Saturday, September 24, 2011

How I Embarrassed Myself...For SCIENCE!

Time for one of those anecdotes I mentioned. I came across an e-mail I sent to one of my friends last year, to which she responded "you should have a blog, and this should be your first post." I took her advice on the blog, so maybe I should follow up by posting the story I told her. It has nothing to do with children, but it might provide amusement and falls under the category of science-themed. I hope you do enjoy it. (Includes mild edits for audience and anonymity)

I was a post-grad on campus for some errand or another, wandering on a busted knee, when I found a great opportunity to embarrass myself for the sake of science.

I happened to see a bird, sadly deceased, lying by the science building. One can only assume it met a tragic end with a plate glass window. My second immediate thought (after "oh no!") was of the windowsill of one of my former housemates. She had to learn taxidermy for one of her wildlife classes, and I had seen the final result in her room, two beautifully stuffed birds. As I looked at this intact specimen before me, thinking of that class project, I said to myself, said I, "Someone, somewhere will want this bird!" Thus my quest began.

I found a newspaper in the building and make-shifted...make-shaft...created a bird baggie. Ready for transport! It struck me then that all of my contacts in the dead bird world were in the natural science building. At the time this particular building was undergoing renovations to make it green, so it was a giant rubble fest. I proceeded to the next best option: the life science building. I went for the office. As I stammered out my purpose and attempted to negate the presence of the paper purse I was wielding, I suppose I should have taken this as my first sign that I am, in fact, a crazy lady. But I was committed now (no pun intended.) Office Lady directed me to a professor, with whom I had never had the pleasure of acquaintance, who she thought might be interested. Upon meeting him, he quickly informed me he was in mammology...thus...why on Earth was I offering him a bird?!?! Well, maybe the indignation was in my head...Either way, he said he'd give the bird to the ornithology professor. As he saw my face perk up, he realized I knew this man and thus he could save himself some trouble. Instead of going himself, he'd just send me on the next leg of my quest: the quest for Dr. Ornithology!

I kicked myself for not thinking of Dr. Ornithology first, but it is understandable. While I had a lot of friends who were, I was not in wildlife biology. I knew the doctor by reputation and sight, but not from actual contact. It didn't help that he is one of those people that is so intelligent and cool, I always wished he knew who I was. Well, I guess this was my chance!

This quest was made more treacherous by the fact that this professor usually resides in the “pile of rubble” building. However, the seemingly most difficult leg turned out to be the smoothest. Get ready for the denouement people! Dr. Mammology directed me to the agricultural science building where I immediately bumped into the secretary of my favorite professor, and we were only 3 doors down from the aforementioned's new office. And he was THERE. This never happens to me. I proceeded to interrupt his meeting with a querulous-looking freshman to hand him a dead bird.

I also had a bit of a fangirl moment when he said he remembered me. I guess I have a reputation as well. And it's not as a crazed bird-bag lady...yet.

He ran down the bird's identification with me: it was a black-throated green warbler, either in fall plumage or female since the colors were not vivid.

Later I told this story to my taxidermist friend, and she laughed saying she knew that bird. She had also gone to campus, later that day, and was surprised when she dropped in on Dr. Ornithology and he handed her a bird to identify in order to test her skills. How's that for coincidence?

Thus ends the story of how I limped around campus offering strangers a dead bird in a newspaper baggie. I feel privileged to be part of a select group of people who, on perceiving the stimulus of a dead animal, think “Someone can USE this!”

...and not in the “roadkill soup” way...

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Mount Philo

On Saturday my lovely friend and I took her children for their first hike up a mountain. We chose Mount Philo, since it would not be too hard for the children and, although it is small, it has lovely views.

As we gamboled through the woods, I was pleased to hear the children chattering about the plants around them. The little lady saw a dead tree with many holes in it and proclaimed it a snag. She remembered from our last hike that "Woodpeckers make the holes." Why? "To find insects." What happens to the holes when they are done? "Other animals move in." Not bad for 6 months later!

Near the beginning of the hike we came across such a beautiful specimen of ash, I'll admit I got over-excited. I love ashes, how they shoot up so straight and tall right through the rest of the trees until the top is invisible behind the canopy. The bark is so distinctive with its oblong hexagonal diamonds.

Diamonds!

Thus, inadvertently, this was my pet tree for this hike. We also saw some white pines, which had not been forgotten from last time either. The young gentleman and the little lady counted out the needles for me, 5 per bundle, just like I promised.

This hike was pretty magical in terms of things to see. We discovered fairy homes, tree scars and burls, rocks that had been moved by glaciers, and various types of mushrooms speckled everywhere.

A fairy home

We discussed how sometimes we see a lot of one type of mushroom spread out over an area. It may look like individual mushrooms, but actually they are connected by root-like mycelia that run under their feet. After all my talk of not overwhelming the children with information, here I am discussing glacial erratics and mycelial mats! Luckily for me, the little lady ate it up (though not literally, since the mushrooms were toxic) and the young gentleman was content to listen while he faced the obstacles of roots and rocks our long-legged bodies barely registered.

