Special Report: Oil Spill

The National Wildlife Federation put together an interactive website discussing the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This web page is specifically designed for teachers and features a section of "questions and answers" for what kids are asking about the spill.

Check it out here!

The Environmental Protection Agency also has a website detailing what's going on with the spill in the gulf. Check it out below at:

www.epa.gov/bpspill

PLT Early Childhood Guides Have Arrived

Project Learning Tree's highly awaited Early Childhood guides arrived at our offices yesterday afternoon! We will be putting together a training session soon, now that we have the books, and we will keep you posted for when we schedule them!

For now, check out what the national PLT office released about the guides:

Just as more attention is being focused on the need to connect students to nature at a younger age, Project Learning Tree® (PLT) releases a new curriculum guide and music CD to engage children ages 3 to 6 in outdoor exploration and play. Eleven field-tested, hands-on activities showcase over 130 "early childhood experiences" which integrate investigations of nature with art, literature, math, music, and movement. Early childhood educators and caregivers can obtain a copy of PLT's Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood curriculum by attending a PLT professional development workshop in their area.

"Exploring nature is a complete sensory experience, and early experiences with the natural world excite children's imaginations and foster their inborn sense of wonder and curiosity-important motivators for lifelong learning," says Kathy McGlauflin, Director of Project Learning Tree and Senior Vice President of Education for the American Forest Foundation, the national sponsor of PLT.

"Increasing environmental literacy is a proven way to encourage scientific inquiry, and PLT's Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood provides an introduction to environmental education at a key developmental period in children's lives," adds McGlauflin.

Since 1993, PLT has provided environmental education training and academic curricula for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten educators to assist in their educational programming with young people. In response to a huge demand for more activities that use developmentally-appropriate approaches for reaching young learners, PLT has created a new early childhood curriculum and produced an accompanying music CD to provide a valuable resource designed specifically for early childhood educators.

"PLT's Early Childhood program encourages young children to learn about the natural world around them using their senses, the seasons, and neighborhood trees," says Al Stenstrup, Director of Education Programs at the American Forest Foundation. "The experiences in PLT's Early Childhood guide encourage children to explore, discover, and communicate in expressive ways. They emphasize outdoor adventure, support children having fun while learning, and utilize each child's imagination and creativity to provide opportunities for learning in groups or as individuals," he says.

The activities highlight the importance of kinetic learning and differentiated instruction, including opportunities to incorporate music and movement using the CD to encourage children to sing and dance. The music selections include instrumentals with different rhythms and cultural connections, nature sounds, classical music, and fun songs with educational lyrics from children's music artist Billy B. Brennan.

PLT's Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood guide includes background information on facilitating experiences for the early childhood learner, how to guide children in learning about nature both indoors and outdoors, and clear objectives and benchmarks to assess learning. It also includes suggestions for activities that families and friends can conduct to enhance their child's learning experiences at home.

PLT's Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood guide has been correlated to national standards for preschool education by three major early childhood accreditation programs. All activities meet the National Association for the Education of Young Children criteria for curriculum, the North American Association for Environmental Education's Early Childhood Environmental Education Guidelines for Excellence, and the Head Start's Child Outcomes Framework.

Educators receive training and PLT's Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood materials by attending a professional development workshop. PLT's 50-state network trains 30,000 PreK-12 educators every year through 1,500 workshops held across the country. Contact information for each PLT state program can be found at www.plt.org, along with additional resources and correlations to academic standards and guidelines.

100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Every Kind of Classroom

OnlineDegreePrograms.org posted a great article that is essentially a compilation of ways that all kinds of educators can incorporate environmental education into classrooms. The article contains websites about how to do all kinds of things from worm-bins to curriculum resources. Here are the first 24 tips from the article:

Teaching Green: 100 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Every Kind of Classroom

Incorporating ways to help the environment into your lessons is not only good for the planet, but offers plenty of hands-on activities, lessons, and projects for students. So whether you are teaching a kindergarten class or a college-level seminar, whether you are teaching science or language arts, you will find a wealth of tips, tools, and resources below to make your job easier.

Resources for K-12 Educators

Teachers will find these resources helpful for creating lessons and projects that are informative and fun.

