Hi all,
I can't believe it's already Friday night and I'm leaving in the morning. I heard you had a terrible ice storm. I hope your families and your homes are all OK!
We had a good day here today. It was cold but the sun was out in the afternoon. We finished up our trees and collected rain gauges that were pretty full from yesterday. This picture that looks sort of like a white lantern is to protect where they have the thermometers. A lot fancier than our yogurt containers. Then we visited the education center they have here. It's really nice. I took a picture of their stuffed osprey. They were almost extinct here due to poisoning by pesticides, but they have made a good comeback.
At the end of the day we walked of the nature trails that goes along the water. It was beautiful.
I want to leave you with a few thoughts. In talking to all the scientists and people who work here, I really felt that although they wanted me to learn about nature and important issues like climate change, they care even more that YOU learn about them. They know kids like you care deeply about the environment. This gives us hope for the future. We really can change things if we all learn and we all try. So thank you for all your great questions and comments. This was really fun! See you Monday. Ms. Bennett

Hi all,
I tried to put this little video on last night with no luck, so I'm trying again today. We had a chilly, rainy morning out in the forest, but this afternoon we went to the Christmas Party here and that was fun and lots of good food. Tonight we are going into Annapolis (the capital, remember?) to see the city and go out to dinner! I also spent some time with the head scientist from the study so I got to learn more of the details.
Yesterday we took a long walk on one of the nature trails here, and we ended up on a board
walk in a salt marsh near the bay. It was beautiful but full of a nasty invasive called phragmytes! They choke out the native cattails that the local birds and other creatures depend on.
We also saw these bench like structures in the marsh. What do you think these are for?
Here are some pictures, one is the bald eagle nest.
It was so nice to talk to all of you! Keep the questions coming! Ms. Bennett

Hi 4B & 4G
I can't believe another day has gone by. It started really well. I was taking an early morning walk and I saw seven deer! They were really beautiful. It happened so fast I didn't have my camera out!

We didn't work where I thought we were going to work. We did some identifying and mapping trees in a huge 16 hectare plot (you were right, it is 100 meters by 100 meters, 10,000 square meters). It is a part of a big study comparing forests in different places all around the world! I heard Harvard Forest is going to be a part of this study too!It was a nice forest, but I miss those hemlock trees. There are a few evergreens, like cedars, lodgepole pines, and these really cute little holly trees. The scientist told me they do have hemlocks more inland in Maryland, and they sadly do have woolly adelgid.

Gillian, that was a good idea looking at branch structure, but we looked at something else to help us identify trees.



Some of the trees like the beech trees still have leaves. The sweet gum trees have those little prickley seed balls on them, so they're easy to ID.
After lunch we climbed up a big weather tower. It had all kinds of instruments up there. What kinds of measurements do you think they would take up there (besides temperature)? It was fun to be above the tree canopy.






It was good to read all your comments and questions. You are right, the bay is salt water. A lot of different kinds of fish live there. Shellfish, too. Tsara, I did get your e mail, and I am thinking of you all, and I miss you too. Talk to you soon!! Ms. Bennett

Monday Evening
It was great to read all your questions and comments tonight! I've had a busy day here, and have already learned a lot. To answer your question, Erika, we had a very interesting presentation this morning from a scientist about Global Warming.
In the afternoon we went out into the field. The woman in the middle is one of the scientists. They set up eight one hectare plots; half of them have been logged (tall, straight trees removed for the wood) and four are control plots (nothing removed). We are going to try to identify and tag some of the trees tomorrow in one of the plots. Here is a map of the plots. I haven't seen any white pines or hemlocks! I did see a few white oaks and red maples, but a lot of the trees are different.



Here are some questions I want you to answer~

Did you look at the map and think about if the bay is salt water or fresh water? Is it attached to the Atlantic Ocean?

Look up what a hectare is. How many meters is it in length? Width?

We are going to identify deciduous trees with no leaves on them!! How do you think we can identify them?

Here is the sweet gum tree I told you about. And no, you can't chew the gum ( I asked)
Miss you all! It was nice to hear from you, Mrs. Finnegan. It is cold here (below freezing) but tomorrow is supposed to be warmer.
MS.Bennett

Good Morning and Happy Monday!
It's Sunday Evening and I'm here at the Smithsonian Center. I had a good flight, but it's a little cold and windy here now. There are six other teachers here with me from Oklahoma, South Carolina, Colorado, Indiana, Texas, and Maine! Which state is in the region we're studying this week? Do you know it's capital?
Tomorrow we start in the field. We'll be identifying and labeling trees. I can already see there are some different kinds. There is one called a "sweet gum" tree. Sounds like something we should have at Briggs! It has these prickley balls hanging on it. I'll send you a picture tomorrow. The bay is beautiful, it looked really spectacular from the airplane.
Have a great day; I'll write tomorrow. We're having a pizza party tonight!
Miss you already! Ms. Bennett

Hi all!
I really enjoyed all your comments! You guys are really a funny bunch. I wish I could take all of you with me!
I am very interested in seeing what kinds of trees they have in the forest there, and if they are the same as ours! Good questions about the woolly adelgid and the bittersweet. I will find out if they have those. I'm sure they have some problematic invasives there. I'll take some pictures of them.

The Chesapeake Bay does look beautiful. I don't think it will be frozen. I wonder if it ever freezes? It is a little closer to the equator, but not too much. I'm hoping it will be a little warmer down there since I will be outside a lot.
We have done a lot of work in our forest this fall! Here's the picture you took of our little weather station. Do you think I'll be taking air and soil temperatures in Maryland? It would be interesting to compare them. I'm hoping you will get outside to check ours while I'm gone.
Here is one more thing to think about. Look at the map again and tell me if you think the bay is fresh or salt water?
Ms. Bennett