1000 Publications for BES

The 1000th publication was just entered into the End Note library of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study.  It was an In-press entry of Steve Raciti's journal article, "Nitrate production and availability in residential soils," soon to be published in Ecological Applications.  Congratulations Steve and co-authors Peter Groffman, Jennifer Jenkins, Rich Pouyat, Tim Fahey, Mary Cadenasso and Steward Pickett, for being our 1000th entry.

S.I.M. City Baltimore - Urban Design Studio

Take a look at the exciting S.I.M. City Baltimore design studio website created by senior undergraduate students from Parsons The New School of Design. S.I.M. stands for sustainable infrastructure models and references the urban design simulation game SIM City. Within this studio the students are creating sustainable design scenarios at the urban block level. They worked in the West Baltimore neighborhood of Harlem Park along with BES researchers, the Baltimore City Sustainability Department planners, Parks & People and community members.

This is a great interactive website which includes many photos and video. Be sure to check it out at this link:http://sce.parsons.edu/studiocourses/BaltimoreStudio2010

Wrapping up a Summer of Professional Development Programs

This summer, fourteen science teachers from Baltimore County and Baltimore City schools participated in the Baltimore Partnership for Environmental Science Literacy Summer Institute.  The teachers spent eight days with Baltimore Ecosystem Study, Towson University staff and graduate students.  They learned about the science behind carbon, water and biodiversity and engaged in thinking about student understanding of these topics.  The teachers visited three BES research sites: Gwynns Falls at Carroll Park, Gwynns Falls at Glyndon and Baisman’s Run.  They met with Dan Dillon (BES) at the Gwynns Falls sites and Ed Doheny (USGS) at Baisman’s Run where they learned about the data collected at each site.  Ed and Dan engaged our guests in a question and answer session.  By the end of the eight days, teachers developed plans for implementing lessons they learned during the workshop into their school curriculum.  Plans are in place to assist teachers throughout the school year with implementation of these lessons and to collect data on student understanding of these topics through a series of pre and post assessments and student interviews. 

In addition to the Summer Institute, five teachers participated in the Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) fellowship program.  This 6-week program engaged teachers in conducting research with a mentor scientist while taking a 2-credit graduate course designed by BES and Towson University staff.  They were taught by an array of scientists and professors dedicated to our teacher education efforts.  The five RET 2011 projects are described below:

·        Ms. Dana Riskalla, a science teacher at North Harford High School, conducted research with mentor scientist, Vanessa Beauchamp (Towson University).  Her research took place at locations in Patapsco Valley State Park and throughout the Baltimore metropolitan region.  Her research focused on the identification of wavy leaf basket grass, a common streamside invasive species.

        Mr. Mark Kather, a science teacher at Western School of Technology, conducted research with mentor scientist, Andrew Miller, (BES & University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)).  His summer research was related to an NSF-funded urban hydrology project that involves analysis of data from a series of stream gages distributed throughout the Gwynns Falls watershed using Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

·        Mr. Shanshivani Rajendran began his Research Experiences for Teachers work in June 2011 and is scheduled to complete his project by spring 2012.  Mr. Rajendran, a science teacher at Dunbar High School, is conducting research with mentor scientist, Alan Berkowitz, (BES & the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies).  His research focuses on a qualitative study examining whether summer professional development workshops conducted by the four sites participating in the MSP Pathways project support teachers in building their confidence levels in environmental science content and pedagogy.

        Ms. Lauren Catts, an elementary school teacher at Sandy Plains Elementary School, conducted research with mentor scientist, Dan Boward, (Maryland Department of Natural Resources).  Her research took place at the Department of Natural Resources in Annapolis, Maryland and focused on using stream macroinvertebrate communities as a bioindicator of stream health.

·        Ms. Tia Bossiwa began her RET work in June 2011 and is scheduled to complete her project by winter 2011.  Ms. Bossiwa, a science teacher at Coppin Academy, is conducting research with mentor scientist Ken Belt, (USDA Forest Service).  Her research focuses on feeding habitats of aquatic organisms in streams. 

