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*OVERVIEW* |
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NAM*AN*IMALS back to the main welcome page 
Overviewwhat the students do on Friday 
Board FootWhat it is and how to calculate it 
ODFW Dept. of ForestryTillamook Management 
ODFW Oregon Planfor Salmon and Watersheds  OSU Department of Forest Science 
Site MapLinks to every page on this site |
On Monday night, at their class meetings, the students are given a problem to work on as a class. They are free to think about the problem and/or discuss it as much as they like before Friday. The problem is this: Every American, on average, uses 1,000 board feet of wood each year. One board foot is 12"x12"x1", or a 1-foot square of wood, 1 inch thick. Each student uses 1,000 of those in a year. On Friday, the class will be given approximately one acre to study (43,560 square feet, or about the size of a football field minus the endzones). Within the limitations of their assigned acre, they must find enough wood for the entire class for a year. That makes the total number of board feet come to the number of students in the class, times 1,000. In addition to collecting data on the amount of wood in the acre, the students must also assess the other plants in the area to check for succession and light levels, test the dissolved oxygen, pH, and temperature of the water, seek erosion and test compaction and topsoil depth, and quantify bird and arthropod populations. Once all the data is collected, the students then synthesize the meaning of the data. Is the acre healthy? Are plants, animals, and resources plentiful? Are current levels of human impact sustainable? If the class uses one year's worth of trees for their needs from this acre, which of the data they have just collected will change? Which of the data will not change? Is all change bad? What can the students, as 6th graders, do about all this? What can they do in their homes, classrooms, and communities to lessen their impact on this or any piece of land? What do the buzzwords reduce, reuse, recycle, renew really mean in terms of the power of a 6th grader? For their active and positive participation in the data collection and discussion, the students can earn a clear thought bead. This overview at Namanu Outdoor School has been operating with great success since the Fall of 2001. There are, however, some complicated logistics needed to make it all work. 
Each of the four field instructors chooses a confident, competent Student Leader to assist with Friday Overview. Each class is assigned to one of the four study plots shown to the right. A field instructor and a Student Leader from a different field study begin at one class. For example, the Plants Field Instructor and the Soil Student Leader start the problem off in the Plants Palace. Half of the class works with the Plants FI to measure trees and assess other plants. The other half of the class, with the help of the teacher, works with the Soil SL to look for erosion, and measure compaction and topsoil depth. The whole class then reconvenes in the Plants Palace to record the data. Now the class stays put, and the Plants FI and Soil SL leave, to be replaced by the Animals FI and a Water SL (these two pairs have just traded study plots and classes). Now the class in the Plants Palace can collect their water and animals data. This time when the class reconvenes, the discussion can begin. Using this system, each class gets all four field studies represented, with a minimum of switching required. The students can make some truly amazing connections in this overview process. Changing one variable causes great and measurable change in the forest ecosystem, and students are empowered to alter their own consumption practices. |
