Journal #15 The End of the Expedition

( Our last photo before we head our separate ways)



This will be my last journal entry for the expedition. I will still take questions from students and post the answers to the questions online, so all students should still complete all of the challenges. I will be back in the office on Wednesday so all students should be working on their reading packets when they are finished with challenges. Reading packets are due on Wednesday.

The last few days of the expedition were about collecting more caterpillars and identifying the types of caterpillars. We also took all of the caterpillars back to Tulane University where a student there will be in charge of them from here on out until they become adults. Once they are adults if the species is known they will release the adults if they are not parasitized and if the species is not known they will preserve the species.

I have mixed emotions about the expedition ending and about the expedition in its entirety. I enjoyed my time learning about Louisiana. The forest/swamp area of Louisiana reminded me of the everglades and the everglades is one of the most pristine environments. I am inspired by how New Orleans is rebuilding after Katrina and if you went there today you can't really tell how the Hurricane ravaged the city. Though I heard enough stories and to be honest New Orleans is still very unsafe and I can tell the stories to prove it.

My goal for this expedition was to inspire my students and let them know that they can do these things, to strengthen their connections to nature through me. I realize now that this goal would have only been fulfilled if they were with me. I also realize that if my students were with me they may have thought the whole expedition to be very tedious. We did sixteen surveys for caterpillars, even I was starting to think the whole process was tedious. This is different from who I am as a teacher in class. I want to inspire my students to be excited about science and heightened their desire for learning and for knowing more. I think my students enjoyed using the technology and this is probably the most valuable lesson from this expedition. Technology goes across the curriculum and this is the most valuable lesson for our students. If our students can submit assignments online, learn and comprehend through blog entries, they are on their way to succeeding in the workplace tomorrow. This is only one piece because my goal is to teach the students throughout the school year that the technology piece is one thing, but there are still books to read, and lessons to be learned without a computer or video camera in tow. For example our core values would certainly be lost if I was communicating everyday through skype.


I am glad to be home and every time I would skype with the students I would walk away when we were done and realized how much I missed them. It was interesting to see how other teachers teach their students as I was living with 6 other teachers during my stay in Louisiana. I would try to explain how special Girard is but I'm not really sure any of them can understand the magnitude of how wonderful the students are and why Girard is such a special place. If I have learned nothing on this expedition but to realize how lucky I am to professionally and privately then I deem it a true success.

Above is the English piece, the next part is the mathematics piece. For those interested in the numbers:

Our team:

*collected, photographed, identified, logged-in and cared for a total of 559 individual specimens (caterpillars) from plots and general collections in the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area.

*identified caterpillars from at least 12 different families of Lepidoptera

*completed 16 plots (which equates to leaf and herbivory estimations, and caterpillar collections on all plants in 1,256 square meters of dense, snake-, alligator-, hog-, chigger-, poison ivy- and mosquito-infested bottomland hardwood forest!)

***In addition Mrs. Lewis organized over 7,000 caterpillar photos and created a photo database and now has about fifteen fire ant bites!


Below is the photo of the bunkhouse. This is where I stayed with 9 other people and 1 bathroom. We slept, worked, and ate in this room.

The photo below is called the caterpillar rearing rack. This is where the caterpillars we collected lived.




















This is good photograph showing you how small the caterpillars really are.

More Questions from the Students

Qadirah and Tamarah asked:

1. Do you like the food there?

Mrs. Lewis' answer:

Hi Girls! I think the food here is an acquired taste. Most of the food is fried food which I wasn't used to eating too much before I got here. Most of the time my bunkmates cooked. The food there was ok, I'm used to eating food with a lot of spices and the food at the bunkhouse wasn't very spicey. A few times we went out to dinner in New Orleans at fancy restaurants. Some of my teammates had some very weird food like rabbit for dinner. Alligator was also very common. They actually hunt alligator here.

