This year's research projects
2009-2010
One of JGEMS's favorite field trip sites, Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center, is a beautiful old-growth forest located near Gates. Opal Creek plays host to a plethora of plants and animals, including amphibians. This year our Amphibian Research Team decided to compare the effects that forest harvesting has on stream amphibian diversity and abundance. Using Opal Creek Ancient Forest as their control and a previously harvested nearby BLM forest as their comparison, the students are collecting habitat and capture data to answer their research question.
2009-2010
Now in its third year, a team of five of our 8th graders will continue the Minto-Brown Island Park bird surveys, looking at how birds are responding to the five different habitats present at the park and surrounding areas. We are particularly interested in their level of use of an area that JGEMS did some plantings at in 2001.
2009-2010
Similar to last year with Pringle Creek, this year's Fish Research Team will be performing fish and macroinvertebrate surveys to evaluate water quality and habitat, only this year Claggett Creek is the watershed of choice. From their findings our researchers will develop a management plan for the Claggett Creek watershed.
2009-2010
Phenology is the study of how plants and animals react to seasonal and interannual changes in the climate. Borrowing from the sampling protocol of the Centre de Recherches sur les Ecosystemes d'Altitude (CREA) in Chamonix, France, our Phenology research team is studying the timing of leaf fall in the Autumn and bud break in Spring at three different elevations at Silver Falls State Park. This research will also be coupled with a field trip to Mount Hood in the Autumn and again in the Spring to look at these changes in alpine areas. The hope is that this research project will be continued, and eventually we will be able to see if there are any trends occurring related to global climate change.
2009-2010
The Oregon Zoo has a brand new exhibit called Predators of the Serengeti and five of our 8th grade researchers have chosen it as their research location! Our research team will be studying the cheetahs, lions, and wild dogs at the Serengeti exhibit, to see what parts of their exhibit they use and what behavior they display. This will help the Oregon Zoo determine how the animals are using the new exhibit and if they are behaving normally- very important information to find out!
2009-2010
Located just south of Independence, Luckiamute is a recently designated state natural area that also happens to have valuable western pond turtle habitat! With the help of Oregon Wildlife Institute's Dave Vesely and the park staff, our team of student researchers are evaluating the quality of turtle habitat and will create a habitat map for the park to use. The students are observing turtles and taking habitat data such as ground cover percentage, canopy closure, average grass height, shrub cover percentage, and slope percentage.