this with our students. It worked! We figured that between all of us, we Skyped/ichatted approximately 1300 students. Additionally, the blogs were read by countless more students. If the efforts of Earthwatch, Dr. Buesching and Dr. Newman, and Wells Fargo reached as many as 2000 kids, then certainly we had a successful expedition. Did you kids enjoy this experience? Was it worth it to you to have your teacher gone for two weeks doing this important work?

The question now is: What next? How do we make sure we take this foundation of knowledge and go forth in our world to make positive things happen? The answer to that is up to each of us as individuals. One person recycling doesn't amount to much. But billions of people recycling does. One person conserving and preserving our natural resources doesn't mean much to the planet. Billions of people doing it does.

It is with mixed emotions that this adventure comes to a close. It was hard to be away from my regular life. I missed my wife and daughters immensely. But we knew this opportunity shouldn't be missed. I must give a big THANK YOU to Colleen, Heather, and Hannah for supporting me on this journey. The ideals of this program fit with our lifestyle perfectly, so it made so much sense for me to go.

I want to thank Wells Fargo for funding this expedition and Jacky Smith from the Skyway, Chico branch for nominating me. It feels good to know that there are big companies out there doing their part for conservation and sustainability. We have banked with Wells Fargo for years, but while I was away, Colleen took the girls and opened a savings account! Here's a picture of them with their new account books.


I want to thank Earthwatch for doing the work they do. Providing volunteers to scientists around the globe is a challenging business no doubt. However, following their mission to create knowledge about conservation and sustainability through real world action is an honorable task. Allison (U.S.) and Caroline (U.K.) proved to be professional and knowledgeable in all they have done. Thanks for making this happen for us and making a difference on the planet, in the lives of us teachers, and the kids we are in contact with, we appreciate you.

I want to be sure to thank Dr. Chirstina Buesching and Dr. Chris Newman. They work so hard to not only collect their data and create good science, but also to be hosts to a variety of people. We are the first expedition of six this year and I hope they take some of the fun and energy and keep it going. You guys rock!

Finally, I must thank my school. Without the support of Chico Country Day School, this could never happen. This started with me talking with Mr. Weber, who immediately said, "You can't pass up this opportunity." Ms. Reece made sure the finances were in place and Mr. Massa made sure the technology was in place. I also had the good fortune of having Mrs. McNulty, Mrs. Peterson-Young, and Mr. Najera taking care of my classes while I was away. My heartfelt thanks go out to all of you!

And now, some final video and photos to wrap it all together!

We had split into two groups on Friday, but I know that these sentiments reflect all of our thinking!

The team, together, one last time in the field. This is at Keji adjunct National Park. This is a coastal area. We hiked it looking for mammals and field signs, while spending our last day together. I'm going to miss you guys!








Mr. Gasteazoro and Mr. Pembroke balance. This, of course, is the representation of the balance of life in nature. You see, there must be balance between what we use and what we gain. BFF. Roomates. Balance. It's a thing of beauty.








Stacking rocks rocks. You see, like life, there must be a foundation in what you build upon. You must then add to your experience and knowledge, but understand that the foundation isn't perfect and must sometimes be changed or added to for the most success. Metaphores for life are a thing of beauty.





And finally....you gotta feel the love....

Friday, the Last Blog....but there will be a Saturday Blog.....of course. Check it out at home.

This is me with a trap that was supposed to catch mammals but instead caught a slug. Yippee.

Hi there Wells Fargo Skyway! Thanks for the comment! I'm assuming that's you Jacky, but hello to all of you in the office! I'm having a wonderful experience and am so happy to have had this opportunity. Thank you again and very much for sending me off on this worldly adventure! Evidently there are many classrooms enjoying my blog and several Skyping with me, so many kids are able to enjoy the environmental connections.

As for any new songs? I have written a new one! It's called "The Future of our Planet is in Your Hands" Can you think of some of the things I sing about ? I'll sing it at home.

Here are some trapping items. Can you tell what they are designed to catch? We're in Nova Scotia and this isn't too far from Maine. Just thought that might help.



Flat Stanley came along! Mrs. Metz was tired of cold weather though! Miss Beeman brought him and Mrs. Metz was helping her while she was scruffing her vole that she caught. You just never know where Flat Stanley will show up.


Mr. Wolfe caught a vole today! We actually caught quite a few.
It turns out that the data shows that there has been a drop in the vole/mouse population in the last couple of years. Dr. Newman went over the statistics in class tonight after dinner. Basically, he used much of the statistics that we've used in our own class at home to calculate the number of vole, mice, and deer in the area. In a nutshell, he added up the numbers, divided by how many there were, and got the answer. Soooooo, what is the name of that number? Come on, think about statistics and the number that represent the measures of central tendency. What's the name of the one when you add up the data and divide by the number there are?

