Anna Mock
Final Thoughts (and a link to ALL the photos)
I never have the courage to say these sort of things face to face – because I end up sounding dopey and awkward – but I wanted to leave some final thoughts about why I love botany and ecology so much. I don’t care for rocks a whole lot. I’m not terribly interested in space. I have close to zero interest in physics. Chemistry is awesome – inasmuch as I can use it to understand biology. (In fact, biology/botany blows my mind even more when I understand the chemistry working at the tiniest levels.) I love botany and ecology so much because I love life. My favorite biology textbook (yes, I have a favorite) is subtitled “The science of Life,” and although that’s accurate because that is what the book is about, I think it’s funny that the author cannot explain HOW life actually works. He can talk about all the mechanics and the materials (and the chemistry and the physics), but because he is coming at the topic solely from a scientific standpoint, he has to admit that he doesn’t know what LIFE really is.
And it’s because he’s coming at all wrong. Life isn’t just science. Life is a miracle. Life is all about God.
To me, every little mitochondria and leaf and bug and blossom and moss and forest and wetland and ecosystem is just a testament that God is gentle, practical, creative, loving, thoughtful, beautiful, simple, complex, orderly, patient, and full of love. All life on earth is a testament to me of His goodness and divinity and His love for all of His creations, and especially for all of His children.
Before this class started, Brother Williams and I came up with the following vision statement for our class. We listed all the big picture items we wanted to focus on and accomplish. This was our vision statement: Students in Wild by Nature will be able to classify, identify, and understand that basic functions and medicinal and culinary uses of a variety of plant life; begin to understand the interconnected and sophisticated design of the natural world around them; and feel comfortable in, knowledgeable about, and find joy, peace, and adventure out-of-doors surrounded by God’s creations. I think we did a pretty good job of accomplishing those goals in class. But truthfully, there is no way we can know if we’ve accomplished that last part. I do hope you are comfortable out in God’s creations. I hope they bring you joy, peace, and even excite a bit of adventure inside you. I hope you know that God created this earth for you and filled it with beauty and wonder and life because He loves you. I know that He loves all His creations, from Pando, the biggest Aspen “tree,” to the smallest little protists and amoebas. He finds joy in creating, and I know He definitely notices and appreciates when we stop to humbly admire His glorious handiwork and praise Him through our humble acknowledgment that He is the Great Creator of Heaven and Earth.
I really do love botany and ecology and LIFE because it reminds me of how much I love God and He loves me. I truly hope you feel that as well.
(And please know that your Wild by Nature mentors sure do think the world of you, too!)
PS. Here is a link to a google drive folder with ALMOST all the photos I took this year. I left out the super junky photos and a bunch of duplicates. You should be able to download any photos from this file that you’d like. Sorry they aren’t all labeled. I’m awesome, but not THAT awesome.
Anna Mock
Homework for 4/18 – Yarrow, Plants that Feel and Hear, and Gearing up for the GSL
Calendar Items:
April 18th – Guest Speaker on the ecology of the Great Salt Lake. IF YOU HAVE THINGS TO TURN IN, JUST TURN THEM IN ALREADY! 🙂
April 20th – Saturday – OPTIONAL all day field trip to Antelope Island – Please READ the info on the sign up sheet for more info. LINK HERE.
April 25th – FINAL TEST – in class field trip where you get to show what you know
Homework items:
READ 10 Essential Herbs chapter 11 on chaparral – pages 271-297. I’ve got a TON of yarrow in my yard ready to harvest, so I’ll bring you a bunch.
READ What a Plant Knows, the chapters on feeling and hearing. In my book, those are chapters 3 and 4 and start with page 49 and ends on page 89. If you have the extra chapter about plants tasting, then your chapter numbers and page numbers will be different. Be prepared to narrate at least part of each chapter to me. (Narrate in this instance essentially means tell back to me what you remember from the reading, but in your own words. You’ll have a chance to build on others’ narrations and have others build off your own narration.)
TURN IN your Reaction Papers and Nature Journals if you haven’t already. TALK TO ME IF YOU NEED AN EXTENSION.
PERUSE the following websites…
https://greatsaltlake.utah.gov/
https://greatsaltlake.utah.gov/current-conditions
https://water.utah.gov/gsl-basin-integrated-plan/
https://greatsaltlake.utah.gov/commissioner
Photos from Dry Creek Canyon (last week’s in-class field trip)
Prepare to be amazed…
And one last thing…
Game night was really fun!
Anna Mock
Lower Hobble Creek Wildlife Preservation Area In-Class Field Trip Recap
It was fun (and cold) to visit lower hobble creek again. We went last fall and talked about grasses, rushes, sedges, etc. This time we spent most of our time inside clouds of cattail seeds and forests of phragmites. Also, we enjoyed the purple mustard and mint. And some of us enjoyed the Heron’s Bill, although that one is still not my favorite. Enjoy the photos – Feel free to use any of them for your nature journals.
Anna Mock
Homework for 4/11 – Chaparral and Plants that Feel
Calendar Items:
UPCOMING EVENTS: Just because it’s nice to know, here is what I’ve got planned. (All plans are subject to change, of course.)
April 11th – LAST REACTION PAPERS DUE – BRING YOUR COMPLETED NATURE JOURNAL – also, an in class field trip.
April 18th – Guest Speaker on the ecology of the Great Salt Lake
April 20th – Saturday – OPTIONAL all day field trip to Antelope Island
April 25th – FINAL TEST – in class field trip where you get to show what you know
Homework items:
READ 10 Essential Herbs chapter 3 on chaparral – pages 53-84.
READ What a Plant Knows, chapter 3 “What a Plant Feels” pages 49-70. Be prepared to narrate at least part of each chapter to me. (Narrate in this instance essentially means tell back to me what you remember from the reading, but in your own words. You’ll have a chance to build on others’ narrations and have others build off your own narration.)
FINISH your last Reaction Papers and Nature Journal Pages. For those planning on earning the Naturalist, Botanist, or Ecologist awards, I need to have the rest of your papers THAT DAY and I need to see your nature journal so I can mark off that you’ve completed your assignments. For the Botanist and Ecologist awards – please print off THIS PAGE and have your parent sign it before you hand it back to me. For those who have earned the extra optional awards, I’ll contact you AFTER I have all your paperwork and we can get your awards ordered. TALK TO ME IF YOU NEED AN EXTENSION.
Teaser for next time we meet…
Anna Mock
Little Grand Canyon Field Trip Recap
Thanks to all who came and endured 4 hours in the Mock van for 2 hours of sand and desert (and plants and dog tracks and astounding views and rocks and funny tourists – and a pit toilet.)
Below are a bunch of photos. We weren’t able to identify most of the little plants we found. Unfortunately, it was a little too early in the spring to really see some significant growth to where we could tell what we were looking at. However, we caught the big three: Juniper, Pinyon Pine, and Mormon Tea. Still, for all the plants we were eventually able to identify, I’ve added labels on the photos.
For those who didn’t come, we are sorry we missed you! It was a really fun (and really long – thank you Expanding Horizon’s class movie night and interim park hang out!) day.
Anna Mock
Homework for 3/28 – Cloves and Plants that can Smell
Calendar Items:
UPCOMING EVENTS: Just because it’s nice to know, here is the next month or so I’ve got planned. (All plans are subject to change, of course.)
March 28th – in class field trip Lower Hobble Creek Wilderness Preservation area – wear rain clothes!!!
April 4th – SPRING BREAK
April 11th – LAST REACTION PAPERS DUE – BRING YOUR COMPLETED NATURE JOURNAL – also, an in class field trip.
April 18th – Guest Speaker on the ecology of the Great Salt Lake
April 20th – Saturday – OPTIONAL all day field trip to Antelope Island
April 25th – FINAL TEST – in class field trip where you get to show what you know
Homework items:
READ 10 Essential Herbs chapter 4 on cloves – pages 85-105.
READ What a Plant Knows, chapter 2 “What a Plant Smells” pages 27-48 AND prologue and chapter 1, pages 3-27 if you didn’t read it last week. Be prepared to narrate at least part of each chapter to me. (Narrate in this instance essentially means tell back to me what you remember from the reading, but in your own words. You’ll have a chance to build on others’ narrations and have others build off your own narration.)
FINISH and turn in any reaction papers have completed.
Only Tangentially Related…
I meant to share these books LAST week. These don’t have anything to do with botany or ecology unless you really stretch your imagination. (I mean, I’m thinking of a scene in book two, but still…)
I’m not a big fan of Orson Scott Card, however, these books were really fun and interesting. I’m adding this here because of how they are related to tracking things. If you’re looking for some crazy (and still clean) sci-fi, take a look at the Pathfinder trilogy.
Anna Mock
Homework for 3/21 – Tracking Field Trip Re-cap, Mini-Lesson Wrap up Next Week!
Calendar Items:
UPCOMING EVENTS: Just because it’s nice to know, here is the next month or so I’ve got planned. (All plans are subject to change, of course.)
Mar 21st – Cameron, Elizabeth, Shawn mini lessons – Sister Mock takes last 30 minutes
Mar 22nd – FRIDAY – ALL DAY optional field trip to Little Grand Canyon. Ask me if you still need info.
March 28th – in class field trip, maybe Squaw/Khyv Peak Overlook
April 4th – SPRING BREAK
April 11th – LAST REACTION PAPERS DUE – BRING YOUR COMPLETED NATURE JOURNAL
Homework items:
READ 10 Essential Herbs chapter 6 on garlic – pages 139-180.
READ What a Plant Knows, prologue and chapter 1, pages 3-27.
FINISH and turn in any reaction papers you didn’t turn in last week.
Making Tracks Field Trip Re-Cap
READ ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM FOR PHOTOS FOR YOUR NATURE JOURNAL
If you are interested in taking an actual wilderness survival course from Erik at Making Tracks Earth Education, just follow that provided link to their website. Erik mentioned that he takes teenage apprentices, and THAT sounded like a phenomenal opportunity. In his classes you’d be learning more about edible and medicinal plants, fire starting, sheltering, awareness, tracking, bird language, etc. They play lots of games and yes, they work on sit spots. If you love the outdoors, this sounds like a perfect course!
If you are interesting in tracking, but you want to learn about it from your couch (this is me sometimes, I’ll be honest), check out the following books. I think I’ve shared them all before, but they are worth sharing again. I’ve read all of these except Grandfather, but it’s on my list. (My favorite was What the Robin Knows followed by Tracker.)
Also, I totally boogered up my handouts, and I didn’t write down the animals (!!!!!), BUT I’m going to spend some time reviewing these handouts from Making Tracks so that when we are out and about on all our field trips, we can look for some of these signs. (You can click on those photos to enlarge them.)
And finally, here are the photos from our field trip, some of which you can use for nature journaling if you’d like.
NOTES FOR YOUR NATURE JOURNAL – remember the meta data – date, time, temperature, location, etc. Use drawings, words, and numbers on each page, but know you don’t have to have equal amounts of those things. If you really like to draw, then draw more. If you really like to write, then write more. Add drawings from different perspectives like close up drawings, landscape drawings, to scale drawings, etc. (I know this is hard since we are going off photographs.) You can just do a page comparing two different tracks. You can do a page per animal track. Remember you are making a scientific record/memory of what you observed and experienced in that moment. Try to create connections and ask questions- things the tracks/bird behavior reminded you of or made you think of, or make note of strange things you saw that you couldn’t explain. You are welcome to add poetry or quotes, etc. This is science, but it’s also art and literature if you want it to be. It’s life.
Anna Mock
Homework for 3/14 – Tree Tour Recap, Field Trip Prep, What’s Due!
Calendar Items:
UPCOMING EVENTS: Just because it’s nice to know, here is the next month or so I’ve got planned. (All plans are subject to change, of course.)
Mar 14th – In-class field trip to Timpanogos Park. Erik, from Making Tracks, will be teaching us about animal tracking and bird language. TWO REACTION PAPERS AND 2-3 NATURE JOURNAL PAGES DUE
For this field trip you MUST have a waiver signed. I will email you all that information privately.
Mar 21st – Cameron, Elizabeth, Shawn mini lessons – Sister Mock takes second hour
Mar 22nd – FRIDAY – ALL DAY optional field trip to Little Grand Canyon. Details below.
