This weekend, Darby (shown below), Perry, and Rosie, an Ecoss undergraduate student, staffed the Ecoss booth at the Festival of Science’s “Science in the Park” event, and it was a hit! Kids and parents got to test their lungs in our “How much CO2 can you blow?” competition using the lab’s Flux Puppy CO2 measurement system. One superstar kid set a record at 39,200 ppm—that’s almost 4%! Through the challenge, they learned how our instruments measure CO2 and other gases, and then guessed which mason jar ecosystem—aquatic or terrestrial—was producing more CO2. Most guessed correctly: the jar with soil from a local ponderosa pine forest was the winner! We also had a station for spying on plants with digital cameras. A poster of PhenoCam images from Bartlett Experimental Forest showed how the forest changes through the seasons, and kids had fun identifying the start, peak, and end of the growing season. The beauty of these seasonal transitions even moved one visitor to tears! Overall, it was another fun, inspiring, and successful event.