I pretty much stayed with the vegetarian options or the stuff that I was used to eating. I unfortunately was not very adventurous with food.

Thanks for the questions! I also have to answer your caterpillar one because its a good one. Miss you guys.

Student Questions And Answers

Tommy Eldridge and Micheal Hill asked:

1. Did I see any caterpillars with spikes?

Mrs. Lewis' Answer:

We did find some caterpillars with spikes. There was a caterpillar called the spiny oak . This is also in the stinging caterpillar family so it is not wise to touch it much. But it is very cool looking.

Challenge #13 Ask Away Because I Miss You

I have asked you a ton of questions, now it is your turn.

1. Ask me some questions about my trip
2. Ask me a caterpillar specific questions

The best questions I will post here with my answer!

Journal #14 Ecosystem Interactions

My time in Slidell, LA has really focused on ecosystem interactions. I talk to my students all the time about how everything is connected. There is a great line in the movie " The Lion King" where the father lion Mufusa tells Simba about a time when he will die and become the grass in which the zebras will eat from. Simba is perplexed because they eat zebras. These interactions are so important for the world to continue. I came out here hoping to study climate change and I really thought that I would see the forest damage beyond repair. The wonderful thing is even after Katrina, thing are up and running in the forest. I saw spiders hunting, and caterpillars thriving. We found way more caterpillars than the researchers expected us to find for this time of year. This is good news because even though storms like Katrina rock our social order, the order of nature is still thriving.

This realization as a scientist is so obvious but is also very telling. In one sense it means the world is able to adapt within a certain range. This is hard for me to grasp because I strive for my kids to change the world especially the environmental world. I am glad and relieved the world can survive and it is not repairable. In the same sense that the forest has adapted there is a delicate balance. This delicate balance can easily be disrupted. Thinking about this I came up with an analogy I would like to share with you. Imagine being on a seesaw. You and your friend are peacefully seesawing along. Then the big kid comes over and sits on your lap and the seesaw tips a certain way forcing one side to have to adapt and except the pure brunt of the force. If the kid is too big then your going to be sitting on the ground. So in our lives and definitely the earth needs a certain sense of balance to thrive and continue.

The amazing part that I think I want the students to realize is in this big grand scheme of things, we are just one tiny little part. Standing among the cypress trees, they are way bigger than what I could ever rise to be ( no short jokes here). I am just a small part. Even on this trip I was just a piece of the data. All of the caterpillars we collected were adding to the data and there will be a result one way or the other. The future is in our hands, the seesaw really is in our hands. We can choose to tip the seesaw or we can choose to balance it out. We often think that we are just one person, but think if everyone though that way.

In another way of thinking of all of this....if we choose to destroy the earth I feel pretty confident that long after we are gone, the earth will still continue and mother nature will reclaim its land.

Challenge #12: Finding Your Way Home

Everyone has one of these now a days. In fact some people cannot leave home without it. I am talking about a GPS unit. Check out the picture in case you have never seen one before. We have been using one in the field for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons is to keep track of where we have parked the car and the other reason is so that we can assign a location to the surveys that we do of the caterpillars.

1. What does GPS stand for?

2. How do GPS systems work?

3. Should we rely on these systems 100%, how accurate are they?

4. Most cell phones now have GPS. Some people think that we should attach GPS units to children's shoes to keep track of them. The flip side of all of this GPS is that people feel like it is invading their privacy. How do you feel about someone being able to track your every single move or at least your location with the use of GPS? Do you think it invades your privacy?

Challenge #11: Spanish Moss

Take a look at the picture:

The picture is of spanish moss. Spanish moss is all over the trees here. It gives the trees kind of a creepy kind of feeling. Historically though spanish moss was used for other purposes.

1. What are some of the things spanish moss has been used for ( hint: You use it everyday)

2. Do any animals eat spanish moss?

3. Does spanish moss hurt the tree or does it serve a purpose for the tree.