Tuesday, Nov 18 – Day 9
The last day began with morning announcements and then teachers then broke into large regional groups to brain-storm and make plans for implementing Seasons and Biomes in their classrooms. The scientists circulated among the groups throughout the morning and was obvious at what tremendous buy-in these scientists have and what wonderful resources they will be for the teachers. Drs. Sompong and Achara spent much of the morning with the NE Thailand regional group. Drs. Mullica and Krisanadej circulated but also spent a lot of time with the Southern Thailand group. Drs. Charlie and Suwit moved about and also Drs. Jariya and Pramuan, who are both educators with IPST, supported teachers in developing their plans.

During the closing ceremony the IPST staff handed out certificates to the teachers. We then rode the vans to the Botanic Garden across the valley for the field trip and boxed lunch. Teachers formed groups and we split up to join with the different groups. We took the same Aboretum path and once again, Drs. Sompong, Achara, Pramuan, and Charlie were the guides and helped explain the plant species and relationships for the teachers. Wut was again very helpful and identified plants for teachers and helped translate for the group I was with. Everyone enjoyed themselves and we finished up the morning with a picnic lunch of cold Pad Thai.

~Martha Kopplin

Monday, Nov 17
After brief morning announcements, Elena and I gave the teachers time to go outside to practice the Budburst, Green Up and Green Down protocols. We spent about 40 minutes going over procedures and questions with Wut and Yam and Pramuan helping with translation. There was a tree in the front that had branches budding out so we used that to walk them through Budburst. It was a little confusing, however, since the buds were white not green. Turns out, it is a species where the flowers bloom before the leaves bud out. So we had to be sure teachers understood that the GLOBE protocol calls for leaf buds, not flower buds. (Also, the tree was an ornamental, not a naturally growing specimen and its growth had been influenced by artificial watering: it was right along the lot where the drivers wash the vans every morning. So we asked that these points be noted as well for the teachers.)

Dr. Soonthorn Khamyong, a forest ecologist from Chiang Mai University, then presented “Overview of Changes in Thailand Biomes: Forest Biome”..

The differing species composition is determined by regional climate (rainfall, temperature, wind), soil and topographic conditions, as well as impacts from animal and microbial communities. Dr. Soonthorn identified 2 major tropical forest types in Thailand: Deciduous forests (70% of forests in Thailand) and Evergreen forests (30%).

• Deciduous forests are made up of 2 subtypes:
  Dry dipterocarp forest, 150-1,300 m msl (meters in elevation above mean sea level)
  Mixed deciduous forest, 100-800 m msl
• Evergreen forests are made up of 7 subtypes:
  Broad-leaved evergreen forests
  Moist evergreen forest (5-50 m msl)
  Dry evergreen forest, upland rain forest (50-1,000m msl)
  Montane forest (MF), highland (1,000-2,565m msl)
  Mangrove forest
  Swamp forest
  Beach forest
  Coniferous forests
  Pine forest, (200-1,900 m msl)

Dr. Soonthorn concluded:
Changes in forest biomes are complicated. They occur continuously over many decades.
Changes involve the ecosystem, community, population and species.
Changes are difficult to observe in mountainous areas, but more easily seen in fragmented forests of lower areas surrounded by human communities.
Human disturbance is an important factor, particularly in forest fragmentation and degradation.
Changes of forest biomes by human activities are dramatic, changes by seasonal changes are longer in duration.

We had a morning break and then Dr. Krisanadej spoke about “Parah Phenolgy as a Global Change Indicator”.

