Phenology and Mindfulness: Sensing the Summer Season

Once we round the corner of August into the final weeks of summer, our senses connect us to the season through sounds, textures, and smells unique to this time of year. An orchestra of insects begins to escalate during these weeks, with the call of heat-loving cicadas up high in the trees in the afternoons, the trill of ground crickets from fields and meadows in the early evenings, topped off with a serenade of katy-did, katy-didn’t of katydids in the evenings. During these days, when the sun is high, humidity rests on our checks and shoulders, and the colors and textures of chicory, Queen Anne’s lace, and goldenrod wave us by as we travel towards community-based summer destinations. The green leaf volatiles of freshly mowed grass, paired with the smell of ozone, petrichor, and geosmim of summer rain, trigger childhood memories for adults while strengthening a sense of place in our children. August contains a catalog of sounds, textures, and smells unique to this time of year and specific to the region. By being mindful of how we connect to place through our senses, getting curious, and letting interests lead our learning, our sensory perceptions of our summer landscape can easily support chemistry, biology, entomology, meteorology, and botany education. Today’s self-directed learning module integrates mindfulness with phenology to support studies that can connect us to place.