LS neighbor Days

Recently, GA Admissions is collaboration with the lower school sponsored a Preserve Tour for area preschools. Students and families toured the Preserve, finding cattails and exploring our unique habitat for birds, frogs and insects. They concluded their experience by participating in an art activity led by art teacher Alia Tahvildaran and constructed an edible wetland snack while hearing a story about wetlands from lower school science teacher, Lisa Martin.

Climate Change Activism Alive in the Upper School

 

Upper School teachers Jason Straub and Dick Ohern along with student Laura Brown traveled to New York City on Sept 21 for the People's Climate March. The New York event was one of nearly 3000 coordinated events in 162 countries.  The gathering was also meant to support the historic meeting of over 100 dignitaries from around the globe all working toward the prevention of global warming.

 

Out and About with the LS Outdoor Explorers

Seventeen 4th and 5th grade students, all members of the Lower School Outdoor Explorers Club, under the direction of teachers Craig Newberger and Peter Waxler recently headed to Fort Washington State Park  and the Wissahickon Gorge for outdoor adventures. Dedicated to exploring a variety of natural communities including forests, fields, streams, ponds, and wetlands the Outdoor Explorers events during the autumn season will focus on observing wildlife ( including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects ) in nature areas that include The Preserve at GA,  Briar Bush Nature Center, the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association, Gwynedd Wildlife Preserve, Peace Valley Nature Center, and the Wissahickon Gorge.

The Impact of Human Disturbance on Biodiversity Study

Early in the year and when the weather is still more summer than fall, the students in Dick Ohern's AP Environmental Science class heads to the wetlands.  In a lab called,  "The Impact of Human Disturbance on Biodiversity"  students set baits (oily tuna and honey as some ants like fats and some like sugars) in different environments on campus. Ohern reports, "We then collect them perform ing calculations that give us measures of relative biodiversity in the groupings of ants collected.  We sample in the woods near to the creek, in the tall grasses of the preserve, on a piece of lawn (this year in the Academic Courtyard), and on the stadium turf.  Prior to doing the activity, the kids have to hypothesize about the relationship between human disturbance and biodiversity, and the data they collect allows them to then reflect on that hypothesis after the data is analyzed." He continued,  "This lab makes use of environments on campus that the kids can relate to.  They understand that the woods and the preserve are relatively more natural areas than the lawn and the totally artificial stadium turf.  The preserve is interesting in that it is newly "constructed" and we don’t yet see many ants there, though the kids ( and I) think we ought to.  My guess is the poor, clay soils there are hindering colonization by ants, but of course it may be more complicated than that."  Students love being able to use the campus outdoors spaces as extensions of their science labs.  

In APES, as in other science classes, a good number of the lab activities happen outdoors, mimicking on a small scale what real ecologists work.