February 15, 2012

Students at the Boston Teachers Union School collaborate on science at a work table.

Ask any scientist where their vocational path began, and you’re likely to hear childhood stories of exploring neighborhood woodlands or hunting for insects at night. In contemporary urban environments, contact with the natural world can prove more elusive both in and out of the classroom. With this in mind, the Arboretum began sending educators into Boston Public School classrooms in 2009 to enhance science education opportunities for students. When a three-year collaboration with the Louis Agassiz Elementary School ended in 2011 with the school’s closing, the Arboretum partnered with the Boston Teachers Union School (BTU School) in Jamaica Plain to coordinate science lessons for Kindergarten, first, and second grade classes. This fall the Arboretum’s science educator, Ana Maria Caballero, began working with BTU School teachers to enhance and expand student engagement with science.

Growing out of a longstanding commitment to sharing knowledge about the natural world, the Arnold Arboretum’s educational programming for children began in the 1980s with the introduction of field study opportunities in the historical landscape. While this programming continues to thrive today, the Arboretum’s BTU School collaboration is designed to provide science instruction as an integral part of student learning throughout the school year. Funded through the generous support of a private donor, the program includes lessons on plant and animal life but also nurtures a broader understanding of science in general, intending to spark curiosity through thought-provoking activities that promote observation, reasoning, and language skills.

At the BTU School, this work begins in the Kindergarten (K2) classroom, and Arboretum educators led instruction in the science of color through tactile experiments that extracted hues from plant materials. More recently, these students have been learning to compare and contrast pairings of similar animals: goldfish and guppies, land and pond snails, and red worms and night crawlers, among others. With the school’s first graders, educators introduced the science of air and weather. Various aspects of atmospheric science were explored through hands on activities like blowing bubbles, making kites, and—by artistically manipulating sandwich cookies—creating edible diagrams of the moon and its phases. In addition, students learned to use tools like thermometers, anemometers, and wind vanes.

Arboretum educator Ana Maria Caballero blows bubbles with students as part of a lesson about air.

In the second grade classrooms, educators helped students raise mealworms, waxworms, darkling beetles, milkweed bugs, and painted lady butterflies to learn about the anatomy and life cycles of these creatures. This winter, these students will delve into geology through the study of pebbles, sand, silt, and soil, and will continue to build on their observational skills and knowledge foundation. Arboretum educators will also assist instruction in the BTU School preschool classroom (K1), exploring water and its properties using hands on activities in small groups.

Across learning levels at the school, these experiences provide a great deal of fun for the students while helping them to form connections between science and everyday activities. Lessons also enable the children to acquire and internalize specific scientific vocabulary to enhance their future investigations this school year and beyond. By recording their observations through words and drawings in their own science journals, all of the students practice the art of documentation as an integral part of the scientific method. Journaling not only helps the students learn how to conduct their experiments like real scientists, it also instills a value for sharing knowledge that lies at the heart of the Arboretum’s mission.

Collaborating with the BTU School has opened avenues of discovery for both students and their instructors, and both teachers and parents have noticed a spike in the children’s enthusiasm for learning science. In addition to engaging students in the classroom, the Arboretum hosted the students for field studies in the landscape, creating opportunities for students to expand on their indoor experiments through an exploration of the Arboretum’s living collection of plants. Some of the students will learn elementary botany by growing plants in their classrooms this spring, and all will return to the landscape when the weather warms to continue to learn about science in the field. Whether in the classroom or on the Arboretum grounds, students and educators both look forward to the continued flowering of this unique educational partnership.

Learn more about the Boston Teachers Union School and its partnership with the Arnold Arboretum.

February 15, 2012 Arnold Arboretum

The Arboretum’s Boston Teachers Union School collaboration is designed to provide science instruction as an integral part of student learning throughout the school year. more »

February 3, 2012

The Arnold Arboretum is pleased to announce that the Weld Hill Research Building has been awarded LEED® Gold in assessments established by the U.S. Green Building Council and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute.

