The Excitement Continues at Neil Cummins School

March 6, 2009

The timing could not have been more perfect. The day after I returned (a 4 leg plane trip of 12 hours!), I picked up the Coral Reef Kit from the California Academy of Sciences. All of the classes have had a wonderful time with the lessons and materials developed at the Academy. First, we examined coral skeletons with magnifying glasses and sketched them. Some specimens were from the kit, and some I brought back. They could really see where the little polyps had once been attached, and we got a taste of the diversity of forms that the corals can take.

Next, we made models of a coral polyp with some yummy edible materials. See if you can identify the materials that represented the body, the tentacles, the algae (zooxanthellae), the rock, the skeleton, and where the gut is. Because polyps never like to be lonely, students were urged to join their individual polyps together to form a colony. After sketching their creation, most students promptly devoured their defenseless polyp. Messy, sweet, and delicious! (A great way to learn science).

After reviewing some of the differences between animals and plants, we marveled over the unique symbiotic relationship between the one celled algae, zooxanthellae, a plant that actually lives in the tissue of the coral polyp animal. Guess where the zooxanthellae get most of their food supply from?

The real action came when it was time to build a reef by playing the Reproduction Game. Fate cards determine whether players can add a polyp to the reef by either spawning ( egg + sperm), or by budding (a polyp splits in 2, then 2 become 4, etc.) or fragmentation (pieces of broken off coral start new colonies). Many card draws imitated real life, as when a predatory fish ate an egg or sperm, which were then removed from the game. Often times a 2 card draw would result in nothing happening (budding + egg = 0 polyps).

Classroom teachers are sharing amazing footage of the reefs from the DVD "the Blue Planet" - a BBC production. More learning fun awaits next week. Meanwhile, families can access a piece of the coral reef experience by visiting the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, checking out videos and books from the library, visiting websites, asking for coloring pages, etc.

Stay tuned for more news from the science room next week!

Cheers, Ann Brown

P.S. Many heartfelt thanks to the enablers: John Rollino, Prinicipal Investigator; Earthwatch, Inc; HSBC Bank, funder; and the California Academy of Sciences. They all want to turn our children on to science!

The Beach Profile

Feb. 27

Its our last day as field scientists on San Salvador Island. As the wind continues, we stay on the beach to measure the "profile" - the slope from the top grasses down to the water. The profile changes with the years and seasons, offering clues as to erosion and the movement of sand. We used meter sticks, string, and levels to take measurements every six meters. Team work was essential!

I was very excited to make a Skype internet phone connection with 3 classes in the science room. I magically appeared on a screen in front of the children, talking and showing them some treasures, while they peppered me with questions. It was great fun. Fortunately, the timing and connections all worked while Jennifer Upshaw, a reporter from the Marin Independent Journal, and her photographer there to cover the action. Check out the article at http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_11802476?IADID=Search-www.marinij.com-www.marinij.com .

The Expedition Summary

The data that was collected by the two teams of volunteers (there was another team the week previously) revealed normal February air and water temperatures, pH and salinity readings, and visibility. Happily, coral bleaching is not occurring. Those corals that showed bleaching in the past will be observed again in the summer to see if they are recovering or dying.

The cover type surveys show that hard corals - the kind that build the reef with their calcium carbonate skeletons - continue to decline. The percentage of algae covering the reef is high - up to 80% at two of the sites.

Along with measuring water chemistry and mapping the reef, the other team built some mock coral heads. The goal is to begin restoring the reefs by increasing the surface area available to coral and fish. In calmer conditions, both mock coral heads and live coral transplants can be attached to the existing reef using wire and epoxy. Ultimately, by providing local people the simple materials and tools to restore their reefs, the result will be a healthy coral reef ecosystem for generations to come.

So much depends on it! For more information about what you can do to help save coral reefs, visit the Coral Reef Alliance at http://www.coral.org.

