Mammals of Nova Scotia with Mr Pembroke

Thanks to Well Fargo and Earthwatch for Making this all happen!

2009-04-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

It's time for goodbyes. That is sometimes a tough thing, and in this case it leaves us feeling that some wonderful things took place here in these two weeks. We need to take this positive energy and carry it forward for years to come. The question is, were some changes made?

Do people change? We had some conversation at the dinner table one evening about how these Earthwatch expeditions can potentially change the way people view conservation and the environment and that that can spread to others. The ten of us teachers know that understanding how the natural world interacts is a powerful thing. Certainly we all came with a common goal: to do real science and learn new methods of conservation while sharing this with our students. It worked! We figured that between all of us, we Skyped/ichatted approximately 1300 students. Additionally, the blogs were read by countless more students. If the efforts of Earthwatch, Dr. Buesching and Dr. Newman, and Wells Fargo reached as many as 2000 kids, then certainly we had a successful expedition. Did you kids enjoy this experience? Was it worth it to you to have your teacher gone for two weeks doing this important work?

The question now is: What next? How do we make sure we take this foundation of knowledge and go forth in our world to make positive things happen? The answer to that is up to each of us as individuals. One person recycling doesn't amount to much. But billions of people recycling does. One person conserving and preserving our natural resources doesn't mean much to the planet. Billions of people doing it does.

It is with mixed emotions that this adventure comes to a close. It was hard to be away from my regular life. I missed my wife and daughters immensely. But we knew this opportunity shouldn't be missed. I must give a big THANK YOU to Colleen, Heather, and Hannah for supporting me on this journey. The ideals of this program fit with our lifestyle perfectly, so it made so much sense for me to go.

I want to thank Wells Fargo for funding this expedition and Jacky Smith from the Skyway, Chico branch for nominating me. It feels good to know that there are big companies out there doing their part for conservation and sustainability. We have banked with Wells Fargo for years, but while I was away, Colleen took the girls and opened a savings account! Here's a picture of them with their new account books.

I want to thank Earthwatch for doing the work they do. Providing volunteers to scientists around the globe is a challenging business no doubt. However, following their mission to create knowledge about conservation and sustainability through real world action is an honorable task. Allison (U.S.) and Caroline (U.K.) proved to be professional and knowledgeable in all they have done. Thanks for making this happen for us and making a difference on the planet, in the lives of us teachers, and the kids we are in contact with, we appreciate you.

I want to be sure to thank Dr. Chirstina Buesching and Dr. Chris Newman. They work so hard to not only collect their data and create good science, but also to be hosts to a variety of people. We are the first expedition of six this year and I hope they take some of the fun and energy and keep it going. You guys rock!

Finally, I must thank my school. Without the support of Chico Country Day School, this could never happen. This started with me talking with Mr. Weber, who immediately said, "You can't pass up this opportunity." Ms. Reece made sure the finances were in place and Mr. Massa made sure the technology was in place. I also had the good fortune of having Mrs. McNulty, Mrs. Peterson-Young, and Mr. Najera taking care of my classes while I was away. My heartfelt thanks go out to all of you!

And now, some final video and photos to wrap it all together!

We had split into two groups on Friday, but I know that these sentiments reflect all of our thinking!

The team, together, one last time in the field. This is at Keji adjunct National Park. This is a coastal area. We hiked it looking for mammals and field signs, while spending our last day together. I'm going to miss you guys!

Mr. Gasteazoro and Mr. Pembroke balance. This, of course, is the representation of the balance of life in nature. You see, there must be balance between what we use and what we gain. BFF. Roomates. Balance. It's a thing of beauty.

Stacking rocks rocks. You see, like life, there must be a foundation in what you build upon. You must then add to your experience and knowledge, but understand that the foundation isn't perfect and must sometimes be changed or added to for the most success. Metaphores for life are a thing of beauty.

And finally....you gotta feel the love....

Friday, the Last Blog....but there will be a Saturday Blog.....of course. Check it out at home.

2009-04-23T13:17:00.000-07:00

This is me with a trap that was supposed to catch mammals but instead caught a slug. Yippee.

