Climate Change and Forests with Ms. Leichman Cahn

Last Day in the Field and What You Can Do!

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Leichman Cahn) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 12:04:00 +0000

During our last day in the field, we learned about an even more accurate way to measuring a tree using an instrument called a dendrometer. Check out the video below.

Later, we went into a “logged” area of the forest. The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (where I am!), recently acquired this land, but before it was sold to the Smithsonian, the owner cut down specific trees to sell for their wood. However, many trees that were not cut down were severely damaged in the process. The silver lining on this cloud is that the scientists are viewing it as learning opportunity to study this kind of landscape. How long will it take the forest to grow back? What kinds of plants will start growing here?

I am anxious to get back to school because the most important thing that I and everyone else can do to fight global warming is to educate others.

When I teach my students something and then they go home and share it with their parents and then their parents share it with their friends and so on you get what’s known as a ripple effect—a great dispersal of information. It’s already happened with recycling; so many of you told me how you didn’t recycle at home and now that we recycle at school, you do!

When we educate others about global warming, it is important to do more than just explain why things are a mess. People tend not to listen when they feel overwhelmed by bad news. We need to teach each other what can be done to make things better. Governments and corporations need to make massive changes but so does every individual person. I've learned about some things I can do differently in my everyday life to help the planet get better.

Based on recommendations by the Environmental Defense Fund, I compiled the following list of things you can do to fight global warming. By protecting our environment, we protect ourselves on this planet, as well.

10 Things You Can Do
1. RECYCLE and buy products with as little packaging as possible. Whenever possible, buy LOCAL (go to the Farmer’s Market at McCarren Park Saturday mornings, for example) and buy products made from recycled materials!

2. Wash clothes in cold or warm water, not hot. Air dry clothes whenever possible.

3. Install low-flow shower heads and toilets to use less water. Put a brick in your old toilet so the reservoir fills up less and less water is used per flush.

4. If doing dishes by hand, soaking and then rinsing dishes uses a lot less water than having the water run the entire time. If you use a dishwasher, run it only when full and don’t use heat to dry dishes—let ‘em air dry.

5. Turn off the water while brushing your teeth.

6. Replace standard light bulbs with more energy-efficient, compact fluorescent bulbs. Replace old appliances with energy-efficient models. Always turn off the lights and other electronics when you aren’t using them. Unplug anything not in use. Anything turned “off” but still plugged in is still drawing some energy—this is known as phantom energy.

7. Walk, bike, carpool or use public transportation whenever possible. If you drive, be considerate and share the road with bikers so more people will feel comfortable biking.

8. Say “no” to plastic bags. Bring your own bags when you shop.

9. Adjust your thermostat-lower in winter, higher in summer. Keep it on 68 degrees this winter and put on a sweater.

10. Educate others! Share these simple steps with your friends and family. We are all in this together!

Want more?

Kids
To learn more about the science of global warming and why it’s happening, check these out:
http://www.clean-air-kids.org.uk/globalwarming.html
http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/difference.html

To find out how much carbon dioxide you put into our atmosphere (what’s known as
your "carbon footprint"), check these out:
http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences
http://meetthegreens.pbskids.org/features/carbon-calculator.html
http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/homework_help/climate_change/index.cfm

Adults
Here’s more on what you can do:
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=820

Also take the quiz to find out your carbon footprint
www.myfootprint.org

We are all in this together! If we make changes and spread the word, it’ll be contagious—in a good way! Everything you do makes a difference.

“Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” –Margaret Mead

Here’s to a bright future for all living things on Earth.

Fourth Day in the Field

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Leichman Cahn) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:24:00 +0000

We climbed a 120 foot meterological tower! Up top, scientific instruments measure rainfall, light, carbon dioxide levels, wind, how clear the air is and Uvb radiation.

UVb radiation, the type responsible for giving you a sunburn, can cause large changes in the aquatic environments in the Chesapeake Bay. Uvb data has been collected here for the last 30 years! That’s longer than anywhere! Another neat fact is that all of the instruments connect to computers at the bottom of the tower to record information constantly.

