Learning Center Wins Award at Science Expo

Three seventh grade Learning Center students and their math teacher, Chris Crayton traveled to The Arboretum in Asheville, NC on April 11 to present a class project at The Mountain Science Expo 2015. That project, a summary poster about tree phenology, ended up winning in the poster competition category. Phenology is the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by variations in climate and elevation.

The event, which took place at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, hosted over 2600 visitors and featured science fair exhibits from 22 Western North Carolina schools that participated in Project EXPLORE (Experiences Promoting Learning Outdoors for Research and Education). The Expo’s theme is learning how Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math (STEAM) are incorporated into our everyday lives.

In this year-long project, students collected data on their trees and submitted their data to Nature’s Notebook, a national database accessible to scientists.

Citizen science coordinator, Trudie Henninger of the North Carolina Arboretum congratulated students for their work on the creative and inspiring poster, and the judges awarded them first place in the phenology poster competition. Teacher Chris Crayton commented, “Project EXPLORE was a great way for our students to get a feel for science through regular data collection. They did a great job on their project overall, and their winning poster was a reflection of their hard work. I’m very proud of them!”