1. TeachingGreen. This site offers tons of resources, information, programs, and more to help you teaching about going green.
2. Go Green in the Classroom: 5 Eco-Friendly Teaching Units. Find five projects here that can help your students learn about going green.
3. Classroom Earth. High school teachers will want to check out this site that is designed to help them integrate environmental content in their lesson plans–no matter what subject they teach.
4. ESA Educator Resources. The Ecological Society of America provides resources for K-12 teachers.
5. Society for Conservation Biology. The education section of this resource offers tips on presenting conservation to K-12 students, resources for teaching conservation biology, textbook recommendations, additional links, and more.
6. The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education. This company sells materials and services to help K-12 schools incorporate sustainability into their curriculum.
7. Facing the Future. This site offers a mix of free and for-fee resources to help educators bring green teaching into the classroom.
8. Roots and Shoots. This organization is a part of the Jane Goodall Institute and facilitates young people getting involved in programs to help communities and the environment.
9. The U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development. The national listserv for K-12 educators is one of the many resources available from this organization that is dedicated to sustainability education.
10. Ecological Footprint Teacher’s Manual. Download a copy of this manual as well as teachers’ lesson plans they developed around this manual.
11. Project WILD. Project WILD provides wildlife conservation programs for K-12 teachers and students.
12. Project WET. This group helps educators and parents teach children about water and the need for its conservation.

Resources for K-12 Students

Students can get in on the action on their own when they visit these informative sites.

13. Kids Links Teaching Green. Go here for a listing of several sites that provide children of all ages a chance to learn about or participate in going green.
14. AIRNow. Visit the learning center here to find resources teaching about air quality and pollution for both younger and older students as well as for teachers.
15. A Walk in the Woods. Aimed at 3rd through 5th grade, this site takes kids on a virtual trip through the woods and also provides teacher’s guides.
16. I Buy Different. This site helps educate students to make smart choices when it comes to making purchases and how these purchases affect the Earth.
17. Adventures with Bobby Bigfoot. Students can take this quiz to learn how they can reduce their carbon footprint, and teachers have access to teacher’s guides.
18. EcoKids. Kids and teachers each have a section on this site that focuses on environmental education for students.
19. Ology. The American Museum of Natural History presents this site that guides students through biodiversity lessons in a number of different "ologies" such as anthropology and archaeology.
20. Environmental Education for Kids. Also known as EEK!, this site provides 4th through 8th graders with lots of information about the Earth and the plants and animals that live on it.
21. Environmental Kids Club. This comprehensive site offers games, information, activities, and much more for elementary-aged students.
22. EPA Student Center. This is the sister site of Environmental Kids Club, but provides activities and information appropriate for middle school students.
23. High School Environmental Center. The third of the EPA sites, this one is geared to high school students.
24. Home Tour. This virtual home tour from the EPA educates on common chemicals found around the house and which ones are toxic.

There are so many great resources here! For the other 76, visit the original post today!

http://onlinedegreeprograms.org/blog/2010/teaching-green-100-tips-tools-resources-for-every-kind-of-classroom/

Take a Break - Environmental Quiz

What is your environmental IQ? Take the quiz today - then challenge your friends, classmates, or co-workers to try their hand as well.

This tool has been found to be extremely useful in stimulating discussion about forest and environmental trends. It is a short environmental quiz that was developed at the University of Minnesota in 1991. Focusing on topics from world and U.S. population to raw material
consumption trends, forest growth and harvest, and paper recycling, the quiz actively engages those who participate in filing it out, stimulates comparison of answers and interaction among participants after the quiz is completed, and provides an entrée to informal discussion and further questions as correct answers are shared.

Over 10,000 college and high school students, boy scouts, general audiences of adults, forest industry employees, and even community and legislative leaders have taken the quiz over the past 18 years. Now available on-line as an interactive tool, the quiz is easier than ever
to use. Those who take the online version receive immediate feedback upon completion. The environmental quiz and an associated answer sheet are also available in the form of pdf files for download and printing.

So what are you waiting for? Take the quiz today and see what you know!

I got a B when I took the quiz - How did you do?

http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=environmental-quiz_3

Nature Education on Sesame Street

This year marks the 40th season of Sesame Street and it sure is going to be a great year! The first episode of the season was titled My World is Green and Growing, and kicked off a two-year science initiative "to help support children's innate sense of awe, wonder, and curiosity about nature."