March 28th – in class field trip TBD
April 4th – SPRING BREAK
Homework items:
READ 10 Essential Herbs chapter 8 on onions – pages 203-223
FINISH two more Reaction Papers and 2-3 more Nature Journal Pages. Turn in your Reaction Papers THIS WEEK. (By April 14th you will need to have SIX total Reaction Papers turned in and 10 Nature Journal pages ready to show me in class. If you were in class the ENTIRE YEAR, you will need to have a TOTAL of TEN Reaction Papers turned in and 18 Nature Journal Pages to show me in class. Students who complete the basic class requirements will receive the Naturalist Award at Graduation. In order for your OPTIONAL extra projects to count for the Botanist and Ecologist Awards, you must also have fulfilled the requirements for the Naturalist Award. If you aren’t sure how many papers you have turned in, email me.)
TALK to your parents about the upcoming optional field trip. The itinerary will be as follows: On Friday, March 22nd we will meet at the little Walmart off of Hwy 6 in Spanish Fork (898 S 2550 E, Spanish Fork, UT 84660) at 8:45 am. We’ll drive away at 9:00 am. ETA at the trail is 11:00 am. I anticipate we’ll hike for 2 hours, eat a picnic lunch down there, and start heading back to the Spanish Fork “Small-mart” at 1:00, which will make our arrival time in Spanish about 3:00 pm.
What you need to know: This is a 4 mile out and back hike along the rim of a canyon down south of Price. The trail is mostly flat. There will not be any shade. You will need good walking shoes, water, a hat or sunscreen, and A LUNCH or lots of snacks. Also, bring your nature journal so you can get a page or two done. If you’d like to get more details of the trail itself and see on a map where it is, follow THIS LINK to AllTrails for that sort of info. Follow the link below to the sign up. For those coming from up north, I recommend you carpool down to Spanish Fork, but you don’t have to. I’ll let you (and your parents) work that out.
THIS LINK will take you to the field trip sign up list. Once I’ve heard from all (or most) of you, I’ll open up any empty seats in my van to other ASA kids who’d like to come. If your parents or younger siblings want to come, they are totally welcome, but I’m reserving my van seats for our class so your family may need to provide their own transportation. It’s totally worth it. This is going to be so much fun. I’m craving a little desert time.
Tree Tour Recap – for your Nature Journal
Below are some photos from the different trees (and shrubs) we visited on the BYU Tree Tour. There are SO MANY trees we didn’t go look at. You can take yourself on the tree tour by going to treetour.byu.edu. It will pull up the map with the trees and shrubs listed, and there is also a “tree list” where you can just quickly run through the list of trees. When you click on the individual trees, popups will give you great information about that species. I know it was sort of unusual that we visited these trees BEFORE they started leafing out, but hopefully you got the idea that leaves aren’t the only interesting things on trees. (Plus, there were plenty of conifers to look at, so that was fun, too.)
NOTES FOR YOUR NATURE JOURNAL – remember the meta data – date, time, temperature, location, etc. Use drawings, words, and numbers on each page, but know you don’t have to have equal amounts of those things. If you really like to draw, then draw more. If you really like to write, then write more. Add drawings from different perspectives like close up drawings, landscape drawings, to scale drawings, etc. (I know this is hard since we are going off photographs.) You can just do a page comparing barks or cones of a variety of trees. You can do a page per tree. Remember you are making a scientific record/memory of what you observed and experienced in that moment. Try to create connections and ask questions- things the trees reminded you off or made you think of, or make note of strange things you saw that you couldn’t explain. You are welcome to add poetry or quotes, etc. This is science, but it’s also art and literature if you want it to be. It’s life.
Gingko (Ginkgo biloba)- This pyramidal, slow growing tree can reach heights above 60’ long after you are dead. As a tree from the dinosaur era, the fan-shaped leaves with parallel veination are worth staring at to take you back a few eons. Ginkgos produce a strong central leader and bright green, fan-shaped leaves that turn a brilliant yellow in the fall. The leaves hang on quite late into the season, and then drop suddenly together—in 2-3 days. Female trees produce a very malodorous plum-like fruit, so nearly all landscape plantings specify a male cultivar (‘Autumn Gold’ is perhaps the most popular). This tree grows well in most sites and requires little care. It is a great alternative to quaking aspen. LOOK AT THIS LINK FOR PHOTOS OF THE LEAVES.
Bosnian Red Cone Pine (Pinus leucodermis)- This is a slow-growing tree that matures at about 20’ high and 10’ wide. It is ideal for those who want a small, tightly pyramidal pine in the landscape. This tree tolerates heavy clay soils as long as drainage is good.
Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia) – This rapid growing tree is adaptable and able to grow well in most soils. It requires little maintenance and is quite attractive with fine textured foliage and beautiful bark. It tolerates heat and poor soils and is resistant to Dutch elm disease. This is an outstanding ornamental shade tree, not to be confused with the Siberian elm (#57) that is often mistakenly referred to by the same name. (45’h x 55’w)
Norway Maple (Acer plantanoides) – This is probably the most common shade tree planted in central Utah landscapes. It is a large, round, hardy tree that is well-adapted to city conditions and has small, yellow-green flower clusters that are produced before the dark green leaves. A broken petiole exudes a white milky sap which distinguishes it from other maples. Shallow rooting may cause problems in lawns, sidewalks, or other structures.
Green Atlas Cedar (Cedrus atlantica) – This pyramidal tree is a beautiful wide-spreading evergreen. It needs plenty of space for optimal growth and best landscape use. It is drought tolerant, clean, and requires little care. It is reportedly less cold-hardy than other cedars and should probably be planted in a protected area in Utah County. (50’h x 40’w).
Bristlecone Pine (Pinus aristata) – A native of the Rocky Mountains, this 5-needle pine grows very slowly; some reports indicated that it only increases an inch in diameter each century. It is drought tolerant and adaptable to wide variety of soil types, but requires some protection from drying winds. As it ages, this tree develops an irregular shape that is very picturesque. (15’h x 10’w)
Apparently I didn’t take photos of the bristlecone pine? Uh…. Here, look at THIS link.
Sweet Hackberry (Celtis laevigata) – Also called sugarberry, this tree produces a sweet, juicy orange-red fruit that is relished by birds. Bright green leaves, which tend to be narrower than common hackberry (#78), turn a showy yellow in fall. The tree grows rapidly and requires skilled pruning when young to develop good structure. (55’h x 45’w)
Japanese Yew (SHRUB) (Taxus cuspidata) –
Goldenrain Tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) – One of the few yellow flowering trees found in the landscape, goldenrains produce branched clusters of blossoms in July. It grows well in most types of soils and is moderately drought tolerant. Verticillium wilt is occasionally a problem and younger branches are subject to snow damage; otherwise a great choice for a medium round tree. Another closely related species is the Chinese flame tree. It has very similar leaves and form, but boasts larger flowers in the fall rather then midsummer and produces rose-pink seed pods instead of the golden-brown seed pods of the Goldenrain Tree.
Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa) – This large decurrent tree has a magnificent spreading form. It has a deeper root system making it a typically better lawn tree than the more commonly used Norway maples (#102). Other enchanting features of this tree include corky winged projections on young branches and the large acorns (1 ½ inches long) with curly fringes on the cap. Children love to collect and play with these acorns. (65’h x 55’w)
Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera) – This short-lived, pyramidal to upright tree grows best in colder climates. It needs moderate irrigation and prefers full sun to partial shade. Its most outstanding feature is the thin, smooth, chalky white bark that gradually erodes in thin tatters. This tree is generally not suitable for urban landscapes along the Wasatch Front since it is plagued by many diseases and insect pests. However, it is less susceptible to birch bores than European white birches. (40’h x 30’w)
Red Horsechestnut (Aesculus x carnea) – This tree grows best when planted in rich, moist, well-drained soil. It is a slow growing tree, valued for its symmetrical outline, attractive red flowers, and medium size. Panicles of 6-inch rose-red blossoms are produced in May, developing slightly prickly capsules that contain a non-edible nut about 1 1/2” in diameter.
Kentucky Coffee Tree (Gymnocladus dioicus) – This round, irregular-branched tree requires surprisingly little maintenance. During winter, the bare branches and distinctive bark form a striking silhouette that is quite picturesque. Kentucky Coffee Tree is another very adaptable tree that will do well in a variety of conditions. This species has separate male and female trees. Females produce a thick, leathery pod about 4-6 inches long that persists into the winter.
And we learned about tree ring science!
Anna Mock
Homework for 3/7 – Plant Family Study Guides and a Field Trip!
Calendar Items:
UPCOMING EVENTS: Just because it’s nice to know, here is the next month or so I’ve got planned. (All plans are subject to change, of course.)
Mar 7th – Field trip to Brother Becker’s lab at BYU and the BYU tree tour. Right now the forecast is calling for snow on the 7th, so dress warm and wear comfortable shoes.
Mar 14th – In-class field trip to Timpanogos Park. Erik, from Making Tracks, will be teaching us about animal tracking and bird language. TWO REACTION PAPERS AND 2-3 NATURE JOURNAL PAGES DUE
For this field trip you MUST have a waiver signed. I will email you all that information privately.
Mar 21st – Cameron, Elizabeth, Shawn mini lessons – Sister Mock takes second hour
Mar 22nd – FRIDAY – ALL DAY optional field trip to Little Grand Canyon. Details below.
March 28th – in class field trip TBD
Homework items:
READ/REVIEW Botany in a Day (I’ve given the page numbers for each family we’ve talked about. Each family’s entry will be only 1-3 pages, so the list looks long, but it’s not too bad) – Orchid Family pg 202, Milkweed family pg141, Buttercup family pg 55, Cactus family 123, Borage family pg 142, Primrose family pg 130, Heath family pg 133, Mallow family pg 106.
The review families are as follows: Rose family pg 91, Parsley family pg 179, Grass family page 207, Lily family pg 192, Mint family pg 157, Mustard family pg 109, and Pea family pg 79.
REVIEW the slideshows we went over last Thursday in class.
TALK to your parents about the upcoming optional field trip. The itinerary will be as follows: On Friday, March 22nd we will meet at the little Walmart off of Hwy 6 in Spanish Fork (898 S 2550 E, Spanish Fork, UT 84660) at 8:55 am. We’ll drive away at 9:00 am. ETA at the trail is 11:00 am. I anticipate we’ll hike for 2 hours, eat a picnic lunch down there, and start heading back to the Spanish Fork “Small-mart” at 1:00, which will make our arrival time in Spanish about 3:00 pm.
What you need to know: This is a 4 mile out and back hike along the rim of a canyon down south of Price. The trail is mostly flat. There will not be any shade. You will need good walking shoes, water, a hat or sunscreen, and A LUNCH or lots of snacks. Also, bring your nature journal so you can get a page or two done. If you’d like to get more details of the trail itself and see on a map where it is, follow THIS LINK to AllTrails for that sort of info. Follow THIS LINK to the sign up. For those coming from up north, I recommend you carpool down to Spanish Fork, but you don’t have to. I’ll let you (and your parents) work that out.
THIS LINK will take you to the field trip sign up list. Once I’ve heard from all (or most) of you, I’ll open up any empty seats in my van to other ASA kids who’d like to come. If your parents or younger siblings want to come, they are totally welcome, but I’m reserving my van seats for our class so your family may need to provide their own transportation. It’s totally worth it. This is going to be so much fun. I’m craving a little desert time.
Just for Fun…
If you love the desert and are interested in reading more about experience the wildness of Utah’s deserts, the Arches, Canyonlands, and the Glen Canyon areas (the canyon that is now Lake Powell, but used to be a place you could hike) in particular, I recommend reading Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. BEFORE you read this, get permission from your parents. This book contains a few mature audience topics. Also, this author has some pretty unorthodox and extreme cultural and political views that we don’t really usually read. It’s entertaining, but it’s something your parents should be aware of BEFORE you read it, in case they’d like you to wait until you are older. Don’t worry if you need to wait. It will still be there! (It’s on the class book list so you are welcome to write a reaction paper about it, too.)
Anna Mock
Homework for 2/29 – Plant Families and Identification Revisited
Calendar Items:
UPCOMING EVENTS: Just because it’s nice to know, here is the next month or so I’ve got planned. (All plans are subject to change, of course.)