The Parah is an indigenous tree of southern Thailand and is an important food resource for local residents. It provides a great collaboration opportunity with the community and this study received strong financial support from nearby agencies and Khao Nan National Park. Parah leaf phenology has been related to the amount of rainfall or water stress and the trees show strong phenology patterns such as leaf shedding, budburst and flower burst. This makes the Parah tree a likely candidate for studying whether phenological changes could indicate effects of climate change. Dr. Krisanadej discussed how they installed a weather station in the forest to gather atmospheric data. They also recorded density and age of trees in their experimental plots. They recorded time of budburst of flowers and of leaves and then analyzed data to understand the connections. There was a pattern related to rainfall (a few days after the rainy season ends, the trees begin to burst buds) but they are also influenced by wind direction and speed as well as minimum temperature and UV levels. In conclusion, Dr. Krisanadej stated that changing in budburst and flowering in 2008 was clearly linked with seasonal changes but there are not enough data yet to conclude that these are because of climate change.

Next, Dr. Mullica Jaroensutasinee from Walailak University presented “Mosquitoes as a Global Change Indicator and Mosquito Protocol”. We are proposing to include this protocol one of the new Seasons and Biomes GLOBE Phenology protocols. She was assisted by graduate student, Siriwan Wongkoon (Jane).

Dr. Mullica discussed how she has been working with students in Thailand schools to investigate the composition and distribution of mosquito populations. Mosquitoes are known vectors of a number of diseases that may be linked to climate change such as Malaria, Dengue fever, and West Nile fever. Temperature changes affect vector borne disease transmission and epidemic potential. Increase in rainfall brings an increase in breeding sites, which increases mosquito populations.

In particular, the Aedes mosquito, vector of the deadly Dengue fever virus (DHF), exhibits a distinct preference for human habitats (tires, flower vases, and water storage containers) and modern environmental conditions favor its dissemination due to rapid urbanization (deficiencies in water supply services and urban cleaning) and intensive utilization of nonbiodegradable materials (disposable plastic containers, glass and aluminum). Most Thai households store water for cooking and bathing in a variety of jars and cisterns, which then are at risk of becoming breeding sites for mosquitoes. Ae. aegypti is a more important threat for DHF, Ae. albopictus is encountered in the peripheral areas of towns where it replaces Ae. aegypti populations.

Dr. Mullica has worked with Thai students to investigate the number of mosquito larvae (i.e., Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus) in different types of containers:

• indoor/outdoor containers
• artificial/natural containers
• earthen/plastic containers
• containers with/without lids
• dark/light coloured containers

She explained to teachers that from this research, students will be able to identify mosquito larvae species and plot species abundance, compare # mosquito larvae in the different containers, explore relationships between larvae species and climatic factors, collaborate with other GLOBE schools, and share observations by submitting data to the Mosquito website. In addition, it would be especially relevant for students to collect GLOBE Atmosphere and Hydrology data to support their inquiry questions. Dr. Mullica reviewed the protocol procedures and prepared teachers for the Mosquito life cycle activity, which was to take place after the lunch break.

After lunch, Dr. Mullica introduced Jane, a graduate student who has helped working with the students at Khanompitaya School and has assisted in developing the following learning activity on Mosquito life cycles. Teachers worked in groups and their task was to go outside to observe and collect larvae from water containers around the resort. Then, they were to identify the larvae using a basic guide, and draw their idea of the life cycle of the mosquito, labeling the parts and be ready to present it to the rest of the class. The activity ended with questions and discussion about the information presented. The teachers eagerly engaged in the activity and did a great job with their presentations. Afterwards, Mullica invited teachers to participate in her research by having their students take part in investigating mosquitoes in their communities. She was delighted to see that 20 teachers signed up. The Mosquito protocol is off to a great start!

The day concluded with Leslie teaching “Statistical Analysis for Primary Students Using GLOBE Data”, another draft Seasons and Biomes learning activity. The purpose of the activity is to provide younger or more inexperienced student researchers with a few basic statistical strategies that will enable them to explore and understand their data. She walked teachers through understanding central tendencies and variance of data sets (mean, median, mode, range), frequency distributions, stem and leaf distributions (to show the shape and distribution of data), and box and whiskers plots. Much of this was new to the teachers but they worked hard at understanding and taking part in the activity. Later, Dr. Mullica said that several teachers had told her how worthwhile the exercise was and that they hoped to use this information in their classes.

