News - North America
New Hampshire Students Help Create the Earth Around Us Water Tent
On June 6, a cheer went up through the crowd that gathered to witness the unveiling of the Water Tent, part of the Earth Around Us tent program produced by the New Hampshire GLOBE Program based at the Leitzel Center at the University of New Hampshire. The crowd comprised nearly 75 Kindergarten through grade 5 students and their teachers at the Maple Street Magnet School in Rochester, N.H. They were excited to see the unveiling because they played a critical role in its development: they contributed data and drawings of a local river ecosystem to the murals printed on the tent’s panels.
Starting in October 2022, fourth and fifth grade students from Maple Street Magnet School walked with their teachers to a local park along the Cocheco River. At the river they met members of the NH GLOBE Program, the USDA Forest Service and UNH STEM volunteers to measure water quality data, collect and identify aquatic macroinvertebrates, and observe and sketch the landscape and wildlife along the river. They repeated these activities again in April and June 2023. Visiting and observing the river during different seasons helped the students understand the changing dynamics of a river ecosystem.
The idea to visit the river during different seasons was inspired by The GLOBE Program’s elementary storybook Discoveries at Willow Creek.
The Maple Street Magnet School students worked with their art teacher to turn their sketches into murals to represent the river during the three seasons. Their artwork was then given to local artist Taylor Rose, who incorporated the students’ art into digital murals. The murals were printed on panels that will hang as walls of a 10-by-10-foot pop-up tent. This pop-up tent and water monitoring equipment will be available for schools around New Hampshire to borrow to conduct their own water studies. studies.
Photo captions (top to bottom):
- Photo 1: Students watch as a curtain is pulled away to reveal the New Hampshire Water Tent
- Photo 2: Students stand in the New Hampshire Water Tent to see the artwork from their peers
- Photo 3: A student sketches the landscape along the Cocheco River during the fall season
- Photo 4: The New Hampshire Water Tent mural for the fall season shows a tree with leaves changing color, many animals in the trees and the water, and data sheets showing transparency tube data, weather and water temperature, and macorinvertebrate observations
- Photo 5: The New Hampshire Water Tent mural for the spring season shows a tree with leaves just emerging, animals in the trees and water, and data sheets with water speed data, weather and water temperature, and macroinvertebrate observations
- Photo 6: The New Hampshire Water Tent mural for the summer season shows leaves on trees, animals in the tree and water, and data sheets for weather and water data and macroinvertebrate observations throughout the seasons
The Earth Around Us Tents were made possible by support from the USDA Forest Service, Eastern Region (Agreement Number 21-CS-11090100-035 and a 2016 Youth Engagement grant)
News origin: United States of America