Plot Reflection

In my honors biology class, we have begun a new project. We have been split into groups and have each chosen a plot in the forest to observe over the course of the next year. The groups consist of four or five members and each has a specific job to do. There are four possible roles: leader, photographer, naturalist and arborist. The leader is in charge of the group’s wiki-space page and delegating tasks to the group. The photographer takes a visual documentation of the environmental growth and changes in the plot over the course of the school year. They will photograph and take videos of both the creatures that live in the plot and the group hard at work. Eventually, the video clips and photographs will all be compiled into one film in the spring. It’s the naturalist’s job to record, collect and identify various organisms found in the surrounding area of the plot site. The arborist identifies the trees within the plot and measures the growth of the young trees. I am the leader of group number 4. Our group’s name is set, which means ‘3’ in Korean. The other group members are: Madeleine, the photographer; JB, the naturalist and Alexandre, the arborist.

We have plenty of trees for Alexandre to study. All the orange flags mark the baby trees.

Our plot site is the closest to the road out of all of the groups in our class. However, the road cannot be seen from our plot. What you can see is the gate separating the forest from the road. You can also clearly hear cars and trucks passing by. In our plot, there is a large, rotting, fallen tree. It is covered in moss and shelf mushrooms. A colony of ants lives within the log and eats the mushrooms. The ground is thick with dead leaves and acorns from the surrounding oak trees. The creatures hiding beneath the leaves mostly consist of large spiders and the occasional ant. Within in the center of the plot is a gathering of over 40 baby trees. All of the trees, both young and old, have leaves that have either fallen off or are living their last days. The day we visited the forest and staked out our plot was just after a plentiful rainfall. As we all know, that’s prime condition for mushrooms. We found some fascinating fungi, including a purple mushroom.  

One thing I really appreciate about this project is its longevity. I think that being able to actually watch the plot’s changes from autumn until spring will be incredible to observe. I love that we’ll be making a video at the end of the project that will serve as somewhat of a digital time capsule. Looking forward, I see my group’s biggest obstacles being organization, time and focus. However, if we continue on the path that we started on a couple days ago, this is going to be a great year.