Leading Forest Fieldwork
By: Julian Hoshine
Hello! My name is Julian Hoshine and I’m a third year student at Kaichi Nihonbashi Junior High School. I was a leader of the forest fieldwork committee in the first term. Today I’ll talk about my forest fieldwork experience.
The most challenging part of my work was about managing the students. I had to control not only all the students but committee members as well. It was difficult for me to lead a lot of students. For example, in morning assembly, not every student came at the same time and we had to tell students to be quiet each time. Also, some committee members didn’t know what they should do.
This was the first time for me to be a leader. I experienced difficulty controlling many students at the same time. This time, I couldn’t direct enough of the students on the committee but they supported me very well. Next time, I’ll try to instruct everyone better by remembering this experience.
In forest fieldwork, my group researched the differences between Mt. Omuro and lava beds inside the forest. My group checked about moss carefully to understand the difference between two areas.While researching about two opposing areas,I noticed that moss has different roles.In Mt. Omuro,the soil developed over a very long time, so it had nutrition fertilizing it in the soil.For this reason,moss is a piece of ecobiology.
On the other hand,the lava plateau didn’t have enough nutrition for the moss to grow well. because the ecobiology of the lava plateau didn’t develop for as long a time as Mt. Omuro’s had. So, moss has the role of collecting moisture in this area. In conclusion, my group found the moss in Mt. Omuro has the role of being a piece of the ecobiology. But the moss in the Mt. Fuji lava beds has the role of making an ecobiology.
In forest fieldwork,I was so tired because I had to do my job of committee leader and my research. But I had so much fun with both of them. It was a satisfying 2 nights and three days.