The lectures set up the theme. Labs involve walks, then field journal entries assigned from a handout. Skill sessions are hands-on group activities on different naturalist skills. For this new week, I'm thinking something with fungi, lichen, maybe detritivores? I'd love suggestions! 2/2
ooh, if capturing and rearing bugs is a skill of interest, go collect isopods, springtails, slime mold etc during a field day and keep them in a box in the classroom, maybe look at their food preferences?
Do you have mycoheterotrophs or other parasitic plants at the site? 👀 Looking at tree neighborhoods of mycoheterotrophs (and maybe nearby random points without them) and looking up what fungi the tree species host could be fun
We'll do some of that in the field lab, but I'm looking for the paired in-class exercise we can do indoors for the active learning session (which happens in addition to the field lab!).
When I was doing my degree in Earth Science one of my courses was on ecosystems and I remember us doing a fun and interesting group experiment of identifying which side of trees lichens were most often found.
There was also one on measuring temperature under trees at various points to determine how and if the canopy influenced the temperature in summer when in full leaf and in winter when leaves were shed.
That sounds like a really fun class. :)
All distance learning too - so all the students were spread around the UK. We had to bring our findings together online.
(Other skill sessions include learning bird songs from recordings and spectrograms, identifying species using dichotomous keys, verifying iNaturalist observations, pinning insects, and identifying mammals from tracks, skulls, and camera traps.)
If you have wood ants you could try erasing their trails with solvents (you may recall what happens from A Bug's Life), if you have time to observe a nest, adding visual signals (flags and whatever) to see if that changes how they navigate etc.
That's fun!
Erase trails with alcohol - you'll find them going up trees or whatever. Ants soon find their way back to the trail via random walk. You could time it and see what the relation is between the length of trail you have erased and time it takes to remake it.
To clarify, the "skill sessions" activities have to be something we can do in a classroom (I have an active learning room). We have outdoor field labs each week, so this is in addition to going outside, not instead-of. :)
I want to be a student in your class, it sounds wonderful!!
You could hook up an amplifier and use the pickup to explore a sample of fungi or other stuff you know is safe. I've discovered that different things make different sounds depending on how close the pickup is. You can definitely hear magnets for example.
I don't think we're on the same landmass, but as a short course / intersdisciplinary partnership thingy, this would have fantastic arts interest
@lycomorpha.bsky.social Tagging you!
That sounds so cool! Does lichen-based air quality surveying fit the theme?
It has to be an indoor lab, focused on naturalist skills. This is in addition to the field lab. But that’s a fun idea!