Opened in January 2011, the Arboretum’s research and administration facility at Weld Hill was designed and constructed to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) specifications, incorporating many technologies designed to minimize the building’s impact on the environment and its surrounding neighborhood. Leveraging energy-efficient mechanical systems and innovative water management technologies, the facility reflects the Arboretum’s strong interest in conservation and sustainability. LEED certification also acknowledges the Arboretum’s choice of “green” construction methods, such as clearing only the land required for construction and employing on-site soil management and erosion control techniques.

LEED is the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. By using less energy and water, LEED certified buildings save money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and contribute to a healthier environment. Weld Hill incorporates water-saving technologies not only in the interior of the building, such as dual flush toilets and low-flow showers for bicycle commuters, but also through the design of its surroundings. The landscape around the building consists mainly of a “cosmopolitan meadow mix,” a selection of hardy perennials developed by Arboretum Senior Scientist Peter Del Tredici. Requiring only yearly mowing and no irrigation, this sustainable alternative to grass reduces typical water requirements by half.

In addition, the topography of the landscape obscures some unique ecological components of the site. On the parcel’s eastern border adjacent to Walter Street, the gently sloping ground is shaped by soil displaced from the building site, diverting tons of construction waste that would otherwise be sent to landfills. Under the hill to the south of the building, 88 closed-loop geothermal wells draw energy from the earth to both heat and cool the entire facility. Other energy efficiencies include lighting control devices and cellulose insulation, which contribute to more than 25% savings in consumption.

February 3, 2012 Arnold Arboretum

The Arnold Arboretum is pleased to announce that the Weld Hill Research Building has been awarded LEED® Gold in assessments established by the U.S. Green Building Council and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute. more »

January 26, 2012

This week, the US Department of Agriculture unveiled its new Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PHZM), a development that has been long anticipated by gardeners and researchers. Like its earlier incarnations, the new PHZM provides guidelines to predict a region’s average annual minimum temperature, a vital statistic in determining whether or not a plant may survive the winter in a particular area. Last updated in 1990, the map now features a number of significant updates. For one, it has gained interactivity through a Geographic Information System (GIS) that enables users to zoom in at regional and state levels; it also has a tool to identify a zone by zip code. The quantity and quality of the data represent another marked improvement— the model utilizes 30 years (1976–2005) of data and a wider geographic sampling of weather station data. Lastly, some highly sophisticated algorithms facilitated the analysis, interpreting local weather station data as well as such geographic characteristics as elevation, proximity to bodies of water, and terrain.

Arnold Arboretum Curator of Living Collections Michael Dosmann served as a technical reviewer for the new PHZM, and applauds the finished product. “The new map is fantastic,” he remarks. “I think it’s a tool that all of us in the horticultural and botanical communities will find practical and trustworthy.” While a broader array of weather stations contributed data this time around, it is the longer time span of data collection that impresses him most. “To me, 13 years [the period of data collection used for the 1990 version] is not long enough to confidently predict just how cold it might get in your area. When forecasting whether or not a plant will survive, it pays to be somewhat conservative.” Dosmann explained that the boundaries drawn by the PHZM are not based on winter’s average temperature, nor its duration, but on the extreme cold temperature event for each winter. “People often forget this part of the equation. If on average your thermometer dips to between 0°F and -10°F every year, you are still in Zone 6 despite how the rest of the winter’s temperatures shake out.”

In the new PHZM, many zones have shifted from their previous designation, typically about a half-zone warmer. Does this provide additional evidence of climate change? “While we see upward movement in some zones, a few areas actually dipped into a colder zone,” advises Dosmann. “Zone creep, in either direction, can be attributed to a variety of things. Since a broad dataset was used to draw the map, scientists have more variables to consider in determining how these changes came about.” Additionally, in urban and suburban regions, the cities themselves may be greatly influencing temperature. “We know urbanization creates heat islands, making them significantly warmer than their rural surroundings. So we shouldn’t be surprised when the average annual minimum temperature in and around cities changes over time.”

Looking at the interplay between plant hardiness and geography is nothing new to the Arboretum. In 1927, Arboretum taxonomist Alfred Rehder first published a map of climatic zones across the US. As horticulturists began to cultivate newly discovered plants across the country, reports of their survival were used to assign hardiness ranges and ratings to these species. Although the Arboretum continued to update and publish its map until 1971, it was the USDA’s PHZM (first issued in 1960) that became the industry standard. Inspired by the Arboretum’s system, the USDA map factored a broader array of data as well as more sophisticated analytical tools.

