The Harvard Forest Schoolyard LTER program continues to grow and has recently made the news. One of the four research projects currently supported through our program (Buds, Leaves, and Global Warming) was featured in an article in The Boston Globe (pqasb.pqarchiver.com/boston/access/925007141.html?FMT=ABS&date=Nov+10%2C+2005). The article featured teacher Elaine Senechal and her high school students who are participating in the HF-SLTER program. Ms. Senechal was introduced to the Harvard Forest (HFR) field research program during a Climate Change teacher institute organized by Liz Duff, the Plum Island SLTER representative. Duff invited HFR’s Pamela Snow to present the phenology protocol project related to Dr. John O’Keefe’s research at HFR to high school teachers in Eastern Massachusetts. Ms. Senechal was so impressed by the project that she contacted the Boston Globe to write about it. Appearing on November 10, 2005, the article contained several color photos and was followed a week later by a cartoon about the project.
The HFR Schoolyard web page was recently updated by Data Manager, Emery Boose.The site now features project descriptions, research protocols, suggested reading,and actual data for each research project, which can be viewed at http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/museum/schoolyard.html by clicking on the project theme that interests you. In early 2006 two new partners, the Nashua River Watershed Association(www.nashuariverwatershed.org/) and the SCA Massachusetts Parks AmeriCorps(www.thesca.org/partners/corps/americorps), joined our existing partnership that includes the Hitchcock Center for the Environment (www.hitchcockcenter.org/) and the Millers River Environmental Center (www.millersriver.net/). Currentfunding for the program is provided by the National Science Foundation’s Schoolyard and Ed En Venture programs and the Massachusetts Environmental Trust (www.mass.gov/eea/met).