Science teacher expands his classroom’s horizons

When school begins at Diamond Bar High School, students in the Advanced Placement environmental science class taught by David Hong may find themselves in the field studying the pattern of tracks made by the mule deer, the feeding habits of the horned lizard and the unique trill of the California quail.

The up-close and personal college-level study in Hong’s lesson plan is based in part on his recent trip to Nova Scotia, where he helped monitor the effects of climate change and habitat loss on mammal populations as a fellow with the Earthwatch Institute.

The trip is a reminder that, as do students, many teachers spend the summer getting ready for the fall rather than lazing at the beach or embarking on restorative vacations.

Well, they do that, too. As we spoke, Hong was returning from a camping trip to Lone Pine.

“Teaching them the science, showing them that climate change is happening and is a consequence of human activities, is a real important part of the course,” said Hong, who has taught at Diamond Bar High for 18 years.

“It’s one of the reasons I applied for the fellowship. I selected climate change because I wanted to go out someplace where I could see firsthand evidence about how this is affecting the ecosystem. This would be something I could bring back to the classroom and say to students, ‘I was there, and I witnessed changes in these ecosystems.’ ”

Hong spent his days in Nova Scotia trapping, among other critters, deer mice, chipmunks, red squirrels and red-backed voles using traps designed not to harm them -- “the most expensive mousetraps available,” he called them.

His seven-person team also monitored the tracks, feeding signs, scat and presence of porcupines, beavers, muskrats, coyotes, deer and raccoons, all under the guidance of a pair of Oxford University professors conducting long-term research.

Hong plans to teach many of the research techniques to his students. He is hoping to get grant money for cameras and the special traps so the class can explore ecology in Diamond Bar as well as the nearby Puente-Chino Hills wildlife corridor.

The corridor, which extends 31 miles from the Cleveland National Forest in Orange County to the west end of Puente Hills in Los Angeles County, is one of the largest intact natural habitats in the urban Los Angeles Basin, according to the Sierra Club.

Scientists call its coastal sage scrub and woodlands, home to California gnatcatchers, acorn woodpeckers, queen butterflies and coyotes, a “hot spot of biodiversity” that is threatened by development.

“The most ambitious thing would be to get grant money and have students do solid research in the wildlife corridor to raise public awareness of what’s there and the difference it makes if it is developed,” Hong said. “Hopefully, I can make this all worthwhile for my students so they get their money’s worth out of me.”

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carla.rivera@latimes.com