Ogdon

Woodland Presbyterian School - Memphis

David Ogdon reports, "These are photos of some of my 4th grade students preparing to collect temperature data and then taking measurements of soil and air temperatures in the shade and in the sunlight. We will take more measurements in about a month or so to make some comparisons. Next up is a tree ID walk and the beginnings of mapping a tree trail in our special habitat."

"Our school campus is our special habitat. The campus area consists or two athletic fields, some open grassy areas and small portions of the mixed hardwood forests that are found in western Tennessee. We have several large oaks of different species and many smaller trees some native and some imported."

"Our plans to improve our habitat include labeling our existing trees and developing a tree trail map of the campus that other teachers can use with their students. We currently have 20-25 different species of trees on the campus and we want to bring in some new native species to improve the campus and qualify the campus to become a Level 1 arboretum. We also want to establish a garden area with native plants to attract butterflies. We have also been monitoring the Monarch migration and are preparing our paper butterfllies for the journey south."

"These photos are of some my 4th grade students who are participating in the Special Habitats project. Yesterday we began our tree ID walk on our campus. One of the things that we learned was the 'MAD Buck in a Box' mnemonic device for helping to remember and identify the trees with opposite leaves. Maple, Ash, Dogwood, Buckeye and Boxelder. On our walk we discovered an Ash that had previously been misidentified as a hickory. We also looked for signs of Fall while we were out. Before we went out we discussed what kind of 'signs' we could expect to see that would indicate that fall was here. One student said that the Sun would be closer to Earth. When I asked what she meant she said that in the summer the Sun was higher in the sky around noon and that in the Fall it was closer to Earth. I was excited about her observation as many don't conciously make the connection between the sun's position in the sky (angle) and the season."

Last Updated on October 6, 2005