Forest Watch: bridging science and education through ground-truth studies of white pine stands

Forest Watch has been an innovative and highly successful science education outreach program for the study of white pine health in New England. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) initiated this program in 1991 to involve primary and secondary students in the collection and processing of data relating to air pollution damage in forest stands in New England. Participating schools select a permanent sampling plot in a pine stand and conduct several ecological and biophysical measurements using specific scientific protocols developed at UNH. Results to date show that students can collect valuable data from a scientific standpoint and that the program is educationally beneficial-students learn science and mathematics by doing research in their local area