Recently, the Arboretum has focused more technology on recording its local weather events, deploying an array of small weather stations across the landscape in 2008 and establishing a new permanent weather station a few months ago. Collected data allow Arboretum staff to better document conditions in the landscape, and to even identify microclimates, or small fluctuations in climate, due to terrain, aspect, or proximity to buildings. While overall the Arboretum landscape is nestled in Zone 6b (-5° to 0°F), there are a number of microclimates that offer slightly warmer lows. This gives curatorial and horticultural staff areas to cultivate plant species that are more tender and would typically perform best in Zone 7.

Read more about the current—and historical—weather activities at the Arboretum.

January 26, 2012 Arnold Arboretum

The release of an updated Plant Hardiness Zone Map by the USDA provides useful guidelines to predict a region’s average annual minimum temperature, a vital statistic in determining whether a plant will survive in a given area. more »

January 10, 2012

by Peter Del Tredici

Alliaria petiolata. Photo by Peter Del Tredici

The amazingly warm fall and winter we’ve been experiencing in southern New England this year has provided welcome relief to people who prefer more mild conditions at this time of year. By analogy, the same can be said for a group of weedy plants known as winter annuals. The seeds of these herbs typically germinate in early fall and the seedlings grow slowly throughout the autumn and winter, whenever temperatures are above freezing. Winter annuals flower in early spring, as the days are getting longer, and they die by the end of the spring, leaving behind a crop of seeds that is proportional to the size they have attained.

Most of the winter annuals common in the northeast come from Europe, and their numbers across the urban landscape seem to be increasing as our winters get warmer and our springs arrive earlier. To wit, mild fall weather lasts longer than it did in the past, which gives these plants more time to accumulate carbohydrate reserves; and at the other end of their life cycle, the earlier arrival of warm weather in spring allows the plants to start growing earlier and to grow for a longer time before flowering. Winter annuals occur most abundantly on disturbed, rich soil like that of the typical vegetable garden, and common examples include: yellow rocket (Barbarea vulgaris), shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris), hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta), Virginia pepperweed (Lepedium virginicum), chickweed (Stellaria media), knawel (Scleranthus annuus), groundsel (Senecio vulgaris), and red sandspurry (Spergularia rubra).

Verbascum thapsus rosette. Photo by Peter Del Tredici

This same pattern of opportunistic growth also holds true for many biennial species that complete their life cycle over two growing seasons, beginning with seed germination in spring or early summer. For these plants, the protracted fall and mild winter provides the evergreen rosettes a longer period to develop, resulting in a bigger, more prolifically seeding plant in late spring or summer. Typical examples of biennials include burdock (Arctium minus), celandine (Chelidonium majus), mullein (Verbascum thapsus), bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare), and garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata).

Taken together, these plants illustrate how changes in the weather can favor those species with the capacity and flexibility to respond to the opportunities presented by our rapidly changing climate. Indeed, the weeds are well positioned to inherit the earth.

December 1, 2011

The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is pleased to announce the release of Collection Researcher version 1.0, an innovative web application that provides unique access to the Arboretum’s living plant collections through its geographic information system (GIS). Available on the Arboretum website, Collection Researcher integrates a searchable inventory of the Arboretum’s nearly 15,000 curated trees, shrubs, and vines with high-definition, digital maps of its 265-acre landscape.

Combining the tools of cutting-edge GIS technology with the resources of modern curatorial practice, Collection Researcher was created through the collaborative efforts of the Arboretum’s curation and information technology staffs, in partnership with Harvard’s Center for Geographic Analysis. Application development was directed by Brian Morgan, a former Putnam Research Fellow at the Arboretum, GIS expert, and founder of the Alliance for Public Garden GIS. “Collection Researcher is a giant leap forward in disseminating living collection data,” says Morgan. “It provides a foundation for the eventual integration of powerful research tools and even multiple collections.”

