TapRoots Educational Program

A Photographic Journey of 2012 Community Projects and Educational

Programs

TapRoots in the Classroom

The TapRoots in the Classroom program began

at Greenbelt Middle School in 2011. For many

teachers, this was their first time integrating outdoor learning into

curricula.

In 2012 TapRoots in the Classroom relied on 6 University of Maryland undergraduates to teach

120 7th grade students agroecology. Here environmental science and policy student,

Mayhah Suri talks about the Irish Potato Famine to make sense of plant diseases.

Here students take a break from class to

help mulch one of the raised beds at

Greenbelt Middle School.

Thanks to the nematology lab at USDA-ARS, Greenbelt Middle School students were able

discover nematodes.

Members of the school’s environmental club helped transplant seedlings by using recycled newspaper as

pots.

Students from each class paired up to help transplant seedlings after they learned about plant

propagation.

TapRoots in the Classroom concluded with a cooking demonstration sponsored by My Organic Market and the

University of Maryland Food Co-Op. 2011 UMD Geography Ph.D. graduate Derrick Scott DJ’d for the

event.

Young Ecological Stewards

From left to right: Kim Walsh, executive director of CHEARS; Abdul; Brennan; Jimmy; Jay and Alex learn

about forest foraging and survival skills with the help of guest lecturer, Joe Murray (far right).

YES! students worked together to transplant pumpkins.

Dr. Donald Weber, research entomologist for USDA-ARS

Invasive Insect and Biocontrol Laboratory, led an activity about

insects in the garden.

The YES! program had their students interview local farmers

about sustainable farming practices at the UMD Wellness Market.

Students were also interviewed by UMD Journalism students about their experience with TapRoots.

The YES! program concluded with a “seed bomb” making activity.

Adventures in Soil Science

The first session of the Adventures in Soil Science program began by exploring soil as a habitat. Here UMD and TapRoots students take soil samples from a research field at the USDA-ARS in Beltsville, MD.

Jimmy and Jay working with UMD honor students to process soil

samples at a USDA-ARS nematology lab.

Jay searches for nematodes in soil samples.

University of Maryland Ph.D. student, Annie Rossi (3rd on the left) led a lesson on soil hydrology in a soil pit at the Natural Resources

Conservation Service National Plant Materials Center.

Students explore redoximorhphic features in poorly drained soils.

Students discover how soils are connected to our watershed by analyzing water samples collected from the Indian Creek. Here

Mayhah shows Nathan how to titrate a sample to determine the level of dissolved oxygen.

Alyssa also helped titrate.

After learning about soil hydrology, chemistry and ecology students focused on research methods in soil science. Here the students

learned about the importance of calibrating instrumentation. Then they used Excel to run a linear regression model on calibration data

to determine accuracy of soil moisture sensors.

UMD and TapRoots students broke ground for the Modular Learning Station that will be installed to collect environmental and soil data at Springhill Lake Recreational Center.

We helped CHEARS plant trees for their Greenbelt Food Forest Project.

Just before Hurricane Sandy arrived, students helped assemble monitoring equipment to capture

data on the storm.

With the soil monitor ready to collect data on Hurricane Sandy the TapRoot group concluded the Adventures in Soil Science program.

***From left to right on the back row: Jennifer Himmelstein, Alyssa, Tory, Anthony Dimeglio, Greenbelt City Councilwoman-Leta Mach,

Jay, Brennan, Nathan, and Alex. In the front row: Mayhah Suri, Bezankeng and Alice Cook Henke.

Conversations with TapRoots

The idea for the Conversations with TapRoots program was seeded when Community Outreach Director for Franklin Park Apartments, Evan Allen, asked TapRoots to lead a container gardening event for

their residents.

***From left to right: Spencer Ernst, UMD senior in Environmental Science

and member of The Walking Sticks; Dana Goetz, 2012 UMD alumna of Environmental Science; Brennan, year long TapRoots student; Alex; Joshua

Deese, UMD sophomore in government and TapRoots volunteer; Grant Shiver, UMD sophomore in Environmental Science and Technology-Ecotech

and Design and Computer Science minor; and Brennan’s Dad, Dave.

As Conversations with TapRoots developed, we were able to bring more of the UMD community into our

project. Here TapRoots and UMD students came together during the Frist Annual TapRoots Fall Fest.

Because of the Conversation with TapRoots program, we were able to reach out to Brennan’s Dad, a

contractor and carpenter, to brainstorm ideas on how to construct the modular learning station for

Springhill Lake Recreational Center

After a year of TapRoots programs, our scholars Brennan and Jay asked us to help them with their 8th grade science fair project. They

wanted to investigate the distinctions between disturbed and undistributed soils. We put them in contact with UMD ENST Ph.D. student Dot Lundberg to use her research sites on the Maryland

Eastern Shore for their project. We used ZipCar to drive out there.

Dot and our students dug two soil pits: One in an area ditched during the Great Depression and another that was not ditched.

Their science fair project will contrast the particle size distributions of these soils.

With the help of NRCS soil scientist, Jim Brewers, we were able to extract monoliths from each soil pit.

We stopped to wrap up a day’s work.

UMD Soil Judgers Ryan Adams and Chris Palardy led a tour of the soil monolith in HJ Paterson Building.

Conversations with TapRoots works with students like Brennan and Jay, and their teachers to help them become goal oriented within

STEM projects. As an additional service, TapRoots connects the area’s youth to the University of Maryland community to inspire them to be

college focused as they enter their freshmen year of high school.

In 2013, Conversations with TapRoots will be offered to Laurel High, Greenbelt, William Wirt and Nicholas Orem middle schools.