Secondary Students Now Regular Visitors to Valley Branch ELC
- Lucy News
- Secondary Students Now Regular Visitors to Valley Branch ELC
- Director's Message
- Bison Update
- Belwin Conservancy part of Breeding Bird Survey
- Valley Creek
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This year Valley Branch ELC launched a new curriculum for secondary school students. Over 400 junior and senior high students visited Valley Branch as part of their biology, chemistry or earth science classes. It was a great success and next year we plan to host over 1,000 secondary students. So far, the most popular classes have been water quality and comparative ecology, both are new offerings at Valley Branch.
Valley Branch ELC is fortunate to be housed at Belwin Conservancy where three of Minnesota’s four biomes are represented: coniferous forest, deciduous forest and prairie grassland. This allows students visit- ing Valley Branch ELC to compare these biomes in our field experiences, while meeting district science standards.
High school students add a new richness to Valley Branch ELC through their sophisticated learning. Elementary students sometimes struggle with concepts like biodiversity and invasive species, but high school students engage in these topics and more. Personally, I have learned a lot about Valley Branch this year working with our high school students. For example, their data surprised me by indicating that soils in the deciduous forest were just as acidic as soils in the pine forests. I never knew that oak leaves were so acidic and had such a profound impact on our soil composition!
High school students also enable Valley Branch ELC to take the next step in being an outdoor lab. Until now student visits have largely been about experiencing field science. Valley Branch ELC’s new goal for secondary students is to build on their experiences by having students contribute to actual research being conducted in the field.
For example, a new Belwin Conservancy habitat restoration project will begin this summer that includes removing a large number of invasive species. Habitat restoration efforts need monitoring to determine maintenance needs and overall success of the project. Under the guidance of Valley Branch ELC field instructors, Saint Paul Public School students can be helpful, capable hands for Belwin Conservancy staff. High school students can survey the area and determine presence or absence of certain key invasive species like buckthorn. Some high school students are able to determine the biodiversity of their plot, the amount of invasive earth worms present, conduct a tree inventory, and determine the amount of ground and canopy cover.
High school science teachers are happy because they meet the ecology and environ- mental benchmarks prevalent in the new science standards. The Belwin Conservancy, is happy because they have data useful for making informed management decisions and learning from their past efforts. High school students are motivated because not only do they get a great experience in field science, but they are actually doing science that will be utilized to make decisions. Science classes here are contributing to a larger picture. As the project progresses, high school students will receive feedback describing how their efforts make a difference. This type of work impresses the idea of land stewardship in students at an important time in their lives.
Valley Branch ELC staff have been impressed with the behavior and abilities of our high school visitors this year. We are also learning that high school students have a few more needs than elementary students. For example, they won’t sit on the floor because they’re too worried about their clothes.. We are very enthusiastic for a promising future in secondary programming benefiting Valley Branch ELC, Belwin Conservancy, teachers and, most important, the students themselves.