Research Grant Approved!

Congratulations to Terran- the first Bear Creek Explorer to write a grant for his forest science project and get it approved! We submitted the grant a few weeks back, heard back quickly from the Diack Ecology Education Program that they wanted to support Terran’s project, and this week, the new equipment arrived. Terran is studying soil and wanted a way to measure soil moisture and temperature.

Together, we went through the process of deciding what equipment he would need and how much it would cost, then wrote a grant explaining what funds were needed and why. Many thanks to Diack for their ongoing support of student research, and to Terran for having the interest, focus, and initiative to try for something well outside the scope of a typical fifth-grade education!

With new equipment to test out, much of the team jumped in, making guesses about which was higher: air temp or soil temp? Also, was the soil warmer in the meadow or the forest? Soil moisture was a whole other area to explore, with some initial surprises about how dry the forest soil was. What about mud from the creek? That was a different story. The exercise allowed us to talk about confidence levels and repeatability.

Did you guess that the soil is colder than the air? Or that the forest soil is slightly warmer than the meadow soil? These were preliminary tests to get familiar with the equipment- stay tuned for a deeper analysis as Terran’s project progresses.

Simon wanted to make some time this week to look for mushrooms, which was a seasonally appropriate request. He brought the classic David Arora book, All the Rain Promises and More, and found a fellow mushroom enthusiast to help identify a nearby beauty.

Ru discovered that he could extract fiber from the dying ferns near the stream, and soon had some helpers harvesting a local source of fiber for cordage. How strong will it be when it dries? We’re not sure yet, but there’s now a good collection curing in the lodge.

I typed up some tree data last week and shared a print-out of what we have so far on Plot #3. Annabella is focusing on trees for her forest science project, and she got to work reviewing what we have so far and thinking about what further measurements are needed.

For skill time this week, I introduced navigation using a compass. Specifically, we learned about the cardinal directions, why the Earth has a magnetic field, and how to take a bearing. After we got the basic concepts down, most of the team played a game designed to practice taking and following a bearing.

It was also my birthday this week, and Simon surprised me with a delicious piece of cake for snack time. Plus, Bear Creek delivered what I’ve come to expect: a beautiful display of Amanita muscaria.

I finally have a small set of old smartphones cleared and ready to be research phones. They are for taking photos, GPS coordinates, using the Verneir equipment and the Merlin app. I let some of the BCEs use them to take mushroom photos this week, and boy did they take some good ones! It was hard to pick one, but the banner for this week’s blog is a student photo. But I don’t know who took it! If you’re reading this, leave a comment and take credit for your work.