Note: This blog is a serialization of a book titled Field Trips for All of Us: Transformative Adventures for Children and Their Adults. Here is the preface. The first field trip is Taking Education Outside.
Introduction
I like to think of ecosystems as a dance of interdependence. All ecosystem contributors, living and nonliving, participate in this grand improvisation. I don’t know the names of all the players in the band, but the seasons certainly lay down the beat for the rest of us. Land-based peoples attend and respond to the rhythm of the seasons, as they have been doing for hundreds of thousands of years. Those of us far removed from the land measure time in fixed units, attuning our lives to the almighty clock regardless of the rhythms of the Sun and Moon. Some of us sadly see seasons only in terms of the nuisances they bring. I have to deal with snow in the winter, rain in the spring, heat in the summer, and those darn leaves during the fall. This lack of relationship with the seasons is symptomatic of, and a contributor to, our general lack of relationship with the Earth.
In this post, we suggest things to look for and discuss as you wander the forest in the spring. We hope that every increase in our attention to the rhythm of the seasons will help us feel the beat and dance in tune with the rest of life on Earth.
Activities
The following suggested things to look for are intended only as a springboard to your and your children's discoveries. So much of the timing of ecosystem activity is synchronized by climate. You may surprise yourselves with your discoveries.
Looking for Buds on Trees
In deciduous trees, leaf buds tend to form in the winter and unfurl in the spring. Look at the ends of twigs on bare trees for both buds and possibly unfurling buds. In some trees, flower buds form first, blossoming in the spring when the days get longer. Blossom buds are more photosensitive than leaves and begin to open after the days are long enough and/or the Sun is high enough in the sky for them. All over Japan, people practice hanami, which means “flower viewing” and is usually focused on the peach, cherry, and plum trees that bloom all over the country in the spring. We highly recommend you pack a lunch and grab your kids and friends for your own hanami afternoon!
What’s Greener Than It's Been?
Mosses, ferns, and grasses are among the many photosynthesizers that green up in the spring. Mosses have been using sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar all winter. They green up when moistened. You can actually see this happen by pouring water onto some moss.
Spring Wildflower Action
Nicolette lives in the desert in Southern California. Peter lives up in the mountains nearby. When we see posts online asking “when is the super bloom?” we know it’s almost spring! From the poppies (Eschscholzia californica) and brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) on Kitanemuk land in Mojave and the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve to Bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) in Texas with stories from the Comanche people to ʻōhiʻa lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha) and kokiʻo (Hibiscus) in Hawaii, wildflowers are blooming throughout the Northern hemisphere! If you live in a place where trees shade the sun in the summer, some wildflowers will likely be blooming in the early spring before the tree canopy fills in. Similarly, in places that get most of their precipitation in the winter, wildflowers will be getting to work taking advantage of the readily available water.
Pollinators May Be Visibly Busy at Work
Pollinators including bees and butterflies emerge and need to pack on nutrients for their births, eggs, and parenting, pollinating flowers and creating seeds and fruits as they fly from flower to flower.
Perhaps noticing if specific flower colors, shapes, heights, and petals are favored by some pollinators. Why do you think that is? Do the colors of the flowers change after pollination? Does the time of day impact blooming?
Looking, Listening, and Feeling for Insect Activity
Maybe not all of our favorite signs of Spring, but increased activity on the part of other insects is certainly another event initiated by the physical onset of Spring. Many insects from no-seem-ems and mosquitos to horseflies and dragonflies hatch in the Spring.
Changes in Other Animal Activity
Pollinators are not the only creatures that get busy in the springtime. In many locations, frogs' mating calls signal the start of spring. Many birds also mate in the spring, and their coloration, especially for male birds, brightens as part of their courtship display. You may also notice different species of birds in your area during the spring. Where both Peter and Nicolette live, reptiles come out of brumation and are way more visible in the spring.
Smelling Spring
So far, we have focused on looking for signs of Spring. We’ve also mentioned listening for changes in bird songs, and the first frog mating calls of the year. Spring is also a sublime time to use our noses.
Lie face down on the forest soil and smell the richness of the leaf litter.
Rub leaves and see if you detect a fragrance.
Smell every flower you see.
Many trees also release fragrant terpenes during the Spring. Sniff the bark of your favorite trees.
Soil Saturation and Water Flow in Creeks, Streams, and Rivers
In places where average precipitation varies over a year, soil moisture along with river, stream, and creek flow will also vary throughout the year. In places getting the most precipitation during Winter, the soil will be most moist in Spring. In areas with the most precipitation in Summer (e.g., tropical savannas), the soil will be driest right after Winter.
