What a crazy, eventful, exciting week. I remember last night before going out thinking that the Colosseum visit must have been the day before... what a whirlwind. I wouldn’t change a thing though. This has been the experience of a lifetime.
 |
| Lake Lungo |
We don’t have anything planned today. To be truthful, I woke up at 12:30... pm! I think these Italians may have the right idea of closing up shop on Sundays. Of course the lack of food in my fridge isn’t the most fun, these days of being out from 6:am to 10:pm make it hard to shop.
Since I really have nothing new to report for today, I figured I’d fill in some gaps from the week. I’m experiencing so much and trying to record it all in such a small time period I’ve left out a lot. A big "Thank you" to those of you asking questions, the feedback really helps figure out what I did and did not include in these blogs. My individual travels aren’t lacking many details, however when it comes to the real reason I’m here I’ve left out a lot. I’m not a researcher, and despite being a science teacher I haven’t spent a lot of time with scientific research. The idea of heavy research has always been very overwhelming for me to the point I'm scared of it. In short, I’m just like my students when it comes to this stuff. I just spent the last hour looking over the initial information I received on the Rieti Project. When I first read through the synopsis it made little sense. Yes, I read the words, but since I had no context to fit the project into it was just a bunch of words without real meaning. I’m going to spend a good chunk of this blog going back over this project so hopefully it will make more sense.
 |
| Overlook of Spoleta |
Looking directly at the NSF (National Science Foundation) grant the official proposed title of this project is “Reconstructing 2500 years of environmental change at the periphery of Rome: Integrating paleoecology and socioeconomic history to understand human response to climate.” This project was started by Dr. Scott Mensing, professor at UNR in the department of geography, 5 years ago. This is the first year that they’ve had NSF funding, hence the first year they have incorporated teachers. NSF is very focused on bringing scientific research into the classroom, so they are the ones that are funding my time here. Over the course of those five years they have been collecting tons of data, and these last three years of this project will be aimed at some final data collection and then bringing it all together. I’ve already discussed the types of data we are gathering, coring two lakes in the area, measuring vegetation, and finally water and sediment samples to look at aquatic fauna.
Ok, purpose. I haven’t been clear on this at all, I knew right away I’d lose the forest for the trees. However after seeing all the parts the whole is starting to make a lot more sense. Basically there are some holes in scientific knowledge when it comes to the collapse of societies in relation to global climate change. We know we’ve had fluctuating climates in the past, but it’s been unclear if this caused societies to collapse, or if societies caused the change in climate. Most studies only look at one aspect of this issue, maybe just the physical or just the behavioral parts. This project is bringing them all together. If a community comes into an area and does not use the resources wisely, it can cause the entire ecosystem to fail. This is what happened to Easter Island after they cleared out the surrounding forest. However on the other side of the coin small natural fluctuations in an ecosystem can cause it to collapse as well. By creating a clear understanding of how nature and societies can cause these changes it will help making better decisions when it comes to sustainability for us today.
 |
| Lake Ventina |
This project is incorporating paleoecologists, geologists, social historians, and archeologists. Basically science and history are being brought together. As we are able to date certain sediment samples we can tie that to written record to see what those people actually experienced at that time. This will then show if humans caused the climate change, if they were just responding to a natural occurrence of climate change, or perhaps even a relationship of the two.
I haven’t explained the choice of site!! It’s not because Scott loves pasta. Although I do commend the choice in a place with such stellar food. The Rieti basin has been used for approximately 2,300 years for agricultural purposes, so people have been constantly using this land. Looking for climate change and human responses to it in a place that wasn’t consistently used would just be silly. This land is so history rich, there are written records, there are undisturbed lakes, it’s just the perfect equation to collect the data needed.
 |
| Top of Marmore falls, the outlet of our water system |
Over and over I’ve mentioned I’m not a researcher, I’m a teacher. I feel really fortunate to have this opportunity for several reasons. First, I’ve always thought I’d love research. It sounds like a total blast! However now after just one week of really seeing what it’s about, I don’t think it’s quite my style. I’m happy to help out, but I think I would be dreadfully lonely if I chose this as a career. I thrive when I’m working with people constantly. I loved hosting kid parties, loved working in the coffee and jewelry shop, and I really do love teaching. Good info for myself. Another reason I feel so lucky to be here is for the pure and simple fact I’m in over my head. I mean really, I was scared to use a centrifuge. I’ve been teaching biology for seven years, and it’s all so easy. Why would my kids have any problems at all, right? Ha! Sure. This has been a good wake up to realize what my kids are going to deal with when they come to my class. Many of them have dealt with certain lab supplies, but not in the correct manner. During vertical alignment PLCs (professional learning communities) we’ve seen that our feeder schools are dealing with the fact the kids have never had science before. They get a very basic understanding of what doing a lab actually means, and for some of them they just treat it as free time. So by the time they are sitting in my class they either have the wrong impression or just very little experience. In short, they are like me in this situation. Labs aren’t scary, they just take practice. Once you are comfortable doing the labs, using the equipment, then you can start inquiry, and thus research.
As a teacher I am constantly told that I need to teach more inquiry based. Bring in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Create more PBL (project based learning). It’s overwhelming, but not impossible. First off, as Lexy and I have discussed with Paula when trying to explain what all of that is, all three of those are the same thing. Schools are trying to create a push to get kids to ask questions then find ways of answering those questions on their own. Inquiry based just means to not give students a lab where there is a prescribed answer. It’s more real science than those recipe labs from the book. Watching Scott and the geomagnetisist argue over a spike in their data showed just that. They were making up stories they could look in to cause they had no clue. That’s real science. STEM and PBL really are the same thing. They are striving to create a way to make something better. They both want to answer questions. STEM gets a bit more specific by giving parameters, bring in these different aspects where as PBL seems to be a bit more broad. However the two work famously together. And really, if you are trying to answer some question, perhaps how can I stop seeds from germinating in my garden, isn’t that inquiry based?
 |
| View of Viterbo from my skylight |
Ok, where am I going with this... Oh yes, why am I here! That whole last paragraph is why I’m here. I’m to work with a cross disciplinary team to help incorporate into the classroom different aspects of research. Together we will create lesson plans that will then be published for other teachers around Nevada to use or mutate at their desecration. I really feel that this project is already in line with what I’ve been wanting to work to achieve in my classroom, and by pulling in other subjects I’m even more enthused. Cross curriculum lessons are difficult with the limited time and crammed curriculums we all have, so this project helps provide that time and support we need.
This week will be more lab work, and probably more site seeing. Monday and Tuesday for sure we will be working in the lab on those core samples. Then for the rest of the week (it’s still being decided) we will be coring for two days. Lexy and I will only be joining for one day, the researchers stay the night in a villa and there are only five beds. With eight people scheduled to go, probably not going to work with twin bunk beds! This will mean that one day Lexy and I aren’t coring we should be able to work with Paula in the lab with the samples we took last week. Then we are hoping to take one day off to go to either a garden with interesting statues or a beautiful city situated on the top of a sunken volcano. This place is just simply amazing!
No comments:
Post a Comment