The 40th season focuses on "Nature Education, through the lens of scientific investigation, [where] new songs, story-lines, and animations are designed to stimulate a child's knowledge and appreciation for the natural environments around them....Each episode will feature nature curriculum in one or more components of the show."

The three main goals of Sesame Street’s environmental focus are to "increase positive attitudes towards nature, deepen children’s knowledge about the natural world, and encourage behavior that shows respect and care for the environment. Through these overarching goals, children learn to actively explore and discover the world around them as they become true scientific thinkers and investigators."

Nature Education on Sesame Street? Sounds good to me! And this is also very exciting timing wise, as both Project Learning Tree and Project WILD have just released their Early Childhood Development curriculum guides. USEE is eagerly awaiting our new PLT guides to arrive any day now and will be starting workshops soon!

As part of the Nature Education Curriculum that Sesame Street is incorporating, Jason Mraz appeared as a guest on the show, rewriting the lyrics to his popular song "I'm Yours" to create a new song called "Outdoors." It's kind of catchy, if you ask me. Enjoy!

(sorry about the goofy formatting - this is the smallest size I could find to embed.)

All About Snowflakes

What are snowflakes?
Contrary to popular belief, snowflakes are not frozen raindrops (that is called sleet) even though they are composed almost entirely of ice. A snowflake is a broad term describing individual snow crystals or many snow crystals stuck together. The story of snowflakes goes back to the water cycle. As we all know, moisture evaporates into the air in the form of water vapor from bodies of water, plants, and animals. As air temperatures cool in the atmosphere, water vapor cools and condenses, forming clouds. Water vapor that cools to the point of freezing makes for snowy conditions.

Is it true that no two snowflakes are the same?
Yes, in fact, it is. That discovery is owed to a farmer named Wilson A. Bentley of Jericho, Vermont, who, in 1885, was the first person to photograph a snowflake. Over his lifetime Snowflake Bentley, as he became known, used photomicrography, or photography using a microscope, to record over 5,000 snowflakes.

Teacher Resource
There are a number of ways, from simple to sophisticated, for your class to collect and examine snowflakes.

Simple: Use a sheet of black construction paper to collect falling snowflakes during a storm and examine the flakes with a hand lens. Work quickly and do not expect to document the results very easily. This method works great for younger students and for those simply looking for the experience of seeing the form of a snowflake.

Sophisticated: Collect 1"x2" glass slides, larger pieces of scrap wood or other insulation material, and a clear plastic spray. In a cold place, place many slides upon the piece of wood and spray each slide with an even coating of plastic. Outside, collect snowflakes and leave the set-up in a cold ventilated or covered area for about 15 minutes until dry. The spray will replace the snow, leaving a permanent white plastic snowflake. Examine with a hand lens or microscope. Snowflakes are quite varied and yet individually unique. They can however be classified according to basic structure. The following chart is one of the many classification systems used for snowflakes:

Why the differences?
Air currents (which direction the air is moving)
Humidity (the amount of water vapor in the air)
How long it takes the crystal to fall
Wind speed
Amount of dust, salt, or other solid particles in the air
Pressure form the weight of other snow crystals
Combining shapes with other snow crystals

This article was originally printed in the Bioregional Outdoor Education Project's Fall 2009 newsletter.

Photo Credit

Calling all K-12 Teachers - 20th Annual Science Grant Competition

Calling All K–12 Science Teachers: Toyota TAPESTRY Program Now Accepting Entries for the 20th Annual Science Grant Competition!

The Toyota TAPESTRY Grants for Science Teachers program, sponsored by Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., and administered by NSTA, is now accepting entries for the 2009–2010 competition. Now in its 20th year, the program offers grants up to $10,000 to K–12 science teachers for innovative projects that enhance science education in their school and/or school district over a one-year period.

Fifty large grants and a minimum of 20 mini-grants totaling $550,000 will be awarded this year. Individual science teachers or a team of up to five teachers can submit proposals in one of three categories: physical science application; environmental science education; and integrating literacy and science. A judging panel convened by the NSTA will select the award-winning projects based on several criteria, including their innovative approach in teaching science and ability to create a stimulating and hands-on learning environment.

Since the program’s inception in 1990, Toyota TAPESTRY grants totaling more than $8.6 million have been awarded to science teachers across the country. More than 2,000 teachers have used those funds to develop and execute extraordinary programs that helped hundreds of thousands of students nationwide make a passionate connection with science.