~Martha Kopplin

Sunday, 16 Nov
The morning session began with a presentation by Dr. Suwit Ongsomwang, Remote Sensing scientist with Suranaree University of Technology in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. He gave a detailed overview of how remote sensing data is used in climate change research.

Dr. Suwit emphasized that you must first plan what you want to study since that determines what kind of data is needed. Ground truthing is important to validate assumptions made from the data. Different types of resolution (spectral, spatial, temporal, and radiometric) will yield different information. He shared technical information of how scientists interpret remotely sensed data and how interpretation of images is based on their tone, color, size and shape of anomalies, textures, patterns, etc.

Timing is very important when attempting to identify different vegetation types or to extract useful vegetation and biophysical information (e.g., biomass, chlorophyll characteristics) from remotely sensed data. Selecting the most appropriate dates for data collection requires an intimate knowledge of the plants’ temporal phenological (growth) cycle. Many plant species found in forests, wetland and rangeland have relatively unique phenological growth cycles. They leaf-out, grow to maturity, and senesce at approximately the same time each year. However, unreasonably cold or warm temperatures in the spring or fall can shift their annual phenological cycles by as much as 30 days. The analyst must be aware of whether the remotely sensed data were collected in a typical or atypical year. It also is significant to note whether the ecosystem being studied is natural or managed.

Elena then went over the Budburst, Green Up and Green Down protocols. We would make time the following day for the teachers to practice collecting data.

After a morning break, Drs. Sompong and Achara Thammathaworn, with Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, shared their presentation on their work with students in NE Thailand studying plant phenology (budburst), biomes, soils and carbon emissions and sequestration. Students investigated the timing of budburst for two different trees, Cassia sp (flower buds and leaf buds). in urban areas and Acacia sp. in rural areas. He noted that in 2006 both the Cassia flower and leaf buds burst at the same time, a possible effect of climate change. For Acacia, budburst has occurred earlier and quicker during 2005 – 2007 than in previous years. Drs. Sompong and Achara have also been working with 22 schools in 19 provinces to study NE Thai biomes with scientists at four different institutes. Students use the GLOBE Land Cover / Biology protocols and biome activities include drawing maps, using multispec analysis, mapping dominant species, and using GPS. The goal is to raise awareness of the ecosystems’ health. Dr. Sompong stressed that mapping skills have been missing in students’ education and that it is especially important to help them improve these skills as well as understand basic plant taxonomy. Practicing these techniques encourages students to better understand issues such as studying the habitat of a certain animal or plant, looking at the succession of fields to forests, studying the rate of growth of a particular village, town or city, looking at the amount of undeveloped land, deciding how to protect water resources, etc.

Dr. Achara has been conducting carbon emission and sequestration activities with students at the high school level. This is to achieve a better understanding of all aspects of CO2, not just the harmful ones. She has developed a protocol that students can use to measure CO2 captured from plants by tying a black bag around the tree and then titrating the contents to evaluate carbon levels. She noted that the process requires students to practice many scientific skills from observation to data collection to data analysis and learning how to use lab instruments and learning the value of carefully following procedures.

Through these studies in NE Thailand, where students are studying plants, land cover, soils, mapping, and carbon they are using an integrated approach to better understanding their ecosystems. This becomes especially poignant as they also begin to investigate parameters such as air temperature and rainfall and they can start to see connections between plants and their environment. Even though it appears simple, this can develop into leading edge investigations.

After lunch, the entire afternoon was devoted to the Leaf Damage activity, same as what we did at Walailak University. Once they had developed their questions, teachers posted their presentations on the front wall of the banquet hall and each group had a spokesman share their question and how they would investigate it. Yam (once again!) was invaluable at translating for us as each teacher presented the information. Leslie, Mullica, Elena and I asked questions. The activity concluded events for the day’s workshop.

