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The Montshire Museum of Science is an interactive science center in Norwich, Vermont, with more than 150 hands-on exhibits relating to the natural and physical sciences, ecology, and technology. Outdoors, visitors can explore nature trails and exhibits on wind, water, and sound in David Goudy Science Park. Visiting exhibitions, educational programs, and special events are offered throughout the year.
NORWICH — On Tuesdays this October, middle school-aged students from Vermont and New Hampshire are participating in the rare opportunity to conduct carbon sequestration research at the Montshire Museum of Science, helping to guide the region’s forest management in the future.
This was made possible through the $40,000 “Empowerment Through Climate Action” grant from NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement. The grant process was highly competitive, as Montshire is one of only 13 institutions selected — and the only recipient in the Northeast.
Lara Litchfield-Kimber, museum executive director, said that it is important to distinguish climate education from opportunities for climate action, and this workshop is a chance for young people to make an impact.
“What’s really cool about this project is the work that these students are doing is directly informing how we’re going to manage our land moving forward, and I don’t think you can get more real than that,” said Litchfield-Kimber.
She explained that while Vermont used to be largely managed agricultural land, but now this is reversed with Vermont mostly covered by unmanaged forest. The Montshire Museum of Science is giving young people a central role in collecting scientific data to shape Vermont’s forests and make the state’s landscape more climate resilient.
“If we have an opportunity to clear out some areas that have invasive non-native species and we can replant things that are native, it would be really good for us to know what plants have the potential to pull carbon from the atmosphere, so we can be very intentional about replanting,” said Litchfield-Kimber.
From day one, these nine young climate scientists, ages 12 to 15, collected data on the diameter and breast height of the trees in a plot of land. Students then compared that data to NASA’s satellite information, using equations to determine how much carbon is in Montshire’s 110 acres of forest, said Dante Frontani, the museum’s climate and environmental education program manager.
“It’s kind of a whirlwind workshop — three days, it’s 4.5 hours in total — and we’re trying to fit in not only what is the role of forests and trees in carbon capture and carbon sequestration, but also that technology aspect,” said Frontani.
The students who are a part of the workshop are mostly homeschoolers, and Frontani said that he appreciated the smaller class sizes in order to personalize student’s learning and for the chance to experiment as a teacher.
“We have a really dedicated homeschool group and a lot of people around here homeschool for a lot of different reasons, and they all are always looking for ways to enrich their curriculums and introduce their kids to new material in new ways,” said Frontani.
For the past five years, Karen Wimmer, of Bethel, has continued to enroll her child in various Montshire educational programs to supplement her child’s homeschooling curriculum. She noted that the carbon sequestration workshop is particularly valuable for her child because of the museum’s scientific resources and the experiential learning offered.
“It’s definitely piqued their interest more because it’s been really hands-on, getting out there in the field and actually taking measurements,” said Wimmer.
Litchfield-Kimber said that the fall semester is particularly a valuable time to work with homeschoolers, because schools tend to organize field trips to the museum at the end of the academic year. This off-season offers a time to work out the kinks of a new program with a smaller group and develop a permanent and repeatable curriculum for bigger school groups in the spring.
“It’s a really cool opportunity because it tends to be a bit more of an intimate setting for us to test out new programs with the intention of building them into something that we would then take to public schools,” said Litchfield-Kimber.
Litchfield-Kimber explained that the carbon-sequestration workshop was a good fit for NASA’s grant because one of their funding priorities is education and promoting future workers in the field of science, technology engineering and math (STEM). The program was designed for middle schoolers because that age of adolescence is a crucial time for students to be introduced to the possibilities of STEM careers and pursue this academically.
“For our project, we propose actually having students learn about the current science behind climate and then practice being the researchers,” said Litchfield-Kimber. “It’s really with an eye toward that foundational STEM identity formation, which really starts to happen in middle school.”
Frontani expressed hope that the workshop would foster solutions-based thinking in young people as they confront the challenges of climate change and other future scientific questions.
“From an educator standpoint, being able to take those students and basically place their minds into the future for (climate) hardiness and resilience and efficiency in general is a really solid way to kind of pave a path for them in their development and their STEM identity,” said Frontani. “And, possibly making them into the scientists of the future who are going to be doing these things for real.”