Exploring Collections Researcher begins with a satellite view of the Arnold Arboretum landscape and its surrounding Boston neighborhoods. Navigation tools enable visitors to pan across the map or zoom in to examine finer detail. Separate layers—including aerial photographs, plant locations, a wayfinding grid, and even color-coded phylogenetic and evolutionary histories of the collections—can be turned on or off, or shifted in transparency. Click on any one of the nearly 15,000 dots on the map representing accessioned plants to display basic collection details. “We see Collection Researcher as a revolutionary new way for scientists and casual visitors alike to study our plants,” notes Curator of Living Collections Michael Dosmann. “In fact, its very name evokes our legacy of exploration and discovery.”

Among the innovative features of Collection Researcher is its search widget, which allows the visitor to query the collections by scientific or common name, by accession number, or by selecting locations on the map. Search results appear not only as pinpoints on the map, but also as a listing with additional data and direct links to information repositories from around the world. For instance, search results for a selected plant may direct users to photographs in Google Images and scientific papers in Google Scholar. Additional links reveal such resources as herbarium specimens held in the Harvard University Herbaria and DNA sequences uploaded to GenBank, the genetic databases of the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Search results can be exported for further analysis in a spreadsheet or text editor or saved for future reference. According to Arboretum Application Programmer and Web Developer Donna Tremonte, “Version 1.0 marks a beginning. Next we envision integrating additional databases—like image repositories of leaves and bark, for example—and introducing a mobile version to foster onsite exploration in our landscape.”

Collection Researcher represents a landmark development in the Arboretum’s efforts to improve the management of its collection through technology. The Arboretum began digitizing its plant records in an electronic database (BG-BASE) in 1985; by 2001, a searchable living collections inventory on the Arboretum website provided virtual access to visitors. Also in the 1980s, mapping the collections advanced from paper to software (AutoCAD), and took another leap in 2009 with the deployment of a suite of Esri Desktop and Mobile GIS software. Collection Researcher offers the functionality of these technologies to online visitors, and promises to complement the work of Arboretum staff. “With this tool, my colleagues and I can quickly and easily audit georeferenced or mapped features, for our own use or to assist visiting scholars,” comments Kyle Port, Manager of Plant Records.

Central to all these initiatives has been the Arboretum’s longstanding commitment to provide staff, scientists, and visitors with access to the depth and richness of its plant collections. “Bringing Collection Researcher online signifies a giant step in our efforts to share our remarkable collections with the world,” states Arboretum Director Ned Friedman. “We aim to ensure that everyone—from genomicists to environmental biologists, and citizen scientists to the visiting public—can access our plants and the biology that lies behind them.”

December 1, 2011 Harvard Gazette

Ned Friedman, director of the Arnold Arboretum and Arnold Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, led students of his freshman seminar class in recreating some of Darwin’s Down House experiments. more »

Participants prepare plant material for DNA barcoding

October 29, 2011

On October 28-29, the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University was buzzing with twenty two college educators learning and discussing ways to teach genomics in the classroom. The two day iPlant Collaborative faculty workshop was taught by Jason Williams from the DNA Learning Center of Cold Spring Harbor Labs. Participants comprised faculty from around the region, representing community colleges like Roxbury Community College (Boston, MA) and Manchester Community College (CT) and four year schools including the UMass system (Lowell and Dartmouth, MA), Smith College (Northampton, MA), and Bates College (ME).

The workshop began with discussions about important concepts in molecular biology and genomics. Using the same resources available to the plant biology research community, the participants collected “unknown” species of wildflowers from the hillside outside the Arboretum’s Weld Hill Research Building, performed DNA extraction and barcoding experiments in the undergraduate teaching lab, and practiced analyzing their results on their computers. The DNA barcodes from the unknown plants were used to identify their species by utilizing real-world bioinformatics techniques. Barcoding techniques are commonly used by scientists out in the field, including Arnold Arboretum scientist Cam Webb, to document biodiversity in the world’s forests. In addition to lab experiments and bioinformatics tools, the workshop allowed the educators an opportunity to interact with their peers and discuss everyday issues in teaching.

The iPlant Collaborative workshop was funded by National Science Foundation and was offered to participating teachers free of charge. Teachers also received a small stipend to defray housing and transportation costs associated with attending the workshop.