Feb 29th – Mini-Lessons by Isabelle and Simon, Brother Williams takes us back to plant families and plant identification – a good place to revisit and also build upon!
Mar 7th – Field trip to Brother Becker’s lab at BYU and the BYU tree tour
Mar 14th – In-class field trip to Timpanogos Park. Erik, from Making Tracks, will be teaching us about animal tracking and bird language. TWO REACTION PAPERS AND 2-3 NATURE JOURNAL PAGES DUE
For this field trip you MUST have a waiver signed. I will email you all that information privately.
Mar 21st – Cameron, Elizabeth, Shawn mini lessons – Sister Mock takes second hour
Mar 22nd – FRIDAY – ALL DAY optional field trip to Little Grand Canyon. More details coming.
March 28th – in class field trip TBD
Homework items:
READ 10 Essential Herbs chapter 9 on Peppermint – pages 223-244
A Message from Sariah
Hi everyone! Just a reminder to keep your milk jugs in a sunny place outside. Check on them weekly to make sure the soil looks damp inside. If it gets dry, you can set the jug in a tray of water and the soil will soak it up through the bottom holes. Sometime in April, once your plants are about 4 inches tall, take the lid off your jug and let it dry out a bit so the soil sticks together. After a couple days, dig a hole twice the size of the plant’s diameter in a sunny spot. Remove the plant from the milk jug and plant it in the hole, back filling it with the soil you dug out. Water your plant in its new bed and continue checking on it weekly throughout the spring and summer. If the plant looks sad or droopy, give it some water at the base of the plant, not the leaves. Morning is the best time to water. You might need to water it weekly or a couple times a week, pay attention to how your plant looks on a regular basis to figure this out. If you get flowers from your perennial this year enjoy your good luck! (Or you planted annuals too). Your plant may die back in the fall and seem to disappear over winter. Mark it with a flag or plant label so you don’t accidentally dig it up in the spring. In the spring watch for that season’s new growth and water as needed.
NOTE: If a 70 degree day comes before you’ve planted your plant in the ground, open the lid of the milk jug so that it doesn’t get too hot inside. If you forget to do this, don’t fret, take the lid off and water the plant. Once it perks up, prepare to transplant it.
Short Awesome Books
In class today I showed you some pretty short books that are on our book list. It’s crazy to think about it, but we only have 2 months left of class! Time will keep flying by so fast. All of the books on the book list are wonderful in their own ways, and we encourage you to choose the books with topics that really look interesting to you so you can customize this class to fit your interests and personality. However, if time is running short and you are stressed out about reading 3 more books, which is the required amount of book reaction papers due this semester (or 5 books if you didn’t turn in any book reaction papers last semester as well), then consider the following books. Despite being short, they contain highly valuable information. These are not less-important books, but books I liked and chose specifically in case some students were really short on time.
And then THIS book below is the one that talks about Bird Language and how to understand what is going on in the forest/nature just by reading the behavior of the birds around you. This book would be EXCELLENT preparation for our March 14th field trip with Erik.
Anna Mock
Homework for 2/22 – Food Forests and Landscaping
Calendar Items:
UPCOMING EVENTS: Just because it’s nice to know, here is the next month or so I’ve got planned. (All plans are subject to change, of course.)
Feb 22nd – Mini-lessons by Liberty and Ivan, Sister Mock teaches Food Forests.
Feb 29th – Mini-Lessons by Isabelle and Simon, Brother Williams takes the second hour.
Mar 7th – Field trip to Brother Becker’s lab at BYU and the BYU tree tour
Mar 14th – In-class field trip to Canyon Glen Park. Erik, from Making Tracks, will be teaching us about animal tracking and bird language. If you want to learn about bird language BEFORE the 14th, you would do well to read “What the Robin Knows” by Jon Young. This is one of my very favorite books! I believe Erik was once one of Jon’s students, or at least he was a student of one of Jon’s students. That book is on the book list, so you can read it and write a reaction paper for it if you’d like.
For this field trip you MUST have a waiver signed. I will email you all that information privately.
Mar 21st – Cameron, Elizabeth, Shawn mini lessons – Sister Mock takes second hour
Mar 22nd – FRIDAY – ALL DAY optional field trip to Little Grand Canyon. More details coming.
Homework items:
CREATE a layout of your yard. You don’t have to make it EXACTLY to scale, but the closer, the better. You can use mine as an example, although obviously all our lots look different.
THEN use the other poster I gave you to draw your house, all the poured cement, and the boundary lines of your yard/lot WITHOUT any of the landscaping – so no trees, no bushes, no garden, no pathway, no fences, no gates, etc. Like so…
STUDY and RESEARCH all about food forests. The more you know, the easier it will be to complete our project in class next week. You will want to have a VERY solid understanding of the principles behind and the benefits of food forest. Also, you will need to understand the 7 layers of a food forest (sometimes there are 9 depending on who you are talking to.) Next week in class you will be drawing your yard as a food forest. You will need to take into account all the things you’ve learned about food forests as well as have a handy list and an idea of what trees, shrubs, plants, herbs, ground cover, and vines you will be “planting.”
YOU ARE WELCOME TO BRING A LAPTOP OR CELL PHONE WITH INTERNET TO CLASS TO CONTINUE YOUR RESEARCH – but you’ll be WAY faster in class if you’ve already done the research at home.
Here are a few links/resources to get you going. This should be enough, but feel free to branch out find other resources as well.
https://extension.usu.edu/cwel/native-other
https://www.unps.org/index.html
Plus, there are a lot of resources online for finding which trees, plants, etc. work well here in Utah. You are not limited to what I’ve posted here.
BRING your rough draft plan of you food forest plus both of your posters to class this week. If you have specific art supplies you like to use, bring those also. We’ll be raiding the supply closet for all those art supplies as well. And after Ivan and Liberty give their mini lessons, we’ll dive right in to reforesting our backyards!
Just for FUN…
Utah has a Native Plant Society that has been going strong for over 40 years. This link will take you to their spring newsletter. It’s pretty interesting! Plus, their rare plants meeting is coming up in early March up in Salt Lake City. I’m sure they would be THRILLED to see teenagers there.
Anna Mock
Homework for 2/15 – Sariah comes BACK with Native Plants! And We’ll Finish our Healing Salve
Calendar Items:
UPCOMING EVENTS: Just because it’s nice to know, here is the next month or so I’ve got planned. (All plans are subject to change, of course.)
Feb 15th – Sariah is coming back to teach us about Utah’s native plants and Brother Williams will guide us through making the healing salve we started. Bring an empty, washed-out milk jug AND 3-4 nature journal pages and 2 reaction papers due!!!
Feb 22nd – Mini-lessons by Liberty and Ivan, Sister Mock teaches Food Forests.
Feb 29th – Mini-Lessons by Isabelle and Simon, Brother Williams takes the second hour.
Mar 7th – TBA
Mar 14th – In-class field trip to Canyon Glen Park. Erik, from Making Tracks, will be teaching us about animal tracking and bird language. If you want to learn about bird language BEFORE the 14th, you would do well to read “What the Robin Knows” by Jon Young. This is one of my very favorite books! I believe Erik was once one of Jon’s students, or at least he was a student of one of Jon’s students. That book is on the book list, so you can read it and write a reaction paper for it if you’d like. For this field trip you MUST have a waiver signed. I will get all that info to you ASAP.
Homework items:
READ 10 Essential Herbs chapter 5 on Comfrey (pages 105-138)
BRING an empty, washed-out milk jug to class next week!!!
FINISH 3-4 nature journal pages and have 2 reaction papers ready to turn in!
Review of Class Today
I got really excited about the prospect of being able share any sightings of bees and whatnot with actual organizations that track that sort of stuff. There are so many ways to really get involved in fun activities that are worthwhile and make a difference. Here are the two resources Sariah showed us in class today.
This first video is from the Utah Pollinator Pursuit. If you look up their YouTube channel they have a few videos, one on how to use their app. Here is a link to their website as well… https://www.utahpollinatorpursuit.org/
And this is the website to Sageland Collaborative. Sariah mentioned they lead a variety of projects out in the field. So if you want to join up with them, this looks really fun! https://sagelandcollaborative.org/
Additionally, Utah County has a Beekeepers Association you can join if you are interested in keeping your own bees. I think they focus more on honeybees. They meet the second Thursday night of each month. They have a program for kids/teens called “Bee a Beekeeper” or BAB for short. In January (so we just barely missed the cut off for this year) students can apply to be a beekeeper. The Association will provide you will ALL the gear and everything! You would have a few responsibilities, such as showing up to a couple meetings and reporting on how your beekeeping is going, etc., but they will mentor and support you 100%. The woman I talked to suggested that those interested in the BAB program start attending a few meetings so they can learn more about beekeeping before they jump into it. Here is their website. You can read all about the BAB program here, too. https://utahcountybeekeepers.com/
And finally, I just thought I’d share some photos from class today. Some of you asked me to get photos of the honey with labels in case you wanted to purchase some. All the labeled honey I bought off Amazon, but the honey in jars and plastic tubs came from Les Curtis who lives in Payson. He sells raw local bulk honey, but the South Dakota Clover and the California Orange Blossom came from him, too. Sometimes he has some other fun stuff. He let me try some Isreali honey a few years ago and it was VERY different – but good. I’ll give you his number if you want it. There are a number of places down in southern Utah County to get local honey as well. Rocky Mountain Fruit is another one. Their honey would probably be more fruity! So that would be fun to try. (For some reason, I’ve lost the photo of the Manuka honey from New Zealand. If you REALLY liked that one, you can buy it here.)
Anna Mock
Homework for 2/8 – Pollinator Guest Presenter and Honey Tasting!
Calendar Items:
Before we begin, I just want to point out I took that awesome cover photo of a bee bum sticking out of that lovely penstemon on the paved trail just before you hit Vivian Park in Provo Canyon! (photo credit: myself)
UPCOMING EVENTS: Just because it’s nice to know, here is the next month or so I’ve got planned. (All plans are subject to change, of course.)
Feb 8th – Guest speaker on bees and pollinators, Sister Mock leads the international honey tasting. Sariah Masterson (the guest speaker) has asked us all to watch this ten minute video to prepare us for what she has prepared to share with us.
Feb 15th – Guest speaker on native plants, Brother Williams teaches last installment of medicinals, AND 3-4 nature journal pages and 2 reaction papers due!!!
Feb 22nd – Mini-lessons by Liberty and Ivan, Sister Mock teaches Food Forests.
Feb 29th – Mini-Lessons by Isabelle and Simon, Brother Williams takes the second hour.
Mar 7th – TBA
Homework items:
READ 10 Essential Herbs chapter 2 on Cayenne (pages 27-52)
WATCH the following short videos about pollinators, bees, and honey. It should take about 30 minutes to watch them all.
READ this very short webpage about how to describe honey terroir… https://www.benefits-of-honey.com/the-taste-of-honey/
WATCH this one last video. It’s technically still about a bee. 😉
If you are interested:
My favorite book about bees is called Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees. It’s on the reading list so if this is your thing, feel free to read it and write me a reaction paper. (I’ve read two books by this author – Thor Hanson – and they are so fantastic that I almost reached out to him to see if he could do a zoom meeting with our class to talk about his job as a biologist.)
If you are really in to super long and dense books that sometimes make you drowsy, you might enjoy What a Bee Knows: Exploring the Thoughts, Memories, and Personalities of Bees. This book is so dense that I haven’t even finished it yet. I had to put it down and move onto other things because it was taking me so long. However, this guy totally knows his stuff!!
And if it’s just pollinators of all kind that you are interested in AND you like super long and dense books, The Reason for Flowers might be for you. The first section is the most extensive reading of pollinators I have EVER read. Then the rest of the book goes more into flowers in general, although he comes back to bees when talking about eating flowers. This book is written by the same author as the book above – Stephan Buchmann.
And here’s one last photo of my sunflowers from a few years ago and a hard working little bee. (photo credit: myself again)
Anna Mock
Homework for 2/1 – Mini-lessons Medicinals – Elderberry Syrup!
Calendar Items:
UPCOMING EVENTS: Just because it’s nice to know, here is the next month or so I’ve got planned. (All plans are subject to change, of course.)
Feb 1st – Mini-lesson by Rebecca, Brother Williams teaches medicinals with the plan being Elderberry Syrup if all goes well. If we have time, we’ll have a one or more slideshow presentations.