Alright now, I have a couple of new videos. Again, if you can't see them, feel free to go to youtube and search for ppembroke. You'll find them there.

Mrs. Tang and I were feeling a bit homesick in the forest. Our traps weren't catching anything and we felt that the heavy amount of water limited the amount of rodent activity. Mrs. Tang broke out in song:




Since the afternoon was time to Skype with classrooms, I went on a hike because California time is quite a lot later than the other areas. I went alone to the waterfront, and spent time thinking. This video is just a fraction of my thoughts. Enjoy.




Hi there Alyssa! Thanks for the comments. See you soon!

Now, importantly, we are making a video for tomorrow that shouldn't be missed. The trouble is, it won't be posted until tomorrow night. Therefore, you should try to see it this weekend at home. But don't worry too much, if you don't see it, we'll watch it at school.....I know people....I have the inside line, if you know what I mean.

Looking forward to seeing you all in person again....Hope you feel the same! Take care people, and thanks for watching! Mr. Pembroke

Thursday, Skype Time

Howdy all! Great talking with some of you again, and Mrs. Hardesty's third grade as well! I'm sorry I was a bit late, but we stopped in Bridgewater for groceries, so I got back a bit late. It rained all day and we all were wet. It was a challenge to be honest because we were out in the woods literally all day and it rained the whole time. No kidding. Seriously. Wetness prevailed.

We checked traps, cut some new trails, and did some trail/road maintenance. It was hard work to be honest, especially considering that it was raining.
Froggy Eggs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
J.P. asked: Who's house? Well, the two scientists that are running the studies have been working with Earthwatch for several years. They used to do studies with badgers in England and used Earthwatch volunteers then. As they moved to Nova Scotia to begin studying the mammal population here, they knew they'd have Earthwatch involved so they bought two cottages for this purpose. They built another home for themselves about ten minutes away. We have two houses here, one is the Green house and it is the central house: where we have meeting, eat, and have internet connections. The Yellow house is really just for sleeping. Some people sleep at the Green house and myself and two other men sleep at Yellow house. To be honest, Yellow is slightly creepy at night when you are alone. It's dark, usually windy outside, and the house is creeky. I have come to enjoy the house, but I kind of think it has come to like me too.

You can see that we trapped some critters today. We got two voles and a chipmunk. You can see the chipmunk in the plastic bag. We use plastic bags so we can see the critter. We always release back where the animal was caught so they are in the proper territory.

A great question was brought up by MRS. Pembroke. She said, "Honey, it's Earth Day and you're cutting down trees." You, that does seem contradictory, I would agree. However, in this case we were creating trails so the land can be used as a conservation observatory. Let's all think about the trails in upper Bidwell Park. Those trails needed to be made; cut in if you will. It was necessary to change the habitat somewhat. That being said, we want to minimize the damage, yet make it accessible. Notice that video about the hemlock forest has a boardwalk trail. That would be another example of having to make changes so that in the long run we can preserve the area. The same thing is taking place here at Cook's Lake. We are making changes for a long term conservation effort! It's all good! We love Mother Earth!

It was raining all day today. Please look at the pictures and videos to see my perseverance. Please. I did. I used the LIFESKILL of perseverance and SENSE OF HUMOR to get through the day as we did this important work.

Pictures:
Did you know that conservation sometimes includes hard labor? We were working hard in the rain today by cutting trails and digging trenches to drain the road. Notice my personal trench with my shovel.


I shot three videos today. Please enjoy them and think about what you can learn from them.

Also, I should point out that my wife tried calling me around 4:30 today, your time. Guess what, I couldn't take the call because I was in class! That's right, nearly every evening after dinner we have class. Now today's class was particularly interesting to me because it was the geologic history of Nova Scotia. Now that might sound a bit scary, but you know what? It is very similar to the geologic history of California. Alright now, here's the big question: What words did Dr. Newman use in tonight's class/lecture that I use in my teaching about how Earth is formed/shaped. Think about that now, I'd love some ideas shared on comments or during our Skyping session. That would be my dream. Dreamlike I tell you. Seriously.





Also, I'd like to welcome Mr. Holman's class up there on the hill of Paradise. Thanks for looking on! We also have some comments from Mr. Hull's class. I posted those.
Don't forget to look up! Love it! It's important.
Yes, I commented in today's blog about the need to sometimes remove or change the natural fauna through management, we here believe, as I'm sure Mr. Hull does, that it's important to be stewards of our planet, and sometimes removing a tree seem contradictory to that, but we have to think about long run health and use. Good stuff.