I live in the mountains of southern CA. We get most of our precipitation in Winter. I just had a great experience with kids this Spring. We were looking for signs of Spring when one of the kids noticed and pointed out a dark streak in the soil. The kids suggested several possible explanations around the idea that something was spilled there. After a bit, I dragged my fingers over the soil surface, scraping a little soil away as I did. This left a very similar mark, which led to a conversation about soil moisture and signs of Spring.
Science
Seasons play a central role in coordinating activity within ecosystems. The above events of Spring are not unrelated. The cycle of seasons begins with our planet’s revolution around the Sun and Earth’s rotation around its access. The rotation of the Earth around its axis is tilted relative to the Earth’s plane of revolution around the Sun, resulting in variations in the number of daylight hours and temperatures at different times of year over the surface of the Earth. Those changes ultimately result in changes in wind patterns, humidity, barometric pressure, and precipitation. Plants, animals, and fungi respond to changes in temperature, number of daylight hours, and precipitation. For example, many plants and animals exhibit photoperiodicity. This is when an organism responds to changes in daylight hours. Animal behaviors regulated by photoperiodism include birdsong and mating. In plants, photoperiodism manifests in flowers transitioning from vegetative to flowering growth and blooming. Seasonal temperature changes trigger some seeds to sprout and some flower and leaf buds to open. Temperature changes also contribute to animals going into and coming out of hibernation or brumation (i.e., a state of reduced activity). The growth of mushrooms is largely regulated by the degree to which their growth medium is saturated with water. There is also evidence that photoperiodism plays a role in the activities of microorganisms. In addition to all the ways that physical seasonal variation triggers qualitative changes in the biological activity in so many organisms, the quantity of activity in all but warm-blooded organisms goes up and down with the temperature of their environment. So, you can see that physical changes in seasons do lay down the beat for the dance of interdependence that characterizes ecosystems.
Weather, climate, and climate change all involve changes in atmospheric conditions over time. Weather is the state of the atmosphere at any given moment. Temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind speed and direction, types of clouds present, and barometric pressure are all aspects of weather. Climate is a pattern of weather in a given area. While the climates where Nicolette and I live are quite different from each other in terms of precipitation and temperature, we both live in a Mediterranean climate. Mediterranean climates are characterized by getting most of their precipitation and low temperatures in the winter with relatively warm dry summers. Now we know what weather and climate are. But, what about climate change? Climate change is when the pattern of weather in a given area changes. Global climate change is when weather patterns change all around the globe.
Climate change is a natural phenomenon, except when it isn’t. Earth’s climate goes through regular variations, including glacial and interglacial periods; over time the Earth's climate changes. So if climate change happens regularly, why should any of us be alarmed about global climate change happening right now? To answer this question, we have to consider one more change, a change in the rate at which global climate change is happening. The rate at which our global climate is changing today is alarmingly faster than has ever been true in the past. And the rate of change increased quite abruptly around the time that humans started adding significant amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere. NASA reports that it took approximately 5000 years for global temperature to increase by 4º-7º C and only 100 years (for global temperature to increase by 0.7º C - 10 times faster! Based on massive amounts of data, NASA reports that over the next 100 years, global temperature will increase 20 times faster! This has led the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to conclude that human-caused global warming is a fact.
Education
It may seem odd to start the Education section of a blog post about supporting children looking for signs of Spring with a discussion of Taiji Chuan, an ancient Chinese martial art. Hopefully, it will make sense to you soon.
As an ancient Chinese martial art, Taiji Quan is deeply rooted in Chinese culture and tradition, specifically in Taoist philosophy. Unlike other martial arts, Taiji training is not directed towards learning specific techniques for set situations. Instead, the focus of learning Taiji is to feel into a response that matches the unique qualities of a particular moment. Yet, much of Taiji training involves learning a Taiji form that consists of a series of specific movements. While learning these movements as a student, my teacher often reminded us, there are no techniques in Taijiquan. I remember wondering what are these martial movements we’re learning if they are not techniques? Now, as an experienced student and teacher of this formidable art, I understand. The Taijiquan movements we practice are examples of how to move well. They are designed to give us practice in moving in the “right” way.
Like the Taiji Chuan form, we do not intend the activities we describe in our blog to be followed as a packaged curriculum. Instead, we write them to support your growth as an Earth-centered educator while you do Earth-centered education with children. Think of the difference between a guided tour, where your moves are prescribed, and a guidebook you read for ideas about where to go and what to do. Such books are not written to be followed, but instead to inspire your imagination and give you information to support your decision-making.
Wrap Up
We hope that your search for signs of spring and thinking about how activity in ecosystems follows seasonal patterns has left you with a feeling of the seasons as the rhythm section for ecosystems’ dances of interdependence. Please let us know in the comments what signs of spring you encounter where you live.