Feb 8th – Guest speaker on bees and pollinators, Sister Mock leads the international honey tasting competition – I am so excited for this! I will try not to eat all 12 types of honey before Feb 8th. (I’m still working out the honey competition details – but we’ll be rating the taste of honeys from around Utah and around the world.)
Feb 15th – Guest speaker on native plants, Brother Williams teaches last installment of medicinals, AND 3-4 nature journal pages and 2 reaction papers due!!!
Feb 22nd – Mini-lessons by Liberty and Ivan, Sister Mock teaches Urban Forests and Food Forests.
Feb 29th – Mini-Lessons by Isabelle and Simon, Brother Williams takes the second hour.
Homework items: (not much this week)
READ 10 Essential Herbs chapter 10 on Slippery Elm (pages 245-270)
IF YOU DIDN’T GET A CHANCE LAST WEEK, WATCH…
Fire Mountain: The Eruption and Rebirth of Mount St. Helens. You can google it and watch it on YouTube OR you can watch it for free on Amazon Prime. Here is a screenshot of what it looks like on Amazon Prime.
As a last minute side note: We talked a little bit about different places you can go to do nature journaling during the winter if you don’t want to go outside in the weather. We mentioned Thanksgiving Point’s Butterfly Biosphere and even the Museum of Ancient Life (you wouldn’t be looking at real plants there most of the time, but it’s interesting to see their replicas of ancient plants.) Also, the South American exhibit at the aquarium has LOTS of fun plants and tree you could journal. I do have a Thanksgiving Point pass this year, so if enough people were interested, I would be happy to organize a group to go up to the Butterfly Biosphere. It would costs each person $6 or $7. I’m not going to head up that project, but if a few of you are interested, let me know and we can work something out.
Anna Mock
Homework for 1/25 – Mini-lessons and Ecological Succession
Calendar Items:
UPCOMING EVENTS: Just because it’s nice to know, here is the next month or so I’ve got planned. (All plans are subject to change, of course.)
Jan 25th- Mini-lessons by Esther Hunsaker and Joy, Sister Mock teaches ecological succession
Feb 1st – Mini-lessons by Esther Levie and Rebecca, Brother Williams teaches medicinals
Feb 8th – Guest speaker on bees and pollinators, Sister Mock leads the international honey tasting competition – I am so excited for this! I will try not to each all 12 types of honey before Feb 8th.
Feb 15th – Guest speaker on native plants, Brother Williams teaches last installment of medicinals, AND 3-4 nature journal pages and 2 reaction papers due!!!
Feb 22nd – Mini-lessons by Liberty and Ivan, Brother Williams takes second hour.
Homework items:
READ 10 Essential Herbs chapter 7 (pages 181-202) on Ginger AND Appendix A (pages 299-303) on People Paste
READ as catch-up or review as needed Botany in a Day pages 1-21. (For those from last semester, this would be an EXCELLENT review that we probably all need. For those new THIS semester, don’t be overwhelmed. It’s a lot of information, but we won’t test you. Probably.)
USE your medicinal powders this week if you can and report back and tell us how it went!! (Don’t go wounded people on purpose just so you can use the people paste!!)
WATCH the following videos about ecological succession…
- There are TWO videos found on this link. They are sort of hidden on the left hand side. Watch the one that looks like a forest fire FIRST, and then the underwater video. You are welcome to browse the article as well if you want. https://www.britannica.com/science/ecological-succession
2. Crash Course Ecology.. Feel free to watch this TWICE. Watch it one regular speed, and then slow him down for the second time through. This guy talks FAST, and he covers a lot of cool information that you probably don’t want to miss. You could even take notes…
3. This link goes to a video that is a LOT longer (55 minutes), super old, and is actually about a volcanic eruption. BUT it is a fabulous documentary, my parents and older siblings lived through this (I missed it by one year), I’ve been to the site since it happened, and the ecological succession near the end of the video is so well documented. I think it’s important to see how this works in real life. This is a YouTube link, but you can also find this documentary on Amazon Prime for free. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=youtube+fire+mountain+eruption+and+rebirth+of+moutn+saint+helens#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:e0ffe939,vid:ERDwmInousw,st:0
You MAY count this video as one of your semester documentaries and turn in a reaction paper about it if you want.
As a last minute side note: We didn’t spend as much time reviewing nature journals last Thursday as I thought we would, so I’m going to take a minute here. Nature journals can be one page or a two page spread (still counts as one entry if it’s about the same thing.) Always include your metadata (date, time, weather, location, etc.) and words (descriptions, thoughts, questions, ponderings, even poetry and quotes), pictures (drawings and diagrams – get close up views, far away views, draw your specimens from more than one angle, etc.) and numbers (how many? how far apart? how tall? how big? how heavy? etc.).
The value of your nature journal is to help you take the time to slow down and really notice and really observe. In order to draw something you have to REALLY look at it. That is what we want. Take time to question what you are seeing and come up with hypotheses about why things are the way they are. Make connections with what you observe and what you already know. Also, try journaling different things: everything in a small plot of land, one species, compare and contrast similar items like pine cones from various pine trees, a collection of things like just the flowers you see or a variety of leaves you find, record a plant in it’s various stages – rose plants are easy for this one, find a bud, an emerging bud, a flowering blossom, and dying blossom, and a rose hip, etc. You can journal any wildlife you see as well, though they are harder to make sit still so you can draw them! We aren’t covering geology, but there is no reason why you can’t journal the rocks and minerals you find – anything you find out in nature (even if it’s just your backyard or a park down the street -or even the park strip in front of your house) can be nature journalled. If you have any more questions, let me know!
Anna Mock
Slate Canyon Field Trip
I woke up Thursday morning listening to the pouring rain in Spanish Fork and thought maybe a field trip that day wasn’t such a good idea. However, with the rain letting up and being much lighter in Provo, it seemed silly to stay inside. This may not be a true statement for everyone, but it certainly is true for me: I very often wake up the morning of a scheduled hike and think how nice it would be to just stay inside, warm and dry and clean, most likely reading a good book. However, every single time I go outside into the woods/canyons/red rock/mountains/wilderness/marshes instead of staying home, it’s like a power shot of happiness and joy and health. I have NEVER regretted going outside when I really had just wanted to stay home.
So this class blog post will be a little different. We did find cool things outside – smooth sumac (the lemonade bush), various kinds of moss and lichen, gumweed (remember that tea!) hackberry trees, at least a couple species of fragrant sage, juniper trees (think scaly with blue, mostly-inedible berries), the remnants of onion flowers, deer bones, Oregon grape, a teeny tiny snail, some mild-then-awesomely spicy mustard leaves, green and purple rocks, and a super teeny colony of super teeny fungi – and I’ll share photos of all those things. But what I was reminded of during this field trip – and what I hope you all got to experience as well – is the rejuvenating power of being submerged in nature. Some people have taken this phenomenon and turned it into something mystical and magical, and some have honestly blown it up to a level simultaneously creepy and ridiculous. While that’s maybe fun for a while (the mystical magic, not the creepy), the power of nature to uplift the mind and the soul is actually quite scientific and intensely spiritual.
Winter is completely natural and necessary. The cycles of the seasons and life and death are both normal and beautiful and reassuring that there is more to this life than just what we see in front of us every day. But winter can also be intensely difficult for many people because it is dark and cold and wet and dreary. There are many things we can do to alleviate that heavy emotional weight the sometimes comes when life feels dark. Despite seeming counterintuitive (because honestly, staying inside with a huge blanket, a good book, and a mug of hot chocolate is also good for my mental health!) nothing can replace the boost that going outside gives you.
This isn’t homework at all, but I encourage you to get outside as far into nature as possible at least once a week during the winterim. Sometimes it’s not possible to go far, but it’s also not necessary to go very far. Take your family. Take your friends. Leave behind worldly and superficial distractions. Just go and be refreshed.
Thanks for a great semester! We are so excited for next semester and all the things we will be doing, seeing, and experiencing Happy All-the-Holidays between now and January 18th!
If you are interested in the SCIENCE behind why nature (not just gardening) is healthy and has restorative and healing effects on mental and emotional health, THIS book is fascinating. The Freud chapters are a waste of time, but the other chapters talk about the organisms and microbes in the soil and how those affect your brain chemistry. And that’s just the beginning. The case studies are fascinating! Additionally, although I suspect this author is not religious – the book certainly isn’t – this book made it so clear to me how God has perfectly organized and prepared everything needful for us to be healthy and happy in this life. Nurturing and healing definitely go hand in hand, and before this book, I had never imagined that plants had so much to do with that. (Also, this book is on the approved book list! If you have any interest in psychology (not the Freud junk) you will enjoy this book.)
Anna Mock
Homework for 11/16 – Wrap up and More Fire
Calendar Items:
Nov 16 – in-class field trip. DRESS WARM!!!! I’ll have hot water and herbal tea/hot chocolate, but it will be for when we get BACK from the field trip, so essentially lunch time. Unless you have worked it out with me, 2 BOOK REACTION PAPERS and 2 DOCUMENTARY REACTION PAPERS and 8 NATURE JOURNAL PAGES are due. Please turn in all your reaction papers and bring your nature journal so I can check off that you’ve completed the 8 pages. If you need an extension, email me (and CC your parents on the email) so that we can work out a new due date and all be on the same page. Here is a link to the book and documentary list if you need it again.
Winterim – Get a jump start on your 3 books and 3 documentary reaction papers and 10 nature journal pages for NEXT semester.
Beginning the second week of next semester (January 25th) we will be doing our second round of presentations. THESE PRESENTATIONS WILL BE VERY DIFFERENT THAN THOSE FROM THIS SEMESTER. You will have 20-25 minutes to TEACH the class about a specific botanical/ecological topic of your choice. This means you need to share the information, have a game or activity, include hands-on aspects to your lesson, maybe a quiz or a competition, make your lesson very interactive, but stick to your topic and focus on what you want the class to learn. NO POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS. In fact, don’t even think of this as a presentation. Think of it as leading a class activity to which you must give adequate background information. If you have a short YouTube video or article you’d like the class to watch/read before your lesson as “homework,” let me know and I’ll put it on the blog for you the appropriate week.
Possible topics could include deep dives into a specific plant or genus, the work of a famous botanist/ecologist, pretty much ANY science fair type project regarding botany/ecology, specific aspects of environmental science concepts (how humans affect nature either for better or for worse), etc. You can expand on concepts like soil health, symbiotic relationships, and every other topic we’ve discussed in class so far. Use the concepts you’ve learned from BOTH your books (Botany in a Day and How Plants Work) to come up with ideas to expand on.
Think about the OTHER books you’ve been reading and the documentaries you’ve been watching – or even things you enjoyed about botany/ecology before you ever came to class. Share with us what is fascinating to YOU about these subjects and help us understand and be excited about them the way YOU are excited about them. (If you’re not excited about your topic, then maybe keep looking until you find a topic that REALLY interests you.)
Once you’ve chosen your topic, email me (aemock@gmail.com and don’t forget to CC your mom/dad) so I can make sure we don’t have people doubling up on the same topic. So far, bees, native plants, and the Great Salt Lake are off limits as we’ll have guest speakers come and talk about those things next semester already.
Jan 18 – First day of second semester.
Homework items:
FINISH your book/documentary reaction papers and nature journal pages.
READ the chapter 9 in How Plants Work, pages 197-217.
CONTINUE plugging away at your Personal Enrichment Projects (for those of you who have opted in to that – and if you haven’t filled out a Personal Enrichment Project form yet, you are ALWAYS welcome to do so).
CONTEMPLATE your topic for the 20-25 minute lesson/game/activity you are going to lead next semester. Here’s a photo of the sign up so you can add that to your calendar now. Remember, you are TEACHING us something, not just telling us about it.
WATCH the following videos about starting fires.
If you are interested in survival skills or reading about extreme survivalist experiences, there are some of those kinds of books on the book list. This list was compiled to appeal to people with ALL different interests. If you ever need help choosing a book, or you want more information on a book to help you decide if you’d like to read it or not, ask us. We’d love to help you find something about this topic that you will find fascinating!
Anna Mock
Homework for 11/9 – Symbiosis (take 2) and Mystery!
Calendar Items:
November 9 – Esther L will give the Grand Finale Biome Presentation! (No pressure!)
