Alessio
continues to demonstrate a great ability to engage others in the science camp
activities. A few days ago he enlisted the assistance of Liyuan and Beth, and
that was a success. Today he was able to coordinate with two other NGEE Arctic
investigators – Victoria and Jenny – to talk with the kids about plants. These
two plant ecologists have spent several years working in the Arctic, especially
in Barrow, and they know their plant communities extremely well. Victoria
writes “This afternoon we printed off copies of the Alaska vegetation map and
distributed those to the kids. We then asked them to introduce themselves by
saying their name, age, where they lived, and their vegetation type. The kids
had a fun time trying to decide if they were moist acidic tundra or a tall
shrub.” Victoria mentioned that “one boy was from a location much further south
than the others and wasn't on the map, so our discussion was briefly diverted
to the difference between tundra and boreal forests and why there are no trees in
the Barrow area.”
Victoria and Jenny picked a great topic since Alessio and Skye had the kids collect and draw plants earlier in the day. Given that activity, each child had a question for Victoria and Jenny - some easier than others. There were very good ones relating to fungi and shrubs, the nutritional content of lichens, and plant reproduction. Victoria wrote that “the kids really liked the description of tillering in sedges - the 'mothers' and 'daughters', and the idea of huge patches of vegetation being one large family of tillers.” Earlier in the week our NGEE Arctic team had seen evidence for this just south of the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) in a series of drained thaw lake basins and Victoria and Jenny were able to use this experience to reinforce their botany lesson.
After
discussions of plant communities, Jenny showed off the ASD spectrometer and together
she and Victoria explained that the vegetation map was derived using a satellite
that collected similar types of data. This led to a broad range of questions
about light, wavelengths, and spectra; and to all sorts of related topics,
including how insects see different patterns on flowers (in the UV) and some
basic philosophy about whether wavelengths outside the visible spectrum can
legitimately be described as 'undiscovered colors'.
Victoria
and Jenny then shared with the kids a copy of the Flora of Alaska and explained
about Eric Hulten and the detailed work he did to compile his vegetation
surveys. Hulten was a Swedish botanist, plant geographer, and 20th century
explorer of the Arctic. Jenny apparently had just read his biography and
suggested that the kids keep an eye open for the poppy named after him as they
drive around Barrow - Papaver Hultenii.
Allessio
writes that the topic of plants sparked an excellent conversation. The kids
were very enthusiastic and engaged, and the initial planned twenty minutes
ended up lasting nearly two hours. Thanks Victoria and Jenny!