~Martha Kopplin

Saturday Nov 15
We held the workshop in the large banquet hall at the Resort. IPST supported our efforts by providing for the venue, logistics, and also covered travel for ourselves and the 80 teachers and scientists, who had come from all over the country. Internet access was slow due to the low bandwidth but we had prepared for that and it ended up not impacting our activities too much.

The IPST staff was wonderful and the logistics moved along seamlessly. Sattiya Langkhapin (nickname of Yam) translated for us and during the assessment Pattrawut Pusingha (“Wut”) typed the responses in English so we could see them. Watcharee Ruiaruen and several of the other staff circulated and senior IPST staff, Drs. Jariya Suchareekul and Pramuan Siriphankaew, worked directly with many of the teachers.

The workshop began with a moment of silence for the Princess Galyani Vadhana, the king’s sister whose cremation ceremony was taking place over a three day period and we all stood and bowed our heads. Afterwards, Dr. Pornpun Waitayangkoon, Assistant Director of IPST, officially opened the workshop and introduced the visiting scientists and the Seasons and Biomes team. Elena then thanked everyone for attending and introduced the Seasons and Biomes project. Following this, Leslie did a verbal pre-assessment, asking participants to list what their goals were for attending the workshop. Yam translated the responses and Wut wrote them in English and projected them on a screen for everyone to see. These responses were printed out for the Seasons and Biomes team to be used as part of the workshop evaluation.

After a break and the group photo, Elena gave her talk about Earth as a system, climate change, and discussed the global significance of the ongoing Fourth International Polar Year (IPY), how changes at the polar regions are impacting other areas around the world and how research efforts at Earth’s poles will inform people everywhere of the impacts of climate change world wide.

The next talk “Climate Change Impacts on Land Degradation and Plants” was given by Dr. Charlie Navanugraha, a soils and land resources scientist with Mahidol University in Bangkok. (All the scientists presented their talks verbally in the Thai language but, as a courtesy to our team, shared their PowerPoint slides written in English or English and Thai. Yam sat at our table and quietly translated for us as the presenter spoke. She did an awesome job and we were very appreciative.)

Dr. Charlie discussed the impacts of climate change on land and soil resources in Thailand. The most serious impacts are from land degradation, a human-induced or natural process which negatively affects the productivity of land within an ecosystem. Climate change, including changes in short-term variation, as well as long-term gradual changes in temperature and precipitation, is expected to be an additional stress on rates of land degradation. Dr. Charlie estimated that as much as 34% of land in Thailand has experienced some form of land degradation. He talked about the Earth system and how energy, water and the biogeochemicals tie the system together. This was a wonderful lead in to the GLOBE Earth system activities that would follow later in the day.

He stated that climate change can affect land by increasing soil temperatures and lowering soil moisture. These lead to indirect impacts, which include changes in physical and bio-chemical soil properties (distribution of saline soil, acid sulfate soil, and lateritic soil) ultimately affecting availability of nutrients, decreasing biodiversity above and below ground, and land degradation from flooding, drought, coastal erosion, landslides and soil erosion.

Dr. Charlie concluded with a list of how the country could prepare for and manage drought-induced changes. First, it is important to understand that change and uncertainty are inevitable. Management should be decentralized to the lowest appropriate level, so that representatives of all affected groups are involved, and all relevant knowledge systems (scientific and indigenous) are considered. We need to recognize that various parts of the society-environment complex operate at different time scales, and with unknown interactions and lag effects; objectives should be set for the long term. Ecosystems must be managed within the limits of their functioning in order to ensure that they continue to supply services. And finally, the people who live in drought prone areas should be able to avail themselves of all opportunities to develop fully in terms of the modern world and in accordance with human rights

The next agenda item was the “What Causes the Seasons?” learning activity. Previous work with teachers and students has led us to do this activity at most of our trainings since few teachers are able to truly articulate just what does cause the seasons. Leslie led the participants through the activity where everyone stands in a circle with a small plastic ball (the Earth) on a pencil and at the center is (me) holding a light bulb. People hold their earths up and are asked to discuss the importance of the earth’s tilt at 23.5 deg and then, as the group walks around the sun, they are asked where the different seasons occur and why (position of the Earth and its tilt in relation to the Sun and the angle of the Sun’s rays.)