Hi there Wells Fargo Skyway! Thanks for the comment! I'm assuming that's you Jacky, but hello to all of you in the office! I'm having a wonderful experience and am so happy to have had this opportunity. Thank you again and very much for sending me off on this worldly adventure! Evidently there are many classrooms enjoying my blog and several Skyping with me, so many kids are able to enjoy the environmental connections.

As for any new songs? I have written a new one! It's called "The Future of our Planet is in Your Hands" Can you think of some of the things I sing about ? I'll sing it at home.

Here are some trapping items. Can you tell what they are designed to catch? We're in Nova Scotia and this isn't too far from Maine. Just thought that might help.

Flat Stanley came along! Mrs. Metz was tired of cold weather though! Miss Beeman brought him and Mrs. Metz was helping her while she was scruffing her vole that she caught. You just never know where Flat Stanley will show up.

Mr. Wolfe caught a vole today! We actually caught quite a few.
It turns out that the data shows that there has been a drop in the vole/mouse population in the last couple of years. Dr. Newman went over the statistics in class tonight after dinner. Basically, he used much of the statistics that we've used in our own class at home to calculate the number of vole, mice, and deer in the area. In a nutshell, he added up the numbers, divided by how many there were, and got the answer. Soooooo, what is the name of that number? Come on, think about statistics and the number that represent the measures of central tendency. What's the name of the one when you add up the data and divide by the number there are?

Alright now, I have a couple of new videos. Again, if you can't see them, feel free to go to youtube and search for ppembroke. You'll find them there.

Mrs. Tang and I were feeling a bit homesick in the forest. Our traps weren't catching anything and we felt that the heavy amount of water limited the amount of rodent activity. Mrs. Tang broke out in song:

Since the afternoon was time to Skype with classrooms, I went on a hike because California time is quite a lot later than the other areas. I went alone to the waterfront, and spent time thinking. This video is just a fraction of my thoughts. Enjoy.

Hi there Alyssa! Thanks for the comments. See you soon!

Now, importantly, we are making a video for tomorrow that shouldn't be missed. The trouble is, it won't be posted until tomorrow night. Therefore, you should try to see it this weekend at home. But don't worry too much, if you don't see it, we'll watch it at school.....I know people....I have the inside line, if you know what I mean.

Looking forward to seeing you all in person again....Hope you feel the same! Take care people, and thanks for watching! Mr. Pembroke

Thursday, Skype Time

2009-04-22T17:19:00.000-07:00

Howdy all! Great talking with some of you again, and Mrs. Hardesty's third grade as well! I'm sorry I was a bit late, but we stopped in Bridgewater for groceries, so I got back a bit late. It rained all day and we all were wet. It was a challenge to be honest because we were out in the woods literally all day and it rained the whole time. No kidding. Seriously. Wetness prevailed.

We checked traps, cut some new trails, and did some trail/road maintenance. It was hard work to be honest, especially considering that it was raining.
Froggy Eggs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
J.P. asked: Who's house? Well, the two scientists that are running the studies have been working with Earthwatch for several years. They used to do studies with badgers in England and used Earthwatch volunteers then. As they moved to Nova Scotia to begin studying the mammal population here, they knew they'd have Earthwatch involved so they bought two cottages for this purpose. They built another home for themselves about ten minutes away. We have two houses here, one is the Green house and it is the central house: where we have meeting, eat, and have internet connections. The Yellow house is really just for sleeping. Some people sleep at the Green house and myself and two other men sleep at Yellow house. To be honest, Yellow is slightly creepy at night when you are alone. It's dark, usually windy outside, and the house is creeky. I have come to enjoy the house, but I kind of think it has come to like me too.

You can see that we trapped some critters today. We got two voles and a chipmunk. You can see the chipmunk in the plastic bag. We use plastic bags so we can see the critter. We always release back where the animal was caught so they are in the proper territory.