Up the Lighthouse and Down into the Bat Cave

Feb. 26
The winds out of the north continue to assert their right to blow as long as they want…. Defying the usual weather patterns! So being teachers and scientists, we asserted our adaptability to the situation. On and upwards to the lighthouse!

Perhaps some of you have ventured all the way out to the Pt. Reyes lighthouse, or to the Pt. Bonita lighthouse in the Marin Headlands. They are unique icons of human communication between land and sea. In, I believe, the Pt. Reyes lighthouse is a unique Fresnel(?) lens that was delivered in pieces from France. Remember in the 3rd grade Light unit how we explored how glass can be curved to create lenses that magnify? Well, the San Salvador lighthouse has the same Fresnel lens, and I was so excited to climb the spiral stairs (in the pink chamber – like being inside of a conch shell!) to the top.



First you pop up into the round workspace, where the lighthouse keepers ascend every three hours during the night to fill the lamp with kerosene and to hand crank the gears that keep the light turning. Matches, oil cans, pliers, crank handle, and other implements were right at hand. You can walk out on a cat walk and get a view over most of the island. But then, I spied a ladder and up I went to the actual glass level, which the keepers keep clean and polished.


Back inside, I also climbed up to the level of the lantern with its huge mantle standing up right. If you’ve ever lit a gas lantern while camping, you know what I mean. The kerosene gas soaks the cloth “sock” and burns brightly when lit by a match. Except instead of a simple glass cylinder, this simple light shines through two pairs of HUGE lenses, and many pieces of precisely curved glass. You’ll see from my photos how they acted like prisms, even though the sun was not shining directly on them. The glass “windows” are covered in muslin curtains during the day, so that the sun shining through the lenses doesn’t start a bush fire! As the platform turns, the light “blinks” through the powerful lenses out to sea. Every lighthouse has a particular number of seconds between “blinks”, so during a dark night watch out at sea , you know which lighthouse you are spying. In my sailing days, these friendly “blinks” were our most welcome companions.

I wish you all could have explored this lighthouse with me - it was like stepping back in time, and brought back to mind all the lighthouse stories I’ve ever read. (do a search in the library and you’ll find them!) Of course, at our lighthouses they would never let us get near the lamp or the lenses, and they are all automated. They also wouldn’t have beautiful shells set out on a bench with a hand painted “Shells for Sale” sign. (I plan to hike back tomorrow!)

The next adventure found us cutting downhill on a brushy trail to descend into the “Lighthouse Bat Cave”. Outside the entrance, we stripped down to our swimsuits and grabbed our waterproof flashlights before lowering ourselves down a ladder into a hole in the earth. Once inside, huge caverns with hanging stalactites opened up in several directions. Soon we were wading, then dogpaddling, in the warm salty water, from room to tunnel to room. All around and above us were huge carved openings, mounds, cones, and cool shapes. We were basically in a sand dune turned to stone. Remember, 4th graders, how we saw diagrams of how rain water (slightly acidic) can dissolve the calcium in limestone? Well, I actually got to run my hands over the smooth shapes that were the result. Before long, we detected the bat presence. Specifically, the cute little duffy nosed flower bats. Can you guess by their name what they look like and what role they serve in helping plants?

The bats endured my flashlight long enough so that I got a really good look at them hanging upside looking back at me (thinking: “shut that thing off, will ya?” ) I went back as far as I could and found a huge chamber at the end of the cave. Rejoining the group, we all shut off our flashlights and reveled in the sensation of pitch blackness. Floating out, our bodies dark in the blue illuminated water, under fantastical sculptures all around, I fully experienced what it means to learn with all of your senses. I hope that you get to experience special caves in your future, too!

This afternoon we took beach profile measurements. Why? To see if the movement of sand over and around the coral reefs is related to the changes in the sandy beaches. Using poles, meter sticks, string, levels (the air bubble rests in the center when level), we recorded the changes in the beach elevation (its profile) in 2 meter sections. We started at the top of the beach and measured section by section down into the waves. First we measured the windy side (too wild for snorkeling or fish surveys – next time!), then we took a shortcut over a hump to the calm, quiet side. After measuring, we went beach combing (the others found all the good shells …) and swimming. As usual, we had the deserted beach all to ourselves, to share with little black mussels clinging to the undersides of rocky ledges emerging from the waves and golden sand. Such beauty and grandeur!