As for the fires changes the mammal and insect population, that is a wonderful example of how energy in Earth's systems are affected by each other and interconnected. We had a short discussion here about the increase or decrease of rodents due to fires: we feel that the population overall would likely go down this year because of lack of vegetation, but in years to come would increase because there will be a lot of low growth. There also will be open space which is bad for the little guys to hide. Finally, the shrew eats bugs, so that species will have some good eats, however the lack of safe cover is still an issue until a couple of years role on by. Naturally, as these populations change, they change the success of the critters that predate on them: hawks, snakes, etc. It's a big web of life!

Riley, no, I won't bring you Canadian bacon home. It's just ham, go get yourself some.
Savannah, the similar things to Chico aren't really that many. I would say this is VERY similar to our California coastal areas, but not so much to Chico, other than the fact that we see many of the same mammals in our area. But weather wise and terrain is mostly like California coast lines. Good Question!

Check my ppembroke videos at youtube if you like, there are some there that aren't here. Careful with youtube though, you never know about that site. It's been very helpful to us here to get our video loaded, this blog doesn't work smoothly for that stuff sometimes, but you have to be careful with content on youtube. Search for ppembroke and you'll find all of mine.

Keep doing your personal best on our state tests! Remember that the answer is on the page, just do your best to find it!~ Have a super day! Mr. P

Tuesday, April 21st EARTH DAY

Hey
there students of the world! How did testing go? I hope you are reaching deeply into your noggin and doing your absolute best to perform to the best of your ability. That's what I hope.

Today is Earth Day my friends! Please do some nice things for Mother Earth today. A little garbage pick up perhaps? Hug a tree maybe? How about singing Natural Resources?

To answer a few questions for both my students (thanks Alyssa for your concern) and Mr. Hull's students in Paradise:
My foot is feeling much better...I'm sure I just strained it after about 20 miles of hiking!
Mr. Hull's student gave a great post; I put those comments on the previous day, check it out! In a nutshell, we have learned that the ticks here aren't dangerous, and even with all the ticks on us as a team the other day, none of us got bitten. However, take a look at a picture below and notice my pants and socks. Great ideas also about how if summers are longer, we'd see a change in how the food web works, and an increase perhaps in disease, insects, and other negative changes. That being said, we are seeing an interesting change here and Dr. Newman commented yesterday that some critters try to make an early start on Spring. They get active, come out and try to feed, but then they get caught by the bad weather that moves in. This tends to weed out the weaker ones maybe, but it's a great example of animals being affected by changes that take place in climate.
We picked up owl pellets today too. We've seen many garter snakes. We know there are voles and mice. We've been counting deer and hare droppings. There are many, many coyote droppings. Could you draw a food web diagram? Of course you could. What animals are in Bidwell Park, in our food web, that I didn't mention? See, there are some differences!!

Great speaking with you kids this afternoon. I'm hoping you all are enjoying the blog, the skyping, and the fact that I'm not yelling at you all the time! Hah hah!!

I do miss you all though, as Alyssa asked. It's very nice to have a home base, it simply just feels good. This is quite an adventure here, but I'm looking forward to normal home activities....well, as normal as you might expect from me!

Here's some pictures from today:






























If those videos don't work for you at school, or whatever, just go to youtube and search for ppembroke and you'll find all of my videos. I've never used youtube before so the ones I've made are strictly related to this Earthwatch experience.

Next: Comment on the pictures.

1. Ex: Why are my pants tucked in my socks?
2. Mr. Long Voelkner and I were making some hiking trails. We were cutting some new trails and we had to cut down some big trees. We're sitting on the tree we just cut. We've used the hand saw. Earthwatch wants us using hand tools, and that is perfectly understanable. What tool would we have rather had?
3. There's a tick on a finger. That tick came off my pants. It is a wood tick. Are they a dangerous tick to humans?
4. The group is gathering in the clearing to pull a vole out of a trap. You can't see that it is raining. We're all rather damp at this point. If it rains when we have field trips, we'll go anyway. List the things that you'll want to have so you can be comfortable. And by the way, I was comfortable because I had the right gear!
5. The English Quadrat Poles really did come from England. They are a two meters in length. That's two times the meter stick I use in class all the time in the front of the room. Why are they meters and not yards?

By By.

Monday the 20th

The food is good here, but I'm always just a little hungry.
We went to Cook's Lake today. This property is a long term study site and is a mixture of grassland and woods. Interestingly, the woods aren't old growth because most of Nova Scotia was logged centuries ago. So, they create interesting habitat and opportunities to measure mammal populations and success in comparative habitat.

We learned some great things about horns and antlers and adaptations for these. You MUST see the video that Mr. Wignall has done. Skulls can teach so much, if you'll just try and watch their jaws move!

A must see:
Part One of Skulls of Knowledge
Part Two of Skulls of Knowledge


Here is a little video about the hemlock forest we hiked in yesterday:



This is a video of us in the grassland trapping grid.



The ticks were all over us yesterday. They are wood ticks, so they're not dangerous to us, it's just creepy having them on you. I'm going to wear more white today so I can see them easier when they are on me. I haven't been bitten so far!