November 16 – In-Class field trip. Dress REALLY warm! Hats and gloves recommended.
ALL REACTION PAPERS ARE DUE + BRING YOUR NATURE JOURNAL TO SHOW ME YOUR 8 JOURNAL PAGES. (If you would like an extension on those reaction papers, please email me at aemock@gmail.com and CC your mom/dad onto the email so they are aware of your homework plans as well. It’s totally fine to work on these over the winter break, but I’d like a record showing that that is your plan.)
Winterim – Nov 17 through January 17th (TWO MONTHS, PEOPLE!) Get a jump start on your THREE book reaction papers and THREE documentary reaction papers and TEN nature journal pages due at the END of NEXT semester. Spend time on your Personal Enrichment Projects (if you choose to do a few), and take EXTRA NOTE of the information below.
NOTA BENE
Beginning the second week of next semester (January 25th) we will be doing our second round of presentations. THESE PRESENTATIONS WILL BE VERY DIFFERENT THAN THOSE FROM THIS SEMESTER. You will have 20-25 minutes to TEACH the class about a specific botanical/ecological topic of your choice. This means you need to share the information, have a game or activity, include hands-on aspects to your lesson, maybe a quiz or a competition, make your lesson very interactive, but stick to your topic and focus on what you want the class to learn. NO POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS. In fact, don’t even think of this as a presentation. Think of it as leading a class activity to which you must give adequate background information. If you have a short YouTube video or article you’d like the class to watch/read before your lesson as “homework,” let me know and I’ll put it on the blog for you the appropriate week. You do not have to have your topic chosen by next week, however, I will have you sign up for a date/time slot to teach your lesson next week.
Possible topics could include deep dives into a specific plant or genus, the work of a famous botanist/ecologist, pretty much ANY science fair type project regarding botany/ecology, specific aspects of environmental science concepts (how humans affect nature either for better or for worse), etc. You can expand on concepts like soil health, symbiotic relationships, and every other topic we’ve discussed in class so far. Use the concepts you’ve learned from BOTH your books (Botany in a Day and How Plants Work) to come up with ideas to expand on.
Think about the OTHER books you’ve been reading and the documentaries you’ve been watching – or even things you enjoyed about botany/ecology before you ever came to class. Share with us what is fascinating to YOU about these subjects and help us understand and be excited about them the way YOU are excited about them. (If you’re not excited about your topic, then maybe keep looking until you find a topic that REALLY interests you.)
Once you’ve chosen your topic, email me (aemock@gmail.com and don’t forget to CC your mom/dad) so I can make sure we don’t have people doubling up on the same topic. So far, bees, native plants, and the Great Salt Lake are off limits as we’ll have guest speakers come and talk about those things next semester already.
Homework Items:
READ How Plants Work chapters 7 and 8, pages 151- 195.
WATCH the following videos. I was going to assign them as a lead up to Tyler Hacking’s presentation on fungi, but since we had to switch dates last minute, I’m assigning these as a follow up to fungus and how fascinating they are. Additionally, check out https://www.utahmushrooms.org/ to learn more about the Utah Mushroom Society and the fun citizen scientist work that they do.
Additionally, if you are interested in the topic of fungus in general, check out THIS book – it’s even on the book list so you can get credit for writing a reaction paper about it.
If you are interested in the relationship between fungus and trees (but also just interested in trees and how they communicate with each other in other ways) check out THIS book, also on the approved book list.
Anna Mock
Homework for 11/2/2023- Medicinal Properties and Symbiosis
Calendar Items:
Nov 2 – Biome Presentations
Nov 9 – Guest Speaker on Fungus – I know you are thinking, “oh gross!” but this is so fascinating, that I hope you leave the presentation thinking, “oh gross, but so fascinating!”
Nov 16 – DUE: ALL your reaction papers that you haven’t turned in yet. Bring your Nature Journal to show me the 8 pages you’ve done so I can check that off. ALSO, In-class field trip. If it snows, we’ll try to track down some animals. If it doesn’t, we’ll just track down some plants and other ecological wonders.
WINTERIM – Get AHEAD on your book/documentary reaction papers and nature journaling pages. ALSO – If you haven’t chosen a Personal Enrichment Project or two yet, you’ll really want to use your winter break time to make good progress on those.
Homework Items:
BIOME PRESENTATIONS – Daniel (Urban), Simon (Grassland), Isabelle (Marine), Liberty (Cloud Forest), Lila (Tundra), Rebecca (Cave), and Esther L (Swamp.) Information on how to do your presentation can be found HERE (this is just the last homework blog post – scroll down to the info you need). Please remember to have a poster or a diorama prepared that you can physically bring to class to show as part of your presentation. Also, keep your presentation as close to 10 minutes as possible. I won’t cut you off, but this is good practice for NEXT semester, when you will have a 20 minute presentation and I WILL cut you off. 😉
READ Botany in a Day pages 210 through 222 on medicinal properties of plants.
READ How Plants Work chapter 6 – pages 131-149 on “How Plants Tell Time.”
ALSO, If you are still looking to do a personal enrichment project but aren’t sure what to do, come talk to me! I have some fun ideas!
WATCH the following video(s):
Anna Mock
Lakes Mary, Martha, and Catherine (and Dog) Field Trip
With this field trip recap, you are mostly going to get a photo dump. I did get a few photos of specific plants we looked at, but a lot of them were just dried out flowers and seeds we collected. Surprisingly (to me) we found a handful of flowers still in bloom! Lupine, groundsel, Indian Paintbrush, linnanthus, lots of purple Fleabane, some buckwheat, and even one lonely patch of coyote mint. We also saw more lichen, fir trees, a limber pine, cow parsnip, stone crop, timothy (a grass, not a person), and needle and thread (also a grass). As far as collected seeds go, we got Western Coneflower, Elephant’s Head (yay!), Fireweed (yay!), Coyote Mint, Nettleleaf Horsemint, Penstemon (either Rocky Mountain or Wasatch), and about 7 little Sweet Root seeds. Some of these seeds are going to go into my garden, but the rest will be in the award packets for those in the class who earn the Naturalist award! (If you need a reminder of what that is, HERE is your link!)
This hike was a little difficult, but nothing we couldn’t handle. All the lakes were stunning, as usual, except for Dog Lake which is more like a glorified puddle, as usual. (It’s definitely still worth seeing! In the summer you can find monskhood there!) The snow was an added bonus; the mud was an added… experience. Thank you, thank you to everyone who came. This was definitely our most strenuous field trip so far, but I’m still thinking about those mountains and lakes and trees! What a great day!
This and the next two are Lake Catherine
And some more photos to enjoy…
Anna Mock
Homework for 10/26/2023: Keep on Keepin’ On
Calendar Items:
October 21st: SATURDAY optional field trip – Brighton Lakes. SIGN UP HERE ASAP. This will be about the same length as the last hike (4.5ish miles) but we will gain a bit more elevation. Trail info HERE. This is one of my favorite hikes! Dress warm with layers, good hiking shoes. Bring your field work equipment and water and snacks/lunch. We’ll meet at 9:00 am at the Park n Ride in Orem (off of Center Street by the freeway map here) and those in the south end of the county can meet me at the Spanish Fork Macey’s at 8:30 am.
October 26th: BIOME PRESENTATIONS: Esther Hunsaker (Coral Reef), Ivan Swan (Hydrothermal Vent), Cameron Barney (Desert), Daniel Silva (Urban), Joy Hopkins (Tropical Forest), and Simon Buck (Grassland)
November 2nd: BIOME PRESENTATIONS: Liberty Brems (Cloud Forest), Isabelle Savage (Marine), Esther Levie, Lila Andreason (Tundra), and Rebecca Twyman. SEE HERE (scroll down) for the presentation require
November 9th: Guest Speaker – Fungus!
November 16th: Remaining Reaction Papers DUE! (Total of 2 books and 2 documentaries for the semester.) Be ready to show me your 8 nature journal pages. Also, we’ll be going on our last in-class field trip for the semester. If there is SNOW, we’ll go looking for animal tracks. If not, we’ll head up to Slate Canyon.
Homework Items:
Work on reading those books and watching the documentaries so you can get your reaction papers in on time. (No harm getting them in early if you have time! SEE HERE for information about writing up a reaction paper and a link to the book and documentary spreadsheet.
If you are doing Personal Enrichment Projects, keep working on those! Don’t forget to write up your notes and keep good records of what you are doing. Depending on your project, this may be daily, weekly, or biweekly. If you haven’t picked a project or two to do (and these are technically optional) but you WANT to, come talk to me. I have LOTS of ideas for fun projects to do. More information on the Personal Enrichment Projects and Awards are linked here.
Work on those presentations. The list of WHEN you present is above, but I will copy and paste all the presentations requirements here:
Biome/Ecosystem/Habitat Presentation Requirements
Pick a biome/ecosystem.
Learn about its characteristics: where it can be found in the world, interesting or unique facts about this area, how people adapt or affect this biome. Become an EXPERT on this biome/ecosystem.
Identify at least:
4 produces
4 primary consumers
3 secondary consumers
2 tertiary consumers
Decomposers
See if you can identify a keystone species
(Watch “The Serengeti Rules” on Amazon Prime – can count as one of your documentaries – some language, talk to your parents first.)
Create a diorama or poster (large) to display the various ecosystem and biome elements that make this part of the world unique.
You can bring other visual aids or supplemental material – food, examples, specimens, photos, etc. – to help you with your presentation if you want. If you need the TV for a power point presentation, let me know ASAP.
Time your presentation to make sure you can fill 10 minutes without going over!!!
Lucas, Rebecca, and Esther L., ask me if you have any questions about this assignment. You guys are all scheduled to present on November 2nd. The following is the list of biomes you can choose from (EXCEPT TUNDRA). Let me know ASAP which biome you want so I can cross it off the list.
Anna Mock
Rock Canyon Field Trip
Today we braved the weather and realized that a little rain isn’t really that bad after all.
In fact, it was really FUN!
After wandering around, both high and low, freezing our fingers and toes, we enjoyed a variety of homemade (and store-bought but easily do-it-yourself) teas. From his personal foraged stores, Brother Williams brought hops, peppermint, chamomile, raspberry leaf, osha root, sweet root, horsehound, and stinging nettle. (I foraged my blends from Walmart and brought honey lavender, roasted dandelion root, elderberry lemon balm, and a mountain huckleberry blend from Montana – which was actually a gift Sister Stanfill gave me a while back.) Now that you know how easy it is to make tea, you can use any of the ingredients listed – and others safely gathered or bought – to create your OWN unique and delicious blends.
Plus we had hot chocolate.
Alfalfa seeds and flowers! I love the little spirals! Actually, I love these blossoms, too. Large fields of alfalfa in bloom smell divine in the heat of summer. You may notice they look very similar to clover. In fact, if you compare the alfalfa and clover leaves, they look even MORE similar. (That would be a fun nature journal page! You can use internet photos if you need to.)
Hackberries! Look for the sandpaper-leaves and the dark blue/purple berries. These are chewy on the outside with a big(ish) pit in the middle. They sort of taste like honey! The tree bark also has some weird ridges that look like crocodile spines.
Wild Asparagus! Only eat the stalks the shoot up in the spring. This older stuff with the berries that has leafed out is poisonous. This reminds me of a book called Stalking the Wild Asparagus which, yes, is on the book list. It’s a collection of recipes and stories about foraging for food. The photo with berries is the plant we found. The other photo is from Minnesota to give you a better idea of what the plant looks like before it goes to seed, produces berries, and looks all sad in the rain.
Desert Olive Tree. Um… this looks super tasty being all bright blue. But they are REALLY bitter. I actually didn’t think it was bad, but at the same time, I was good with trying just one.
We also found honeysuckle, ragweed, oak trees, flowering sage brush, buckwheat and moss! Now, if you ever thought you would ever be interesting in MOSS – I have a book for that, too! And actually, even if you aren’t interested in moss, you probably will be after you read THIS book! Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer. And yes, this book is also on the book list. You will never look at moss the same way again. Plus, it’s just a beautiful and delightful book to read.
Books:
Here are some more fun photos of our trip.
Next field trip: Brighton Lakes!
