First Week Science Snapshot

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Conserve School teachers use a variety of teaching tools to engage students with learning material.  In the content-heavy course of Advanced Placement Environmental Science (an elective at Conserve School), Science Teacher Andy Milbauer uses PowerPoint lectures, note taking, and quizzes.  These traditional teaching tools allow Andy to teach broad subjects such as History of Environmental Science (the subject for Wednesday’s APES lecture) and to prepare the students for the Advanced Placement testing environment.

Other science lesson topics lend themselves to more hands-on teaching approaches. During the first day of Environmental Science: Applied Ecology and Sustainable Systems, a core course required for all Conserve School students, students met at the Lowenstine Recreation Center (LRC) and rode mountain bikes out to a site on campus that is currently being logged.  They had the chance to speak with Ken Adamovich, a local master logger, to watch trees being delimbed and cut by a harvest machine, and to get pictures sitting in the harvester.  Click on this link to watch a video taken by Robert Eady: https://sites.google.com/a/conserveschool.org/eady/cs4-activities-week-by-week/8-24-2012

Some people disapprove of logging because it alters current forests and kills individual trees.  While both of these points are true, logging can be very positive for the health of the forest overall when the logging is done appropriately.  As Science Teacher Robert Eady, who co-teaches Environmental Science with Andy, pointed out, “Loggers constantly work for the next generation.” Conserve School follows a forestry management plan that prescribes logging operations in some forest types in order to preserve and improve the health of the forest for the next generation.  Many of the forests at Conserve School contain large quantities of aspen and balsam fir, which are short-lived, fast-growing trees.  These forest types benefit from being harvested every forty years. Conserve School’s plan accommodates this harvest schedule, but staggers harvest years for various locations on campus.  These staggered harvest dates will help Conserve School foster a heterogeneous forest that contains trees of all ages, which will be beneficial for many plant and wildlife species.  The harvest schedule will also provide opportunities for slower-growing hardwood trees such as maples to flourish, making the forest more diverse.

Logging operations can be an eyesore in the short term, but they present a unique oppotunity for current students to learn about forestry management practices. In addition, generations of Conserve students will reap the ecological benefits of these forestry management practices for years to come.

~ Graduate Fellow Heather Lumpkin

An attentive APES class listens, takes notes, and asks questions.

APES teacher Andy Milbauer talks about the extinction of the Great Auk in 1844

Ellie, Russel, and other AP Environmental Science students listen carefully during a lecture.

Kevin, George, Ellie, Russell, and Megan take notes.

Science class listening to instructions before heading out

Science class listening to instructions before heading out

Danielle getting ready to head out

Dexter getting ready to head out

Brian getting ready to head out

Kelsie heading out to the logging operation

Kaia heading out to the logging operation

Science Teacher Robert Eady tells the students how to use the position of the sun to find the cardinal directions

Maeve and John heading out to the logging operation

Garrett sitting in the cab of the harvester

Ellie sitting in the cab of the harvester

Michelle sitting in the cab of the harvester

Maeve sitting in the cab of the harvester

Alex sitting in the cab of the harvester

Kai sitting in the cab of the harvester

Collin sitting in the cab of the harvester

Kate sitting in the cab of the harvester

Maia sitting in the cab of the harvester

Katie sitting in the cab of the harvester

Walton sitting in the cab of the harvester

Olivia sitting in the cab of the harvester

Ella sitting in the cab of the harvester

Laura, Mattie, and Kasey listen as Master Logger Ken Adamovich explains Conserve School’s forestry management plan

Science class heading back from the logging operation

Students John, Mattie, Alex, and Paige listening intently to Robert Eady, Conserve School Science Teacher

Jackie heading back from the logging operation

Eric heading back from the logging operation

John heading back from the logging operation

Mattie and Nate heading to the logging operation

Paige heading back from the logging operation

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