A great question was brought up by MRS. Pembroke. She said, "Honey, it's Earth Day and you're cutting down trees." You, that does seem contradictory, I would agree. However, in this case we were creating trails so the land can be used as a conservation observatory. Let's all think about the trails in upper Bidwell Park. Those trails needed to be made; cut in if you will. It was necessary to change the habitat somewhat. That being said, we want to minimize the damage, yet make it accessible. Notice that video about the hemlock forest has a boardwalk trail. That would be another example of having to make changes so that in the long run we can preserve the area. The same thing is taking place here at Cook's Lake. We are making changes for a long term conservation effort! It's all good! We love Mother Earth!

It was raining all day today. Please look at the pictures and videos to see my perseverance. Please. I did. I used the LIFESKILL of perseverance and SENSE OF HUMOR to get through the day as we did this important work.

Pictures:
Did you know that conservation sometimes includes hard labor? We were working hard in the rain today by cutting trails and digging trenches to drain the road. Notice my personal trench with my shovel.

I shot three videos today. Please enjoy them and think about what you can learn from them.

Also, I should point out that my wife tried calling me around 4:30 today, your time. Guess what, I couldn't take the call because I was in class! That's right, nearly every evening after dinner we have class. Now today's class was particularly interesting to me because it was the geologic history of Nova Scotia. Now that might sound a bit scary, but you know what? It is very similar to the geologic history of California. Alright now, here's the big question: What words did Dr. Newman use in tonight's class/lecture that I use in my teaching about how Earth is formed/shaped. Think about that now, I'd love some ideas shared on comments or during our Skyping session. That would be my dream. Dreamlike I tell you. Seriously.

Also, I'd like to welcome Mr. Holman's class up there on the hill of Paradise. Thanks for looking on! We also have some comments from Mr. Hull's class. I posted those.
Don't forget to look up! Love it! It's important.
Yes, I commented in today's blog about the need to sometimes remove or change the natural fauna through management, we here believe, as I'm sure Mr. Hull does, that it's important to be stewards of our planet, and sometimes removing a tree seem contradictory to that, but we have to think about long run health and use. Good stuff.

As for the fires changes the mammal and insect population, that is a wonderful example of how energy in Earth's systems are affected by each other and interconnected. We had a short discussion here about the increase or decrease of rodents due to fires: we feel that the population overall would likely go down this year because of lack of vegetation, but in years to come would increase because there will be a lot of low growth. There also will be open space which is bad for the little guys to hide. Finally, the shrew eats bugs, so that species will have some good eats, however the lack of safe cover is still an issue until a couple of years role on by. Naturally, as these populations change, they change the success of the critters that predate on them: hawks, snakes, etc. It's a big web of life!

Riley, no, I won't bring you Canadian bacon home. It's just ham, go get yourself some.
Savannah, the similar things to Chico aren't really that many. I would say this is VERY similar to our California coastal areas, but not so much to Chico, other than the fact that we see many of the same mammals in our area. But weather wise and terrain is mostly like California coast lines. Good Question!

Check my ppembroke videos at youtube if you like, there are some there that aren't here. Careful with youtube though, you never know about that site. It's been very helpful to us here to get our video loaded, this blog doesn't work smoothly for that stuff sometimes, but you have to be careful with content on youtube. Search for ppembroke and you'll find all of mine.

Keep doing your personal best on our state tests! Remember that the answer is on the page, just do your best to find it!~ Have a super day! Mr. P

Tuesday, April 21st EARTH DAY

2009-04-21T15:48:00.000-07:00

Hey
there students of the world! How did testing go? I hope you are reaching deeply into your noggin and doing your absolute best to perform to the best of your ability. That's what I hope.

Today is Earth Day my friends! Please do some nice things for Mother Earth today. A little garbage pick up perhaps? Hug a tree maybe? How about singing Natural Resources?

To answer a few questions for both my students (thanks Alyssa for your concern) and Mr. Hull's students in Paradise:
My foot is feeling much better...I'm sure I just strained it after about 20 miles of hiking!
Mr. Hull's student gave a great post; I put those comments on the previous day, check it out! In a nutshell, we have learned that the ticks here aren't dangerous, and even with all the ticks on us as a team the other day, none of us got bitten. However, take a look at a picture below and notice my pants and socks. Great ideas also about how if summers are longer, we'd see a change in how the food web works, and an increase perhaps in disease, insects, and other negative changes. That being said, we are seeing an interesting change here and Dr. Newman commented yesterday that some critters try to make an early start on Spring. They get active, come out and try to feed, but then they get caught by the bad weather that moves in. This tends to weed out the weaker ones maybe, but it's a great example of animals being affected by changes that take place in climate.
We picked up owl pellets today too. We've seen many garter snakes. We know there are voles and mice. We've been counting deer and hare droppings. There are many, many coyote droppings. Could you draw a food web diagram? Of course you could. What animals are in Bidwell Park, in our food web, that I didn't mention? See, there are some differences!!

