The Buzz on Beekeeping and Pollinators!

Today we learned all about Pollinators from a real beekeeper - our own Environmental Educator Sam! She showed us the ropes of beekeeping, introduced us to various pollinators (including hummingbirds, moths, bees, bats and more) and even had the Urban Naturalists dissect flowers to learn all about the parts! What a fun day!

Hmmm...what is this mystery object?

Trying out all the gear!

Sam shows us a sample beekeeper hive while Jaida models the outfit!

Elly draws a flower and its parts

Our crazy ladies!

Hector drew an EXCELLENT representation of all the
kids of pollinators! 

Jaida is a fantastic artist! 

Getting the Dirty Details on Soil

Today, we dug up the scoop on soil! We learned about how different sediments tell us different things about the history of the land.

To start, we checked out our mystery object using a microscope!

We learned a bit about cicadas as they have been in the news very recently. Keep an eye out for these guys this summer!

Here, the boys team builds a rock to tell the history
of the land

One Urban Naturalists thoughts on the class!

Some Urban Naturalists do some soil tests in the garden soil! 

Using our soil sifter, we discovered that our garden has quite a variety of particle sizes! 

One of our students even found a 4 leaf clover!

Learning About the Trees

We put our new Tree ID skills to the test and ventured into Blackstone Park in Providence RI. We identified quite a few tree and bird species while out in the woods!

Here, Jaida and Emeril try to identify an Oak Tree

Lucy learns the trick to identifying a White Pine 

Leave it to Katherine to keep things crazy!

All About Trees!

Today, the Urban Naturalists learned about plants outside! We learned about some wonderful trees that surrounded our schoolyard. We had to figure out how to identify the trees using clues in its bark, leaves and flowers.

Sketching a Bradford Pear Tree in their notebooks! 

Here, one of our Urban Naturalists attaches a leaf
into his journal to help ID it in future hikes

We then learned about "Tree Cookies" or cross sections of a tree. By looking at tree cookies, we can learn about the history of the environment in which the tree grew up in. Not only do we learn about the age of the tree, but also about whether the tree received enough nutrients and sunlight, if it suffered any trauma due to fire, human impact or insects, and what was going on in the environment in which it lived. All in all, we discussed how trees were truly living things!

Taking some time to examine our tree cookies

We finished up the day by planting some "mystery seeds". Each Urban Naturalist will measure and analyze their plant in hopes to discover what mystery plant they are growing! Each will get to take their plant home at the end of session. 

Urban Naturalists: Out and About Part 2!

Elly made the news in a very small photo on the Cox Communications website! Check him out at http://www.coxconserves.com/

First Day of Spring Session!

Our first day of Spring Session has begun! Our Urban Naturalists began their day checking out a "Mystery Object". They observed, drew, and noted various parts of our Mystery Object and took some guesses as to what it may be. The correct answer was a Gall. A gall is a small bulge on a plant stem that is usually due to the effects of an insect laying its egg into the layers of the stem. As the egg develops, the stem swells to accomidate the growth. When the insect is mature enough, it escapes through a small hole in the top. To learn more about galls, click here.

We then took an adventure outside into the schoolyard of Nathan Bishop Middle School to learn a bit about the Urban Naturalist program and about scientific illustration.

We then put our skills to the test by drawing and observing various biofacts brought by the ASRI educators or by observing something in the schoolyard.

Finally, we were able to meet a Pueblan Milksnake! Some students chose to draw her while Chloe presented our animal while others just had lots of questions! Click here to learn a bit about Pueblan Milksnakes.

Peregrine Falcon Babies!

The Peregrine Falcons nesting in Providence finally have some puffy babies! Check out the two new chicks that have hatched this week at http://www.asri.org/general-conservation-info/providence-peregrine-falcon-webcam.html and watch them grow!

To learn more about Peregrine Falcons, click here for some information.

Here is a grainy photo of Momma Peregrine feeding some of the babies!

Urban Naturalists - Out and About!

Check out this news update Jaida was featured in! http://blackstoneparksconservancy.org/1366/urban-naturalists-demo-in-the-park/

Good Job Jaida!

Press Release for Urban Naturalists and Cox Communications!

The Urban Naturalists for Spring Session went right to work educating others about the environment! Cox Communications of RI generously donated to ASRI to help support technology to be used in the AfterSchool Urban Naturalist Programs. The Urban Naturalists attended the Press Release and educated some of the Cox Communications representatives about what they do in their program! We were so grateful for this donation and we can't wait to use some of the new tools and devices to aid in our exploration around Providence!

Learn about the Cox Communications Award at http://prsync.com/cox-enterprises/cox-communications-awards-grant-to-audubon-society-of-ri-537391/

Here, the Urban Naturalists were able to educate some visiting RISD students! 

Our excellent information team: Elly, Frances, Katherine, Emeril and
Jaida showed folks some projects we have done in the past as well
as a scientific illustration demonstration! 

Thank you Cox! 

Posing for a Serious Photo...

...followed by a TRUE Urban Naturalist shot!

Jaida's live Scientific Illustration Demonstration

Just some of the educators that day! 

Wahoo Urban Naturalists! 

Photo taken by Hope Foley from ASRI

Photo taken by Hope Foley from ASRI

While our veteran Urban Naturalists were talking with the folks
inside, our new Urban Naturalists spent their very first day
in the program outside exploring the refuge! Despite
the rain, they spotted a number of birds and even a
rabbit! 

To Caratunk Wildlife Refuge We Go!

Today, the Urban Naturalists spent the day at Caratunk Wildlife Refuge! We began by checking out what aquatic invertebrates we could find in the stream running around the refuge.

Even the educators were facinated!

Check out our two different caddisfly larvae
coverings! One made its cover from sticks
while the other made its covering out of sand!

Our Spoils! 

We then did a bit of birdwatching on the way back. We saw quite a few species at the feeders including some Juncos, Nuthatches, Bluebirds and Song Sparrows! 

Where are those pesky birds???