Foxcroft in the Field — Students Participate in 3rd Annual BioBlitz

A BioBlitz is an event to document as many organisms as possible at a specific location over a short period. Students in statistics, biology, AP Biology, AP Human Geography, and AP Environmental Science worked together to host the event.

Statistics students started the year learning how to use the iNaturalist app. What do a social media app and hiking trails have to do with statistics? This is exactly what the students asked. Everything! iNaturalist is a social media app that allows users to share observations of organisms around the world. Users can post images of organisms and use AI (artificial intelligence) to make preliminary identifications. Other users can then confirm, correct, or improve their identifications. After hiking the trails and making observations to familiarize themselves with the process, statistics students taught the rest of the school how to use the app.

The very first topic in AP Human Geography (APHG) is maps. What better way to learn about maps than to have APHG students create maps of the trails used for BioBlitz hikers? Our young cartographers not only included the elements found on most maps — compass rose, legend, and scale — but consulted many maps to learn what elements might appeal most to their audience — the average Foxcroft student. The resulting maps were both visually appealing and informative, with creative use of symbols to convey information to hikers. (Links to maps)

In AP Environmental Science (APES), among the first concepts covered are terrestrial biomes — areas of the earth characterized by temperature and precipitation, as well as characteristic flora and fauna. Foxcroft’s biome is temperate forest, and one area of particular interest for students is invasive species. To help students as they made observations during the BioBlitz, APES students created 1-page fact sheets that included identification and action information like: What should you do if you encounter the Spotted Lantern Fly? Squish it! 

Biology students began the year learning about the importance of biodiversity and how we organize all of nature through the biological hierarchy and the entire system of scientific classification. Each of these three classes hiked trails and trained on iNaturalist in preparation for the BioBlitz, and they all competed to identify the highest number of different species! They also stomped on a lot of Lycorma delicatula (spotted lanternflies); it’s a team effort to eradicate these pests!  

The intrepid explorers of AP Biology started the year off with a unit on ecology, learning all about nutrient cycling and waste filtration in watersheds. They hiked to Goose Creek (our most challenging BioBlitz trail) with materials for a host of different water quality tests, all while identifying species in iNaturalist and discussing the importance of biodiversity and native species. This class will be teaming up with APES this year to monitor the health of our local watershed — stay tuned for updates! 

Post BioBlitz, statistics students continue to analyze the data. The number of observations and species collected during each BioBlitz has varied each year, as have the species observed. Students posed possible reasons for the changes, including the weather, the number of students participating, and our students' familiarity with the iNaturalist app. Students also looked for specific patterns in the species observed. Using the data, they found patterns linked to weather and could track the introduction of the invasive spotted lanternfly to campus.