After lunch I led the teachers in the GLOBE Earth System Poster activity.
http://www.globe.gov/fsl/pdf/EarthSystemPoster_print.pdf
http://www.globe.gov/fsl/pdf/posterla.pdf
Since the group was too large to put into 6 groups, I divided them into 12 groups of about 7 each. Each group was given either a May or a September world map for the 6 variables (solar energy, air temperature, cloud cover, precipitation, soil moisture, vegetation) and they were given time to work on Activity 1 (What are the units and the range of values, where are the highest and lowest values on the map – the extremes, what patterns do you see and why?). Then I combined them into 6 large groups, one for each variable, and they all worked together with the entire suite of maps for their variable (January, March, May, July, September, and November) to answer questions from Activity 2 (What changes do you see throughout the year, when do the extremes happen and don’t happen and why, what differences do you see over the oceans vs the continents in the course of the year, are there regions that remain unchanged throughout the year?). After 15 minutes or so, I asked a spokesperson from each group to come forward, place their maps (which have Velcro on the back) on the large felt cloth I had hung up in the front of the room and to discuss their thoughts. As they spoke in Thai, Yam stood with me and quietly translated. After each one spoke I asked questions or for clarification and Yam translated for them. As always with this activity people start making connections across the variables (how incoming solar radiation impacts temperature, etc) and also, as always, there is never enough time in a workshop to do the whole activity. But it does excite teachers and inevitably they will do it in their classrooms. At the end of the activity, we had built the entire poster and I concluded with the following points:
1. The importance of finding patterns in data and how visual interpretation can help you better understand the relationships of variables to one another
2. How this activity so relevantly supports GLOBE protocols already in use and the relationships among data at local, regional and global scales
3. This can be a great jumping off spot for a student to develop a climate based inquiry
4. GLOBE will soon be releasing a new Earth System poster using data from 2007

Later in the workshop teachers asked us if we could distribute Earth System posters to everyone there. However, I had only brought one spare one as a back up so we gave the one extra poster to the first person who had asked for one (Dr. Krisanadej’s suggestion) and I promised IPST that when we returned to Alaska I would send them 20 of the posters in our stock of supplies. In the meantime, we explained how they were available on the website and can be printed.

The next presentation was by Dr. Krisanadej Jaroensutasinee from Walailak University in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand, titled “Influence of Climate Change on Seasonal Change: Case Study in Thailand”

His discussion was based on on-going research and he mentioned that due to the complex nature of climate systems we don’t have all the answers yet. Some of the information comes through collaboration with NASA’s CloudSat satellite, which measures atmospheric water and carbon dioxide levels in clouds to support Earth science research. Studying weather over a few months (seasons) is short term where climate measures the study of weather over the long term and studying climate change is a long term study measured in decades. Earth is a complex system as described in the Gaia Theory. Non-linear interactions among system elements creates a complex system making it hard to measure long term climate data due to its inconsistency, inpersistency, and inaccuracy thus making it a challenge to pin-point patterns. When asking the question “How are seasons changing in Thailand and how would you find out?” Dr. Krisanadej noted that in tropical climates, such as in Thailand, studying changes in sensitive microclimates would yield better information than looking at large ecosystems or biomes. One of the most sensitive microclimates in the region is the coral reef, which he and his graduate students are investigating in the Racha Yai Islands, Phuket. Coral reefs are of great importance because they provide shelter and food for a large variety of fish species. Increasing light intensity and water temperature can cause corals to change form and lower species diversity. Monitoring these sites will help measure what affects climate change may have on tropical systems.

