On February 24, 2008, The New York Times featured the school's "Black Squirrel" project. To read the full article, use this link: Students Help Track Black Squirrels

Fifth Grade Students Perform Scientific Research Project

Students in April Mindlin's and Michele Miller's Fifth Grade classes at Eugene Auer Elementary School are performing environmental monitoring of the Robert J. Henke Memorial Nature Preserve in Lake Grove. Their classes are part of the OSSP (Open SPace Stewardship Program) sponsored by Brookhaven National Lab.

Students are taking species counts and habitat censuses for the mutated eastern gray squirrel. Students have reached out to the entire Eugene Auer COmmunity by asking everyone to submit their sightings of the black squirrel. The data is then linked to a geographical information system via GPS points on the ARC View GIS system and Google Earth Plus.

Students are also taking soil and air temperature readings on a monthly basis. They are also collecting data on soil ph, leaf litter, and leaf moisture content. Students will be submitting their data directly to scientists at BNL utilizing the OSSP web site.

Students are investigating the evolution of the melanistic eastern gray squirrel which has a dusky black coat that is often the result of a genetic mutation or can be linked to abnormal temperature changes.

We plan on doing this research study as a longitudinal study. We would like to mark the trees with the squirrels' nests this year and compare them to next year's squirrel habitats. We would like to monitor the population of this mutated segment of the species to see if there are increases or decreases over time. We would also like to see if their population is having an impact on the gray squirrel population. We have had anecdotal information from volunteers that have noted hybrid colorations in some squirrels they have observed. We have also noted an increased timidity in the black squirrel population. They have been observed in nests as well as hollowed out holes in trees.

Henry David Thoreau inspires essays about student field experiences

Ms. Miller's 5th grade class's assignment was to choose a Henry David Thoreau quote and use it as a springboard to write about their field experiences.The quotes the students could select from were:

• "If I am not I, who will be?"
• "The world is like a canvas to our imagination."
• "Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows which surround it. We need the tonic of wilderness... we can never have enough nature."
• "In short, all good things are wild and free."
• "We are as much as we see. Faith is sight and knowledge."
• "A town is saved, not more by the righteous man in it than by the woods and swamps that surround it."
• "I believe in the forest, and in the meadow, and in the night in which corn grows."
• "I seek acquaintance with nature, to know her moods and manners."