For more information about the Toyota TAPESTRY Grants for Science Teachers program or to learn how to apply, visit www.nsta.org/pd/tapestry. Applications must be submitted no later than January 18, 2010 to be considered. Don’t delay, apply now!

Recycling Info for Teachers

Have you been trying to get your school to recycle the mass amounts of paper that your school generates? Maybe try this option:

GreenFiber wants the communities trashed paper products, as is not only willing to pick them up for free, but will also pay your school per ton of paper they collect. This could potentially be a great solution for local schools and businesses to solve the some of the recycling issues around the valley.

The following article was written in the Salt Lake Tribune by Jennifer W. Sanchez:

West Valley City » In a warehouse here, newspapers and cereal boxes, among other paper products, are shredded and made into insulation for buildings.

To get the paper products, GreenFiber pays citizens money to recycle. The company pays $15 a ton to the schools or businesses that house its green recycling bins and $30 a ton if someone drops it off at the warehouse.

"You don't have to do anything, and [you] get a check," said GreenFiber spokesman Bruce Lyman.

And company officials promise there's no catch.

GreenFiber, a North Carolina-based company, is among the nation's biggest manufacturers of natural fiber insulation, fire and sound products. The West Valley City plant, which was acquired by the company three years ago, is one of eight recycling and manufacturing facilities nationwide.

The West Valley City warehouse's former owner Redi Therm opened the warehouse in 1983.

In 1995, the plant started a Community Paper Recycling Program, where the company provides free green bins at various locations, from schools to mall parking lots, and later white recycle trucks return to collect the paper products , Lyman said.

There are no fees for clients at any point, he said.

Today, the GreenFiber plant in West Valley City oversees an estimated 1,600 recycling bins -- which look like industrial green garbage cans -- from northern to central Utah, he said.

The paper products are then delivered to the West Valley City plant, where they are shredded and made into bundles of insulation. The insulation is then taken to be sold at hardware stores, such as Home Depot, Lyman said.

It's a win-win situation -- recycling the paper products helps the environment, people make a few bucks and some waste-disposal bills are decreased, Lyman said.

Some schools or businesses might make a few hundred dollars or up to $1,000 a year, depending on how much they recycle. Profits from some bins go to nonprofit groups, such as the Utah Food Bank, he said.

When a group of students wanted to start the recycling program at Northwest Middle School in Salt Lake City, Principal Rod Goode said he supported their idea, and they really got other kids and teachers involved.

The school eventually won a contest among 35 schools on which campus could most improve their recycling numbers. In spring 2008, Northwest gathered .75 tons of paper products. That increased to almost six tons in spring 2009, making them the recipients of a $100 prize, Lyman said.

Goode said the school will definitely continue to participate in the program, and he plans to let the students decide on how to spend the extra cash.

"It makes recycling easy and convenient," he said.

Teaching Climate Change Law & Policy

A new blog has been launched, Teaching Climate Change Law & Policy, www.teachingclimatelaw.org.

The blog focuses on providing information on issues that may be important to those teaching climate change law and policy courses, including pedagogy, review of new textbooks, suggested readings for students, and focused resources, such as new climate change negotiation simulations.

This looks to be a great resource for teachers who want an easy way to stay connected. For instance, one post links to an article that summarizes the scientific research on climate change in 2008.

Forests of the World

Project Learning Tree (PLT) has a new secondary curriculum, Forests of the World, and last night Andree' did the first training for the new book at USEE's May Green Bag lecture. PLT describes the course as:

"Forests of the World provides formal and nonformal educators with a series of activities to help students and educators gain an increased understanding and appreciation of the diversity of world forest environments, with an emphasis on the human interaction with and dependence on those environments. The module activities provide students with opportunities to apply scientific processes and higher order thinking skills while investigating world forestry issues and conducting service learning action projects."

What do you know about the forests of the world? Take a glance at these questions from one of the Forests of the World activities and test your knowledge!

How much of Earth's land area do you think is covered by forests?
a. 5%
b. 10%
c. 30%
d. 50%

Which three countries have the most forest land?
a. United States, Australia, Peru
b. Russia, Brazil, Canada
c. China, Canada, United States
d. Russia, Canada, China

Some things to think about:

What are 5 ways that your everyday life in connected to forests?

