Transcript HS Bioenergy Project Intro

Kellogg Biological Station’s
GK-12 Bioenergy Sustainability Project
Your resident scientist
Alycia Lackey
Harper Creek coordinators
Sandy Erwin and Steve Barry
Project Director: Tom Getty
Project Manager: Robin Tinghitella
Species Loss in Stickleback Fish
• Historically 2 species that
differ in
– Color, size, shape, behavior
– Feeding & mating habitats
• One species mates in
the open
• The other species
mates in the vegetation
Invasive Species Changed Mating Habitats
• Recent crayfish introduction
• Ecological changes:
- Vegetation loss
- Increased turbidity
- Water color
Historical Conditions
Current Conditions
Loss of species through hybridization
Percent of
Population
Importance of research outcomes
• Inform conservation and
management actions
• Understand how evolution
works
• Explore impacts of the
environment on evolution
- including human
changes to environment
• Understand what affects
biodiversity (formation
and loss of species)
Kellogg Biological Station’s
GK-12 Bioenergy Sustainability Project
Project Director: Tom Getty
Project Manager: Robin Tinghitella
NSF’s GK-12 Program
Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education
This program provides funding for graduate students
in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines
to bring their leading research practice and findings into K-12 learning settings.
NSF’s GK-12 Program
Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education
Benefits:
Grad students
- Communicate science
broadly
- Learn to teach
K-12 students
- Excitement for science
- Real-world, hands-on
application
K-12 teachers
- Experiment with new
activities, concepts
This program provides funding for graduate students
in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines
to bring their leading research practice and findings into K-12 learning settings.
Our theme is bioenergy sustainability
and we will work in collaboration with:
Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center
From the new GK-12 grant proposal –
We will create a collaborative research network
of schoolyard science research sites which will
(a) serve as arenas for inquiry science activities
that mimic aspects of KBS and fellows’ thesis research,
while addressing Michigan Science GLCEs
in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science and Mathematics.
(b) allow K-12 classes to develop their own research initiatives,
(c) facilitate cross-district research collaboration
The Schoolyard Science Plots B=1
C=1
D=1
y
B=2
C=2
D=1
B=1
C=2
D=1
B=2
C=1
D=1
B=1
C=1
D=2
B=2
C=2
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B=1
C=2
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B=2
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D=2
x = 3m
2 standard replicates at each site.
these are experimental ecology plots
designed to address specific questions
to be determined via collaboration
continuing through fall 2010
Combinations of 3 treatments:
A. Plant Composition:
1. switch grass
2. native prairie mixture
B. Fertilization
1. fertilized
2. not fertilized
C. Harvesting
1. harvested (biomass removed)
2. not harvested (small biomass samples)
The Schoolyard Science Plots B=1
C=1
D=1
B=2
C=2
D=1
these are experimental ecology plots
designed to address specific questions
to be determined via collaboration
continuing through fall 2010
Research Questions are still developing.
y
B=1
C=2
D=1
B=2
C=1
D=1
B=1
C=1
D=2
B=2
C=2
D=2
B=1
C=2
D=2
B=2
C=1
D=2
x = 3m
2 standard replicates at each site.
Example questions:
1)Which section will have more biomass –
switch grass or prairie?
- important for using these crops as
biofuels
2) Which section will attract more species of
insects?
- important for understanding how
planting biofuel crops might affect
community diversity
GK-12 Fellow Nikhil and KBS K-12
Partnership teacher John Edgerton
check out a native prairie plot at KBS.
KBS K-12 Partnership
teacher Sandy Erwin
observes a switch grass
plot at KBS.
Switchgrass after 1 month
Switchgrass after 1 year
Switchgrass June 2010
Native prairie after 1 month
Native prairie after 1 year
Native prairie June 2010
Sandy, Alycia and Steve
marking four of the 10 blocks of plots
in the Harper Creek school district.
1 2
1 2 3
1 2
1 2
1 2
1 2 3
1 2
*
1 2
3
1 2
3 4 5
4
5
6 7
8 9 10
1 2
1
2
*Parchment will be added (returned) to this map asap.
A few ideas about
the usefulness of our plots:
Biology/Ecology:
– Species identification and diversity, humans as
part of the ecosystem, plants, birds, insects,
microbial diversity (fungi, bacteria)
– Changes in ecosystems and environmental factors
Soils and Earth Sciences:
- Soil quality measurements, gas exchange
surveys, water flow through plots
(measuring evapotranspiration)
• Geography/Social Studies:
– Implications of human land use decisions; comparisons of
fertility and diversity across different landscapes and soils
• Agronomy:
– Productivity of various biofuel crops under differing
conditions, impacts of plant diversity on productivity
The KBS K-12 Partnership
gathers at the manor house
during our
2010 Summer Science Institute.
Our fearless
leader, Tom Getty
Kellogg Biological Station’s
GK-12 Bioenergy Sustainability Project
Your resident scientist
Alycia Lackey
Harper Creek coordinators
Sandy Erwin and Steve Barry