Great speaking with you kids this afternoon. I'm hoping you all are enjoying the blog, the skyping, and the fact that I'm not yelling at you all the time! Hah hah!!

I do miss you all though, as Alyssa asked. It's very nice to have a home base, it simply just feels good. This is quite an adventure here, but I'm looking forward to normal home activities....well, as normal as you might expect from me!

Here's some pictures from today:

If those videos don't work for you at school, or whatever, just go to youtube and search for ppembroke and you'll find all of my videos. I've never used youtube before so the ones I've made are strictly related to this Earthwatch experience.

Next: Comment on the pictures.

Ex: Why are my pants tucked in my socks?
Mr. Long Voelkner and I were making some hiking trails. We were cutting some new trails and we had to cut down some big trees. We're sitting on the tree we just cut. We've used the hand saw. Earthwatch wants us using hand tools, and that is perfectly understanable. What tool would we have rather had?
There's a tick on a finger. That tick came off my pants. It is a wood tick. Are they a dangerous tick to humans?
The group is gathering in the clearing to pull a vole out of a trap. You can't see that it is raining. We're all rather damp at this point. If it rains when we have field trips, we'll go anyway. List the things that you'll want to have so you can be comfortable. And by the way, I was comfortable because I had the right gear!
The English Quadrat Poles really did come from England. They are a two meters in length. That's two times the meter stick I use in class all the time in the front of the room. Why are they meters and not yards?

By By.

Monday the 20th

2009-04-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

The food is good here, but I'm always just a little hungry.
We went to Cook's Lake today. This property is a long term study site and is a mixture of grassland and woods. Interestingly, the woods aren't old growth because most of Nova Scotia was logged centuries ago. So, they create interesting habitat and opportunities to measure mammal populations and success in comparative habitat.

We learned some great things about horns and antlers and adaptations for these. You MUST see the video that Mr. Wignall has done. Skulls can teach so much, if you'll just try and watch their jaws move!

A must see:
Part One of Skulls of Knowledge
Part Two of Skulls of Knowledge

Here is a little video about the hemlock forest we hiked in yesterday:

This is a video of us in the grassland trapping grid.

The ticks were all over us yesterday. They are wood ticks, so they're not dangerous to us, it's just creepy having them on you. I'm going to wear more white today so I can see them easier when they are on me. I haven't been bitten so far!

You could help me by researching ticks a little and let me know some facts about wood ticks vs. deer ticks.

If you can't see the videos, you're missing out, so be sure to go to youtube and find them. You'll find them easily by searching for ppembroke.

Have a super day. It's supposed to rain here today, which is a bit of a bummer! Oh well, the science must go on! See ya!

Halifax/Kejimkujik

2009-04-19T15:19:00.000-07:00

Please Enjoy!

This is me, counting hare poop. Seriously. One at a time. As a team we counted 4,811 pooplets. We collected all of these pooplets (that's my word by the way, I own it) on 3 sections (ten meter by ten meter). What was the average amount of pooplets per section? What is the area of a section?
Each of these sections is one-onehundredth of a hectare. A hectare is a 100m by 100m of land. It's about 2.2 acres. So, about how many pooplets would you expect to find on a hectare?

The weekend of wonders.

