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.