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Research Highlights - Environmental Literacy

Check out our 2014 Research Highlights, focusing on Science for a Healthy Environment and Better Quality of Life.
Research Highlights
The Northern Research Station is committed to advancing environmental literacy in learners of all ages. Station scientists have worked with students and educators in the classroom, support development of science-based investigations and lesson plans, and participate through science fairs and career days across the Northeast and Midwest. With researchers in Ohio, middle school students are even hatching and rearing parasitic wasps that may help control emerald ash borer in the future. We’ve co-published The Investigator, a new science education journal for upper elementary school students, and contributed to the development of i-Tree Learning Lab, a lesson plan for high school students to learn the benefits of urban forests.
2014 Research Highlights
Forest Management Guidelines for Improving and Sustaining Missouri’s Forest Resources
Ensuring the quality of life and well-being of Missouri residents and visitors through productive, healthy, and resilient forests
With the publication of “Missouri Forest Management Guidelines,” for the first time Missouri landowners have comprehensive guidelines and best management practices to improve and sustain high-quality forests. Northern Research Station scientists were key contributors to the production of these guidelines, which were published by the Missouri Department of Conservation. Over the past 18 months, these scientists drew upon their more than 80 years of forest research expertise to contribute to the guidelines. Most forest lands in Missouri (84 percent) are privately owned, and currently less than 10 percent of Missouri’s 15.5 million acres of forestlands are managed according to any type of forest plan. “Missouri Forest Management Guidelines” provides (1) an awareness of forest resources and their importance to the quality of life in Missouri, (2) an understanding of forest sustainability and the foundation of good forest management through planning and silviculture, and (3) a synthesis of current science that is embodied in standards, guidelines and best management practices. The ultimate value of forest research is fully realized when it is adopted by owners and managers of forestlands.
Contact
Partners
- Mark Twain National Forest
- National Wild Turkey Federation; Forest and Woodland Association; Natural Resources and Conservation Service; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; The Nature Conservancy. Missouri Department of Conservation; Missouri Department of Natural Resources; Missouri Consulting Foresters Association; Tree Farm System; University of Missouri; Mark Twain Forest Watchers; Missouri Forest Products Association
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PBS Kids Partnership Helps Kids Explore Nature “One Mission at a Time”

Urban forests and the Forest Service are featured in two live-action videos on PBS Kids’ newest multi-media environmental science learning program, “PLUM LANDING.” The program brings a space traveler, PLUM, from the planet Blorb to investigate the incredible ecosystems on Earth. Children, families, and educators can learn about nature around the world and in their backyards through animated and live-action videos, online games and outdoor explorations, and a full curriculum linked to the Next Generation Science Standards for nonformal educators. An associated app, “PLUM’s Photo Hunt,” sends kids on missions to find weird things in nature, signs of animal life, cool trees or flowers, and more. In its first 3 months, the PLUM LANDING website received more than 11 million page views through more than 2 million separate website visits; and more than 110,000 photos and drawings were submitted online. Future outreach efforts will include community service learning opportunities in partner cities across the country to engage families where they live.
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Woodpeckers Capitalize on an Invasive Forest Pest

To understand how woodpeckers respond to emerald ash borer (EAB) and whether there is potential for woodpeckers to control EAB, Forest Service scientists and partners conducted surveys and dissected infested ash trees at Dempsey Middle School’s forest in Delaware, OH. They observed external signs of woodpecker feeding on ash and non-ash species. The seventh- and eighth-grade advanced science classes worked with scientists to mark holes and dissect infested ash trees to determine how many EAB larvae lived in the ash trees and how many were eaten by woodpeckers. Scientists found that woodpeckers specifically targeted ash trees, creating 14 times more feeding holes in ash trees than in other tree species. When feeding on ash trees, woodpeckers specifically targeted trees more highly infested by EAB. Woodpeckers consume a significant proportion of EAB larvae: of the 7,098 EAB larvae that were evident in these dissected trees, 2,624 (37 percent) had been eaten by woodpeckers. In some highly infested trees, up to 85 percent of the EAB larvae were consumed.
Partners
- Deb Bogard, Dempsey Middle School, Delaware, OH; Joel S. Brown, Charles E. Flower, and Miquel A. Gonzalez-Meler, University of Illinois at Chicago
Woodland Ecology Research Mentorship in New York City
New York City high school students learned to assess urban forest plots and evaluate tree health through a Forest Service mentorship program

Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in the Bronx, New York, selects academically-achieving teens from low-income households to participate in a 15-month Woodland Ecology Research Mentorship (WERM) program. Funded by the Pinkerton Foundation, this innovative internship provides a stipend to students as they take college-level environmental science coursework, learn urban forestry survey techniques, and develop an individual research project with the help of a local scientist mentor. This past year, a Forest Service scientist became a mentor, teaching workshops about urban tree health, park-user rapid assessment techniques, and statistical analysis. The scientist also helped lead a field trip to a nearby rural forest to discuss long-term ecosystem change and compare urban and rural forest dynamics.
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2013 Research Highlights
NRS-sponsored Project SMART receives New Hampshire Governor's Commendation
Forest Service scientists help introduce high school students to science careers

Forest Service Northern Research Station scientists worked with staffers from Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry at the Durham, NH, field office to collaborate with faculty and scientists at the UNH Durham Campus. They participated in a month-long summer institute called Project SMART (www.smart.unh.edu). This partnership provides a unique opportunity for Forest Service personnel to reach out to high school students needing to make serious decisions about higher education and career choices. Thus students from urban and rural backgrounds, minorities and under-represented populations learned about forestry and the environment as areas of study and future careers. Students explored the White Mountain ecosystems for first-hand observations of the importance and multiple uses of our forests and lakes within. The Forest Service’s “More Kids in the Woods” program also provided partial funding for this program in the past years. On the final day of the program, participants presented a scientific poster at a session, which was attended by more than 200 students, faculty, teachers, parents, and UNH administrators. This year, project SMART and its founding director, Professor Subhash Minocha (UNH) received a commendation from New Hampshire Governor Margaret Wood Hassan.
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Partners in Education
Research partnership with Morris Arboretum reaches nearly 1,000 students in the first year

A new partnership among the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station, the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, and four Philadelphia-area schools is integrating more environmental science into every-day learning for 950 students and 35 educators, and empowering them to make positive changes, such as taking action to improve local water quality. Researchers and Arboretum staff are working with each school to create tailored, year-long programs addressing curricular needs. The individual programs range from monthly hikes on Arboretum grounds to discuss forestry and watershed issues, to an in-depth inventory and analysis (conducted by students) of the ecological benefits of trees on W.B. Saul High School’s 130-acre campus. This program has an added benefit of exposing youth to a variety of environmental careers through an Outdoor Career Symposium, panel discussions, and hands-on workshops. This partnership was funded through a Forest Service “More Kids in the Woods” grant.
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2012 Research Highlights
Sustainability Science Fellowships Encourage Future Scientists

Mentoring and college-level research experiences improve a student's chances for graduating with a degree in science. The Northern Research Station has created the Philadelphia Sustainability Science Fellows Program, through its Philadelphia Field Station, to promote environmental literacy and collaborative learning experiences and to increase the number of young scientists in the field of urban forestry. The program provides $5,000 grants to undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds for conducting research projects relating to a better understanding of urban forests and the ways in which trees affect the lives of city residents and the environment. Six students received fellowships in the first year of the program.
Contact
Partners
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
Kids Helping Their Communities Adapt to Fire

