Archive: Around Town

"It's absolutely wonderful work," says Middle School Principal John Gizzi.  He is talking about the "Museum of the Woods" project that science teacher Therese Arsenault's class has produced.  Responding to a letter from the Lansing Board of Education the class spent 12 weeks conducting environmental studies of the Lansing schools campus to determine how the proposed capital improvement project will affect the environment.  The students will report their findings to the BOE on April 3, and the Museum event was held last week at the Middle School.


Fifth graders spent 10 weeks in the woods near the Middle School playground taking earth samples and determining what wildlife lives there and how important the sun is as the primary energy source.  They worked out the food chain and food web for the area, as well as the composition of the dirt.  "I'm impressed by the research that was done here by students, especially students at this age level," says School Superintendent Mark Lewis.  I think it's very advanced."



"Students spent much time outside, collecting things from the woods," Arsenault explains.  "We took that information to figure out how important they are to the web of life.  We looked at food chains and food webs.  The Board of Education presentation will detail all that and include our recommendations."  The students will also produce a magazine containing their findings and work, called the Lansing Middle School Woods, Habitat Edition.


The work spans a range including scientific analysis, experimentation, charting as well as poetry and art.  Earth samples were taken from the surrounding area and subjected to two kinds of testing, the"ribbon test" and "soil tube test," which analyzes the percentages of clay, sand and silt in the soil.  Animal and vegetable life was observed and analyzed to determine how each element depends on the others for food or interaction.  Questions like "What if all the red tail hawks disappeared?  What would happen to our woods?" were posed.

Presentation was as important as the work itself.  The event began with a PowerPoint presentation by Jeffery Kirkwood that explained how all the parts of the local ecosystem fit together.  He listed plants and animals that the students found, and explained the food web -- which carnivores eat which animals, and which plants are essential to local herbivores.


Other work included a picture showing the ecological overview of Lansing Middle School by Richard McDonough, a drawing of local bugs by Keisha Lee, a wild turkey photograph by Troy Osterman, a picture of a downy woodpecker by William Lion, a picture of a black cherry tree by Jordan Fraboni, a food web picture by Zach Radcliffe, an ecosystem crossword puzzle by  Carter Freije, as well as a word search puzzle and several dioramas.  Jordan White displayed a poem called "The Walking Stick."  Sixth grader Hanna Shea also brought her insect collection, the result of over three years of work in 4H.


"This is the same process that the BOE or any public entity must go through before it puts one shovel of dirt in the ground pursuant to a construction project," says Lewis.  "It has to assess what the impact is on the ecology and determine whether or not these circumstances are such that it endangers species.  It's called a State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR).  Essentially what these young students have done is conduct their own SEQR."


Arsenault and her student teacher Courtney Peters encouraged the students to analyze each other's work.  They were asked to tell what they liked and why they liked it, and to analyze what they think makes a good presentation.  She also asked what advice they would give future students doing this project.  Students noticed a lot of effort, detail and care in the work they viewed, noting that it was accurately and creatively presented.  "It's a great way for the kids to learn," Gizzi says.  "The idea that kids produce work, they get to share it, other kids get to see the work and then they get to talk about it."


Peters had only been at Lansing for three days before the presentation.  "The best part is working with the kids," she said.  "I just love getting to know different personalities.  They teach me as much as I teach them."  Arsenault agrees.  "It was their ideas, they chose what they wanted to study," she says.  "This work reflects what they were interested in.  They were able to choose the method of showing what they know.  It was their interests that drove them to do the work.  And I love showing the work.  I think that you see the strengths of every single child.  That's what it's all about, being interested and building on what you know."


(With reporting and photographs by Karen Veaner)
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