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TRUDY
Hello! My name is Trudy Hyde. I am a senior at Delaware State University. My major is Biology Education. It is my goal is to teach Biology on the secondary school level. I believe students should be taught how a research is conducted and how to conduct their own research projects. Therefore, as a future teacher it is imperative that I gain experience in developing lesson plans and research projects in order to effectively teach secondary students the skills and methods needed to conduct their own research projects. The Center for High Pressure Research (CHiPR) Summer Educational Intern program at SUNY Stony Brook has given me the opportunity to gain this experience. The CHiPR Summer Educational Intern program is designed to prepare future science teachers with the skills necessary to assist their students in conducting experiments and research projects. My work for the summer was to design and conduct a research project for secondary school students and derive from the project lesson plans that teachers can implement in their classrooms. The lesson plans were modeled to meet the curriculum guidelines of State of New York.

trudy_h@hotmail.com

The problem that was investigated was "Comparing the Presence of Indigenous and Exotic Species in a Plant Community". The forest area involved in the study was the forest at the David Weld Sanctuary in Nissequogue (Smithtown), Long Island.

The forest at the David Weld Sanctuary was a one-time climaxed woodland. However, it was cut as a pasture for cattle grazing in the early 1900's. Cattle grazing was later abandoned in the 1920's and the area was left free for the natural process of succession. The sanctuary consists of numerous sites and features. Particularly, of interest to my project were the northern hardwood forest area, the swamp forest area, and the American Beech tree forest area.

The David Weld Sanctuary is managed by the Nature Conservancy. The Nature Conservancy is dedicated to preserving natural habitats and the biodiversity of these habitats. However, some exotic species of plants poses a threat in conserving the native plants of these natural habitats. These exotic species of plant can sometimes overwhelm or displace the population of indigenous species present in the plant community. The relevance of my research is that it can be used to determine if a forest has been subjected to invasion, and if so, how much of an invasion has occurred.

The goal of the research project was to "Compare the presence of indigenous (native) and exotic plant species in a plant community". However, a method of quantifying the coverage of each species of plant had to be developed. Counting each plant species numerically did not give an accurate description of the coverage of each species. Thus, the method of measuring the proportion of basal area covered by a plant species was developed. Once the method of quantifying flora coverage was determined there were three objectives that had to be met. The objectives of the research were formulated to meet the Earth Science Syllabus of the State of New York under the topic Observation and Environment (1970 curriculum). The research project was also formulated to incorporate a bit of geology. The research project was conducted in a traditional manner, however, this write up is constructed to give a general idea of what the research entailed.

1. Identify the various plant species present in the area. Web-p.jpg (29090 bytes)

2. Determine geologic factors that might influence plant distribution.
3. Determine the coverage of each species of plant present in the area of study.

In order to meet the first objective a plant survey of the forest area was conducted and a herbarium was constructed. To meet the second objective three different sites were selected based on the distinct geological features. The third method was met by measuring the proportion of coverage by each species of plant.