Teacher+Planning

Topic: Urban Forestry **This summer session will be used to introduce you to the basic concepts that will be explored in the course through a hands-on approach. As your team learns techniques for collecting information about campus trees the following concepts will be addressed (in miniature)** Assignment? Games etc. Rewrite readings??
 * Information gathering and research (NCSSM Library seminar) exercise - tree identification
 * Mapping (Google Earth, Google Maps,GIS (county sources) other virtual globe systems, government maps) exercise - mapping campus trees
 * Using Excel
 * Databases (Scorecard, NCSU Tree Inventory (Libbey ?), stream watch etc. Make a file of these) - factors affecting urban forest
 * Describing experimental procedures
 * Constructing tables and graphs
 * Generating experimental ideas
 * Writing a simple report
 * //Engineering Goal: Construct probes to take back to use at your home or school?//**

Here's a link to a good movie/lesson plan on photosynthesis emphasizing the importance of CO2 []

//**Green House Gas Emission Inventory**: **Carbon Sequestration and School Landscapes**//
 * For this activity you will need to complete an inventory of trees using Google Earth and simple field measurements - eg. dbh and tree identification keys.
 * The completed inventory is then used to estimate the amount of carbon sequestered in the campus trees
 * Hypothetical plantings can be used to calculate the potential carbon securing effects of planting trees where none now exist


 * Background materials:**
 * []
 * Method for Calculating of Carbon Sequestration by Trees in Urban and Suburban Settings[[image:http://mapnmodel.wikispaces.com/i/mime/32/application/pdf.png width="32" height="32" caption="external image pdf.png" link="http://mapnmodel.wikispaces.com/file/view/Calculation+of+Carbon+Sequestration.pdf"]][| Calculation of Carbon Sequestration.pdf]
 * Spreadsheet [[image:http://mapnmodel.wikispaces.com/i/mime/32/application/vnd.ms-excel.png width="32" height="32" caption="external image vnd.ms-excel.png" link="http://mapnmodel.wikispaces.com/file/view/Carbon+Sequestration+spreadsheet.xls"]][| Carbon Sequestration spreadsheet.xls]
 * More Detailed - single tree estimator [[image:http://mapnmodel.wikispaces.com/i/mime/32/application/vnd.ms-excel.png width="32" height="32" caption="external image vnd.ms-excel.png" link="http://mapnmodel.wikispaces.com/file/view/Individual+Tree+Carbon+Estimator.xls"]][| Individual Tree Carbon Estimator.xls]

__**Week 1** -4 __

How to read a technical paper?


 Topic: What's in your town? The goal in this block will be to apply what you did at NCSSM to something in our neighborhood. This requires research on local area, data available, and making a case for the location of the probes.

1. Developing Basic Concepts - Written report summarizing sources of information
 * Types of information available
 * Experimental data types
 * List various types of research methods used in this project

2. Applying Basic Concepts - Exercises to be submitted*

· How to formulate a research question · How to keep a lab/field notebook

**Week 5** - 9 Topic: How to design your experiment? 1 Developing Basic Concepts – Exercises* · Hypotheses · Dependent and independent variables · Control groups · Constants · Repeated trials

2. Strategies for developing research questions - Four Questions strategy 1 week (writing assignment).

3. Experimental Procedures Writing exercises 1 week – assignment*

4. Analyzing Data (graphs, tables etc.) Exercises 1 week - Exercises*

**Week 10** - 13

Topic: What is my urban forest experiment and why should I do it?

1. Scientific Writing (proposals, reports) Write to guidelines 1 week - Writing*

2. Individual work on Research Question 1 week

3. Writing a formal proposal including preliminary supporting data. 2 weeks – Draft Proposal*

4. Sharing questions and reaching consensus on data collection

5. Group Project

TOPIC: Begin writing your research proposal for second semester 1. what is a proposal and what must be included my a proposal? **Week 14** -18

Topic: Data Collection, Analysis and Reporting Results Topic: Timeline and material for Semester II project


 * Semester II: Working on research (not sure of structure for this).**