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Springing into Spring with Spring Peepers!

Today, the Adolescents went on another trip to the Land. We scouted the pond areas for frogs and other amphibians. We found many cricket frogs and spring peepers. This is a good sign because those species are native to Missouri. After a successful collection of frogs and data, we split into two teams. One team searched the forest for invasive honeysuckle sprouts and the other team helped Mr. Mike cut down the tall pampas grasses. Later this spring, we plan to replace the non-native pampas grasses with native switchgrass.

By Anna Matthys-Pearce

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Ode to Bush-Honeysuckle

Honeysuckles must die, they are meanies,

They kill the earth and other native plants,

We must squish them into small paninis,

Chopping them all down, A wish I can’t grant,

They block sunlight, and invade big forests,

Leaf-growth is earlier for them to grow,

Nothing eats them, not even a tortoise

Growing everywhere, It’s too big to mow

It’s a lonicera that kills all plants

It grows too quickly, it is hard to tame,

This could be a 45-minute rant

Caprifoliaceae, is its family name.

Outcompeting plants like Blue False Indigo

We have a honeysuckle overflow

-Kaylee

 

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The Hoh River and Rainforest

Our final journey during our exploration of the Olympic Peninsula took us to one of the most unique ecosystems in all of North America; the temperate rainforest of the Hoh River Valley. The average annual rainfall of the forest is 120 inches, but we were greeted with another day of clear blue skies. The sunshine filtered down to the forest floor to illuminate the hanging mosses and ferns in an incredible shade of lime green. The crystal clear glacial waters of the Hoh provided the perfect setting for the students to perfect their stone-skipping skills. Our evening activity is a campfire with our guide, Nick; an ideal setting to reflect on our experiences of the trip.

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Third Beach at La Push, WA

What a day! A hike through the forest to the coast. Here are a few highlights:

Banana Slug, Seals, Bald Eagles, crabs, anemones, starfish, coral, sculpins, waterfalls, barnacles, skunk cabbage, and an incredible beach surrounded by sea stacks and other rock formations.

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Elwha River Day

The evening program last night and today’s adventures focused on the Elwha River watershed, the drainage that is currently the site of the largest restoration project of its kind in the world. Students had a chance to measure water quality, help prevent erosion by live-staking cottonwood trees, and explore the river in several areas. Our discussion focused on restoring the function of ecosystems and how we can apply the lessons of the Elwha to our own restoration at the Land. A highlight was our time at the mouth of the river where it meets the Strait of Juan de Fuca. There were seal and bald eagle sightings as well as an enormous supply of perfect skipping stones, some well-deserved down time for the students, and SUNSHINE!

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Banana Slugs!

We had a great first day exploring Barnes Creek with Nick, our educator from Nature Bridge. Here are a few phrases to describe our day: rosemary potatoes, bald eagle, Merrymere Falls, sediment deposit, velocity, turbidity, observation, dissolved oxygen, games, and cookies!

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How to Successfully Borrow Ideas from a Source

When we write Humanities research papers in the Adolescent Program, we naturally have to collect historical information from different sources (that’s the research part) since we don’t already know everything there is to know about the subject we’re researching. However, there’s a specific way to do this. In the real world, if you don’t cite the sources you used, then you’ve just done something illegal (or, at the very least, highly questionable). Well, we’re not exactly looking at jail time here, but this is very serious nonetheless.

That’s why the class had a lesson on citing sources this past Tuesday. We learned how to cite correctly to make sure we give credit where it’s due (and of course to stay in line with the school’s honor code; this is very important!). It’s a loooonnng process, but it helps our research papers gain more credibility and it gives a nod to the other researchers who brought us their discoveries.

In short, cite PLEASE.

-CK