Perhaps I’ll speak with some of you on Skype in the science room. Have your questions ready!

In friendly batsqueaks,
Ann Batmama Brown

Research Adapts Itself to Weather Conditions!

Tues, Feb. 24
All night long the wind blew strong and true down the long reach of the Atlantic to the north shore of San Salvador island. I even had to lower the windows in my bedroom! This morning awoke with a sky gray with towering clouds, and white caps scudded along in the bay and beyond. Instead of underwater work (under murky and surgey conditions), we explored the terrestrial neighborhood. There are many unique and unspoiled natural features here.
First we visited the rainwater catchment system that supplies the research center (and community) with the best water in Bahamas. Long ago, when the research center was built as an army base, they paved about 3 acres of a land basin to catch and funnel rainwater into tanks. Several years ago 3 new tanks were installed, each with a different filtration system, so by the time the water comes through the taps, it actually tastes pretty good! Guarding the basin (now bone dry) is a handsome pair of osprey and their huge nest. We have seen them winging by with fish in talons, and I love their distinctive calls to each other in the morning.
To reach one of the super salty lakes, we pushed our way through a trail into the scrubby brush. There one can find a few interesting wasps, butterflies, birds, and evidence of the wild cattle that hide out in the bush. The plant life is quite different from our familiar oak grasslands. Almost every plant has thick, waxy leaves that help it conserve moisture during the long dry periods. As with most places on Earth, invasive exotic plants are gaining a foothold – in this case most markedly the “Australian pine”, otherwise known as “Casaurina sp.”. The problem is poses is that it is a water hog, and of course, being from Australia, has no natural predators to keep its spread in check.
We were startled and delighted to come upon a large cactus grove, and I wonder if they flower at night for the benefit of the bats that reside in nearby caves. Guess who greeted us at the lakes ( 3x as salty as the ocean)? Mangrove trees propped up on their spreading roots, stripey snails leaving trails in the mud, flat dark oysters clinging in clumps, mossy soft emerald green algae. I will show you my pictures when I return. Although the water was clear, nobody was particularly tempted to swim.
After lunch, I hiked the beach and then climbed the layered cliffs (you kids would have been scrambling all over!) to the top of a long ridge that separates our bay from the open reach of the Atlantic. There is nothing so exhilarating as coming over an innocent grassy hill, to find the white caps and curling waves sparkling on a surging deep marine blue on into the horizon. Islands and evidence of shipwrecks punctuated the dramatic scene. I followed a trail to the end of the point, where a “cut” of water separates the point from islands beyond. I imagined you all with me, at this intersection of land and sea, feeling the immensity and grandeur of our precious planet Earth!

Weds, Feb. 25
We loaded up the truck and headed to the south end of the island, where we hoped the winds and surge would be less forceful, to a deserted beach on French Bay. Back in our teams, we headed out with the frames and tally sheets to continue our “cover type surveys”. Here we mourned over the loss of the once huge and glorious elkhorn corals, whose skeletons now serve as mute reminders. They are providing the substrate (new hard material to attach onto) for many soft and hard corals. Although there was a lot of surge (it was hard to keep the frame and our bodies in one place), we took turns recording the data and free diving, looking for fish. Perhaps because of the conditions, fish viewing was not as productive as the reef could provide in calmer times. Afterwards, beachcombing for shells and coral skeletons, and plant appreciation resulted in some corny photos. You’ll see.
Later we explored a rocky shoreline that was riddled with blowholes and dramatic sculptured cliffs. The waves rolled in and exploded with a zillion drops of spray launched upwards, outwards. Tiny snails cling on in the tidepools, sea caves are undercut, salt crystals glint in small holes as the sun evaporates the moisture left behind. I couldn’t help but compare it to Natural Bridges State Beach down in Santa Cruz. There, being on the mainland, we have a lot more birds, surfers, and other forms of wildlife.

