News from school

These pictures are of the controlled burn in Bridger-Teton National Forest. In order to start these fires, the parks department send helicopters over the forest and release ping-pong balls filled with chemicals that will ignite. The balls are pictured above.

This was a demonstration of how the balls worked in a small-scale, controlled environment. The demonstration showed the opening of lodge pole pine cones.

The first part of this week was spent in the field with 5th graders from Jackson. They learned about the different vegetation communities, played games, and spent a research day comparing the tracks and scat in aspen versus riparian areas. Today, the graduate students switched gears.

A few weeks ago we were presented with options for different teaching tracks. I chose the outreach track meaning I will be traveling to different schools around Wa yoming bringing Teton Science Schools' education philosophy to the classroom.

During the first two weeks of my track, I will be a field educator for a group of 8th graders who are coming to Jackson to discuss nature deficit disorder. After years of adults debating the issue of student inactivity, Teton Science Schools has invited 100 students to discuss their views on outdoor education, its importance, and how best to incorporate it into school curriculum. As a field instructor, I will be facilitating discussions, bringing students into Teton National Park, organizing projects, and listening to student perspectives.

During my second two-week block, I will be teaching fire ecology to students in Big Piney and Afton. In preparation for this teaching block, we will be visiting burn sites in both locations in order to set up research projects and place-based learning experiences. Today a ranger from the Department of Fire Communication and Education gave us a brief history of fire ecology; the benefits, ecological necessity, and public impressions of natural fires. We then went to a site where a controlled burn was taking place in order to restore habitats for big-horned sheep and vegetation for elk. We learned about how different federal and state agencies worked together to plan, organize, and complete prescribed burns. The burn site covered a total of 2,700 acres and helicopters were flying overhead with blowtorches to increase the fire intensity.

The ideas and reasons behind fire ecology are quite interesting. For example, lodge pole pines produce serotinous cones. Serotinous cones are covered with a resin that must be melted for the cone to open and release its seeds. Without fire, these trees have a difficult time reproducing. In the coming weeks we will be having conversations with people from the parks department and fire ecologists to explore this issue that is often misconceived by students and adults. We hope to come up with a curriculum that will combine place, science, and history.