What is a forest that you have been to or have heard about? How are you connected to this forest?

How do you think humans have affected forests locally or globally in the past 100 years?

Answers: c,b.

If you are interested in the Forests of the World training or any other secondary or K-8 PLT training contact Andree' today by calling 801-328-1549 or by emailing andree@usee.org!

Plant Anatomy 101: Artichokes!

Have you ever thought about what an artichoke actually is? It's such a strange looking vegetable. A friend of mine once told me that it was a flower, so I wanted to delve into this idea a little bit more and really get at the heart of the matter:

Artichokes originated in the southern Europe, mainly in the Mediterranean region. The plant of the artichoke can grow to be 6 feet wide and 3 to 4 feet tall. Artichokes are also in the thistle family and my friend was partially right when she said that an artichoke was a flower. Artichokes are actually the bud of a flower that has yet to bloom. Inside the bud is the meaty heart, which is protected by rows and rows of petals. The bases of the petals, the heart, and the entire stem are the edible parts of the plant while the rest of the petals and the feathery 'choke' are inedible. If the bud goes unharvested, it will eventually bloom into a purple or dark blue flower, which is also inedible.

The artichoke is definitely one of the most interesting vegetables, or flowers, that we eat! Teachers: visit the California Artichoke Advisory Board kid's corner web page for a fun crossword puzzle to teach your students about Artichokes!



Credits:
Artichokes Photo
Artichoke Anatomy Diagram

Artichoke Flower Photo

Become a Citizen Scientist

From counting toads, to observing plants bud, to reporting bird sightings, citizen science is taking off across the country (there was even a recent story about it on CNN) .

In a nutshell, citizen science is the process of using individual volunteers to collect scientific data on specific species and issues. These programs offer great opportunities for teachers and parents to directly involve children in learning about the process of science and data collection. Most citizen science projects also offer great background resources and suggestions to help get started.

Here's a list of Projects to get you started:

Project Budburst (my favorite)

Join thousands of others in gathering valuable environmental and climate change information from across the country. Project BudBurst engages the public in making careful observations of the phenophases such as first leafing, first flower, and first fruit ripening of a diversity of trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses in their local area

eBird

A real-time, online checklist program, eBird has revolutionized the way that the birding community reports and accesses information about birds. Launched in 2002 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, eBird provides rich data sources for basic information on bird abundance and distribution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales.

Monarch Watch

Note: Monarch Watch only deals with butterflies east of the Rocky Mountains. See The Monarch Program below for details.

Monarch Watch is an educational outreach program based at the University of Kansas that engages citizen scientists in large-scale research projects. This program produces real data that relate to a serious conservation issue. Monarch Watch gets children of all ages involved in science.

The Monarch Program

The Monarch Program deals with butterflies in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Regions of the United States. Their program is very similar to Monarch Watch, however they serve everything West of the Rocky Mountains while Monarch Watch deals with butterflies that are east of the Rocky Mountains. Thanks teacher and reader RH for the tip!

Plant Anatomy 101: Sunflowers

This summer I am participating in the Great Sunflower Project and my sunflower seeds finally came this weekend! I am going to plant them tonight when I get home from work. Let the fun begin! Since I will be spending so much time growing, cultivating, and watching my sunflowers I thought I would be a good idea to learn about them a little more:

Sunflowers are annual plants that can grow up to 9 feet tall! They are native to the Americas and were first cultivated in what is now Mexico, New Mexico, and Arizona around 3000 B.C.E. (Some archaeologists suggest that sunflowers were even cultivated before corn by Native Americans.) Sunflowers were used by many indigenous American peoples as a symbol for sun deities.

Sunflowers exhibit heliotropsim, meaning that the flowers and/or leaves follow the sun throughout the day starting in the East in the morning, moving toward the West throughout the day, and then returning to the East at night. Domesticated sunflowers exhibit heliotropism in both the flower buds and the leaves, however they will only do this during the bud stage. This motion is performed by motor cells in the pulvinus, a flexible segment of the stem just below the bud. As the bud stage ends, the stem stiffens as the blooming stage is reached. Sunflowers in the blooming stage no longer exhibit heliotropism as the stems are "frozen," usually in an Eastward direction. Typically, wild sunflowers do not exhibit heliotropism in their bud heads, but their leaves often do to some degree. During the blooming stage, wild sunflowers will face any direction when mature.