Anna Mock
Homework for 10/19/23 – Migration and Biome Presentations
Calendar Items:
October 19th: Guest Speaker Anette Stephens
October 21st: SATURDAY optional field trip – Brighton Lakes. SIGN UP HERE ASAP. This will be about the same length as the last hike (4.5ish miles) but we will gain a bit more elevation. Trail info HERE. This is one of my favorite hikes! Dress warm with layers, good hiking shoes. Bring your field work equipment and water and snacks/lunch. We’ll meet at 9:00 am at the Park n Ride in Orem (off of Center Street by the freeway map here) and those in the south end of the county can meet me at the Spanish Fork Macey’s at 8:30 am.
October 26th: BIOME PRESENTATIONS: Esther Hunsaker (Coral Reef), Ivan Swan (Hydrothermal Vent), Cameron Barney (Desert), Daniel Silva (Urban), Joy Hopkins (Tropical Forest), and Simon Buck (Grassland)
November 2nd: BIOME PRESENTATIONS: Liberty Brems (Cloud Forest), Isabelle Savage (Marine), Esther Levie, Lila Andreason (Tundra), and Rebecca Twyman. SEE HERE (scroll down) for the presentation requirements.
Homework Items:
Work on your Biome Presentations. See above for your day to present. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. SEE HERE (scroll down) for the presentation requirements.
Prepare for our guest speaker watching the following documentary: “Flight of the Butterflies.” You should be able to find this on various video watching platforms, but the link should take you to Amazon Prime Video to rent it for about $2. Mrs. Stephens has requested everyone watch this so that when we come together on Thursday we are all on the same page. I have not seen this documentary yet. This one WILL NOT COUNT as one of your 2 documentaries for the semester, BUT if one of your Personal Enrichment Projects is to watch ADDITIONAL documentaries, I will let it count as one of those. (for instance, a goal could be watch 5 extra documentaries and write the 5 extra reaction papers.)
Study up on different animals that migrate and hibernate. We’ll be doing an activity on migration and hibernation the hour before Mrs. Stephens comes. The more you know, the faster you’ll be at the activity.
REMEMBER:
You need to complete FOUR reaction papers (for two books and for two documentaries) as well as EIGHT nature journal pages this semester. We are half way done, so make sure YOU are half way done. If you need help with anything, let us know. (You can do nature journal pages in your backyard. You do not half to go hiking or deep into the mountains or anything.)
Anna Mock
Big Springs Hollow Field Trip
Hopefully your reading from How Plants Work about why the leaves change to red (anthocyanins) helped make our field trip just a little more meaningful. I think it’s always enlightening to actually SEE in action what I am reading and studying about. Our goal is to help you have that experience also.
Besides the outrageous fall foliage (and the crazy variety of grasses in those meadows!), we chose this particular hike to give you the experience of walking through a few different kinds of forest and the opportunity to think about different kinds of trees. You probably already knew the trees we highlighted, but hopefully you learned something new as well.
Maple trees – These are the ones on our mountains that turn bright right. (Thank you, anthocyanins!) And yes, you can make maple syrup out of ANY maple tree. People generally use sugar maples because the sugar content is much higher, but if you have the equipment and patience for all that boiling down, you could end up with syrup from even our maples here.
Oak trees – Check out those LOBES! The oak trees turn a pretty orange and then brown. And of course, from the oaks we get acorns. These are nice to eat, BUT there is a lot of preparation needed to make those little nuts taste good. Because they are filled with tannin you’ll need to remove that first. Put your shelled acorns in a jar of cold water and let it sit for a few days in the fridge. Once the water turns brown, drain, rinse, and repeat. There are probably lots of ways to extract the tannin, and basically it’s always the same idea – just let the water soak them out. Once that’s done, you can toast, dry, crush, grind, etc. your acorns and enjoy them in a variety of ways!
Fir trees – We first talked about firs on our berry foraging trip. A fir tree has flat, friendly, fragrant needles. (As opposed to the pines which come in packets and have a papery sheath at the base and the spruce which have square needles that are sharp.) These particular firs were deliciously fragrant! They are also my favorite so that’s why I took more pictures of them than the other trees.
And Aspen trees – Aspens are pretty easy to tell apart from the others by their quaking little leaves and their smooth white bark. Perhaps you already knew that aspens reproduce via rhizomes – which I think is fun – and that is also why if you have one aspen, you are bound to have quite a few more popping up all around your yard in no time. Each of the trees connected via a particular rhizome system are actually considered one large organism! So if you you didn’t know already, the largest living land organism in the world is actually an aspen tree down by Fish Lake here in Utah. The aspens turn bright yellow! Also, that white bark is actually partially a coating of powder that you can wipe off and use on yourself as sunscreen. It does the same thing for the trunk of the tree to protect it from getting too much sun and overloading the chlorophyll found IN the trunk! Yes, that is unusual.
But wait! There’s more! If you are interested in trees – and I am from the Pacific Northwest and therefore I am part tree-hugger and have a hard time understanding why anyone wouldn’t be interested in trees – I have some wonderful book recommendations for you. One of them is a picture/children’s book. Another is a photography book – so very little text. And the third is a widely acclaimed breakthrough piece in the nature lore genre that can also be found as a documentary (I haven’t watched the documentary, but the book was fascinating!) All of these books are on the approved book list and can be read for credit for class. Just don’t forget to turn in your reaction paper.
And other fun things we found… LOTS of grasses! Service berries. Hawthorne berries. Choke cherries. Moss and Lichen. Bracken fern. Burdock. Purple clover – which yes, you can eat. A nasty old mushroom which we did NOT eat. Strawberries and raspberry plants. First year thistles (These are biennial. Catch them in the fall of their first year or in the spring of their second year BEFORE they send up their stalk and dig up a nice, tasty root! Or just rip off the spines and eat that middle vein there.)
And here are a few more, just to relive the moment… and because these meadows take my breath away every time.
Anna Mock
Homework for 10/12/23 – Classification Keys and Biome Presentations
Calendar Items:
October 12th – DUE: TWO (2) reaction papers (if you haven’t turned them in already. ONE (1) Personal Enrichment Project Form (if you choose to do that.) Also, on October 12th we are going on an in-class field trip to Rock Canyon. It will be cold! Wear appropriate clothing and jackets. Please bring all your field work equipment – nature journal especially, since we will have time to add nature journal pages to your books during the trip.
October 19th – Guest Speaker
October 21st – Saturday Optional Field Trip – Brighton Lakes. Find trail information HERE. This is our “alpine lake” field trip. This hike is up in Salt Lake County so we will meet early and be home late in the afternoon. More details coming soon!
October 26th – Student Presentations: Esther Hunsaker, Ivan Swan, Cameron Barney, Daniel Silva, Joy Hopkins, and Simon Buck
November 2nd – Student Presentations: Liberty Brems, Isabelle Savage, Esther Levie, Lila Andreason, Lucas Andreason, Rebecca Twyman (See below for more information.)
Homework Items:
Read: Botany in a Day pages 23-25 and skim through pages 26-36.
Prepare: Biome/Ecosystem Presentation – Create your poster or diorama and present to the class.
Biome/Ecosystem/Habitat Presentation Requirements
Pick a biome/ecosystem.
Learn about its characteristics: where it can be found in the world, interesting or unique facts about this area, how people adapt or affect this biome. Become an EXPERT on this biome/ecosystem.
Identify at least:
4 produces
4 primary consumers
3 secondary consumers
2 tertiary consumers
Decomposers
See if you can identify a keystone species
(Watch “The Serengeti Rules” on Amazon Prime – can count as one of your documentaries – some language, talk to your parents first.)
Create a diorama or poster (large) to display the various ecosystem and biome elements that make this part of the world unique.
You can bring other visual aids or supplemental material – food, examples, specimens, photos, etc. – to help you with your presentation if you want. If you need the TV for a power point presentation, let me know ASAP.
Time your presentation to make sure you can fill 10 minutes without going over!!!
Lila, Lucas, Rebecca, and Esther L., ask me if you have any questions about this assignment. You guys are all scheduled to present on November 2nd. The following is the list of biomes you can choose from. Let me know ASAP which biome you want so I can cross it off the list.
Anna Mock
Tulip Bulbs
In class yesterday I handed out little brown paper bags with a few tulip bulbs in them.
Now I want to tell you the sort of fun you can have with them! This would be a REALLY interesting Personal Enrichment project if you wanted to do it. It is cool enough, but also complex enough, that I think you could even enter it in the WHEN science fair and get pretty far into that competition.
Most of our tulips come up in April and May. The Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival usually runs from mid April through the first week in May, although this last year they had to extend it because our winter was so wet and snowy so the flowers didn’t come up and bloom until later in the spring. But the nurseries and grocery stores often have blooming tulips for sale in March! Are their bulbs just early bloomers? Did you ever wonder how the plants know when to grow? Is it heat? Is it water? Is it light?
In your book How Plants Work, chapter 6 is all about how plants know when to grow and how flowers know when to blossom. It’s really interesting! But the really fun part about it, is that you can trick plants into blooming whenever you want them to! I recommend you read all of chapter 6, “How Plants tell Time,” or just start on page 141 and read to the end of that chapter. See if you can trick your tulip bulbs into sprouting and blooming in time for Valentine’s Day, or maybe even earlier! Take good notes about what/how/when/why you are doing what you do so that if someone wanted to recreate your experiment, they would know exactly how to replicate what you did. Keep drawings, measurements, and data (how much water, how much light, what kind of light, when you turned on the light, etc.) in your nature journal.
Use these instructions on bulb planting (except you can probably skip the bulb fertilizer part if you want) and plant them in a nice pot that you can easily transport. I would LOVE to hear all about the success of your experiment!!
Additionally, there is a great book on the book list about tulip bulbs. This book describes the absolute tulip hysteria that went on in Holland awhile back. The fact that this ACTUALLY happened, is ridiculous! But the history is cool. And the science is really interesting! It makes you look at tulips in a completely different way.
Also, if you think you might need a few more tulip bulbs, let me know! I’m going to try and put mine in the ground this week, but if I have any left, I’m happy to share the rest! I’m excited to see what they look like when they pop up!
Anna Mock
Homework for 10/5/2023 – Families, Fall leaves, and Definitions
Welcome to October!! First, a few calendar items:
DUE THIS week (Oct. 5) and NEXT week (Oct. 12) I am expecting to collect 2 reaction papers from each of you (unless you’ve already turned one or more in already) and 1 Personal Enrichment Form for those of you who would like to go deeper into a topic of your choice and be handsomely rewarded for your extra efforts. Please see all the links above for more information. You are ALWAYS welcome to ask any questions from us as well.
Friday, October 6th – Optional field trip to Big Springs Hollow. Trail info can be found HERE. Meet at the parking lot at the mouth of Provo Canyon at 11:00 OR if you are in the south end of the county, meet me at the Spanish Fork Macey’s at 10:15. Bring ALL your field work equipment plus plenty of water and a lunch. PLEASE SIGN UP HERE SO I DON’T GIVE AWAY YOUR SPACE IN THE VAN.
Thursday, October 12th – Guest Speaker Anette Stephens is coming to class to teach us about Monarch migration and milkweed and what that has to do with Utah.
Saturday, October 21st – Optional field trip to Brighton Lakes. This is a spectacularly beautiful hike! We will meet earlier in the day and make a full day out of it. More info coming.
Homework Items:
READ: Botany in a Day pages 19-21 about plant families. COLLECT an example from every family in your own yard (or area near you). Bring them to class with you on Thursday so we can all see what you’ve found! (Maybe pick them Wednesday evening and put them in water so they don’t wilt too much.)
READ: How Plants Work chapter 5, pages 107-129. This will get you ready for the Big Springs field trip. But even if you don’t come to Big Springs with us, read this chapter.
WATCH: the following four short videos…
READ: the following two articles…
DEFINE the following terms:
Biome
Ecosystem
Habitat
Producers
Consumers
Decomposers
Anna Mock
Lower Hobble Creek Field Trip
Today we took a quick trip to the lower part of Hobble Creek, near where the creek empties out into Utah Lake. (The plants were pretty overgrown so we didn’t go all the way to the lake side, but we got what we needed. You should already have results from your water testing in your nature journal. Below are the results from the soil testing. Pretty interesting! But first, enjoy this awesome drone video of the area. (It makes you want to go back and bushwack all the way to the lake!)
