Going Into the Grand Canyon: AP Environmental Science Field Trip

On May 25th, thirty AP Environmental Science students explored the geology and ecology of the Grand Canyon, by descending 1,200 vertical feet and 250 million years in time on the South Kaibab Trail down to Cedar Ridge.

Students were exploring how geologic formations and fossil evidence can be used to learn about how climate changes over time. The group started on the rim at 7,000 feet on the Kaibab Limestone looking for ancient fossil sponges, corals, crinoids, and ammonites that indicate how the region was a warm shallow tropical sea.

As students descended further, they went through the Toroweap Formation, consisting of a limy sandstone/siltstone material indicating near shore mudflats that were repeatedly inundated by rising and retreating seas and covered with terrestrial sediments.

Next was a dramatic shift in geology as students descended into the Coconino Sandstone, ancient lithified sand dunes of a great ancient desert. Some of these dunes were likely over 1,000 feet tall. Cross-bedding indicates the direction of the slopes of various dunes and can help determine the direction of the prevailing winds. Students looked for animal track and analyzed how the direction of the tracks correlates to the slope angle of the sand dune.

Last we descended down to Hermit Shale layer at Cedar Ridge to see fossils of animals that lived in an ancient swamp ecosystem. The students had a wonderful time exploring the canyon and learning about the ecosystems both past and present.

Courtyard Experimental Gardens at Flagstaff High School

The AP Biology program at Flagstaff program at Flagstaff High School provides students with opportunities to participate in service-learning projects, conduct experimental garden work, and interact with community partners.  Nearly two and a half years ago, we participated in our first of three five-day service-learning trips with the Grand Canyon Trust.  In partnership with the Trust, students helped install the infrastructure for the Southwest Experimental Garden Array (SEGA) sites on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  The SEGA program is a National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored experiment that makes use of an array of 12 field sites located at various elevations and facilitates climate change research on the Colorado Plateau. 

Students planting native yucca at FHS courtyard experimental garden

The first trip with the Grand Canyon Trust acted as a catalyst, to engage students in conservation issues and connect our biology program with local researchers.  As a result, we became inspired to construct three small-scale SEGA gardens in the courtyard at Flagstaff High School.  Thanks to a teacher-innovation grant awarded from the Flagstaff Unified School District Community Foundation, we were able to reach our goal.  We partnered with the Terra BIRDS, a local non-profit organization that provides teachers with design and logistical support for school garden programs.

The courtyard teaching gardens have become a cornerstone of the AP Biology program at Flagstaff High School.  Last May, 45 AP Biology students spent three full weeks transforming the school courtyard into an amazing educational space by removing debris, trash, and non-native vegetation, and then restoring it with native plants.  Students learned about microclimate differences and how to harness them in an experiment.  Specifically, how the differences in solar illumination within the courtyard can be used as a proxy for elevation differences to create the three experimental gardens representing different life-zones.  The ecological life-zones represented within our courtyard include:  pinyon-juniper zone, ponderosa pine-oak forests, and aspen/mixed conifer zone.  Recently, Flagstaff High School was awarded an Arizona Community Foundation grant to partner again with the Terra BIRDS to further improve and expand the experimental gardens, as well as to transform the existing pond within our courtyard into a more natural cycling wetland/pond ecosystem. 

Students measuring SW white pines at SEGA site

Our program has also partnered with researchers at Northern Arizona University (NAU).  Dr. Waring and her graduate students have presented on the combined threats of a nonnative fungus and climate change on southwestern white pines in our region.  Her study also aims to help this species survive these threats.  During our last two five-day service-learning trips with the Grand Canyon Trust, we collected initial data for Dr. Waring’s study at the three highest elevation SEGA sites.   This fall, the Waring lab donated 400 white pine seedlings for us to set-up in our high school courtyard, a small-scale replicate of her large $4.1 million NSF project that is using the SEGA field sites. When asked why she decided to collaborate with high school students by donating time and resources, Dr. Waring responded: “Connecting our youth to nature and science is the best way to build a future population that is passionate about science and caring for our environment. We need leaders who will advocate for sound forest management based on the best science, climate change mitigation, and invasive species prevention and management. I can’t think of a better way to help that process than continuing to involve the students who initially became excited about our research on a volunteer trip this spring. Regardless of the life path taken by the students, I hope they will always feel more connected to trees and nature because they learned something about this one species and the research we are doing to sustain it. The courtyard project is an amazing gift and opportunity you are providing the students; I’m just lending a small hand. I hope the students become attached to the babies, look forward to the results of the data they collect, and are a little sad every time.”

What makes this program so powerful is the focus on connection to place, education through service-learning, and interaction with community partners.  As a result, students will develop a sense of stewardship and a conservation ethic that they will be able to take with them after high school.  Here at Flagstaff High School, we look forward to continuing the high level of student engagement with community partners and student-led projects to build a strong sense of stewardship, personal involvement, and achievement.

