Working with Partners

We have worked with the Penn State Master Gardeners on several projects.  The first project was about seed dispersal.  We looked at how different seeds move.  We noticed some seeds roll, some float, some wash away in the rain.  They grow wherever they end up.  We hope that our native plants' seeds spread and grow in Frick Park.

In another project led by the Penn State Master Gardeners, our class planted bulbs in different materials (legos, marbles, gravel, and crystals) to see if they would change how they grew.  All the plants started small and grew at least a foot.  We were surprised to find that the plants grew well in all the materials. 

by Lucy

We also worked with the Urban Eco Stewards.  They visited our class in the fall.  We went into Frick Park and cut down Japanese Knot Weed.  Japanese Knot Weed is a tall, invasive plant.  We learned how to identify it and that you have to dig out its roots otherwise it will just grow back. 

by Caelen

Disney Planet Challenge Project

Welcome to our blog!  We are so excited to be participating in the Disney Planet Challenge.  We worked hard on our project and will tell you about it in this blog. 
We are right on the edge of Frick Park a 561 acre green space.  We spend a lot of time in the park and regularly observe plants and animals on our hikes.  In Environmental Education this year, we have been working with a group called the Urban Eco Stewards.  Through their lessons, we have identified the problems invasive plants are causing to the natural habitats in our watershed.  We want to change this!

As a class, we researched many options of how to work against this problem.  Pulling all the invasive plants out of the park was not a sustainable solution for us.  We decided instead to raise awareness about the subject in our community.  We plan to do this by planting a native plant garden at our school and providing learning tools about invasive and native plants to our community.  This blog is our first step to making this possible.  Please read the subsequent posts to learn what we've learned.  Also, please feel free to share information and/or make comments.  Hopefully as a community, we can help prevent the spread of invasive species and protect our local watershed.

For more information on Frick Park please visit:
http://www.pittsburghparks.org/frick

For more information on Imagine Environmental Charter School please visit:
http://www.environmentalcharterschool.org/

For more information on the Disney Planet Challenge please visit:
http://disney.go.com/planetchallenge/