Contact: Dr. Jennifer Rhode Ward, University of North Carolina at Asheville: jrward@unca.edu; and Dr. Alisa Hove, Warren Wilson College: ahove@warren-wilson.edu
Initiated: 2021
Project Status: Currently accepting participants
Description
Using Space and Time to Explore Phenology is an inquiry-driven exercise, in which students document and analyze phenology, the timing of an organism’s life history stages. This exercise is easily adapted to different cohorts of students (first year, senior), university types (community college, liberal arts, R1), gradients of urbanization (city, rural), learning modalities (virtual, hybrid, or in-person), and seasons (spring or fall terms, winter, or summer). Modules are easily transferable from on- to off-campus settings, and in fact, having students compare phenological events in their hometowns to those in campus cities might help anchor them to a sense of place – essential for university success.
Hypotheses/Objectives: Observations of phenophases like egg hatch, leaf production, or migration serve as a vehicle for students to generate hypotheses, design related data manipulations, and analyze changes in phenology over space and time with Phenology project class data and an online data repository (Nature’s Notebook). Students will connect phenological observations to climate by accessing NEON datasets then investigating statistical correlations.
Summary of Methods: This phenology project requires only access to internet-available datasets and a data analysis platform (Google Sheets, Excel, or R), so it is low cost. Finally, the taxonomic freedom inherent in the exercise makes it geographically and topically (courses in ecology, botany, mycology, zoology) flexible. This exercise can be adapted for durations as short as 1 week or as long as an entire term (9-15 weeks) and can be conducted synchronously or asynchronously.
Expanded Project Info: Access instructions, sample data, and other phenology resources here.
Curriculum: Access instructional materials for the phenology project here.
Other Project Materials: Assessment Materials
Publications will be linked here when available.
Photo by Howie Neufeld