Last week, Education Program Manager, Kristen Poppleton, Media Development Director, Jerry Stenger and I spent the day conducting interviews with 3 University of Minnesota professors, which will be included in the online classroom portion of our Minnesota’s Changing Climate project funded through the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. Our goal is to provide students with examples of current research being conducted to study climate change throughout Minnesota’s biomes. It was incredibly interesting to speak with these experts and hear firsthand about their current projects and what they have already learned.

Our first interview was with Dr. Jennifer Powers, Assistant Professor in the Plant Biology and Ecology, Evolution and Behavior departments. Her current research in Minnesota examines the prairie’s responses to predicted climate warming. This is the first study in which the vegetation is being directly manipulated, through infrared heat lamps directly over the study plots, at 2 levels of warming. The plots also contain different combinations and types of prairie plant species in order to evaluate whether the effects of warming depend on the types of species present. This research will help evaluate how different global change drivers will affect the prairie biome in order to determine how to best manage the existing prairie fragments. Near the conclusion of her interview, Dr. Powers stated that learning how ecosystems respond to climate change is one of the greatest challenges that 21st century scientists face.

Our next interview was with Dr. Lee Frelich, Director of the Center for Forest Ecology, who spoke to us about his research in Minnesota’s boreal forest, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. His research focuses on climate change, disturbances and invasive species. Dr. Frelich emphasized that climate has an important impact on the frequency of forest fires and wind storms as well as the presence of invasive species, so it is important to study these 3 elements together. One of Dr. Frelich’s current studies involves a plot at Hegman Lake in the BWCA where every tree was mapped 10 years ago, which allows him to follow the composition and growth of the forest over time. One observation is that red maple, a deciduous forest species, has been invading the area and increasing in abundance. This means that the coniferous species will have to compete with these new species for a place in the forest in the future. Minnesota’s boreal forest is the biome that will probably leave Minnesota in a warmer climate and bring the plant and animal species found there with it.

Lastly, we interviewed Dr. Sue Galatowitsch, Professor of Restoration Ecology. She began studying climate change in Minnesota because she was interested to find out what would occur in this highly fragmented landscape, where much of the land has become farms or cities, in the middle of a continent. She also wanted to determine what conditions ecosystems in Minnesota would face in the future. Thus, she became involved with the first climate change projections for the state of Minnesota, which predicted a 3°C rise in temperature over the next 30 years. An overall drier climate was also predicted, which would be a climate similar to that of southern Iowa, near the Nebraska border. Based on these projections, it is very likely that the current deciduous forest biome in Minnesota will become prairie in the future. Dr. Galatowitsch stated that it is important for ecosystems to have as many species as possible to make them more resilient in the face of coming changes.

This is just a preview of what was discussed in these extremely informative and engaging interviews. All the information will be integrated into our new online classroom that we are excited to introduce along with our new curriculum resources at the 2011 Summer Institute.  Find more information and apply today on our website!

For a few years I worked in a youth program focused on engaging young people in engineering and design.  For an environmental educator like myself, it was difficult at first to get too enthusiastic about it.  Early on, however, I came across the study of biomimicry and began to draw some pretty exciting connections between studying nature and studying engineering and design.

Biomimicry is, "the examination of nature, its models, systems, processes, and elements to emulate or take inspiration from in order to solve human problems."  (Wikipedia)  Nature has been the inspiration for many of the innovations of today including something as simple as documenting the sticky qualities of plant burrs to invent Velcro, to the observation of birds in flight leading to the design of the airplane.

Biomimicry has also been proven useful informing climate change solutions.  Recently I came across the following article that describes a study about how dragonfly wings are informing the design of micro turbines.

Dragonfly wing study raises micro turbine efficiency

Cocklebur, Xanthium sp. or  "Velcro weed"

Clarence A. Rechenthin @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database

In the middle of the day, working from home, I decided to take my dog for a walk.  I felt guilty, like I was slacking, but the sun was shining and it was 28 degrees, balmy for mid-December in Minnesota.  As I walked along and let my mind wander a bit, I was reminded of how important and helpful taking some time outside can be.  My "end of the workweek" brain started waking up, I had new ideas, and I felt excited to get back to work. The benefits of getting outside for short periods of the day for chidren's health, attention span and general wellbeing is well supported.

This is the second in a series of blogs focused on connecting to the natural world in anticipation of our newly funded curriculum project, Minnesota's Changing Climate.

In the upcoming months we will be busy working on our new project recently funded by the LCCMR, Engaging Students in Environmental Stewardship through Adventure Learning. The foundation of this project came out of a recognition that in order to develop active and life-long stewardship of the environment, we had to build awareness and interest in the natural environment and the impact of climate change. We hope to build this through a new curriculum project that brings together an interactive online classroom, with lesson plans and video and audio clips. We will be using examples from Will Steger’s lifelong archives that demonstrate how his early experiences in the outdoors, observing and documenting what he saw were foundational in his development as an explorer, and climate change educator.

One goal of our project is to find ways to bring together the online environment, with experiences and observations that students make outside. In a recent blog post, author Richard Louv, discusses the idea that some people feel “technology is the antithesis of nature.” He argues that a “techno-naturalists” are here to stay, and that “the proof of the worth of any nature-oriented getaway gadget should not be how focused the user becomes on the technology, but on how long it takes that person to put down the gadget, or become unaware of it, so they feel free to look away and use their own eyes and all the other senses.”

This view on technology and outdoor experiences seems worthy. It is nearly impossible to completely eliminate the presence of technology from outdoor experiences today, and in the case of classroom outdoor experiences the integration of technology is what is being called a mandatory “21st Century skill.” However, it is important to be deliberate and conscious about how and when technology is being used. Most importantly always make time to put down the technology, whether it be pencil or smartphone; smell the flowers, see the birds, or hear the wind in the trees.