Sunflowers are pseudanthiums. A pseudanthium (Greek for false flower), or flower head, is a kind of plant in which several florets (small flowers) are grouped together to form a large flower-like structure on top of a stem. A sunflower's ray florets on the outside of the flower head are sterile and come in yellow, maroon, orange, or other colors ("petals"). The disc florets (the florets on the inside of the head) are traditionally called sunflower seeds when mature. These sunflower "seeds" however are acutally the whole fruits of each floret (akenes, similar to the fruits on a strawberry). The inedible husk is the wall of the fruit and the seed is inside the kernel.

Photo Credits

More about Bees!

Following our Bumblebee theme from yesterday, Utah State University Extension has many excellent resources. One of them is whole website dedicated to the native bees of Utah. Find out about bee anatomy, species that live in Utah and how to identify them, and take a quiz to discover your bee knowledge. You can even submit your own names for bees! Many native species do not have common names yet. Check it out and see if your name wins!

Teachers! There are also plenty of classroom resources to try. Check out pollinator partnerships, very cool posters (I even have one hanging in my office they're so cool), and even a lesson plan on Native Bees. For more information, click here!

National Phenology Network

The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) monitors the influence of climate on the phenology of plants, animals, and landscapes. They do this by encouraging people to observe phenological events like leaf out, flowering, migrations, and egg laying, and by providing a place for people to enter, store, and share their observations. They also work with researchers to develop tools and techniques to use these observations to support a wide range of decisions made routinely by citizens, managers, scientists and others, including decisions related to allergies, wildfires, water, and conservation.

And what exactly is phenology? Phenology is the study of the influence of climate on the recurrance of such annual phenomena of animal and plant life, such as budding and bird migrations.

Participation is easy! Step 1: Register yourself. Step 2: Register your site and describe the plants there. Step 3: Learn about those plants. Step 4: Report your findings!

This could be a great resource in the classroom, as well as in your own homes and backyards with kids of all ages. Visit the National Phenology Network today! Thanks to reader MJT for the tip to get this out there for formal and non-formal EE teachers alike!

Photo Credit

Western Soundscape

The University of Utah and the J. Willard Marriott Library have compiled 1,000 sounds from animals, birds, and insects from around the Western United States onto a database called the Western Soundscape Archive (WSA) where people can listen to these sounds for free.

The WSA features sounds from 80% of the West's bird species and 90% of the region's frog and toad species. This project focuses on 11 contiguous states - Arizona, Colorado, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. WSA also features sounds from animals in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to incorporate 60 additional hours of sounds in nature.

There are 3 different types of audio hosted on the WSA site: "Individual "species cuts" are often relatively short recordings that are commonly used for species identification and call analysis. In most cases, the WSA focuses on terrestrial vertebrates, including amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles. Ambient recordings, or "soundscapes" are usually longer recordings — up to an hour or more — that feature all of an area's sonic components together in concert. The National Park Service defines soundscape as 'the total acoustic environment of an area.' Interviews with scientists and other experts are included to give added context to the sounds, and will occasionally be heard on radio broadcasts and podcasts."

This is such a fabulous resource (and the website is very easy to use) for teachers and naturalists of all ages and I encourage you to spend some time on this site. For more background on the project, you can read this article that appeared in the U of U News Center: A Thousand Calls of the Wild Captured. Special thanks goes out to reader VD at the University of Utah who suggested a post about this subject.

Photo Credit: Jeff Rice

Plant Anatomy 101: Carrots

I came across some interesting information about carrots over the weekend that I wanted to explore a little further. This post has more to do with the history of the carrot rather than its anatomy, but we'll go over the basics first:

The part that we traditionally eat of the carrot is the plant's taproot. A taproot is usually a long, somewhat tapering root that grows vertically downward. From the taproot, other small roots grow out horizontally. Taproots are used by the plant for storing sugars (which plays a large role in why carrots are so sweet). This allows the plant to survive through the winter, as the carrot is a biennial plant. For the first spring and summer, the carrot will grow some leaves, but is mostly using its energy for developing a strong taproot in which to store sugars. The carrot lives dormant throughout the winter and then in the following growing season will sprout a flowering stem that grows white flowers. Other common plants that have taproots are dandelions, radishes, parsnips, and turnips.

