| definition |
- Forest Watch has been an innovative and highly successful education outreach
program for the study of white pine health in New England. Researchers at the
University of New Hampshire (UNH) initiated this program to involve primary and
secondary students in the collection and processing of data relating to air
pollution damage in forest stands. Students participate in three types of
authentic science activities in Forest Watch: forest stand assessment,
laboratory-based assessment of damage symptoms, and image processing/data
analysis of Thematic Mapper data for the area around their school.
Participating schools select a permanent sampling plot in a pine stand and
conduct several ecological and biophysical measurements using specific
scientific protocols developed at UNH. Results to date show that students can
collect valuable data from a scientific standpoint and that the program is
educationally beneficial--students learn science and mathematics by doing
research in their local area.
Forest Watch currently includes more than 160 schools and study plots across
New England, allowing UNH to conduct a regional analysis of white pine health.
Student data are compared to spectral data collected from samples sent to UNH,
and the student and spectral data are compared to tropospheric ozone data
collected from state and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air quality
monitoring sites throughout New England.
Website: http://forestwatch.sr.unh.edu/
|