After a short break with refreshments, we began the final activity for the day, GLOBE activity LC-1: Connecting the Parts of the Study Site http://www.globe.gov/tctg/earth_la_connections_lc1.pdf?sectionId=270

The purpose of this exercise is to help teachers (and students) in examining their local area study site to see how parameters are interconnected. Rather than just focus on one, they are encouraged to look at the entire study site (in this case, the grounds around the Botanic Resort). Teachers were sent outside in small groups to observe and identify examples of the four major Earth system components (biosphere, lithosphere/ pedosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere) and then record connections by making observations, recalling and integrating existing knowledge, and then carefully speculating what might be taking place. After some work time, groups each presented an example of one thing they found. The next step was to make a prediction about what would happen if there was either a heavy rainstorm or a dramatic rise in temperature. Teachers were also encouraged to ask their own questions (or, when working with students to have them ask their own questions) and make their own predictions.

The day ended with a short Q and A session and to see if anyone needed help with anything that they had experienced that day.

~Martha Kopplin

Friday, 14 Nov
We spent the day preparing for the four day workshop to follow. Leslie, Elena and I met with the IPST staff and the visiting scientists to insure the agenda met everyone’s needs. Later in the day we drove across the valley to the Botanic Garden to walk along the arboretum trail to evaluate its potential as a location for our field trip on the last day. Many of the visiting scientists, as well as several of the IPST staff, were well versed in Thai tropical forest taxonomy and agreed to help teachers with questions about tree identification and forest ecology. Since they are all fluent in English they would also be wonderful interpreters for us.

There are many different types of forests in Thailand due to differing microclimates, extent of rainy seasons, influence of different soils, elevations, proximity to coastal areas, etc. The diversity is mind-boggling to someone used to the small number of species in the Arctic. Most fascinating is that this area was actually classified as dry rainforest. Sounds conflicted, I know. But what happens is that during the dry season (early November – early April) several tree species shed their leaves, like ours do before the cold season. The dominant genus (several species) is Dipterocarpus and they have huge leaves. They were just starting to turn red before dropping (the rainy season had ended about a week previous). This is the genus that students doing GLOBE Green Up and Green Down mostly use, since it is a dominant part of the forest canopy where it occurs. However, our guides pointed out 8 or 9 additional deciduous tropical trees. Not all of these species normally occur in one habitat, but since they are all indigenous species they have been planted in the Botanic Garden for educational purposes.

~Martha Kopplin

Thursday, 13 Nov
Today we traveled north to Chiang Mai. Our second workshop was located at a resort in the Queen Sirikit Botanic Gardens, about 30 km NW of the city. It was hosted by IPST (Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology in Thailand) IPST is a government agency under the Ministry of Education. We had requested to hold this workshop at a venue with native tropical vegetation, most notably deciduous rainforest trees, which students use in their investigations of GLOBE plant phenology.

~Martha Kopplin

Wednesday, 12 Nov
We spent the next day at Walailak University. First on the docket was a visit with the University Rector (same as a chancellor or president) and the dean of Mullica and Krisanadej’s department and then our workshop was to follow so we dressed nicely. The rain had been heavy in the night and there was flooding everywhere – much more than before. At Walailak, large expanses of lawn and parking lot were under water. Our meeting with the rector was delayed and he later told us that some of the students had to evacuate part of a dorm since it was flooded and that was why he was late. We spent about 20 minutes discussing the Seasons and Biomes project with them and talked about possibilities for collaboration. Elena had brought gifts for them, including an Alaska calendar so we spent some time talking about life in Alaska, the scenery, animals, etc.

