Green School's Quest update

We did it!  Grade 5 completed the main wall of the greenhouse using recycled bottles and bamboo poles!  More soon, but wanted to share some photos because it's pretty amazing and the kids have been working really hard on this project.

Grade 4: Winter Ecology and Unplanned Pregnancies

This week, our grade 4 scientists headed to Pickle Springs Natural Area to enhance our understanding of winter ecology and how organisms adapt to the weather conditions.  The students learned about the three main ways that animals survive (migration, hibernation, adaptations that allow them to tolerate the conditions).  We looked at several ways that insects, mammals, and plants all handle dealing with the winter season.

           

           

We hiked a bit, explored some of the slot canyons, talked about the 500 million year old LaMotte sandstone, and generally just warmed up our bodies.  Next we began to investigate this "weird organism" that we saw growing on the rocks and trees.  Students investigated this organism with hand lens, looked for patterns on where they found the organism, and tried to make some predictions about what it was. 

We then identified the organism as lichen, used a key to identify three types of lichen, reflected on the symbiotic relationship of fungi and algae that make up lichens, and finally searched for evidence of lichen succession. After this activity, students will likely begin to notice lichens everywhere so don't be surprised if you hear more about this awesome organism at home!

          

          

The crew posing with lichen.

After our winter ecology trip the boys started to construct the shelving unit that will house their crayfish and macroinvertebrate collections.  

Before we installed the tanks we wanted to give them all a good cleaning and in the process of moving the crayfish we realized that Smurfy (female Golden crayfish, Ornectes luteus) was carrying eggs!

Hands down the most exciting thing to happen in class this year!  The shocking part is that we isolated our species over a month ago so the fertilization most have taken place before the winter break.  When we first saw the eggs one of the boys quizzically asked, "Wait.  So they mated through the glass?!?" which was a nice segue way into doing some research on crayfish reproduction and gestational periods.  I'll update everyone once we have more to share!

Winter doldrums do not exist at CDS!

Winter is finally here and we are busy as ever in 4-5-6 science!  It's been awhile since I've had a chance to update families through the blog, so be warned this is a long one!  

First, a word on the Smoky Mountain trip...

Over the winter break I headed to the Great Smoky Mountains with the family for some much-needed downtime and to plan our upcoming expedition.  I met with Jennie McGuigan (program coordinator) and we planned out a phenomenal week of learning for our students and we're going to be doing some things that I've never even done before so it's very exciting.  We will have a parent meeting for the trip to the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont at 4:00pm on February 2nd in my science classroom.  More information on this meeting will be communicated via email.

While we were there, my kids tried helping the 4th graders out with their aquatic studies.

Then they tried finding letters in nature. We found this "J stick" the first day and it made it all the way back home with us!  

And who doesn't love building cairns?!?

Grade 4 - Science

Our Grade 4 scientists have been working on creating a museum-like display for our crayfish and macroinvertebrate samples.  They have created a system for organizing and identifying the samples, which sounds simple but proved to be quite challenging.  We had 13 of the same species of crayfish which all looked very similar.  The students had to focus in on the subtle differences between each one by identifying differences in their body parts (i.e. "Captain Phasma" is missing her front, left walking leg).  Their next step will be to design a display that can be used to teach others about our specimens, their importance to water quality monitoring, and yet still function as a functioning aquarium of living specimens.

Grade 5/6 - Science

Energy has been the name of the game since we've returned from winter break.  We've tracked the energy in our homes all the way back to the sun, we learned about all the forms that energy can take, and we're starting to think about the connections between energy and every other discipline of science.  Students have also begun using Quizlet to study sets of terms and concepts from home.  

Grade 6 - MakerSpace - Footgolf Course 

I love this picture because it shows everything we've been working on in one shot... we've got Eli using the drill to install a rope handle on the lid that will cover the hole; Dillon using the Dremel drill to smooth out the final pieces on what will be our flag holders; Arushi using the rope cutter to melt the ends of the marine rope that will be used as a handle; Ryan on his tablet creating the design layout of the signage; Laura, Lucy, and Ava measuring, sawing, and sanding the backing boards for the signs.  Everyone super engaged, everyone contributing and the best part is two of our fifth grade friends watching through the window with huge smiles.

