Supplement to the Jornada LTER Program: Schoolyard LTER

Southwestern landscapes are increasingly affected and fragmented by human uses. We need to provide the public with educational opportunities and materials that communicate an understanding of this biologically diverse and complex environment. The presence of agriculture, urban development, and recreation in this desert environment requires a breadth of knowledge for informed decision-making. Without a basic understanding of the desert, residents of southern New Mexico, west Texas and northern Chihuahua (Mexico) will be ill-prepared to respond to threats of their own making, such as a diminishing water supply.

Children who grow up in poverty on the U.S. - Mexico border do not generally receive the opportunity to explore nature and learn about their own backyards to the same extent as children in more privileged areas. By exposing these children to the basic concepts of desert ecology and desert agriculture, we can give them a lens through which to view their environment and themselves. By actively engaging them in scientific discovery, we spark their desire to learn more and, in the process, acquire valuable academic skills in mathematics and science.

Primary and secondary school educators frequently possess a strong desire to teach biological principles of conservation and restoration but sometimes lack a scientifically-based understanding of fundamental ecological processes. Outreach efforts by scientists to educate the public are often limited by researchers’ lack of time, lack of a mechanism to coordinate such efforts, and the need for appropriate materials to communicate complex ideas to children.

In an effort to reach out to the community, scientists with the USDA-ARS Jornada Experimental Range and the Jornada Basin LTER have led a plethora of school tours and K-12 educational activities in recent years. Each semester, Jornada scientists spend up to three days per week giving tours and lectures on their work to schoolchildren. A typical tour involves two to four hours of coordination and planning between the school and Jornada staff. Setting up the stations requires one to three hours. The tour itself is broken into two segments. The first block, a three-station, two-hour rotation, requires approximately ten people (both scientists and ranch hands). The second two-hour block, a field discovery walk, requires three to eight scientists and technical staff, each working with eight to twelve students.

Several years of close association with schools and community groups has led to a situation in which the Jornada is no longer able to meet the demand for tours, field activities, and other scientist/student contact. When 2000-3000 students and teachers spend 2-6 hours at the Jornada each school year, these educational activities have to be considered for their impact on staffing, supplies, and the simple opportunity cost of trading research hours for outreach.

We understand the intention of the schoolyard LTER project to be to begin to create a relationship between the LTER and local schools. We have moved beyond that stage (see letter from Kris Havstad), with strong relationships already in place that require more outreach than we can afford, given our other priorities. The future of schoolyard LTER projects at other locations may be similar: when teachers hear about the willingness of the LTERs to work on educational projects with students, they will flock to them. At that point, other programs will also face the burden of how to expand important contact with the schools, and they may benefit from having a model already tested that will manage the demand created by these pilot projects.

As a result of the burgeoning demand and burden of these educational programs, the Jornada is supporting the development of the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Park (CDNP) as an independent entity that will provide coordination services and allow scientists to interact with students, teachers and other members of the public in the most efficient fashion possible (see Figure 1 ). Community volunteers will be trained and supervised by a paid, professional staff who will be advised by Jornada scientists. This strategy will cost less than the alternative, which is to continue to use Jornada staff to meet the demand. It will also yield greater benefits, by allowing valuable contact with scientists to be maximized and extended to more children.

The CDNP is a not-for-profit organization under the laws of the State of New Mexico. The mission of the CDNP is to improve the ability of a growing population to live successfully and sustainably in the Chihuahuan Desert.

The CDNP will extend the impact of the Jornada/LTER research programs. Another benefit to using the Nature Park as a channel is that NSF funding will, in effect, be "matched" by other contributions of the non-profit organization to the project. The CDNP has a functional organizational structure, including many volunteer hours that go into every project it undertakes. Instead of the administrative effort to run the project coming from the LTER, it will come from the volunteer-supported Park.

Finally, the CDNP gives us the opportunity to replicate the project in other schools once the pilot project is completed. By working with the Nature Park, NSF establishes the possibility of extending the reach of the project in future years (with additional funding from NSF or other sources). The Jornada is unable to promise such replication on its own, regardless of funding availability, because of the time-intensive nature of the activity.

The project has two primary objectives:

1. To establish an on-site LTER at one elementary school and one secondary school
2. To create a partnership between the LTER, the ARS, and an educational not-for-profit organization.

The Jornada will contribute scientific expertise to the collaborative. The CDNP will design, test, and distribute a curriculum to bring LTER research into the classroom, provide contacts with regional schools and community organizations, and offer coordination and logistical support. Working together, we will create:

• programs designed to enhance existing K-12 curricula with innovative hands-on learning experiences/activities

• an opportunity for children to participate in ongoing research

• a pool of experienced environmental educators, including LTER and ARS scientists.

Schoolyard LTER’s will be established at Jornada Elementary School in Las Cruces, New Mexico (for use by fifth grade students), and at Franklin High School in El Paso, Texas (for use by eleventh graders), giving the project a regional breadth that will increase visibility and public support.

Site descriptions. Both schools are within walking distance of topographically diverse undeveloped land currently dominated by creosotebush (Larrea tridentata). Both areas retain the basic structural elements of the creosote plant community represented in the three Jornada LTER NPP sites, but have been more severely affected by human and off-road vehicle use. We have used the Jornada Elementary site for the past three years for teaching desert ecology, geology, and natural history. However, no permanent plots have yet been established. The Elementary site is approximately 5 ha in size, while the High School has access to an area covering over 30 ha, including a hilltop, arroyo system and retention basin. Neither site is slated for development.

Site establishment. Two permanent plots will be established at each school: upland and arroyo bottom. Students will prepare basic site vegetation maps using aerial photos. An automated weather station will be installed at each site and linked directly to computers in the classrooms.

Project description. Students will monitor climate, net primary production (NPP) and associated variables at each site. These parameters were selected because they can be easily (1) related to other ecosystem processes (conceptually, at least), (2) related to each other, (3) compared between the two sites, and (3) compared with data from other LTER sites on the web. NPP will be measured using the standard Jornada methods.

Data analysis, interpretation and presentation. Elementary students will use graphical methods, and the high school students will use statistics to analyze the data. The students will work together on the project, allowing mentoring relationships to develop between the older and younger students. These relationships will be facilitated through a joint visit to the Jornada LTER site at the beginning of the academic year, through reciprocal site visits by each group to the other school, and through e-mail contact coordinated by the CDNP.

*Target dates are approximately 1 month prior to these completion dates.

Students at both Franklin High and Jornada Elementary have e-mail access. Each class will post a bi-weekly progress report and data to a list-server. In the future, this will be done using a web page. CDNP educators will contact or visit each school at least once per month and will arrange LTER scientist visits as required.

Miscellaneous: A list-server will be established and maintained for one year ($230). Aerial photographs will be purchased for each site. The El Paso and Las Cruces school districts are very poorly funded. Starting salaries are approximately $25,000/year and resources for supplemental materials are extremely limited. We anticipate the need to supply virtually all of the supplies needed for the project including meter sticks, tape measures, quadrat frames, plot markers and a balance (for calibrating visual biomass estimates).