Soroptimist International of Truckee Donner granted Headwaters Science Institute $1,000 for their science field day for 12 girls in grades 6-11 on Sept. 26.

Meg Seifert, Headwaters Executive Director, explained, “We used the Elizabethtown Meadows. The girls learned how to observe birds, look for signs of human impact, and learned how to study meadow plants and soil.  In the afternoon they took their knowledge to make their own small projects. One group of students spent time looking at bird behavior in relation to human disturbance and found that there were just as many birds if not more in areas near the roads and trails than areas that were quiet and harder for humans to get to.  Another group studied the Aspen Trees and found that the soil near the Aspen trees had a lower pH and was more moist than areas not near Aspen trees.  Another group looked at the soil and plants near the wet meadow vs dry meadow. The wet meadow had a lower pH and more plants and a bigger diversity of plants.  The last group studied the soil in the meadow and forest. The forested area had soil similar to the dry meadow, but the wet meadow had darker soil, with a lower pH than the dry meadow or forest.”

Soroptimist President, Lisa Saqui said, ” We are so pleased that these girls can study their local environment and learn from their experiments.”

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The Soroptimist International of Truckee Donner holds monthly club meetings on the second Thursday of each month at noon. All women are invited to join us as a guest by emailing us at info@SITD.info. For more information, go to http://www.SITD.info. SITD hosts the “Oldest and Best” Wine tasting and Restaurant Faire each year, on the first Saturday of June and Soroptishop, a craft fair for shopping, featuring local artisans, in November.

Source: Soroptimist International of Truckee Donner

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