AP Academy Students Help NAU Researchers Study Climate Change - Part I

May 11, 2015 / Karin Eberhard/Flagstaff Unified School District 

Seven AP Biology and former AP Environmental Science students from Flagstaff High School went to the Mangum Ranch on the Kaibab Plateau of Northern Arizona for a service-learning project from April 22 to 26 with the Southwest Experimental Garden Array (SEGA) Project in partnership with the Grand Canyon Trust, The Arboretum of Flagstaff, the Department of Biology and College of Forestry at Northern Arizona University.

Flagstaff High School students setting up a weather monitoring station. Photo courtesy Michael Remke/SEGA Project.

SEGA is designed to study and model the effects on climate change on ecosystems of the U.S. Southwest, as well as, to provide study sites for scientists across the nation.

Once fully operational, there will be 10 sites located in Northern Arizona across an elevation and precipitation gradient and on volcanic and limestone soils.

During the day, students worked on construction of a deer/cattle fence and digging holes for experimental plants at the Whitepockets and Little Mountain sites.

Work was supervised by Grand Canyon Trust staff members, as well as, FHS teachers Linda Lenz and Jeff Taylor

Flagstaff High School students work on construction of a deer/cattle fence. Photo courtesy Michael Remke/SEGA Project

In the evenings, students learned about this $4.1 million National Science Foundation grant from the principal investigators including Dr. Amy Whipple, adjunct research professor at Northern Arizona University and director of the Merrian-Powell Research Station, Dr. Kris Haskins, Director of Research at The Arboretum at Flagstaff and adjunct professor of Biological Sciences at Northern Arizona University, Paul Heinrich, Research Informatics Officer for the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research at Northern Arizona University, and Mike Remke, Ph.D. candidate in the College of Forestry at Northern Arizona University.

Flagstaff High School students eat their lunch and enjoy the view. Photo courtesy Michael Remke/SEGA Project

The AP Academy has already arranged for several students to do their Senior Capstone Projects associated with SEGA and the FHS science department will continue this partnership into the future with planned field trips for the AP Biology and AP Environmental Science classes, guest lectures during the school year, and service-learning projects in the spring.

AP Academy Students Help Land Managers at Walnut Canyon National Monument

On three days in late September, approximately 90 students from the AP Environmental Science and AP Biology classes at Flagstaff High School participated in a fire ecology and forest management research project at Walnut Canyon National Monument. This was the 2^nd year students participated in this real world research project in partnership with the National Park Service.

1: GPS'ing and surveying a Ponderosa pine at Walnut Canyon Nat'l Mon

Walnut Canyon National Monument resource managers are currently inventorying the entire forest on the monument in attempt to assess the forest structure and catastrophic fire risk to protect natural and cultural resources. The eventual goal is to develop a forest management plan that restores the natural historic structure of the Ponderosa pine forest, as well as, the historic fire regime of small scale ground fires which promotes increased biodiversity on the forest floor, while simultaneously protecting the myriad of archeological sites on the monument.

Future forest management may include thinning projects, prescribed burns, and managed natural fires. But, to maintain the large fire resistant trees on the landscape, forest managers need to know the location and density of the large trees and whether ladder fuels are present that would risk small scale ground fires getting into the forest canopy.

The National Park Service Ranger Steven Rossi and Americorps Vista volunteer Megan Carmel came into the AP classes at Flagstaff High School the week prior to the surveys to do a presentation on the historic forest structure and fire regimes of the region and then to do an onsite training of how to conduct the surveys using trees on the FHS campus.

The next week, these students began surveying trees in the backcountry of the monument. Students worked in groups 3-4 surveying specific transects. Students would identify Ponderosa pine trees larger than 15” in diameter using a DBH tape. Once identified, students would GPS the location of these large trees, determine whether down and dead debris lay under its canopy, and determined whether ladder fuels from nearby vegetation and trees existed that would allow a ground fire to climb up into the canopy. They also took note of any markers, tags, or cultural resources that would be of concern to monument resource managers.

2: Students measuring the diameter of a tree with a DBH tape and GPS'ing the location

Students had an amazing time being able to use real world field experiences in a service learning environment. There was a great feeling of satisfaction knowing that their work will be used by actual land managers to make forest management decisions. They also enjoyed the opportunity to eat lunch perched on the sides of Walnut Canyon, taking in the natural beauty, instead of being stuck inside a classroom.

3: Students enjoying lunch on the edge of Walnut Canyon

The goal is to continue the partnership between the AP Academy at Flagstaff High School and the National Park Service well into the future with future forest surveys planned, as well as, the opportunity to work on invasive species management and other projects at other Flagstaff area parks as well.

4: Searching for large trees

Welcome to the AP Academy Blog

Welcome to the AP Academy at Flagstaff High School blog. This blog will be a site where news, events, and information about the AP Academy will be shared with the public. There are some really exciting things happening that we want to get out there to celebrate the great work of our students and community partners. New articles will be published regularly.