Soil decomposers, such as some bacteria and fungi, obtain energy needed for life from dead and decomposing plant and animal remains, known as soil organic matter. Soil organic matter is important to local ecosystems because it affects soil structure, regulates soil moisture and temperature, and provides energy and nutrients to soil organisms. It is also important globally, because
While in Toolik Lake, Alaska, PolarTREC teacher Susan Steiner worked with a robotic platform that traversed sections of tundra collecting information on a variety of different environmental variables. This article describes the sensors and instrumentation used on the platform in greater detail.
PolarTREC teacher Jacquelyn Hams' expedition is featured in Foundations: the Newsletter of the Geo2YC division of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers.
Presented Powerpoint slideshow including two interactive activities for two 90 minutes sessions of North Carolina New Schools Common Practices Symposium. The presentation included activities I've used in the classroom based on the PolarTREC experience, as well as images from the summer at Toolik.
This article from the San Francisco Chronicle is about Casey O'Hara's upcoming expedition to Antarctica. It also includes some great photos from a pre-expedition icecream making lab. You can visit the article online here.
FAIRBANKS — A group of high school science and math teachers who could help unlock the secrets of the universe were in Fairbanks last week. The five teachers, who come from all over the Lower 48 as part of the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation, were training for the construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a telescope located at the South
About this time next year, Casey O'Hara, Carlmont High School physics teacher, will experience extreme subzero temperatures, 24 hours of intense sunlight and 10,000 feet of elevation. He'll travel to desolate Antarctica as a member of the largest research project of its kind - the construction of IceCube, the world's biggest telescope for detecting subatomic particles.