In the U.S., most wildland fire preparedness and mitigation programs have focused on adults, but Northern Research Station scientists have found that kids too are playing a significant role in prevention, safety, and suppression. NRS scientists and partners studied seven youth wildfire education programs and found that a program is more likely to contribute to a community's capacity to adapt to wildfire if the program
- develops partnerships between educational institutions and wildland fire management professionals,
- contributes to each partner's goals by building on ongoing efforts,
- provides information and activities that address local conditions,
- empowers youth to act locally, and
- attracts and builds community support.
Contact
Pamela Jakes, retired
Partners
University of California-Davis, University of Florida, Southern Oregon University
2011 Research Highlights
Hubbard Brook Environmental Literacy Program
One of the Northern Research Station’s primary partnerships supporting environmental literacy is with the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation, which has the mission of promoting understanding and stewardship of ecosystems through scientific research, long-term monitoring and education.
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Project SMART: Educating and Motivating Talented High School Students in Math and Science
Forest Service funding from the Northern Research Station’s Civil Rights Diversity Committee’s Special Project Funds and Conservation Education’s More Kids in the Woods helped 39 students from 11 states and 3 foreign countries attend Project SMART, a 4-week summer institute at the University of New Hampshire. Students participating in Project SMART put science into action through research projects in areas of marine and environmental science, bio- and nanotechnology, and space science.
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2010 Research Highlights
Greenskills: Fostering community improvement through urban environmental education
The Urban Resource Initiative (URI) is a non-profit partnership with Yale’s School of Forestry that is designed to foster community improvement through urban ecology and environmental education. In partnership with the Northern Research Station, URI is implementing Greenskills, a city-wide program that hires New Haven teenagers to inventory and plant street trees in the city’s public spaces. High school students gain professional training and work experience, and benefit from regular interaction with Yale student mentors.
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Nature in the City: Day camp for inner city kids
Syracuse, NY, has an inner-city school district with a 78 percent district-wide poverty rate and fewer than 50 percent of entering kindergarten students eventually graduate from high school 13 years later. In the 2009-2010 school year, the Syracuse City School District adopted an innovative approach to education, partnering with “Say YES! to Education, Inc.,” a national nonprofit committed to raising high school and college graduation rates for inner city youth.
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2009 Research Highlights
Research collaboration yields big results
Northern Research Station scientists Joanne Rebbeck and
Kathleen Knight worked with 7th and 8th grade science
students at Dempsey Middle School in Ohio to collect data
on the emerald ash borer infestation at their school forest.
The emerald ash borer (EAB), an introduced forest pest,
kills ash trees by feeding on the vascular tissue just under the
Read more
The Investi-gator, a new science education publication for upper elementary students
The Northern Research Station
co-published the first edition
of the Investi-gator, a new
science education journal for
upper elementary students.
The Investi-gator is aimed
at fifth-graders and is the
newest member of the Natural
Inquirer publications family—
developed by the Forest Service
Research & Development
Science Quality Services Staff
in partnership with the Cradle of Forestry Interpretive Center—and provides an avenue to
spread new knowledge developed by Forest Service scientists
Read more
Updating the Carbon-Plus Calculator
The CarbonPlus Calculator has been developed by the
Northern Research Station (NRS) and its partners to help
people estimate their carbon dioxide emissions (what is
sometimes called the carbon footprint); provide tips on how
to reduce that carbon footprint; and learn about the many
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i-Tree Learning Lab, a lesson plan for high school students
The Northern Research
Station partnered in 2009
with the U.S. Forest
Service’s Conservation
Education staff
(Washington, D.C.) to
create i-Tree Learning Lab,
a high-school level lesson
plan that helps students
understand the benefits
Read more
2008 Research Highlights
Bringing the Northern Forest to Your Classroom
Project (ACP) has been working to link students to natural and cultural resources in the Adirondack region. This year, the Northern Research Station, Paul Smith’s College and ACP published Bringing the Northern Forest to Your Classroom, a set of lesson plans that use northern forest themes to address academic standards from art and
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Research in Action in New York City
The Northern Research Station NYC Field Unit has an extensive “research in action” program, reaching out to learners and environmental stewards of all ages. The K-12 partnerships brought children outside for hands-on learning on public lands, provided extended, outdoor internships for Bronx high school students, and supported Green Collar Mentoring, a series that introduces teenagers living in public housing to environmental careers.
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2007 Research Highlights
Environmental Literacy Efforts in Urban Areas
In 2007, NRS staff reached out to students, teachers, and
partners in cities such as New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit to connect people and their
environment. For example, scientists at the New York City Field Station supplemented one school’s curriculum
with hands-on experience in forests, wetlands, and restoration sites throughout the city and helped to provide
more than 5,500 copies of the Natural Inquirer, a science-based middle school education journal to the NYC
Housing Authority’s after-school and summer day camp programs.
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Helping Students Understand Invasive Species
Dempsey Middle School students are monitoring their
own school grounds for signs of emerald ash borer with inventory and monitoring protocols developed by NRS
scientists in Delaware, Ohio. Students will estimate the severity and distribution of the EAB infestation using
GPS units to mark and locate plots and map the spread of the infestation within their woodlots over time.
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