We spent yesterday in Halifax. It's a large city by a bay/inlet. I hope you like my photo next to the boat! Can you name that boat?Today we spent the day hiking around Kejimkujik National Park. This is much like our national parks, with many trails, picnic areas, and signs to read to learn new things. We went on a six mile hike. Here is a fellow teammember, Mr. Wignal standing next to a hemlock tree. These hemlocks are in an old growth area. Some of the trees were several hundred years old. This particular tree, as you can see, adapted to an situation where erosion did its part. Can you explain how erosion played a part in this odd situation?
Also, we did a lot of deer dropping counting to make predictions about the deer numbers in the park. I found a lot of poop today! Yippee. I'll tell you this much, I feel very confident in identifying various types of poop. And in the case of deer poop, I probably could get pretty close to telling you how old it is!

It's tiring to walk about 5 or 6 miles each day. I'm really not used to that. To be honest, I have a sprained foot at this point. I don't really know how I did it. I think it was on some rocks on the ocean. I don't really know. I'll tell you that I'm really, really glad I have some good hiking shoes. That was one of your points about safe hiking right? Good shoes?

Weird, I've never seen a sign like this. Tree huggers.

Hey, all you kids. All this week. Say positive things. Get good sleep. Eat healthy foods. Do your absolute best on the exams! You can do this! You are good. Remember that the correct answer is on the page. Just do your best to get the correct one!

Thursday, Porcupine Spotted!

2009-04-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

Yippee! We saw a real live porcupine today. It was walking in a person's front yard. It was probably about 40 pounds, basically the size of a medium dog. It was cool!

We caught more small mammals, measured and released them. We'll have a data analysis tomorrow and I'll share that on Monday.

Just for fun, Mr. Wolfe, one of our team members here, was testing us with riddles. One of those riddles was this: Why are all manhole covers round?

Now at first, this seems silly post, but it is actually a geometry question. I'll leave it to you all to solve. Let us know!

Did you know that we teachers here are sharing all of our material and energy with each other. This makes it fun, interesting, and builds a sense of community that we are all sharing our learning here with all of you.

So, I'd love to see you all look at the other teachers blogs. If you go to www.earthwatch2.org/lff/buesching09_team1 then click on meet the team and begin looking at the other teachers' blogs. You've now met most of them, so that's kind of cool anyway!

As for some questions to answer.
Alyssa, I love the humor! Thanks for making me smile with your comment!

Mr. Hull's class...you are definitely on the manhole cover idea, and in fact it sounds as though you took exactly the same strategy line I did. Since you didn't blurt the answer, I went ahead and posted your comment. Thanks for your discretion. Now you have given a nice hint too

Some other questions came my way. They were no names. I probably won't post a no name, so be aware of that. I most likely won't post much in the way of particularly poor grammar. A few mistakes is acceptable. Starting with a lower case letter, missing punctuation, AND misspellings, amount to 3 major problems in what I would consider only 5 major things in a sentence. My students should know the 5 major things of a sentence. I'll tell you what, you could get your comments posted IF you tell us those 5 things, use those 5 in your sentence, AND sign it!!

You didn't know you'd get a grammar lecture!

We're having some problems posting pictures, so I'll keep trying on that. Meanwhile, you can access our Earthwatch team's community page that we are using to look at pictures and video of all of us in action. We all share this page and you'll see things that all of us have loaded up.
Get ready......wait for it.....here it comes......

Earthwatch Team Community Page

Hey, great idea just popped up! Mr. Wignall suggested this and I believe this is a super-de-duper idea! (Mr. Wignall is a teacher in Minnesota. He teaches middle school.)

Go to my other teammembers blogs.
Look around and READ stuff.
Think of a question that would be good to ask that teacher.
Tell ME your question through my blog.
If I think it is a standout question, I'll video tape the teacher answering YOUR question using YOUR name and I'll post that video.

Have a wonderful Friday!!!! I'm off to check traps and track poop!

2009-04-15T19:11:00.000-07:00

This study is really trying to understand the population density of any mammals in a section of area of Nova Scotia. In this case we are trapping mice and voles. The idea is that these scientists can make some determinations about how healthy and strong the population is and how it is affected by changes in climate. You see, when the climate changes, it affects the timing of mammals and their habits. An example is that if Spring weather is erratic the mice may not be prepared for this in how they store their winter cubbards and therefore could be unprepared and die off more. Studies like these take years to see a pattern and create graphs that tell a story.

