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Learning at Treeline
We took a trip up to the top of the dome last week to study plants at treeline. But when you're constructing meaning at a conceptual level, you need to establish a context. My group of town kids with little outdoors experience didn't know what "treeline" was. So we started at the bottom and made a few stops along the way to the top. Our resident scientist took core samples from the spruce trees at the bottom, and then again at treeline.
I walked the kids toward the bottom of the valley on a trail I knew before we headed up the hill. The trail went down into a black spruce bog and we walked far enough down to where everyone got the idea that it was only going to get wetter. Then we stopped and looked around at what grew there. Not much tall stuff, stunted black spruce and a few sad birch trees, mostly. We stood on squishy muskeg that felt cold when we poked our fingers down into it.
Slightly higher and along the way back to the bus, we stopped in a mixed stand of birch and spruce growing on higher and drier ground, and we took a core sample from a healthy white spruce tree.
After climbing (in the bus) about 2500 feet, we reached treeline. We found some small black spruce, and we took a core sample from one of them. We can count the growth rings and compare their ages. The white spruce was about 30 feet tall.
The little black spruce up high wasn't even half that tall. I'm curious to see what the age difference is. We'll sand down the core sample to make it easier to count the rings.
We also took weather observations, looked around for animal sign, and made random notes, collecting things in baggies
There were berries, still, but only the cranberries were worth picking. If you like cranberries. We ate lunch at a huge rock outcrop near the top of the mountain in an alpine tundra meadow. It was grand. Not rainy, and no snow yet.
The kids had a great time. They learned a lot about where we
live. And they figured out that life is tough for anything that wants to live that high on the hill. It was obvious to me that it was a hugely meaningful experience. Damian, on the bus ride home said, "Mr. Noon, thanks for taking us on this trip."
I'm glad we did it, too.
Mr. Noon,
I teach freshman English at a large public high school in Lexington, Kentucky. Your blog is such a beautiful space, and I would love to talk with you further about having my students respond to your students' writing and vice versa. State testing/NCLB is really pushing for more scripted instruction, and a collaborative blog might offer the kind of writing sanctuary that my students really need. Also, this functional and productive use of technology is fantastic.
I know that you must be overloaded with responses, but I simply had to respond to your work.
Cheers,
Susannah Kilbourne
Lafayette High School
Hi Mr Noon, your blog site is great. Your pictures of the treelines are really wonderful. My class has just started blogging and we would love it if your class could drop by and comment and add us to your list of blogging partners.
Many thanks
Miss Watt and Primary 5/6
Calderwood Primary School
Rutherglen, Glasgow, Scotland
Thanks for your endorsement of what we're doing. And best wishes for your own project. We'll look you up, and leave you some comments when we have a moment to go exploring.
Mr. Noon,
We are involved in a regional Robotics competition which this year the theme is Climate Connections. We need to communicate with another town with similar climate conditions as ours, Massena, NY. Could you please contact us at dbourdon@twcny.rr.com? We would like to ask you some questions about your climate, and discuss some issue we have with ours.
Thanks,
Trinity Infinity Robotics Team
I am an 8th grade teacher in Maine. We are looking closely at our landscape as well - we have begun with the "weeds and wildflowers" growing on our school property. I wonder is your class would like to do some collaboration? Let me know if you are interested. Thanks!!
I found your blog the way of so many others here, by the NYT article. I was delighted and amazed to read that Bert Ryan was the carver of the Raven totem! Bert is a close family friend and a mystical figure in my childhood, encouraging my sisters and I to carve with his tools and to craft small figures from the trinkets in his car. I have a dreamcatcher hanging on my wall that he helped me build, and my parents have a print of a eagle that he painted hanging in their living room.
I grew up in Rochester, NY and now live in Arlington, VA. My grandfather was a minister in Fairbanks several years ago, where he met Bert. What a small world that I happened to stumble across an old friend by reading the NYT and following an interesting link.
Hi! Read the article in the NYT and wished my kids had a teacher like you! Please pass on my compliments to your students! I've enjoyed reading their writing selections! Good luck with your school year!
Jane
Cazenovia, New York
a small rural town close to Syracuse, New York
Great article in the New York Times yesterday. I plan to continue to follow your blog as you continue to write. Keep up the good work.
Students of Tell the Raven,
Well done!! Already on the cover of the New York Times! Congratulations are in order!
Our 4th grade class is writing to you in Austin, Tx and by looking at your website we are thinking about following in your footsteps.
Great job, keep up the good work and we'll be reading the blogs.
Mr. Chavez's
4th Grade Bilingual Class
Austin, Texas
Mr Noon:
I'm a teacher from P.R.China. I happened to surf on your Blog and read some of your students' blogs. They impressed me a lot and you have a wonderful way to get your students to write. They all have amazing ideas.
Shall we share our ideas about teaching and methods to stimulate students in writing?
September 30, 2008
Good morning, Mr. Noon,
The NY Times article about your class' website brought me here. I have read many of the student writings about the trip to the bog and to the treeline, and enjoyed every one. Please pass my compliments to your class.
The website is an excellent model for others who may wish to try to develop a similar program for their students. Please tell me what computer software program you are using.
Thanks,
Anthony Mournian
San Diego, California
Mr. Noon's class,
I've noticed your work for awhile via Mr. Ahlness' class. I'm planning to have my students swing by this week and read and comment to your work. I will assign each of my students to one (or two) of you so I know each of you will get at least one comment. We've been working on trying to make our comments "like a conversation." That is, we are trying to acknowledge what the person wrote, add on to what he\she wrote (through a connection or additional thought), and ask a question or two. Let us know how we do!
Sincerely,
Mr. Brune in Mamaroneck, NY (outside New York City)
Thanks for comment.
Hi, I am Angelo i am in Mr.Howitts class in Shanghai American School! I would have to say that some of the blogs are very good! I hope you have time to comment on my blog or any other people in my class!
Hello Mr. Noon,
I'm a VP and Grade 8 teacher in Ontario. I'm just cruising around trying to learn about blogs! Your class blog looks great! (I'm just trying to figure out if I can actually post to your blog!) All the best! Tell your kids that their writing is of a very high calibre!
Mrs. Stewart
Hello again Mr. Noon,
I'm still trying to learn about blogs! I see beside my recent comment to you it reads "not verified." What does the mean? (FYI, I'm teacher and VP at Hepworth Central Public School, Bluewater District School Board, Hepworth, ON.
Regards,
Mrs. Stewart
Mrs. Stewart,
Thanks for your interest here! Since I didn't write this program - the one these blogs are running on - I'm not sure what "not verified" means, but I *think* it means that you're not a registered user of the website. Nobody is, except for my students, so don't let that bother you. It might also mean that you didn't leave an email address in the space where that was asked for when you commented. I don't know, really. At any rate, the message "not verified" doesn't mean anything bad :) and I don't know enough about the program to change it to something more friendly sounding.
If you'd like to comment on any of the students' writing, or if you have students who'd like to do so, we'd love to hear from you again.
Speaking of treelines we just learned about them today because Mrs. Rohle brought in Spruce Grouse that lived passed the tree line.
We studied the Buckeye Tree that is in Ohio. Did you know that all parts of that kind of tree are poisonous?! The fruit of the Buckeyes are dark brown; they are smoothe, and smell like wine.
P.S By the way, you should look at the bulletin board. It has our pet essays and their pictures. They are so cute and the essays are so well written. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
HI ERIC oh hey speaking of pets I wrote a story about all the dogs I've ever had look on the home page Im pretty sure that it got published. -Austin