Then we went off to a lecture hall where Elena was to give a presentation to students about IPY and our Seasons and Biomes project. It was a huge hall – probably seats several hundred. Unfortunately, due to the flooding, not as many students showed up as were supposed to be there. But there were probably at least 100 present. Elena gave her talk about Earth as a system, climate change and the global significance of the International Polar Year, how what is happening at the polar regions will ultimately affect everyone around the world, and Mullica translated. When Elena spoke of the loss of glacial ice in Greenland, and was later asked questions about this, we could see that not only did some students not realize where Greenland was, but also how big it is. (Bill did a little research on the web and found out some statistics to include: Greenland encompasses 2,166,00 sq km, whereas the area of Thailand is 533,000 sq km, or one quarter the size of Greenland. That got their attention!) Afterwards, we met with about 20 grad and upper level undergrad students to talk about their projects. We did introductions all around, including topics of study. It was a great give and take session since they also had lots of questions about Alaska and how arctic scientists work in the field. Luckily, Bill had brought a map and some photos of his work in the arctic and they were fascinated. What started out as a somewhat formal group session quickly broke up into clusters of 2-3 people discussing investigations, methodology, etc. Their studies included one student’s investigation of hump-backed dolphin identification and population distribution, a young lady’s vocalization study of the same species, and another’s senior thesis study of sea surface temperatures. Many of them struggled with speaking English but they certainly were more adept at that than us trying to speak Thai. We were very impressed! Two or three young ladies button-holed me about arctic plants and we talked at length about how latitude and elevation affect distribution and growth of plants. They were shy but persevered and their English was so good. The session must have lasted for close to two hours but it seemed like no time had passed and we had to stop for lunch.

Later that afternoon Leslie conducted the Seasons and Biomes Leaf Damage activity. As we drove up we saw that the water had receded quite a bit, enough so that the students could go outside to collect leaves for the activity. We had brought supplies including plant color charts, rulers, transparent grid paper, hand lenses, etc. The gist of the activity is to have the participants find some leaves that have some kind of damage and bring them inside. First they make observations (describe using your senses) and then speculate (make inferences based on what you think may have caused the damage). Then they develop one question based on their inferences (“What kind of insect drilled these holes in the leaf?”). One by one, the instructor (Leslie) asks the students for their questions and writes them down on the board for all to see. Next step is to decide, as a group whether the questions can be answered by
1. asking an expert
2. researching in books or on the web,
3. conducting an investigation
Then, each chooses a question that requires investigation and writes up methods for conducting it on large chart paper. The final step is to present the investigation plan to the group. They worked in small groups and Mullica told them her one requirement was that they do their presentation in English. Quite a challenge! The students remained thoroughly engaged and Mullica, myself, Krisanadej, and Leslie roamed about helping where needed. At the end, we listened to each presentation and critiqued on things like replicating data collection, including a control, etc. For the most part the plans were very well thought out. The entire activity from start to finish took about 3.5 hours and was great practice for when we had to do it again at the Chiang Mai workshop.

~Martha Kopplin

There were four of us who traveled to the Seasons and Biomes workshops: Elena Sparrow, Leslie Gordon, Martha Kopplin and also Martha’s husband, Bill, who is GLOBE trained (and covered his own travel costs.)

The first leg, 10 – 12 November, took place in Nakhon Si Thammarat a town on the Gulf of Thailand side (east side) of the country’s southern peninsula. Our hosts were two scientists, Drs. Krisanadej and Mullica Jaroensutasinee, a married couple. They work and teach at nearby Walailak University. Krisanadej is a systems modeler and Mullica, who trained as a marine biologist, also studies ecosystems science. Our work in the south was supported by funds from Walailak University.

Tuesday, 11 Nov
Today, we were given the opportunity to visit a school to see how Mullica and Krisanadej, as well as one of their graduate students (Siriwan Wongkoon; nickname of Jane), were teaching about mosquitoes as an indicator of seasonal change.

