Monumental Project Takes Shape

Collaboration is a wonderful thing.

Having secured a grant from the National Wildlife Federation, Nate Rosenberg, Sylvia Brown, and I attended training on creating an outdoor classroom/wildlife habitat. Mr. Rosenberg took the lead in coordinating the project. His classes chose the site in front of the school. It has several favorable attributes. It is located opposite the purple martin houses, it is close to a water source, it is in highly visible site that becomes muddy in wet weather.

Our Industrial Technologies classes under the supervision of Ronnie Scott built 10 3-person benches.

Preparing the site was a semester long project. Several classes participated: Ms. Brown's and Mr. Brooks's Environmental Science classes, Mr. Rosenbergs's 6th grade Science classes, my Taste of Science and Native Plants and Animals classes (a proto-GreenTech project).

The benches augment the seating capacity for students awaiting parent pick up as well.

Classes remove the bermuda grass, leaving as much of the topsoil as possible. Newspapers and commercial weed barrier cloth came next. Students carted in dozens of wheelbarrow loads of a mix that is heavy in decomposed granite. This adds a lot of minerals to the worn out, clay rich soil, as well as, provides a stable medium for mounding.

Rosenberg's design incorporates a curved berm that mimics the curve of the adjacent sidewalk.

Medina Garden Nursery donated over $200 worth of plants. The salvia greggi, lantana, prairie verbena, and some of the grasses were grown in our campus greenhouse. Parent donations and the remaining grant funds paid for the rest of the plants which we purchased from nearby Emerald Garden Nursery at a super generous discount. AISD helped out with soil and mulch. We also bought a load of GeoGrower's excellent berm mix.

Students worked throughout the day with the goal of getting all the plants in the ground before the 3:30 bell.

Temperatures soared. By the end of school we cracked the century mark.

We got most of the plants in, mulched around their bases and watered them thoroughly.

Click to view photos of the planting frenzy.

May Planting Day, Martin Update

High humidity, low wind, and overcast: perfect day for planting.

All three of my science electives have worked on this project which started back in late January.

Also featured in the slideshow are Mr. Rosenberg's students working on an even larger project, an outdoor learning habitat funded by a National Wildlife Foundation grant.

The Native Plants and Animal students reported the following based on observations they made on Monday, May 16.

The four houses are presented from north to south. M stands for metal and Poly refers to the two polygourd houses. Eg means eggs and Ha is short for hatchlings.

SP represent sparrows which we have been battling. This time only the beginnings of a nest in house #2 was present.

Students learning to read TreeEnglish.

Trees will reveal their names. You just need to understand their vocabulary.

Taste of Science students are learning to distinguish simple from compound leaves and to determine how the leaves are arranged on the branch. By further examining the edges of the leaves along with their shapes, students prepare to use a dichotomous key.

In addition to learning to read and analyze characteristics of trees, students are honing observation skills that can be applied to a variety of situations and subjects.

More Martin Monitoring

Nature unfolds before our eyes. Students sketch and write down their observations during Monday's class.

We have martin hatchlings! We found 24 and none of them were sparrows. Last week we found three sparrow nests and relocated them. Two had been rebuilt and we removed them. No eggs or hatchlings present.

Due to our extreme drought, there is no mud available to provide the martins with building material. So they are making do with a loose collection of leaves. Our egg count of 39 could be off a bit.

Most nests contained six eggs. None had more, a few had four.

We'll be back next Monday to see how the colony is faring.

We are hoping to see a fledgling or two.

Monitoring Martins

Last week while sitting on the curb across from the martin houses, Mr. Anthony and Martin pointed out that some sparrows were occupying a couple of the gourds. We watched for a few more minutes. Students noted that the smaller birds were behaving a lot like the purple martins, swooping, soaring, gliding.

After consulting with some knowledgeable ornithologists, Jane Tillman, Victor Emmanuel, Teri Siegenthaler, and Susan Sanders, it became abundantly clear that sparrow removal was a necessity. Purple martin populations are declining, sparrow populations are thriving. Sparrows are known to destroy martin eggs and hatchlings.

The class was predictably unhappy about the situation. Some accepted the verdict, others were very opposed. A bird is a bird is a bird. A bird is life and each egg a potential life. In the end the class voted to relocate the sparrow nests. Turns out there were three polygourds with nests. Equipped with buckets and weeders, we did the deed.

Sparrow nests are larger and contain mostly grass. It was easy to tell the nests apart. The weeders were unnecessary. Small handed students removed fistfuls of interwoven materials.

One of the sparrows was old enough to try flying away. The other, pictured here, seemed days younger. Notice the pink skin.

Once the nests and two hatchlings were removed, some of the students headed for the woods to find a suitable relocation site. Others remained to conduct a census of martin eggs. None had hatched out yet. Some clutches had up to six eggs. We have yet to tally them all due to lack of time.

The martin nests varied in size and mud content. The retention pond is now dry, so mud isn't available.

After we had satisfied our curiosity, students hoisted the houses and secured the ropes. The birds, martin and sparrow alike, immediately returned.

Students are recording their observations and findings in the field journals. Here are four examples.

Native Plants and Animals is my largest class (34). When monitoring the martins, student misbehaviors are not an issue. No one complains of boredom. Questions fly fast and furiously.

Score one for outdoor education.