We learned a short poem to help us remember how to tell the difference between grasses, sedges, and rushes:
“Sedges have edges, Rushes are round, Grasses have joints when the cops aren’t around.”
The stems of these plants are described in the poem. The sedges have edged stems – the one we saw had three distinct sides and corners. The rushes have round stalks, and there were some great examples nearby. And the grasses grow in segments, with joints and nodes. It was interesting to learn that the leaves actually start growing at these nodes and grow up as a sheath around the stem until they sort of pull away and fall off to the side and look like the grass “leaf” we are used to seeing.
Most of my photos were pretty bad – and I forgot to take photos of EVERYTHING – so I’m going to pull from a few stock photos here, too. Here are the plants we looked at.
Barnyard Grass
Cockle Burrs
Fox Tail Barley
Common Reed
Russian Olive Tree
Saltbush
Purple Fleabane
We also heard Song Sparrows, Marsh Wrens, and Franklin Gulls. Thank you Merlin! https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
Here are the soil sample results. Add these to your nature journal page.
Here are some more photos just for fun!
Anna Mock
Homework for 9/28/23 – Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration
Calendar Items:
October 5th and 12th – Plan on turning in TWO reaction papers (either on two books, two documentaries, or one book and one documentary. See THIS blog post for more info if you don’t know what I’m talking about.)
ALSO – if you haven’t checked out the awesome incentives we are offering for those who earn the Botanist and Ecologist Awards, you really should take a look HERE. Please plan on turning in your Personal Enrichment Program form (fill it out WITH your parents) on either October 5th or 12th along with your reaction papers.
October 6th (Friday) – Optional field trip up to Big Springs Hollow. Meet at the Provo Canyon Park and Ride (the same as last time) at 11:00 am OR south county kids can meet me at the Spanish Fork Macey’s at 10:15. Sign up for this field trip ON THIS FORM HERE. Info on the trail is HERE but be advised we will probably take an alternative trail.
October 12th – Guest Speaker Anette Stephens is coming to talk to us about Monarch migration and Milkweed!
October 21st (Saturday) – Optional field trip to Brighton Lakes. Time TBD. This hike will take all day. Info on the trail can be found HERE.
Homework Items:
Finish reading Botany in a Day pages 2-16 if you haven’t already
Read How Plants Work chapter 1, pages 15-20 (you can read the entire chapter if you really want to) and chapter 4 pages 85- 105
Watch the following videos: I know this may seem like a LOT of repetition, but please watch ALL the videos. There wasn’t one perfect video, and I really liked aspects of all of them. The last two video are VERY DETAILED. Remember, you are not required to memorize the chemical reactions of photosynthesis. But I think having a basic understanding of what is going on is extremely enlightening and it helps you see the world with new eyes.
Anna Mock
Naturalist, Botanist, and Ecologist Awards!
A couple weeks ago we talked about the Personal Enrichment Projects you can work on in order to earn some fun rewards. THESE ARE COMPLETELY OPTIONAL! However, the work you do to earn these awards will greatly enhance and enrich your learning experience, and hopefully your life, as you come to understand and appreciate the this mindblowingly beautiful and complex world God has created for us.
(WbN Mentors reserve the right to add award options to this list as we find cooler stuff out there. Also, all awards on this blog post are subject to availability. If you earn one of these awards and it is no longer available, we’ll let you know so you can choose a different one.)
For a list of requirements for each award level, please visit the previous blog post Personal Enrichment Projects. Please, PLEASE, contact us if you have any questions or have fun ideas for your personalized projects. We are VERY open to suggestions! The list of ideas we’ve provided is only the beginning of possible options out there.
The Naturalist Award
Complete all required homework assignments and projects for class for the entire year. (Five books/reaction papers, Five documentaries/reaction papers, 18 nature journal pages, one 20-minute presentation.)
Naturalist Award – assortment of vinyl stickers, seed packets, and other cool nature themed things in a fun goody bag.
The Botanist and the Ecologist Awards
Botanist Award – Complete all the requirements for the Naturalist Award, PLUS one goal from the Personal Enrichment Project form. You will receive the Naturalist Award and one (1) item of your choice shown below.
Ecologist Award – Complete all the requirements for the Naturalist AND Botanist Awards, PLUS one MORE goal from the Personal Enrichment Project Form. You will receive the Naturalist Award, the Botanist Award, PLUS one (1) MORE item of your choice shown below. (For a total of 2 (two) items from this list.) T-shirt (it comes in lots of colors), pocket microscope, flower press, hammock, wildflowers guide.
Anna Mock
Berry Foraging Field Trip
THANK YOU to everyone who came out to our field trip today. It was SO FUN! And we learned SO MUCH! And I ate a whole lot of service berries – not so much some of those other berries. 😉
We didn’t really sit down long enough to take the time to do any nature journaling, so I wanted to post a few of my photos here. You can still make a nature journal page (or two – there were A LOT of berries!) by looking and observing these photographs. It’s not quite as good as handling the leaves, berries, and flowers yourself – BUT if you were there, you will hopefully remember the texture, taste, and some of the details of the plants that you observed. If you didn’t come on the field trip, you won’t be able to do nature journal pages off of THESE photos, BUT you can always just journal something in your own backyard! Remember, this semester you are required to do 8 journal pages. Don’t leave it off until the end!
Ok, here we go!
Service berries – look for a tree with grey bark and the leaves are knotched, but only on the top – so it resembles a spork sort of. (We saw more service berries than any thing else, but I didn’t take any good pictures of them because we were eating them the whole time!)
Mountain Ash – bright orange, in clusters, not delicious.
Red Baneberry – Poisonous. Do not eat. Closer down to the ground, bright red berries in clumps.
Oregon Grape – Edible. Pretty sour. Down close to the ground, they have a round end and a sort of pointy end. Their leaves are those in the FIRST picture – the dicot with the main vein down the middle and branching veins from that, also with the serrated looking edges. (Those other leaves in the second picture that look grass like and maybe monocot (?) are not the Oregon Grape leaves.)
Choke Cherry – Really astringent! But the more ripe they get, the “better” they taste. Look for deep purple in color. Their leaves look just like any leaves of a cherry tree – if you look close just below the base of the leaf, you can see two little black dots on the stem. In the springtime you can identify the flowers because they are in long clusters called racemes (as opposed to a ball of flowers).
Snow Berries – “Not especially poisonous” (but probably don’t eat them anyway just in case.)
Raspberries – but we didn’t actually see any. You can make a tea out of red raspberry leaves.
Nettleleaf Horsemint – Motherwort – Catmint – Any mint is good for teas. They are very fragrant. You can crush a leaf and get a good whiff. The stems on mints are square – like a REALLY long and REALLY skinny rectangular solid. And the leaves grow off the stems in pairs. Flowers on mint plants grow UP; they don’t hang down like on stinging nettle.
False Solomon’s Seal – edible, but would you really want to? I mean? (This one clearly wasn’t my favorite, but it was VERY juicy!)
Hops – Very fragrant. (This is the stuff they use to flavor beer.) You can make a tea out of it – that is NOTHING like beer. It is medicinal and is a mild sedative, so you could make some hops tea to help you sleep when you are worked up and stressed out.
Dodder – this is NOT something you eat. This is a strange little parasitic plant that looks just like a little orange/yellow string with flowers. It doesn’t grow in the soil, but just up on top of the plants like this. It gets it’s nutrients directly from the host plant.
Dogwood berries – NOT edible. The coloring isn’t right in this photo, but they are a pale whitish blue. Very pretty.
Elderberries – These are the purple kind, but there are also red elderberries. DO NOT EAT THE RED BERRIES. The purple can also be problematic. You can eat a couple, but really, they need to be cooked first or else you run the risk of throwing up. Elderberries are very medicinal and work well in home made cough syrups. (I made some this year, so if you want to try it, let me know and I’ll bring some to class.)
Fairy berries – (Berries from the fairy bell plants. Cute!) Not delicious, but edible.
Thimble berries – like raspberries, but very delicate. They have great big leaves that look like stars. We were lucky to find a few that were ripe. Since the snow lasted so long up there this year, many of the flowers were still in bloom at the higher elevation, and while it was too late for some of the berries down below, up high they were just ready to eat!
Other great finds – An unidentified mini mushroom, Monkshood flowers (the most poisonous thing we have here, but such a pretty purple color. My photo didn’t turn out, so here is a stock photo), monkey flowers (yellow), and mountain bluebells. We saw MANY more flowers than just those, but I didn’t take photos of all of them. Fireweed, wild geranium, and Western Coneflowers were some of our favorites. Stinging Nettle wasn’t our favorite, so I didn’t take a picture. But for those who got too close, we found some mullein/lamb’s ear and thankfully that solved our problems.
Our NEXT non-Thursday field trip will be Friday, October 6th. We’ll be going up to Big Springs Hollow! Watch for a sign up. And like all our non-Thursday field trips, any ASA students and their parents are welcome to come, but seating in the Mock van is reserved first for students in WbN.
Anna Mock
Homework for 9/21/2023 – Taxonomy and Catch Up
Calendar Items:
THIS Saturday, September 16th, at 10:00. Berry foraging up the backside of Timp. Meet at the park and ride at the mouth of Provo Canyon (next to Will’s Canyon Stop gas station) for carpooling up the canyon. Those in the south end of the county can meet at the Spanish Fork Macey’s at 9:15 for a ride up. EVERYONE at ASA is invited to this field trip, but I’m providing rides FIRST for our class members. Bring your fieldwork gear (nature journal, jeweler’s loupe, pen/pencils, blue sit pad, etc.), water, and a snack or lunch. We will be hiking about a 1 1/4 miles up the trail to Timp Falls. This is a beautiful hike! I’m really looking forward to it!
Next Thursday, September 21st, IN CLASS – field trip to Lower Hobble Creek for water and soil testing, plant identification, and nature journaling. Bring ALL your fieldwork gear to class. Wear shoes you don’t mind getting a little muddy just in case. We’ll be back before lunch.
Friday, October 6th, 11:00 am. Hiking up to Big Springs Hollow. We can carpool to this just we we will for this Saturday’s field trip. More details to come later. Hopefully the colors will already be changing enough to get a few good samples.
Homework Items:
Read pages 2-15 in Botany in a Day
Finish reading chapter 3 from How Plants Work if you haven’t already
Watch the videos from last week’s blog post if you haven’t already.
Start Planning…
…which two books and which two documentaries you’ll complete this semester. Don’t forget to write reaction papers for each one once you’ve finished and turn them in. Book/Documentary List and info can be found HERE.
Start thinking about what extra projects/goals you have for this class. Discuss this with your parents. When you’ve got an idea, fill out the form attached to the handout from class today.
BONUS
If you want to take soil samples from your yard – or anywhere – and get really accurate results, send your samples to BYU. Info about submitting samples and price guides found HERE.
Anna Mock
Homework for 9/14 – Systems and Nutrients
Reading: How Plants Work, chapter 3 “What’s Essential” (pages 61-83) This book is written for gardeners and so the author will reference how gardeners can amend their soil to make sure their crops/plants get the nutrition needed to grow strong. While our class isn’t necessarily about gardening, per se, the concepts and principles are exactly the same. This reading is in preparation for a field trip we are talking on 9/21 where we will do some water and soil testing. YOU HAVE TWO WEEKS to complete this reading, but I suggest you read it as soon as you can so you don’t forget.
Additionally, watch these short videos before class… (There are SIX short videos – you DON’T HAVE to watch BOTH of those last two worm videos, but I thought they were interesting.)
If this topic is interesting to you – especially the worms and soil health – a GREAT book on the BOOK list to read is Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms by Amy Stewart. It is FASCINATING! Make sure to write up a reaction paper once you finish the book. This book is also available on Audible.
If you would like to watch a documentary about soil health, here is one for you. Also, remember the reaction paper in order to get credit!! (Disclaimer: I haven’t watched this video all the way through.)
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Saturday, September 16th at 10:00 am. Optional field trip to go berry hunting! Br. Williams is going to take us up behind Mt. Timpanogos where he harvests his service berries. We’ll probably be able to find 5 or more different edible berries. Bring your fieldwork supplies/backpack (nature journal, pen and colored pencils if desired, jeweler’s loupe, blue sit pad, exacto knife if you think you might need to dissect something.) Where long pants and good shoes. There is always the potential to get a little muddy. Details about rides and locations to come.
