9/12/14 - Team is established....
Our team is made up of ten eighth grade students who care about the local environment and want to make a difference by getting rid of newer invasive species. We meet every Thursday and Friday at lunch to discuss our progress and what we're going to do next. |
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10/07/14 - Japanese Knotweed Study and Removal
Our team took a field trip to the MTU commuter parking lot on Garnet St. (Houghton, MI).
Joined by Jill Fisher (Forestry Dept., MTU) and Meryl Jackson (Houghton & Keweenaw Conservation District), we learned about japanese knotweed and its recent spread into the area. We were fortunate to be able to help with an in-progress study, and evaluate the effectiveness of several different treatments. We experienced first-hand how difficult it is to remove japanese knotweed from an area once it is established.
WLUC TV 6 Covered our work - See our video!
Our team took a field trip to the MTU commuter parking lot on Garnet St. (Houghton, MI).
Joined by Jill Fisher (Forestry Dept., MTU) and Meryl Jackson (Houghton & Keweenaw Conservation District), we learned about japanese knotweed and its recent spread into the area. We were fortunate to be able to help with an in-progress study, and evaluate the effectiveness of several different treatments. We experienced first-hand how difficult it is to remove japanese knotweed from an area once it is established.
WLUC TV 6 Covered our work - See our video!
10/10/14 - Day off of school... But not for our team!
Thursday October 10th we had a day off of school but came anyway! The meeting was extremely productive, We separated 250 trees and put milkweed seeds into 200 packets we are going to distribute throughout our community. Not only did we get plants ready to go, we typed and copied planting instructions and even made a QR code that will be on our brochure.
Thursday October 10th we had a day off of school but came anyway! The meeting was extremely productive, We separated 250 trees and put milkweed seeds into 200 packets we are going to distribute throughout our community. Not only did we get plants ready to go, we typed and copied planting instructions and even made a QR code that will be on our brochure.
10/17/14 - Visit to Houghton Elementary School
Visit to Houghton Elementary School
Our team will visit classrooms to deliver a presentation to all 4th and 5th grade students. We will educate them on the importance of native plants in ecosystems, and how several newer invasive exotic plants are posing a threat to the diversity of our native plants.
We will share our project with the students, and challenge them to get involved by planting (their choice of) a native white pine seedling or packet of (mixed) milkweed seeds, packaged and supplied by our team. A form signed by their parents must be returned to their teacher by 10/24, indicating that they planted their seeds/seedling and visited our website to learn more about our project. Classes will be pitted against each other in friendly competition.... The class in each grade with the highest % of participation will win an extra recess, and the overall winning class will have a (native) tree planted on school grounds with a commemorative plaque.
Visit to Houghton Elementary School
Our team will visit classrooms to deliver a presentation to all 4th and 5th grade students. We will educate them on the importance of native plants in ecosystems, and how several newer invasive exotic plants are posing a threat to the diversity of our native plants.
We will share our project with the students, and challenge them to get involved by planting (their choice of) a native white pine seedling or packet of (mixed) milkweed seeds, packaged and supplied by our team. A form signed by their parents must be returned to their teacher by 10/24, indicating that they planted their seeds/seedling and visited our website to learn more about our project. Classes will be pitted against each other in friendly competition.... The class in each grade with the highest % of participation will win an extra recess, and the overall winning class will have a (native) tree planted on school grounds with a commemorative plaque.
10/27/14- Elementary School Challenge Ends
Congratulations to Mrs. Lehto's 4th grade class for winning the Elementary Eco Challenge with an impressive 97% participation! A native apple tree will be planted on school grounds and dedicated to your class in the spring. Two classes earning honorable mention completed the challenge with 85% participation and 60% participation. Many extra emails, comments, and pictures of student work and stewardship were sent to us from throughout the community, and we were inspired by all of your hard work.
11/6/14 - Community Outreach - HMS Parent Teacher Conferences
On November 6th we set up a booth during parent teacher conferences. We stayed at the conferences from 4 to 7 pm advertising our mission and educating the students and their parents. During this time parents were given the option to sign a petition showing support of our group and what we are trying to accomplish. We were excited to see that our petition had a total of 46 signatures on it!
1/12/15 - Presentation to the Houghton School Board
On Monday night, January 19th, we are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to present to our school board. while presenting we hope to show that invasive species eradication is a vital concept to support the ecosystem that we reside in. Other than invasive species, we hope to show that through this project we have not only become more knowledgeable about our ecosystem, we have learned that we can make a difference by doing what we think is right.
Congratulations to Mrs. Lehto's 4th grade class for winning the Elementary Eco Challenge with an impressive 97% participation! A native apple tree will be planted on school grounds and dedicated to your class in the spring. Two classes earning honorable mention completed the challenge with 85% participation and 60% participation. Many extra emails, comments, and pictures of student work and stewardship were sent to us from throughout the community, and we were inspired by all of your hard work.
11/6/14 - Community Outreach - HMS Parent Teacher Conferences
On November 6th we set up a booth during parent teacher conferences. We stayed at the conferences from 4 to 7 pm advertising our mission and educating the students and their parents. During this time parents were given the option to sign a petition showing support of our group and what we are trying to accomplish. We were excited to see that our petition had a total of 46 signatures on it!
1/12/15 - Presentation to the Houghton School Board
On Monday night, January 19th, we are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to present to our school board. while presenting we hope to show that invasive species eradication is a vital concept to support the ecosystem that we reside in. Other than invasive species, we hope to show that through this project we have not only become more knowledgeable about our ecosystem, we have learned that we can make a difference by doing what we think is right.