I hope that you are spending some time this summer learning and reading - I have been! My days have been spent learning about the forest, river, and ancient history! I had the opportunity to attend an institute in which we studied everything from forest management to fire to the lumber industry. I also spent some time studying the San Joaquin River and learning about the effort to reintroduce the Chinook salmon. I traveled to the Los Angeles region and viewed some amazing artifacts that date back 3,000 years - the stuff that we study in sixth grade! This next year, I will be working to tie all that we do to the central theme of "Mountains to Rivers." How in the world does NASA tie to this? You'll soon find out!
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Our Service Project at Scout Island was the construction of a butterfly gardens. The students first worked to clear the ground, dug an irrigation trench, planted two large Valley Oak trees, and then planted narrow leaf milkweed, yellow yarrow, and a few other plants. Within five minutes of the sixth graders leaving the butterfly garden, a monarch butterfly made an appearance and landed on one of the milkweed plants! This service project will help to provide a habitat for the migrating monarchs and help to bring them back to Scout Island so that others can study their development.
Our salmon have been released into the San Joaquin River! During Open House, we will have a slide show playing that will include a clip of the salmon being released into the river. It was an exciting day and a great way to end our study. The day of the release also include two investigations: a count of macroinvertebrates and a study of the water quality at Scout Island. Both of these studies led us to draw a conclusion about the health of the river. Ask your student what we discovered and how they would describe the health of the river.
Spring recess is quickly approaching along with all of the activities that accompany this time of year. Please continue to check both the school calendar and the weekly newsletter. Our journey in science will take us back to energy as we construct a device that uses a form of renewable energy.......what might it be? County science fair is two weeks away, our oak trees are growing (pictures to come soon), and all 60 of our salmon have hatched! The little ones are growing fast and will be released into the San Joaquin River next week. As we prepare for the release, you have been asked the question of if you think the restoration flows should continue. Now that you have studied the river, read articles, and viewed news clips about both sides of the issue, what are your thoughts?
We will be spending some time this week looking at patterns with the Chinook Salmon. It's hard to believe that they start off so small!
Our flag has flown! Thank you, PenguinScience, for this amazing opportunity! We appreciate the opportunity to study the penguins and to see them live in the field.
Salmon will be our driving force throughout the next few months - the next time you stop by our room, take a look at what's in the tank!
Click on over to the PenguinScience website and take a look at Nest 9 - Cocoa hatched!
Now that a young chick is here, how will that impact Carrie and Buddy? Will their trips to the ocean increase / decrease? What about protection - is it easier to protect eggs or a chick? Share your thoughts! For the past couple of weeks, we have been able to Skype with the amazing Jean of penguinscience. Last Friday we partnered with the first graders and helped them ask their interview questions. We learned about some of the body features, why penguins waddle, and that despite what the first graders had seen in a movie, penguins do NOT surf. We will continue to follow the journey of our nest as we trace the flow of energy through their ecosystem.
What were some of the predators that were mentioned? What might happen to the Adelie penguins if there was a decrease in predators? As the penguins chicks grow and their demand for food increases, does the risk of predation for the adults increase or decrease? Oh, and how do the wolverines connect to the Adelie? Over the last few weeks we have spent time chatting with the IceBridge crew as they flew over Antarctica. We were able to talk with them about energy, the technology that they use, and why they are studying the Earth instead of Mars. A few days before break, a postcard from a pretty amazing place showed up: PENGUINS!
We then Skyped with an educator down in Antarctica and she quickly introduced us to where she is staying - we were able to "meet" her, tell her about our flag, and we sent her the name that we would like to use for an Adelie penguin. We are now waiting to "meet" our penguin and we'll be checking the www.penguinscience.com website for our nest updates! |
AuthorsOur 5th grade Explorers! Archives
August 2020
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