Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Project EXTREMES (Exploration, Teaching and Research for Excellence in Middle and Elementary Science)

Project EXTREMES

CIRES, NSF, EBIO, Computer Science, BVSD

The outdoors provides an excellent stimulus for sparking student interest in the sciences. Through personal exploration of extreme environments our students are not only able to make observations about ecosystems but also become engaged in the dynamic processes of nature. Project EXTREMES (Exploration, Teaching and Research for Excellence in Middle and Elementary Science) traveled with our fifth grade students to the University of Colorado Mountain Research Station (CU MRS) in the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies during the Fall 2011 to learn about high elevation environments. The MRS station offers our socioeconomically diverse students a chance to explore a local ecosystem that otherwise might be inaccessible to them. Through multiple experiential, hands on, and observational activities students discover the effects of mountain pine beetle on lodgepole pines and forest ecosystem processes. Because most of our students were aware of mountain pine beetles due to their high level of publicity, the students were very interested to learn about the changes to Colorado forests caused by mountain pine beetle infestations. The activities taught included lessons on 1) Tree identification; 2) Tree coring; 3) Mountain pine beetle life cycles, and 4) The distribution of tree mortality from mountain pine beetle. Teachers and Fellows have drawn on these common field experiences to expand and develop unique lessons back in the middle school student’s classroom. Project EXTREMES is a collaboration among the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD), the University of Colorado’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science (CIRES), and the Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Computer Sciences.