Carrots have been around in human history for thousands of years. It is thought that the wild ancestors of carrots originated in Afghanistan, but then were brought to other regions through trade. The carrots have been found in the tombs of Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs (thought by historians to be purple varieties) and were probably thought of as an aphrodisiac. Wild carrot roots had a very woody texture and a bitter taste and therefore weren't eaten until about the 16th century when the Romans ate both cooked and raw carrots. These were not the sweet orange carrots we are familiar with today. Before that, the leaves and stems were used by the Greeks for medicinal purposes. In the 13th century carrots started being cultivated in Europe, again as a medicinal plant. Carrots were more known back then for their aromatic seeds and leaves. Today, we still grow carrots for some of these aromatic purposes like parsley, fennel, dill, and cumin.

In the wild, carrots come in a variety of colors from white and yellow to purple and black, but ironically, not orange! By the 16th century, carrots were a well known plant in Europe. In France, carrots traditionally came in red and purple and in England there were red and yellow varieties. It wasn't until the 17th century that orange carrots appeared. The Dutch crossbred red carrots with yellow carrots to make orange carrots for the royal family and The House of Orange. After that, orange carrots gained popularity quickly and were further developed to be the sweet, crunchy vegetable we know and love today.

Credits:

History
Wild Carrots photo
Flowering Carrot photo
Colorful Carrots photo

Project Budburst

Boxelder (Acer negundo) Steve Baskauf, Vanderbilt University, bioimages.vanderbilt.edu

Join thousands of others in gathering valuable environmental and climate change information from across the country. Project BudBurst engages students, teachers and the public in making careful observations of the phenophases such as first leafing, first flower, and first fruit ripening of a diversity of trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses in their local area. 

The new BudBurst website has been launched today at www.budburst.org! It is time to choose a species (or several) to monitor from the Budburst list in your region and head outdoors to document the progress of spring.  The website has lots of information, complete with photos, to help you identify Budburst species and enter your observations.  And don't forget to post photos of your BudBurst plants on their Facebook site too.

ebird

For all of those folks out there who like to count and identify birds in your neighborhood and yard, ebird might be for you.

Bird sightings from your own yard can now be added to the database created by a global community of educators, land managers, ornithologists, and conservation biologists. These combined data are creating the foundation for a better understanding of bird distribution across the Western Hemisphere and beyond.

Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology: Volume 6

The 6th Volume of the Ecolgoical Society of America's Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE) is now available. This is a great resource for undergraduate educators but can also be modified for high-school teachers. Here's the table of contents:

EDITORIAL

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Ecology

• Charlene D'Avanzo

RESEARCH

Enhancing science teachers’ understanding of ecosystem interactions with qualitative conceptual models

• Marion Dresner and Monica Elser

Assessment of the teaching of evolution by natural selection through a hands-on simulation

• Lori H. Spindler and Jennifer H. Doherty

Evaluating a Multi-Component Assessment Framework for Biodiversity Education

• Hagenbuch, Brian E., Nora Bynum, Eleanor Sterling, Anne H. Bower, John A. Cigliano, Barbara J. Abraham, Christine Engels, John F. Mull, John D. Pierce, Michelle L. Zjhra, Jennifer M. Rhode, Stuart R. Ketcham, and Margaret-Ann Mayer

Practitioner Research Improved My Students’ Understanding of Evolution by Natural Selection in an Introductory Biology Course • Bruce W. Grant

PRACTICE

Experiments

Rapid Adaptation of Bean Beetles to a Novel Host

• Christopher W. Beck and Lawrence S. Blumer

Decomposition and Soil CO2 Emission

• Jeffrey A. Simmons

Marine Reserve Design: Simulating stakeholder options

• Bonnie J. Becker and Peter A. Selkin

Biodiversity Responses across a Gradient of Human Influence

• Christopher A. Lepczyk

An Assessment of Assemblage Nestedness in Habitat Fragments

• Roarke Donnelly

Figure Sets

What does agriculture have to do with climate change?

• Brook J. Wilke and Justin Kunkle

Of wolves, elk and willows: how predation structures ecosystems

• Cynthia Dott

When Biocontrol Isn’t Effective: Making Predictions and Understanding Consequences

• Michele R. Schutzenhofer and Tiffany M. Knight

REVIEWS

The 2008 AIBS/AAAS Biology Education Summit

• Susan Musante