View of Lake Champlain from the overlook

The children were amazing, never complaining, always pushing toward their goal of reaching the top. And we were all rewarded when we got there, as you can see. Since the children did so well, we told them we want to hike another mountain. We want to do Snake Mountain next (slightly larger than Philo, but the children proved themselves!)

Showing the children the next mountain we'll hike, Snake Mountain. Wait, hold on...

that one!

On the way down we found some patches of jewelweed, otherwise known as touch-me-not. I'd shown the kids this plant before, so they were very excited.

Pale jewelweed

For your information, not only are the leaves good for insect bites and poison ivy, but the mature seed pods burst to the touch, shooting seeds like they were spring-loaded! It happens to be the right time of year, and there were plenty of good, ripe, bean-looking pods.

"I love exploding touch-me-not!" ~The little lady

Sunday, September 18, 2011

I Hate Nature

This summer I led a nature program at a camp in southern California. Among other activities I would lead several nature walks every day, each time with a new group of kids. These kids mostly grew up in Los Angeles county and some were unenthused, if not downright scared, by exploring nature.

To me, one of the most cringe-worthy statements that leaves a child's mouth is "I hate _______". Be it snakes, spiders, dirt, mud, etc. Let me tell you, I heard it a lot at camp. Children tend to be pretty quick to judge what they don't understand,. The good news is, they are quick to turn around as well. This statement creates a teachable moment, and a little bit of information can go a long way here.

Before leaving on these walks I would briefly address the fact that everything in nature is connected in ways we don't always see at first glance. On the walk it was pretty typical to hear many complaints about flies buzzing near their ears. Then, inevitably, we would run into a spider. The reactions varied: some children were petrified, others disgusted, one or two wanted to step on it or get me to. I would first remind the children that the spider is outside, we are in its home, so we should leave it alone. Besides, this type of spider is harmless to humans. In fact, it is on our team: it is working hard to get rid of those pesky flies. You can take it a step farther and say that spiders are food for birds, so we need them to have beautiful birds around. The kids I talked to generally knew these things from class, but had never connected it to the actual world around them

It is easy to get people in general to care about what we call "charismatic megafauna" (basically, if it's cute and looks cuddly.) It is more difficult to work on the rest, especially if we ourselves are not very comfortable with the animal in question. No matter what we think of it though, it's important to instill in our children the respect for life.

Friday, September 16, 2011

An Early Spring Day

I am lucky to live near some diverse natural areas. One of these is a bog which you can walk into via a boardwalk and see some interesting carnivorous plants. I went out there one day this spring with my friend and her children.

On the hike in, through the woods, I chose one or two plants to point out to the kids. I chose ones I knew were interesting and would be memorable for specific reasons. Take the example of white pine. The needles are much different from any other evergreen in the area, long and thin, so it would be easy for them to recognize. Also the kids could enjoy counting off the 5 needles per bunch that identify white pine from the other pines.

Counting needles with the children

I chose to use only one or maybe two trees as an example in order to give the kids a taste of tree identification without overwhelming them, or having them become bored with the idea. As we walked through the forest I was able to point to white pines and say "What kind of tree is this?". The children would run up to count bunches in order to be sure before informing me it was their new friend the white pine. They were so excited to know this and had such satisfaction in exhibiting their new skills, they will remember that and want to learn the next tree when we go hiking again.

On the boardwalk

Once we got to the bog I got to teach the kids about carnivorous plants and why some plants need to get their nutrients from food, like we do, rather than soil like other plants. As you can see it was still early spring with a lot of dormant plants, but we did get to see several lovely pitcher plants. The children really enjoyed it, they were so psyched about the nature walk they asked us to take them to another park before going home.

On our second adventure of the day we walked through the woods to a beach on the lake, which was beautiful and still slightly iced over. Again, I chose one vocabulary word to bring home. When the little lady pointed out a standing dead tree, I let her know she could call it a "snag" and how important it was for wildlife. Later on the hike she saw another, "What's this, it's a sn...what's the word?" After that first reminder she had it down and was pointing out every snag she found.

Then we found a big sheet of birch paper and made it the rest of the way back jumping over residual snowbanks!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Introduction

I have seen the way a child's eyes light up when they witness a miracle happen in nature. When a butterfly emerges from a chrysalis, when they hear the cracks as they step on a frozen puddle, or even just when they can find two different leaves lying side-by-side on the ground. Children display a passion for learning about the natural word around them, which is easy enough to spark just by stepping into a backyard or a park. The key is to catch quick teachable moments in a child's outdoor play, which is naturally curious exploration, and make sure to take advantage of them.

I have been grabbing hold of these opportunities with children in my life, giving them information to help guide their thoughts as they play and delve deeper into their nature investigations. As I'm moving forward, taking on more children in after-school programs, I want to make these themes and methods available for others to adopt, adapt, or at least find amusement with my anecdotes. As I explore and play with these children and our beautiful Vermont landscape I will post my adventures, which I hope can give you inspiration to guide more explayration in your children's everyday lives.