Another good point that we learned in tonight's lecture is that if the climate warms, then less snow is accumulating, which allow the dear to populate the area more, which allows them to spread (not intentionally of course) the brain worm to the moose. If harsher winters existed more, the deer wouldn't do as well as the moose. The moose has evolved to handle snow better in that it is very tall. The deer of course are small and lean and wouldn't do so well with a lot of snow.

So you see, climate plays an incredible role in how mammals interact and react!

Sometimes the mice and vole traps attract a chipmunk or squirrel. These fellas will bite hard, so our scientist leader got it out of the trap. I released it to the wild again.

Mr. Hull's Class: I wanted to be sure to address your specifics. I suspect that others are thinking the same!
. Are you shaving every day? Nahh, every couple of days. A couple of the team members are having a race to a beard, but alas, not me.
2. Are your students being nice to your substitute? Well, I think so. I hope so. But that is a question for Mrs. McNulty.
3. About how many mice per square mile do you think are about your area? I just spoke with Dr. Buesching about this question. She said it is really difficult to tell yet. Here's the thing. On Friday we will have collected data for three days. After that, we'll have a good handle on estimations. As for your earlier question as to whether the mice population is decreasing overall, she said it is really too early to tell. Studies like this take years. After maybe ten years of data, those bigger generalizations can be made. So think about this: maybe some of you could come on an Earthwatch expedition to Nova Scotia and continue the work and data collection that we are doing right now! The badger studies that these two scientists are doing in England have gone on for about twenty years. That's some good data collecting! Of course, the more data you get, the closer to the truth you get and the more accurate your predictions of future events would be.
4. Do you think if the mice are dying, that many of the other animals higher on the chain will die, or their population get smaller? Great, thoughtful idea here. Naturally, there are only so many resources available to any one species. If the mice population explodes, they might eventually put a strain on the seed and insect population (they are omnivores). If they do this, then eventually they won't have enough food to support their numbers and begin to put a strain on their population. Babies will die, few will survive winter. Furthermore, the more that are out and about, the more that will become prey to fox, coyote, snakes, and birds of prey. So, we'll naturally see cycle. The big question is: are there changes in these cycles due to pressure from climate change that could potentially eradicate a species altogether.

Check this out: the coyote here in Nova Scotia is really a hybrid (what's that?) of an American Wolf and coyote. The some time the wolf moved north and didn't have wolves to breed with. So, since they are the same species (remember that only like species can have babies) they bred with coyotes. These mix pups moved toward Nova Scotia, and their larger size and strength was the perfect adaption to this environment. They are strong hunters and because of their larger size they can handle the cold better. So, the coyote that is here, is a coyote, but it is special. It's bigger than our coyotes. These are more like a large dog. We've analyzed and seen a lot of coyote poop. You see hair and bones in it. Otherwise it looks similar to dog poop. Neato.
5. Do you miss Schubert's Ice Cream? Funny. Dr. Newman loves icecream. So every evening after dinner he gets about five cartons of Nova Scotian made ice cream out. To be honest, I don't eat a lot of icecream and I haven't even tried it. Maybe I'll try some just for you! So no, I don't really miss Schubert's.

Sincerely,
Mr. Hull's 5th Graders Thanks guys!!! Keep thinking!

Here is the release of our captured chipmunk. He was a little angry and anxious to get out of the bag!

Here

Tyler and Tyler

2009-04-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

Hi guys! Hey, I love your answer to the mouse issue. You are spot on of course, but I was wondering what animals would be a mouse's predator? You don't need to answer that on this if you don't want, but just something for you to think about.

Next, you are spot on with your answer for the tree root! Mechanical weathering is the answer! Ding, ding, ding, ding!

Thanks guys! Mr. Pembroke

2009-04-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Hey, great talking with you all yesterday. I think we can make this happen several times through the weeks ahead.

Now, I need to get some feedback from you all on my questions from yesterday. So I'll wait patiently on that. However, I feel the need to show you what we were doing today.

