MOSS Day 3

Hello Families,

Today was a wonderful day at MOSS!  We started the day with a mid-week crew meeting to revisit our individual and crew goals.  After our crew activities we prepped for the fieldwork and hit the trail.  Each group sampled 5 plots (each plot is 2,500 sq feet), and as a total crew we sampled 35 plots today.  What was really impressive to me was that every single crew member was effectively collaborating and working through challenges.  The weather wasn’t quite as bad as yesterday, but we still had to work through some snowy conditions.  There was a really wonderful moment today where we were all spread out at one of the research sites.  It was pretty cold and snowing, but all I could see and hear were our young scientists hard at work (and enjoying it).  After a couple hours of sustained work there was a break in the clouds and when the sun came out, all I could here were the sounds of whoops and yays echoing through the forest.  This lasted for about 10 seconds, and when the sun went away, they all got right back to work!  I thought about that moment for a little while and what I realized was that these kids were completely invested in what they were doing, had a moment of thankfulness for the sunshine, and then had the responsibility to get back to work.  I think this is a wonderful example of crew and grit!   

 

MOSS Day 2

Greetings Families,


We made it down to McCall and are really getting down to business!  Yesterday we filled the afternoon with CREW activities, team building initiatives, and goal setting.  We are really focusing this trip around effective ways to communicate.  In fact, we came up with a crew learning target that we are striving to accomplish by Friday: I can effectively communicate with my crew mates both academically and personally. 

A close up of our scale fire experiments.

Today we woke up to a cold snowy day.  We spent the morning working through a fire behavior workshop. This was a really cool lesson that incorporated previous work with the scientific process and fire behavior.  After finishing our scale fire experiments we set up and sampled a practice plot.  This was a big challenge as it was snowing and sleeting quite heavily.  After completing the activity we had a really nice reflection session on our successes, failures, and strategies for improvement. 



 

Tobias and Liam running their first scale test.

Kaylee and Jonna collecting data.

Rhett, Anna, and Lauren running their first scale test.

Noah, Hannah, and Sophia testing the effect of topography and ground fuels on fire behavior.

Ashton, Taylor, and Sarah setting up a test.

Getting ready to set up full scale research plots.

Tobias reviewing data.

Kaylee and Jonna conducting a fuel survey

Lena scribing data.

Noah, Sophia, and Hannah collecting DBH data.

Cathan, Tony, and Lena wrapping up their plot.

Spring Expedition is Underway!

Hello Families!
We are now getting into the groove of our spring expedition, and I'm sure your child has told you all about some of the things we have been doing.  We are studying fire ecology and tree identification.  Specifically, we are looking at the primary factors that influence fire behavior, how different conifer species survive and recolonize during post fire succession, and how the varying stages of secondary succession are classified.  For our final product we will be conducting a wildland fire risk assessment for Idler's Rest Preserve and Ponderosa State Park.  The photos from class were taken during a math work shop on statistical questions and data analysis.  Our fieldwork at the arboretum was to work on distinguishing between the various genera of conifers.

students sorting fuels according to moisture class

Cathan and Taylor thinking up a statistical question for needle lengths.

Rhett and Anna testing a statistical question.

Jeremiah and Jordyn analyzing the cones of two genera.

Cathan collecting genus data at the Arboretum.

Hannah and Kayley discovering the defining characteristics of the genus Picea.

Taylor identifying a sample of Pseudotsuga

Sophia collecting data on Thuja.

6th CREW final product work

Hello Families!
We have been working very hard this past week to finish up our fall expedition final product.  As you know, last week we traveled down to Sweetwater Creek.  At our field site we worked closely with the Nez Perce Water Quality Coordinator, Restoration Manager, Botanist, and several field technicians to asses the current water quality and vegetative conditions.  This was a very fruitful day for us, as we collected both quantitative and qualitative data pertinent to our restoration project.  This week we have been processing the data, and writing up a formal management plan for the section of Sweetwater Creek we will be working with.  This plan spans the next three years, so the next two sixth CREWs will be maintaining the work conducted this year, as well as developing additional restoration sites.

morning briefing between the experts and our CREW

A typical section of Sweetwater Creek (notice the lack of native vegetation)

Hannah collecting initial qualitative data

This field is a primary restoration site for our CREW.  Our restoration plan's goal is to restore this entire field with native vegetation.

Macro Invertebrate collection

more macro invertebrate collecting

Lauren collecting instream samples of macros

Noah recording pH data

in-class analyses and synthesis of Sweetwater Creek data

CREW synthesizing the restoration plan

Water quality and ideal steelhead conditions group collaborating to synthesize the field data from SWC.

Collaboration between the short term/long term timeline group and the field logistics group.  It was imperative that groups communicate effectively. 

Sara analyzing satellite imagery of SWC

Synthesizing this management plan required a lot of critique and revision

To celebrate our academic accomplishments we held the first annual 'Economic Growth Day' .... as you can see, we are quite the serious bunch

MOSS Field Group 2 Recap

Hello Again!
So I'm sure that some of you noticed that most of the pictures I have posted were from one field group.  This is a direct result of me being with one group during the day.  I just received photos from another parent that was mixed in with the other field group.  The following photos are from the other half of our crew.  Enjoy!