Big Bend National Park

The teachers and students of San Vicente School are conducting a slime mold survey of four sites in Big Bend National Park .  Melissa Forsythe, the Junior High teacher, enlisted 15 Kindergarten - 8th grade students and their teachers to carry out the survey.  Big Bend is located in West Texas along the Rio Grande River , and encompasses over 800,000 acres of mountains, desert, and river habitat, varying in elevation from 1800 to 7800 feet.  San Vicente School is a small school in the middle of the National Park, serving those families who work in the park and a few adjacent ranch families.  One study site is a canyon in the Chisos Mountains at about 6000 feet in elevation.  Two of the sites are canyons with waterfalls and running streams at the base of the Chisos Mountains . The fourth site is a wetlands area at Rio Grande Village , about 1800 feet in elevation, near the Rio Grande River .  Myxomycete samples were collected from each site, along with paired samples of litter and humus samples for culturing.  Back in the classroom lab, students prepared moist chamber cultures for myxomycetes and primary isolation plates for dictyostelids and continue to observe these cultures.

 

Contact: Melissa Forsythe

 

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Zion National Park

Science teachers from the Clark County School District in Las Vegas , Nevada , are conducting a slime mold inventory in Zion National Park , which is located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin and Mojave Desert Provinces in southwestern Utah . The park consists of high plateaus, a maze of narrow sandstone canyons, rock towers and mesas, extends over a total area of 146,597 acres and ranges in elevation from 3666 to 8726 feet. The group of teachers accompanied by spouses collected samples during the periods of August 19-21 and Oct 7-9 of 2005. Extra emphasis has been placed on the hanging gardens and deciduous Forest areas, but samples also have been collected from riparian woodlands and shrublands, coniferous forests and herbaceous communities on mesic sites. The group of teachers along with Junior High School Science Club members are currently monitoring over 70 samples in moist chamber cultures. In addition, samples collected from the hanging gardens and deciduous forests have been sent to the University of Arkansas for processing for protostelids and myxomycetes. A future visit to Zion National Park in the spring will include Science Club students.


Contact: Harry Merrifield

 

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