By the way, the sun came out! It seems it will be sunny for several days. Yippee!
This is a picture of our Principal Investigator (Scientist) Dr. Buesching, teaching us (Mr. P the student here!) how to set up the mouse traps so the little babies won't be hurt!
Ok. Here ya go. Mice population is very important. I know, it doesn't seem like mice are all that big of a deal.....get it? BIG of a deal? Anyway, we need to reset our thinking to the food web and how energy is transferred through Earth's systems through sunlight, photosynthesis, decomposers, scavengers, and of course, higher things on the food web. So, a mouse is quite high on the food web when you think of it. I mean, what if you were a seed? You'd feel that a mouse is quite large. Ok, my new friend Mrs. Tang, says, "No, a mouse is quite low on the food chain." And guess what? She's right! She's a fourth grade teacher in Maraga, Ca., near Berkeley. So we're the only two Californians on this expedition!

1. Ok then. Think about this. What if all of the mice were eradicated? What could happen to our natural environment? This is a question about how energy transfers through Earth's system. So, in your field journal, jot down "real" thoughts on how predators and prey systems would change if the mouse population were to fall off radically. Think about what eats mice and maybe eat what eats those predators.

Out in the actual forest, team A was me and Mrs. Tang, the California Connection, we were setting out our traps on a pre-determined grid.
2. Each trap needed to be about 20 yards apart in a relatively straight line. Two traps needed to be by each other. We had twenty traps. How many total yards were needed?
3. Tomorrow, we hope for some catches and some pictures of actual critters!!! Watch the video below and tell me what you notice is real science and accurate about it and what is sort of made up.

And by the way, we have some other schools with us. Evergreen in Paradise is watching closely. I'd like to welcome Mr. Hull and Mr. Holman's class.

The Oceanfront 5 mile hike

2009-04-13T16:15:00.002-07:00

Hi all. Today we had class in the morning. We learned about the history of our scientists mammal research from England, then to here in Nova Scotia. Mammals are their expertise, but they are clearly very intelligent people. Both of them have their doctorate degrees. They know a lot about this whole area as well, from geology and oceanography.

They both work for the Wild CRU, the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit from Oxford University, United Kingdom. (England) They work in conjunction with Earthwatch to get volunteers to help them conduct their research.

In the afternoon we went on a five mile walk. We spent much of our time identifying mammal droppings: poop. We looked, we smelled, we thought. We learned how to spot them and all about the various animals that inhabit the area.

Solve the following problems or questions in your field journals. Organize a comment with other students to return to me with the proper answers please. Ask a good question for me to answer for you too! Please use good grammar and spelling!
So, above is a picture of a tree that is missing a section of bark.
1. What mammal of Nova Scotia did this to this tree? (beaver, deer, marten, porcupine, skunk, or moose) hint: considered a large rodent.
2. What did they do with the bark?
3. Does this animal live in California?
4. This particular animal is not usually agressive because it has a unique way of defending itself. What is this defense mechanism?
5. Find out how many babies this animal has and how often.

Here's my new friend, Mr. Gasteazoro....don't call him Mr. G! He doesn't like it. Here's a picture of him doing serious scientific research.....enjoy. mmmmmmm.

This was otter poop. These are river otters around here, not ocean otters.

It went between sunny and snowing today. We got snowed on a lot as well as hailed on. The other California teacher and I were commenting that this coastline reminds us of California coastline. We truly are lucky in California. We have desert, desserts, ocean, volcanoes, and snow-capped mountains! Not to mention we have the only ecosystem where old growth ancient redwoods still grow and thrive. Lucky, lucky us. Really. Seriously. Dude.

6. Here's a tree root doing something. What is it doing?

Listen you kids. This poop searching isn't all fun and games. I actually am missing my family, routine, and hometown quite a lot. It's very weird for me to have you all at school, business as usual, without me. I really like that I can connect like this and I hope you like it too. I also hope that you take it seriously and take this opportunity to really learn some cool things about our planet!

7. Use your previous science knowledge to tell what this tree and its root are doing to this rock in the picture above.

Ok. Tomorrow we begin setting up traps for mice and other small mammals. More for me, and you, to learn! Yippee!

Hey, remember that you can access all of this from home!

Hey, you're making me think of a song, do you know what that song is????? Tell me in your comments back!

Have a super day, and don't be too suprised if I crank call you!!! Mr. P By the way, I was candidly caught in nature....

