Infiniti Rose displays the colorful pages of her nature journal just before binding them into a booklet.
Six weeks of nature study – one day each week –have resulted in colorful hand-drawn nature journals by Malaber Intermediate School fifth-graders.
The project focused on the ecosystem, defined as all the living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) things in an area, including how they interact with each other,
The journals describe what the students learned during visits to the Tyger Nature Trail adjacent to Malabar and on a field trip to Hemlock Falls and Hemlock Trails.
“Today we learned about lichen hosts and fungi. It was awesome,” fifth-grader Infiniti Rose said Thursday on the final day of the project.
Students wrote in their journals and added drawings to show the three main types of lichens: crusty, leafy and shrubby. They learned that lichens are made of a fungus and an algae living together as one organism in mutualism.
As she worked in her journal, Hazel Foley said it is “amazing” how parasitic fungi grow like shelves on the trunks of living trees.
In previous weeks, some of what the fifth-graders learned included:
-- How the flow of sunlight energy creates the process of photosynthesis, creating molecules of sugar which build leaves, roots, seeds and other plant tissues. In their journals the students drew two leaves talking about life in the sun.
-- How decaying wood in the forest is home to a variety of plant and animal life. Moist decomposing wood is a perfect nutrient source for lichens, mosses, flowers and even other trees. Students illustrated the food chain.
The program was led by Gorman Nature Center volunteers Kate Peresie and Janet Ellsworth, assisted by a dozen other volunteers, in conjunction with Malabar teachers.
The Richland County Park District, which operates Gorman Nature Center, provided the nature journaling supplies: five-gallon buckets with lids to carry supplies and serve as seats, clipboards, watercolor pencils, water brushes, pens and paper.
First Congregational Church in Mansfield purchased additional overshoe-type boots that student wore on the trails and allowed use of the church camp at Hemlock Trails as a base for the field trips.