Thanks for checking in and I’m so sorry that I am not able to post pictures, but I will add plenty when I return. I’m hoping to Skype chat with at least a few classes on Thursday, and/or Friday! Meanwhile, my students, keep caring for and observing the trout alevin, the goldfish and pond snails, and be your best inquisitive and cooperative selves with Ms. Suther.

Your teacher on distant shores, Ms. Ann Brown

Our First Task - the Cover Type Survey

This morning we adventured out onto one of the most spectacular reefs yet at “Rocky Point.”
After a short trail through the sea grape and scrub (the typical island plant community), we emerged onto a gorgeous sandy beach sloping down from (guess what?) rocky ledges.

Question for all of you 4th grade geologists: What is the predominant rock type here in the Bahamas? Hint – think of what would have formed from millions of years of dead marine organisms?



Our task for today and tomorrow morning is to work in teams to survey the type of “cover” over the reef. There are 7 types of cover: hard corals (they build the reef generation by generation, centimeters at a time), soft corals (they wave in the currents), algae (marine plants), sponges (simple living organisms), rock, sand, and other (such as tunicates, tube worms, etc).

I snorkeled out to reef with my partner, Larry, (from Buffalo, NY). We took turns throwing the sampling grid and recording the numbers of types of cover on a waterproof slate. The sampling grid is a meter square frame made of plastic PVC pipe, and interwoven with twine to divide the square into 25 smaller squares. We are to record the type of cover under each intersection of twine – 25 tallies for each sample.

We are finding that algae growing over the former reef (the elkhorn corals were killed by disease in the late 1980’s) is by far the most common cover. But at this reef, most of our samples also included 3-5 hard corals, 3-6 soft corals, 1-3 sponges, 3- 5 rock, and occasional “other”s. Last night we had a crash review with a powerpoint slide show, so we are aces on categorizing the cover types!

The interplay of sunlight, the colors of the corals, the undulating movement of the surge, and the cool turquoise clarity of the Caribbean sea all make for a magical kingdom underwater. I SO wish that I could share a video, or at least lots of still photos of the wonders I am admiring down there, but our Internet connection at the research center is very limited and slow. I’m still trying to post pictures to the Blog. I would love to be able to post pictures of the new species as I see them each day – words cannot do them justice! Today our sightings included: a 5’ stingray, several crabs, a peacock flounder ( a flatfish that blends in perfectly with the sandy bottom), schools of many beautiful fish – including the gorgeous stoplight parrotfish, queen triggerfish, ocean surgeonfish, blue tang, yellow striped snapper, blue chromis, and lots more.

Question for you 3rd and 4th graders: what is the base of the food web for all of these marine organisms?
Hint: think – what can make its own food from solar energy?
Another Question: where is the barracuda in the food web?
Hint: think of its body shape, mouth shape, and teeth!

One great reason to be a teacher is that you never stop learning. I hope that you all get to experience this type of full body learning with all of your senses! When I return, I hope you will help me plan a community action project that will enable YOU to be out in the environment – learning, restoring, and caring deeply about a special place and its inhabitants. Every night after dinner we have “class” – so far a lecture with powerpoint slides. Our chief scientist, John Rollino, has been doing this project for 17 years, so he has seen lots of things happen. Our other “staffer” is Michelle Besson, who is training to be an archeologist, and who also loves to free dive and look at big fish.

Thanks for checking in, and remember to write me your comments and questions…. And don’t forget to sign your name!

The Teacher (& occasional mermaid), Ann Brown

Arrival in the Bahamas

Greetings Students, Parents, Teachers, Friends, and Family,
Five of us teacher – researchers are huddled around our laptops under the stars on the island of San Salvador, sharing photos, stories, and skills. And so I begin my first blog entry on location with Earthwatch’s “Bahamian Reef Survey.” Thanks for coming along on the journey with me!