We arrived at the Khanompitaya School in late morning. Due to recent monsoon rains, the grounds were wet but there wasn’t any flooding that we could see. We took our shoes off at the door and entered the school room, a large open area with 50 students (grades 8 – 12) in bright yellow shirts sitting at tables in rows facing the front of the room. Two girls stood at the front of the room and a young man sat by a laptop connected to a projector. Mullica and Jane set up a microscope nearby and connected it to the laptop, as well. We were introduced to the teacher and students and were asked to sit at a table at the very front (where they had laid out snacks for us of cake and juice) and then the girls proceeded to formally present a power point of the mosquito data their class had been working on: How they collected larvae from water storage containers from their homes, what types of containers they had collected from, identification of species, and their findings. Students focused their study on two species of Aedes (Dengue fever vector), Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus, although other mosquito genera were found: Anopheles sp. (Malaria vector), and Culex sp. (Japanese Encephalitis vector). They collected from containers inside and outside their homes and considered the following categories: natural / artificial, earthen / plastic, light / dark colored, and with / without lids. Students collected larvae from their homes once a month, following a standard protocol (written by Mullica) and brought them into the classroom for identification. After instruction at how to use a microscope and how to identify to species (learning activities written by Mullica) students classified their specimens. With assistance from Mullica and Jane, they then calculated three different indices: a Container Index (percentage of containers positive for larvae), a House Index (percentage of homes positive for larvae), and a Breteau Index (number of positive containers per 100 houses). Containers that had the fewest larvae were those kept inside and covered. Other findings were that light colored containers had fewer larvae than dark colored (possibly a factor of temperature?), although this was not as clear for Ae. albopictus. Ae. aegypti was more commonly found in earthen than plastic containers (not as clear for Ae. albopictus and Culex sp.). Larvae were only found in artificial containers – but that is probably because students focused only on containers in their houses and did not go out into the forest nearby their homes to look for larvae in natural places such as in coconut shells, etc. Afterwards they fielded questions from us through interpretation from Mullica, Jane, and Krisanadej.

A few thoughts: the students presented their work in Thai but the power point was in English. They spoke clearly and with confidence (using a microphone) and established good eye contact with their audience. They were clearly excited at the opportunity to present their work and giggled a little but had poise and were comfortable with their work and handled questions well. I came away impressed by several points:
1. Despite the “primitive” setting, (rural Thailand, bare room with plain tables for desks, etc) these students were engaged in 21st century science
2. The students were clearly capable of presenting their findings and backing up their work – this came through loud and clear even with the language barrier
3. Putting the power point in English was a great courtesy even though they spoke in Thai. It made a big difference in understanding their presentation
4. Mullica and Krisanadej are so supportive of these kids! They do it with encouragement, humor, and challenge them to think critically. And you can tell that they (M & K) value the kids and their intelligence. So wonderful to see scientists who “get” how to work with kids!
5. They were eager to share with people from far away. There is great potential here for collaboration with students in other countries – perhaps other Seasons and Biomes classrooms?

~Martha Kopplin

October 27. Day twenty six.

Just got back from the station… You know… it is -22C out there now… -18 we had yesterday feels like paradise. But the rosette did great – closed all the bottles after we changed the batteries. But still the CHE team had to wait for about half hour before they could take the water samples. Last year -5 was the coldest temperature. Our turbulence team refuses to work below

-20C. More precisely, their equipment refuses to operate.

We had a chance to look at the temperature profiles. It’s baking hot down there at 100m: +5C! Amasing!

October 28. Day twenty seven.

We are not moving anywhere. It’s dark outside. Waiting for some glimpse of light to begin the mooring. It is attempt number 2. The ice is not collaborating – too thick. Did last two station. The chemists do not want any more water – enough. So Misha and I had to roll the rosette in without any help. It’s empty in the hangar.

Hooray! We found the mooring and got it out! People were giving 1 to a million chance to recover it. Again, it worked! A big polynya hit the spot while we were waiting for some sunlight. We were there – at the right time and the right spot. Two more years of data! The expedition is officially over!

Got up at 6pm. It’s time to back to normal regime again. My sleep got interrupted several times like by an announcement about a family of bears on the starboard side. Cool! They actually exist. Otherwise I would have been very disappointed. We are going home! The current plan is to arrive to Kirkenes on the 31st early in the morning. On the 2nd to St.Petersburg on a train from Murmansk.

~Liza Bodrova