We were higher than the trees up there! The tower shook a little when the wind blew, but it wasn't too scary! Above is a picture of a solar panel with spikey plastic pieces on top of it. What do you think the purpose of the plastic pieces is?

Our research team went to different areas of the forest to collect data on rainfall today. To do this, scientists use a tool called a “rain gauge.” Nancy Khan, explains in the video below.

Also one of my other team members, Kate, posted a great video that goes into more detail on our tree measuring process. To see it go to her blog here:

www.earthwatch.org/lff/shannon

The video posted a few days back and is listed under her “Collecting Tree Data” headline. Please go and check out the blogs for all the other teachers here with me on my team. There's some great videos and pictures to see. To do this, after you click the link to my blog on the PS 132 website and my picture and bio come up, select the "Visit the Earthwatch Institute Web Site" option instead of "Visit my Blog" and then select the "Meet the Team" tab.

Time has been going by so fast out here! We only have one more day left in the field. Tomorrow we will see some sad realities in the forest: deforestation. (Look it up or infer the meaning...!)

Thank you again for the awesome feedback! I miss you!

Third Day in the Field continued...

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Leichman Cahn) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:54:00 +0000

See if you can guess what's going on in this fun picture from today! Pretty cool, huh?

So, I promised you a fallen giant. Did you guess it was a tree? Hope so!

You can see a picture of the fallen giant further down below, and just below, is a video clip that explains what happens when a huge tree falls in the forest.

This morning we continued our tree measuring and added on another task involved in data collection--entering all the gathered data into spreadsheets on the computer!

We also helped in another study this afternoon; we read numerous rain gauges to see how much precipitation has fallen in the different locations in the forest. Weather monitoring is a huge component of the work done here. Tomorrow I will share some amazing pictures and video on this including photos taken from a meteorological monitoring tower 120 ft. tall!

Before I head off to a much-needed sleep, I wanted to share this link with you:

www.greenschoolsalliance.org

Look on the sidebar that says "GSA Updates" and click on where it says "NYC Goes Green." Scroll down a little... Wait to you see what school is mentioned!

Way to go PS 132 and the PS 132 Green Team! I'm going to bed thinking happy thoughts knowing how much we're all doing to help Mother Earth!

Until tomorrow, good Earthlings...

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Leichman Cahn) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:28:00 +0000

The Fallen Giant

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Leichman Cahn) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:11:00 +0000

Second Day in the Field

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Leichman Cahn) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:17:00 +0000

Another fun and exhausting day here in the woods!

Check out that conk above (it's that flaky wavy organism growing out of the tree)--it's called "Turkey Tail," and I bet you can see why!

We measured over 130 trees today! We took turns recording the data, tagging the tree, measuring the tree’s diameter, figuring out the tree’s precise location based on its position in the hectare plot, and finally identifying the tree’s species and current state of health.

While in the forest doing our climate change study, we encountered another experiment a different scientist here at the Smithsonian is performing. Jeff, a Forest Ecologist assisting us in the field, explains in the video below. It’s involves earthworms—you can probably predict how excited I was…

I LOVE all the comments I am receiving! I am trying to respond to each one through my blog! If I don’t get to your specific inquiry while I am away in the field, I promise I will when I return. But, please don’t let me stop you from being inspired to do your own research on some of these curiosities, folks!

Tomorrow I'm going to show you an amazing fallen giant and its story--can you guess what this will be a story about?

First Day in the Field

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Leichman Cahn) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:39:00 +0000

Wow! Thank you so much for all the thoughtful comments and questions, friends! Keep 'em coming!

Let me apologize in advance for all the moss and lichen pictures you may see this week—I “lichen” 'em very much and therefore feel compelled to photograph them!

What a jammed packed day!

First order of business was all about our safety out here. Turns out we’ve come during deer hunting season. That’s right! But don’t worry; it’s a controlled hunt and a necessary one, in order to control the deer population. And don’t worry about me, either! All of us were given bright neon orange vests that must be worn at all times so we’re not mistaken for a deer. Whew!