The Team Gathers

2009-04-12T18:40:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the Halifax airport. It was a rainy day here. We took a couple of hour ride to Cherry Hill where the two houses are that we are staying in. Nova Scotia is beautiful and reminds me a bit of our California coastline.

Tomorrow we begin work on planning and do some hiking to begin practicing our tracking efforts. By Tuesday we set up traps and begin the process of counting and marking mammals! Hopefully I'll have some pictures of me with the critters.

Our team is a group of teachers from around America. They seem like great people and are clearly excited about their jobs. It is evident that we've all come here with the same motivation: to make learning more real by being out in the field do real science and sharing this with our students.

Our scientists, Chris, told us that the deer population has wiped out much of the moose population here because of a parasite that is transferred through mollusks and snails. The deer and moose eat the grass and sometimes they get a snail along for the ride. The deer have brought this here. The deer are immune to the "brain worm" but the this parasite kills moose.

See what you can find out about this "brain worm." This is just one example of how one species can affect another in a very negative way! Create a blog comment with Mrs. McNulty's guidance to tell me what you've found out.

McNulty and SPY in the House!

2009-04-09T18:25:00.000-07:00

Good news today! Mrs. McNulty and Mrs. SPY met with me today to go over the plan for the coming two weeks. We have a lot of cool things we'll be doing, and I will put it upon myself to come up with some great connections, activities, and ideas from Nova Scotia.

We practiced using Skype and the webcam and talked with my family at home. Mrs. SPY had her little Emma with her and my wife and daughters loved seeing her on the computer. Hopefully we'll schedule a couple of webtalks over the coarse of the two weeks.

I was bragging about your pop-up books to these two teachers. I'm hoping that you make some progress on them while I'm gone. I downloaded our bicycling field trip pictures into the science dropbox so you can use them for your erosion and weathering pop-up.

I thought you might like looking at the map. I fly into Halifax, and then we'll be working down near Liverpool. Reminds me of the Beatles!

More to come!

Wednesday of Spring Break

2009-04-08T09:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome aboard Mr. Hull and students!! It's great to know that other classrooms are checking in and maybe learning a few things about our natural environment through my Earthwatch travels.

By the way, if you all take a look at the Meet the Team tab of earthwatch2.org/lff/buesching09_team1 you'll be able to access the blog pages of all of the teachers on the team and since we're all spread across the U.S. you'll get some cool info. from everyone. It's worth a peek!

Make it a great day folks!

Friday Before Spring Break-Research

2009-04-03T16:18:00.000-07:00

Hi there all! So we spent some time today doing some research on the Earthwatch website to learn about the mission of Earthwatch Institute. I'm hoping you kids can navigate the website and learn from reading the various topics. Also, since we finished our big bike trip we can make some connections to the local habitat and the various animals that make our community and specifically our park their home!

What critters are common in Bidwell Park?
What bird of prey did we see? What are three adaptations of birds of prey?
What animals are common in our park that are a bit of a danger to hikers?

Also, my family and I went to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park last weekend. This is the same campground that we'll do our end of the year camping trip at. Realize that while it is a long drive to get there, the old growth redwood forest only grows in this general area. We'll see the tallest living creatures on the planet! Think about and maybe even learn about the environment that makes this area special for redwood success.

Skyping Baby!

2009-03-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

Good news here! Played with some web video calling on Skype from home and got it working in o.k. fashion. We're getting there!! Next steps are to get it working in the classroom and from the laptop I'll be taking along with me on the expedition. More to come!

Erosion and Weathering

2009-03-12T19:45:00.000-07:00

We're currently studying how water is the main agent of change on the Earth.

What bodies of water are around Nova Scotia?
Would you expect there to be many streams, creeks, and rivers?
How does the terrain compare to the area we live in?
Is there evidence of glacial scarring in the area?

Hmmm. Good thoughts. You should think about them.

Thoughts To Begin

2009-03-09T13:19:00.000-07:00

Well, well friends. Here's where we'll be spending some time sharing ideas and gathering information. I look forward to have interaction between Nova Scotia and in Chico in our classroom.