John Harlin Director, Alpine Institute at the Leysin American School in Switzerland Dan Patton Science teacher at Leysin American School “LETS Study Climate: Sharing the Local Elevation Transect Survey” After a long career in adventure journalism, Mr. Harlin returned to his roots in science and Switzerland by launching the Alpine Institute, which coordinates citizen science and outdoor education at the Leysin American School. He is the co-chair of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA)’s working group on learning and education. Following earning his masters in education and his bachelor’s in science from the University of Alaska, Mr. Patton has been teaching high school for a decade. At the Leysin American School he was a co-founder of the school’s main citizen science project, LETS Study Leysin, as well as the student exposition conference, Globe Day. His science classes involve considerable hands-on participation from students, including experiments with aquaponics, building robot gardeners, and designing and printing in 3D. He co-chairs the STEAM committee for ECIS, the Educational Collaborative of International Schools. Mr. Harlin and Mr. Patton's plenary talk shared LAS’s LETS Study Leysin project (LETS = Local Elevation Transect Survey) and the school’s desire to launch a worldwide network of mountain schools doing transects of their own backyards, thus creating a global school-based project: LETS Study Climate.

1. LETS Study Leysin
LETS Study Climate

4. What is LETS?
-or-
One School’s Experiment in Citizen Science

5. LETS = Local Elevation Transect Survey
Local -- takes place locally
Elevation -- examines an altitude gradient
Transect -- records data along a line
Survey -- describes a landscape
LETS Study Leysin LETS Study _______
LETS Study Climate

6. LETS is a Climate
Change Study

8. The Rhone Glacier
Rhone Glacier in 1870 Rhone
Glacier recently

9. LETS Examines Climate
Change Through the Lens of
Forest Ecology

10. On an altitude gradient, diverse biomes exist close together

13. Explanation of climate change in the Alps from CREA

19. LETS Day Involves
the Whole School
(to date > 500 students and > 30
teachers have participated)

26. LETS Required
Planning and
Organization

27. Tasks have to be outlined and assigned

28. Sites had to be identified and marked
Protocols had to be developed

29. Plant guides had to be created to reflect local
forest.

32. Many materials were custom made.

35. Developed Protocols for Study

36. LETS Requires
Student Training and
Curriculum
Integration

38. LETS Results in
Authentic Science

39. This graph shows how as elevation increases, so does
the number of coniferous trees, while the opposite is
true for deciduous trees.

40. The three most common species were Norway
Spruce, European Beech, and Silver Fir.

41. Many different species of tree were observed, but
some were far more common than others.

42. Over 600 trees spanning a change in altitude of more
than 1200 metres were mapped and measured.

44. LETS Data is
Presented

45. The Data is Entered, Analyzed, and Visualized

49. First ECSA Conference 2016
LAS Student Work is Featured!

51. Students Reflect
on LETS

52. “Climate change is a big issue and Leysin, being a town on top
of a mountain, can be very affected by it.”
“It was harder than I imagined. It was far away, cold, and I fell
a couple of times because the mountain was very steep.
Overall it was a great experience and I enjoyed it.”

60. What’s next for
LETS

67. Bioclimactic transect networks:
“Provide cost-effective and robust insights into ecological and evolutionary
adaptation and improve forecasting of ecosystem change.”
“Cost-effective approach for linking biodiversity patterns to environmental drivers
in ecosystems.”
“A classic example of transdisciplinary research, which involves researchers and
the users of that research collaborating to improve on-ground conservation
outcomes.”
“Interpretations of patterns of adaptive change would be strengthened by
replicating studies along analogous environmental gradients.”

68. Bioclimatic transect networks:
“The benefits of coordinated networks are clear: By
combining resources and expertise, a consortium can build
more than individual researchers, and more reliable results
can be obtained by comparing the results.”
“We conclude that a network of bioclimatic transects is a
powerful and effective platform to answer the most pressing
questions in climate adaptation research.”