After our safety talk, we met Dr. Jess Parker, lead scientist here at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Climate Center. Jess took us out into the field and we learned how the trees are being tagged for the study. Here’s a brief clip:

I love that they’re using recycled materials for the tree labeling!

A lot of you have been wondering what I’ll be doing. In this study we will be identifying trees (mostly using bark and how the branches grow because the leaves are pretty much all gone by now), measuring the trees, and finally mapping them. Our measurements will be used as a “baseline,” and in five years these same trees will be measured again. The growth seen five years from now will give us valuable information about the health of the forest and its ability to take out or “sequester” carbon from the atmosphere.

Next, we learned some interesting techniques used to measure the trees. We were given clipboards, special tools and had to measure 16 practice trees. (This is an important scientific study so the scientists want to be sure that we can accurately collect the tree data. It’s really a bit complicated, but totally awesome!)

I made a video explaining how we measure the trees and what it tells us:

What? Huh? OK, you may need to do some work to understand what in the world I’m talking about. Do we remember what a diameter is? Circumference? Volume? Mass? Depending on your grade, I sure hope you do! If not, please take this opportunity to find out. Also, what's biomass? Check that vocabulary word out, too…

Everyone on my team measured within a very small percentage of error (look that up, too!) and so tomorrow we are off first thing in the morning to take measurements!

I leave you with this question: How much carbon is in YOU if carbon content is approximately half YOUR biomass?

Talk to you again tomorrow, young scientists!

Let's Take a Walk in the Woods

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Leichman Cahn) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:59:00 +0000

Check this out, friends! Follow the link below to take this virtual woodland walk. I just did! I am so excited to leave tomorrow to go into the forest for real!

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/woods/

After taking the walk in the woods, check out

http://www.treetures.com/gifs/sprig/Forests/TemperateNew.html

There are many kinds of forests. What kind of forest will I be in? You should be able to figure it out...

I'll post the answer in my next blog which will be coming to you from the trees...

Send me your questions and comments, kids!

Sunday Afternoon Musing

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Leichman Cahn) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:03:00 +0000

It's a Sunday afternoon and I finally have some time to offer more information about my BIG NEWS!

Some of you probably heard that I have been awarded an Earthwatch Fellowship! Earthwatch is an international organization supporting scientific research in over
30 countries! Being offered this fellowship is a huge honor for which I am deeply grateful and totally excited! The really BIG, BIG news is that you will be going too – through cyberspace!

So, what does this all mean?

Well, during the first week of December, I will spend the week in the forests near the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, studying how climate change is affecting forests. I will be near the city of Baltimore and I'll also be near America's capitol, Washington, D.C.

I'll be staying at a place called the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. We will be conducting experiments to study the trees, leaves, roots, soil, animals and weather in an area called a hectare (this means a measurement of 10,000 square meters). All of these elements of the forest will provide clues about its health.

I will post stories, questions, pictures and video clips to this blog every day. And during the week, we will actually have a "live from the field" webcast where I will be able to see you - and you will see me - and we can all talk about what is going on! This is going to be really cool!

So get ready for a BIG ADVENTURE and consider the following questions:

-Can you imagine how weather might affect a tree?

-What do you think it would mean if there was a drought? (A drought is a period of time when there is no rain).

-What do you think animals could tell us about the health of a forest?

Let me know: what do YOU want to learn about climate change and forests?

On my way to Chesapeake Bay!

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Leichman Cahn) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:53:00 +0000

This is the region I will be working in while I am on my expedition in Maryland. The picture was taken by a satellite in outer space!

Also check out the labeled map of the area in the upper left!

Getting Ready for the Expedition!

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey Leichman Cahn) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:21:00 +0000

Done! I purchased several fleeces, waterproof boots, jacket, pants and gloves. I think I finally have all the supplies necessary to brave the cold and go into the forest to study the effects of climate change. I will be working with a team of scientists and other teachers during my expedition. I am eager work with them and to share our findings with you!