First, a little pre-expedition exploring was enjoyed on neighboring Cat Island. You can see the common mode of transport to these Outer Islands – small planes are lots of fun. On Cat Island I enjoyed snorkeling several different reefs and went scuba diving off this boat to see the corals and fish down to about 80 feet. It was really exciting down there, especially descending down the “wall” of the outer reef.
The water is about 71 degrees F., so I’m glad to have a wetsuit!

Both Cat and San Salvador Islands are relatively undeveloped, so the coral reefs should be in good shape. However, back in the late 1980’s, a disease killed most of the elkhorn coral, the main coral species. Now you see most of these dead corals covered in marine algae (plants), with some hard and soft corals, and sponges, taking hold. The fish populations vary by location, wave action, etc. I like to free dive and peer under the ledges for the big fish that like to hide there.

In between Cat Island and San Salvador Island, I spent a night in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas. Here are a few photos to give you the flavor – the policeman who protects the lives of pedestrians, the inventive toy vendor in the crafts market (you’ll see what he made when I return), local girls selling conch shells. After the bustle I’m glad to be back on an Outer Island, falling asleep to the sound of waves and crickets.

Our first couple of days here our team has been snorkeling several reefs to learn the types of “cover” that we will be documenting in our sampling for the next couple of days. We go to which ever side of the island has the calmest, clearest water (a northerly front went through yesterday). This afternoon I must have learned a dozen coral types, sponges, algae, and seen at least 30 different species of fish, including a big ol’ barracuda. Stay tuned for some pictures of these wonders of the sea in future blog entries. I’m sure that you’ll grow to love them as much as I do!

My challenge question for you to discuss with your classmates, family, and/or friends: what are corals? What role do they play in the biodiversity (the variety of different life forms) of the oceans? If you could snorkel with me, what would you be looking for?

I also welcome you to send your questions and comments to me! I will do my best to find out the answers in the field, from the scientists, or in the library. Fortunately, I can also go online, although our connections here are very slow and limited in time. (which may be why I can’t get to answering every question right away). Please write to me in the blog comment box, and don’t forget to sign your name!


My warm regards, Ann Brown; Live From the Field

More Games, Activities, Books, and DVDs

Good day friends,
I'm on countdown now until my Earthwatch trip begins. This Sunday I took a diving refresher course at Bamboo Reef Marin, so that I can go scuba diving during my first week on Cat Island. With the help of an air tank, I'll be able to go much deeper and see a lot more marine life than I could by snorkeling. Among other things, I got a wristband with mini fish ID cards on them, so I can be learning the names of some of my new friends.
I'm showing the all the 3rd and 4th grade science classes my Blog and the Earthwatch website. Some classes are watching a segment from the National Geographic "Jewels of the Caribbean" videotape from the Neil Cummins School library. Seeing the reef creatures going about their daily habits and interacting with each other is so fascinating! (Guess who chomps on who?)
I will be creating a book and video collection from our public libraries to have as a resource in the science room. Teachers, parents, and students will be welcome to "check" them out from me (and then return them promptly!) Just stop by the science room before or after school.

Here's some more great websites to explore:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/blueplanet/webs/index.shtml this one has a comprehensive, multi-level game that would be very satisfying for families to play together.

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/efc/efc_splash/splash_activities.aspx
Try "Crunch, Nibble, Gulp, & Bite" for the coral reef spin. All the games look like fun!

For three online videos, visit
http://www.cmrc.org/education/classroom_materials.htm

For the awesome "Oceans Film Festival" , Feb. 19 -22, in San Francisco, visit
http://www.oceanfilmfest.org/

I encourage you to post a review of the games, books, films, etc. to this blog, so that others can read your opinions! Please send in messages and questions. Finally, if you haven't yet, please sign on to "Subscribe to Posts" which is to the right of the text of the blogs.

Thanks for checking in!

Ann Brown