BES Graduate Students Engage Incoming Freshman at Dunbar High in Environmental Science

On Tuesday, August 9^th, BES-MSP G6-12 Fellows went to Dunbar High School to help teacher Shan Rajendran get entering freshman at summer orientation pumped about environmental science.  The 190 students who rotated through Mr. Rajendran’s classroom that day were greeted with several engagement questions:  1) Does air have mass?  2) How do substances and water move through the environment?  and, 3)  Do plants respire like people?

Students wrote the questions and their hypotheses in their laboratory notebooks and then discussed their predictions as a class.  Then students recorded the mass of an Alka-Seltzer tablet and a cup of water.  After they dropped the Alka-Seltzer in the water they observed fizzing bubbles rising out of the mixture and many students noticed that the mass went down.  Some of the students thought that a mistake had been made but others helped them realize that the mass had gone down because of the gas in the bubbles leaving.  They had just demonstrated that air has mass!

Then the students broke into groups of fifteen and rotated among stations.  Grad Fellow Julie Baynard taught the students how to use Vernier Labquest probes and chambers with oxygen and carbon dioxide probes.  Grad Fellow Natalie Mollett had students work with a watershed model and predict how water would move across the model surface and why.  Grad Fellow Tammy Newcomer gave students jars of substances such as motor oil, fertilizer, and leaves and had students discuss how substances move with water through their schoolyard environment   It looks like these Freshmen are in for many enlightening scientific discoveries in the upcoming year!

Third Maryland Streams Symposium & Mid-Atlantic Volunteer Monitoring Conference

There’s still time to register early (by July 29) for the Third Maryland Streams Symposium and Mid-Atlantic Volunteer Monitoring Conference to be held at Carroll Community College near Westminster, Maryland (see http://www.dnr.state.md.us/streams/streamSymposium.asp ).

The event is sponsored by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, The Maryland Water Monitoring Council, The U.S. EPA and The Maryland Local Watershed Implementation Service.

The Symposium will run from August 10th – 13th, 2011 and the Volunteer Conference will be held on August 11th and 12th.

Congressman John Sarbanes will help us kick off the event during our morning plenary session on the 10th.

Join your friends, colleagues, and fellow water monitors for this exciting event chock full of interesting presentations and exhibits, hands-on field trips and workshops, and an outdoor social/cookout on Thursday the 11th. Thanks and we look forward to seeing you in August.

Dan Boward, Executive Secretary; Maryland Water Monitoring Council
Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources, 580 Taylor Ave.; C-2, Annapolis, Maryland  21401 (410) 260-8605
dboward@dnr.state.md.us

www.marylandwatermonitoring.org

Check out BES Items on Cafe Press

Check out this link: www.cafepress.com/baltimoreecosystemstudy

If you have not seen Café Press before, we upload the logos and arrange them on the items for sale. Individuals can order their preferences directly from Café Press.

There are currently three logo options:
The BES Logo,
The BES logo with Long Term Ecological Research and www.beslter.org
Photo of Baltimore City with Baltimore Ecosystem Study and www.beslter.org

 

You can order BES caps, mugs, clocks, t-shirts and other items.

BES Graduate Student Representative

Welcome Anna Johnson

Congratulations to Anna Johnson who was recently elected the BES Grad Student Rep. Anna is a student at UMBC. She is currently at the end of her second year. Her mentor is Chris Swan. Her area of study is meta communities – specifically, English Ivy. Anna is also an IGERT student. We look forward to working with Anna and the talents she brings to this leadership position.


Thanks Tammy Newcomer

We would also like to thank Tammy Newcomer who has been our BES grad student rep since December of 2009. Tammy’s leadership has been appreciated by both grad students and BES Co-PIs. Tammy started the BES Facebook page (check it out if you haven’t seen it). She also created our Café Press page with items carrying the BES logo (check that out too!). Tammy will continues as a grad student with BES working with the Education Team on the BPESL Project for her second year.