Thursday, September 21st – during class. Water and Soil testing field trip. You will need to bring your fieldwork supplies to class that day.
Anna Mock
Wild by Nature Book and Documentary List
Students in Wild by Nature are expected to read 5 books total (2 first semester and 3 second semester) and watch 5 documentaries total (2 first semester and 3 second semester). All books and documentaries should come from the approved list linked below. We have compiled books that cover a large variety of genres so each student will hopefully be able to find a book that sounds interesting to them. Some books are very large and contextually dense, while one is a photography book and a few others are geared more towards children. You don’t get extra points for reading the longest, most difficult books. Additionally, most books listed have audible versions available. Feel free to use the audible version if you prefer to listen. After you have completed a book/documentary, turn in reaction paper to Sister Mock. Information for how to write reaction papers can be found HERE on a previous blog post.
Check back on these lists from time to time as we will probably add more as we go through the year. The documentaries are listed on the second tab of the spreadsheet.
Anna Mock
Wild by Nature – Blog Post Directory
Use the links on this page to quickly jump to the newest WbN blog post as well as quickly find old posts and handouts.
- Homework for 4/18 – Yarrow, Plants that Feel and Hear, and Gearing up for the GSL
- Homework for 4/11 – Chaparral and Plants that Feel
- Little Grand Canyon Field Trip Recap
- Homework for 3/28 – Cloves and Plants that can Smell
- Homework for 3/21 – Tracking Field Trip Recap, Mini-Lesson Wrap Up Next Week!
- Homework for 3/14 – Tree Tour Recap, Field Trip Prep, and What’s Due!
- Homework for 3/7 – Plant Family Study Guides and a Field Trip!
- Homework for 2/29 – Plant Families and Identification Revisited
- Homework for 2/21 – Food Forests and Landscaping
- Homework for 2/15 – Sariah comes BACK with Native Plants! And We’ll Finish our Healing Salve
- Homework for 2/8 – Pollinator Guest Speaker and Honey Tasting!
- Homework for 2/1 – Mini-lesson and Medicinals – Elderberry Syrup
- Homework for 1/25 – Mini-Lessons and Ecological Succesion
- Slate Canyon Field Trip
- Homework for 11/16 – Wrap up and More Fire
- Homework for 11/9 – Symbiosis (take 2) and Mystery!
- Lakes Mary, Martha, Catherine (and Dog) Field Trip
- Homework for 10/26 – Keep on Keepin’ On
- Homework for 10/19 – Migration and Biome Presentations
- Rock Canyon Field Trip
- Big Springs Hollow Field Trip
- Homework for 10/12 – Classification Keys and Biome Presentations
- Lower Hobble Creek Field Trip
- Homework for 9/28 – Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration
- Naturalist, Botanist, and Ecologist Awards
- Berry Foraging Field Trip
- Homework for 9/21 – Taxonomy and Catch Up
- Homework for 9/14 – Systems and Nutrients
- Book/Documentary Spreadsheet 9/5/2023
- Personal Enrichment Projects Handout and Form 9/5/2023
- Reaction Paper Example 9/4/2023
- Welcome to Wild by Nature! 8/21/2023
Anna Mock
Personal Enrichment Projects
Want some more?
Wild by Nature is a student driven class, and you will get out of it what you put into it. We have assigned a baseline of homework that we feel is appropriate for the level of this class while allowing for a great deal of flexibility and personal adaptation. With this, we hope you will customize your experience to fit your individual interests. We realize you have other obligations and responsibilities outside of our class. However, we also know that in our two semesters together, we will only barely skim the surface of the topics of botany and ecology. For those students who WANT to dive deeper, we are offering fun rewards. However, please do not feel pressured to do more than the baseline requirements.
In keeping with the nature of the flexibility of this class, you get to create any and all enrichment activities you choose to do. Please counsel with your parent(s) in deciding what an appropriate amount of work is for each of the two levels of extra achievement. Ideas for enrichment activities are on the back of this paper, but you are not limited to those ideas. You are welcome to change your projects and goals at any time and for whatever reason (the original goals were too hard/too easy, you found something ELSE you are interested in, etc.) Just give us an updated Personal Enrichment Projects paper for our records if you do decide to change/add/delete anything. These goals should be appropriate for YOUR personal workload and YOUR academic level. You do not need to share your goals with anyone else. These goals should challenge and stretch you, but not overwhelm you. A little stress can be motivating, but too much will ruin the experience, and you won’t learn anything from it in the end. Counsel with your parents about the right path for you to take.
Rewards for these achievements will be given out at the end of the year during the ASA awards and graduation ceremony in May. You have the entire school year to work on your projects/goals. If your project has a visual component, you are welcome to display it at the awards and graduation ceremony.
Please ask us if you have ANY questions,
Anna Mock and John Williams
Ideas for Personal Enrichment Projects:
- Read X amount of extra books/write reaction papers
- Watch X amount of extra documentaries/write reaction papers
- Complete X amount of extra nature journal pages
- Go on X amount of extra field trips by yourself/with family/friends
- Attend natural history museums, botanical gardens, etc./write reaction papers
- Create a “sit spot” and visit it for X amount of minutes X amount of times
- Create music/art/poetry that encompasses what you are learning
- Teach others what you are learning in class
- Participate in the WHEN science fair in March with a botany/ecology themed project
- Interview a botanist/ecologist/naturalist, etc.
- Write a report on any topic botany/ecology related to turn in to your mentors
- Clip newspaper articles about botany/ecology related topics/write reaction papers
- Do a plot study, visit and journal your plot X amount of times during the year
- Create a Monarch waystation at your home
- Reclaim a piece of land on your property and cultivate it
- Reclaim a piece of land on your property and rewild it – native plants
- Create a garden and document your work/progress (nature journal it)
- Lead/Participate in a environmentally friendly service project
- Create an “ecosystem in a jar” and keep it alive!!
- Keep worms/compost – but like, for real. Not just a pile of kitchen scraps in a bucket
- Make a science video (Bill Nye style) explaining a related topic
- Watch the John Muir Laws Nature Journaling tutorials
If you would like help brainstorming extra ideas, please don’t hesitate to come to us and ask for help.
You can print off extra copies of the Personal Enrichment Project Form HERE.
Anna Mock
Reaction Paper Example
You are asked to write a “reaction paper” for each book and documentary you watch for class. These are informal reactions to what you learned, what you enjoyed, what you didn’t enjoy, what it reminded you of, any connections you made, personal experiences you’ve had with that topic, etc. You can follow the JML (John Muir Laws) format of “I noticed… I wonder… It reminds me of,” if that is a helpful reminder of what to write. Your papers should be typed single-spaced and a minimum of half a page. The purpose of these papers is to help us, as mentors, see how you are interacting with the material and making connections. But the papers are also for YOU as a record of the things you are learning, what you are experiencing, and a way to chart your journey through the study of ecology and botany.
The following is an example of a reaction paper to the book Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees by Thor Hansen. Please notice the heading on the top left hand corner (name, date, class), the centered title with the author attribution, and the bulk of the paper. Although this isn’t an essay or a piece of formal writing, we do expect you to use correct grammar and punctuation, complete sentences, and have a coherent stream of thought. Summary of the book/documentary is important, but the more important part of this paper is your REACTION to the content.
Let us know if you have any questions. If you are stressed out about the Reaction Papers, you are probably over thinking it. But if you are still having a hard time coming up with what to write, we can come up with writing prompts and other strategies to help you get some words down on paper.
Anna Mock
Welcome to Wild by Nature – 8/21/2023
Before you come to class (on Thursday, September 7th), please make sure you have reviewed the following information. You may have seen this already, but we want to make sure everyone is on the same page. If you have questions about any of the content below, feel free to email me at aemock@gmail.com or ask your questions on the first day of class. At the bottom of this post you’ll see a link to the book/documentaries spreadsheet as well as the class video, which is just for fun. 😉
Wild by Nature: Botany and Ecology
Vision Statement: Students in Wild by Nature will be able to classify, identify, and understand that basic functions and medicinal and culinary uses of a variety of plant life; begin to understand the interconnected and sophisticated design of the natural world around them; and will feel comfortable in, knowledgeable about, and find joy, peace, and adventure out-of-doors surrounded by God’s creations.
How does this class work?
In Class:
Each class period will be broken into two parts – Ecology (mostly mentored by Sister Mock) and Botany (mostly mentored by Brother Williams), with some overlap and flexibility built in. Class will be mostly hands-on and group activities including games, demonstrations, in class projects, quizzes, simulations, cooking (and eating), making medicinals, competitions with awesome/tacky prizes, etc., with some class lecture and instruction as well. Second semester will include student presentations on applicable topics chosen by the students. Both semesters include multiple field trips and guest speakers.
We will provide each student with a nature journal, a jeweler’s loupe, water and soil testing kits, an exact-o knife, and various in class materials and prizes (seeds, bulbs, posters, etc.).
Students will provide their own notebooks for taking notes in class, pens/pencils, a copy of the book Botany in a Day, a copy of How Plants Work, clothing and shoes appropriate for field trips.
Field Trips:
1st semester:
Three in-class – water and soil testing, plant identification/foraging, nature journaling
Three optional Friday/Saturday- identification/foraging, nature journaling, hiking/adventuring – all ASA students/parents invited, but rides only guaranteed for class members.
2nd semester:
Two or three in-class — plant identification/foraging, nature journaling, maybe animal tracking?
Three optional Friday/Saturday — identification/foraging, nature journaling, hiking/adventuring – all ASA students/parents invited, but rides only guaranteed for class members.
Guest Speakers:
1st Semester – One of two guest speakers during class
2nd Semester – Three or Four guest speakers during class
Potential Guest Speaker Topics: Monarch migration, native plants, Great Salt Lake ecology, Dark skies/bats/fireflies, mushrooms, city development as it pertains to ecology, bee keeping and pollinators, etc.
Homework/Student Responsibilities:
Before each class, students are expected to watch the video clips and read any short articles or web pages linked on the class blog. Occasionally, other small written assignments will be given. This class will follow the Flipped-Learning method where students are expected to come to class prepared with knowledge of the information assigned on the class blog.
Additionally…
1st semester:
- Read 2 books (from approved list) and write 2 book write-ups (half page each).
- Watch 2 documentaries (from approved list) and write 2 documentary write-ups (half page each).
- Create and finish 8 nature Journal entries (can be done at home or on ANY field trip)
Winterim
- Work on student presentation
2nd semester:
- Read 3 books (from approved list) and write 3 book write-ups (half page each).
- Watch 3 documentaries (from approved list) and write 3 documentary write-ups (half page each).
- Create and finish 10 nature journal entries (can be done at home or on ANY field trip)
- One 20-minute student presentation done in class.
Prizes anyone?
Because our class will comprise a variety of student levels (apprentice, journeyman, master), our incentive program will go as follows:
Level 1: Complete all the assignments and responsibilities listed above.
Level 2: Students and parents will discuss and come up with a student-lead goal above and beyond the Level 1 responsibilities. (Ideas include, but are NOT limited to reading an extra book or documentary and writing the appropriate write-ups each semester, a few more nature journal entries, etc.)
Level 3: Students and parents will discuss and come up with a student-lead goal above and beyond Level 2. This goal should be one that really encourages the students to reach beyond their comfort level, but is still achievable, especially with parent and mentor support. (Ideas include reading and completing write ups on even more books and documentaries, even more nature journals, an additional report on a biologist/ecologist, planting and maintaining a garden, plot studies, trips and write-ups to natural history museums/botanical gardens, art work, creative writing, related science experiments and participation in the WHEN science fair, etc.)
Each Student/Parent will fill out a form indicating the responsibilities and goals they set for themselves and turn in a copy to the Wild by Nature mentors. We’ll check in with the students as the class goes on and encourage and support. Students and their parents will report to the mentors when they’ve completed their goals. Prizes will be awarded at the ASA Graduation in April/May 2024. PRIZES ARE TBD, BUT YOU KNOW THEY WILL BE AWESOME.
LINK to the BOOK LIST (1st tab) AND DOCUMENTARY LIST (2nd tab): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GmhQUX3lLZMEkUyCLg9ate5SR73MDRpOjiQZitLk7fI/edit?usp=sharing