We have run into a design issue with our actual golf holes, but it also provided us a great opportunity to learn about the power of water and soil pressure.  Our first design was to dig a hole and place the five-gallon bucket in the ground.  Water pushed out this iteration.  So then we dug a little deeper and a little wider.  Based on some consultation with the folks at the hardware store, we added a bed of rocks on the bottom, then the bucket, all surrounded by pea gravel.  They looked awesome and we thought this would solve out drainage issue, but no... it did not.  We came back from the break and they were once again pushed out of the ground.  In doing some research we learned that this pressure can actually uproot entire pools (see below)... our bucket never stood a chance!

Our next iteration is to combine the rocks/pebbles idea with a bucket that has holes drilled into the bottom.  This way if the volume of water trying to percolate through the rocks and soil is too great it can back up into the bucket through the holes without pushing the bucket itself out of the ground.  The hard part now is going to be finding a window in the winter weather to get out there and install our next design.  Stay tuned for more details!

Grade 5 - MakerSpace - Green School's Quest

One of the challenges of our greenhouse design was collecting enough 2-liter water bottles, so coming back from the winter break and seeing this scene at all of our collection bins was amazing:

We finally had 100's of bottles and could start to make this greenhouse a reality!  Now that we had our source materials, it was time to start laying out our first wall.  The students came to the conclusion that they needed to bounce their ideas off of an expert, so they reached out to Josh Mandell for some design help from an architects perspective.  His help was invaluable for the students and helped them extend their thinking beyond just the measurements of the basic structure.  Thank you for coming in Mr. Mandell!

With a design plan created, the students began to assemble the first wall.  First, we framed the wall:

Then, we began to create the poles of recycled bottles:

The design calls for 1" holes to be drilled down into a 2" thick board on the bottom of the wall.  The bamboo poles will sit in these holes and lock into matching holes along the top.

Once the holes were drilled in the bottom, the students tested the poles and measured how much from each pole needed to be trimmed to fit into the top. The excitement was palpable as the kids saw their design ideas come to fruition!

We ended the week working on the top board that will lock the poles into place.  Everyone is very excited to be close to finishing our first wall!

Reminder - Student Outdoor Leadership Summit - WEDNESDAY, JAN 20

Student Outdoor Leadership Summit

Wednesday, Jan 20 from 5:00 - 7:30pm

The College School, 7825 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, MO 63119

The idea behind the creation of this group is to bring together students from across St. Louis who are interested in or passionate about outdoor education.  We feel it’s important for the students to meet and connect with other students from other schools that are having these types of experiences so they know that are not alone in their pursuit of outdoor education.  We also want to create community among the students around outdoor ed, promote outdoor ed, and promote the programs at our schools.  

The event will include an hour of indoor rock climbing, team games and challenges to build community amongst the students from various schools, and then a guest speaker on the history of outdoor ed in St. Louis.  The evening will end with the students sharing out what they do at their schools, discuss what they should be doing, and collaborate on what we could be doing.  The goal is to get this group together multiple times a year and to have them take ownership of the group and plan future evening events and trips.  While this is the first summit we are hosting we already have the second meeting planned for April 13 at Maplewood Richmond Heights that will include a tree climbing component on the massive oak tree on their campus. 

This would be a situation where you would drop your child off at the The College School at 5pm and pick them up at 7:30pm.  Carpooling would be a great option for interested families.  Snacks will be provided.

This is not a mandatory school event, but rather an open-ended invitation to join us.  If you are unable to attend this first meeting, please know that the door will always be open to new participants at future gatherings.

If you have any questions or other thoughts please let me know!  Hope to see some of you there!

In The Weeks Ahead...

Grade 4 - Invertebrate Museum Display, Winter Ecology, and Watersheds

Grade 4 - Winter Ecology trip on Jan 26 - Pickle Springs Natural Area

Grade 5/6 - Hot Air Balloons - Thermal Energy - KMT

Green School's Quest - 2-liter bottle collection ends on Monday, Feb 1

More soon!

For more immediate updates from science follow me on Twitter: @chanceofscience