You could help me by researching ticks a little and let me know some facts about wood ticks vs. deer ticks.

If you can't see the videos, you're missing out, so be sure to go to youtube and find them. You'll find them easily by searching for ppembroke.

Have a super day. It's supposed to rain here today, which is a bit of a bummer! Oh well, the science must go on! See ya!

Halifax/Kejimkujik

Please Enjoy!


This is me, counting hare poop. Seriously. One at a time. As a team we counted 4,811 pooplets. We collected all of these pooplets (that's my word by the way, I own it) on 3 sections (ten meter by ten meter). What was the average amount of pooplets per section? What is the area of a section?
Each of these sections is one-onehundredth of a hectare. A hectare is a 100m by 100m of land. It's about 2.2 acres. So, about how many pooplets would you expect to find on a hectare?

The weekend of wonders.

We spent yesterday in Halifax. It's a large city by a bay/inlet. I hope you like my photo next to the boat! Can you name that boat?Today we spent the day hiking around Kejimkujik National Park. This is much like our national parks, with many trails, picnic areas, and signs to read to learn new things. We went on a six mile hike. Here is a fellow teammember, Mr. Wignal standing next to a hemlock tree. These hemlocks are in an old growth area. Some of the trees were several hundred years old. This particular tree, as you can see, adapted to an situation where erosion did its part. Can you explain how erosion played a part in this odd situation?
Also, we did a lot of deer dropping counting to make predictions about the deer numbers in the park. I found a lot of poop today! Yippee. I'll tell you this much, I feel very confident in identifying various types of poop. And in the case of deer poop, I probably could get pretty close to telling you how old it is!



It's tiring to walk about 5 or 6 miles each day. I'm really not used to that. To be honest, I have a sprained foot at this point. I don't really know how I did it. I think it was on some rocks on the ocean. I don't really know. I'll tell you that I'm really, really glad I have some good hiking shoes. That was one of your points about safe hiking right? Good shoes?

Weird, I've never seen a sign like this. Tree huggers.

Hey, all you kids. All this week. Say positive things. Get good sleep. Eat healthy foods. Do your absolute best on the exams! You can do this! You are good. Remember that the correct answer is on the page. Just do your best to get the correct one!

Thursday, Porcupine Spotted!

Yippee! We saw a real live porcupine today. It was walking in a person's front yard. It was probably about 40 pounds, basically the size of a medium dog. It was cool!

We caught more small mammals, measured and released them. We'll have a data analysis tomorrow and I'll share that on Monday.

Just for fun, Mr. Wolfe, one of our team members here, was testing us with riddles. One of those riddles was this: Why are all manhole covers round?

Now at first, this seems silly post, but it is actually a geometry question. I'll leave it to you all to solve. Let us know!

Did you know that we teachers here are sharing all of our material and energy with each other. This makes it fun, interesting, and builds a sense of community that we are all sharing our learning here with all of you.

So, I'd love to see you all look at the other teachers blogs. If you go to www.earthwatch2.org/lff/buesching09_team1 then click on meet the team and begin looking at the other teachers' blogs. You've now met most of them, so that's kind of cool anyway!


As for some questions to answer.
Alyssa, I love the humor! Thanks for making me smile with your comment!

Mr. Hull's class...you are definitely on the manhole cover idea, and in fact it sounds as though you took exactly the same strategy line I did. Since you didn't blurt the answer, I went ahead and posted your comment. Thanks for your discretion. Now you have given a nice hint too

Some other questions came my way. They were no names. I probably won't post a no name, so be aware of that. I most likely won't post much in the way of particularly poor grammar. A few mistakes is acceptable. Starting with a lower case letter, missing punctuation, AND misspellings, amount to 3 major problems in what I would consider only 5 major things in a sentence. My students should know the 5 major things of a sentence. I'll tell you what, you could get your comments posted IF you tell us those 5 things, use those 5 in your sentence, AND sign it!!

You didn't know you'd get a grammar lecture!

We're having some problems posting pictures, so I'll keep trying on that. Meanwhile, you can access our Earthwatch team's community page that we are using to look at pictures and video of all of us in action. We all share this page and you'll see things that all of us have loaded up.
Get ready......wait for it.....here it comes......

Earthwatch Team Community Page

Hey, great idea just popped up! Mr. Wignall suggested this and I believe this is a super-de-duper idea! (Mr. Wignall is a teacher in Minnesota. He teaches middle school.)

1. Go to my other teammembers blogs.
2. Look around and READ stuff.
3. Think of a question that would be good to ask that teacher.
4. Tell ME your question through my blog.
5. If I think it is a standout question, I'll video tape the teacher answering YOUR question using YOUR name and I'll post that video.

Have a wonderful Friday!!!! I'm off to check traps and track poop!