Maple Sugaring Time at USM

Today, the 2nd grade began their study of maple sugaring. We had a classroom discussion about what is happening in the trees now, why this is the best time of the year for this process, and how maple sap was discovered by the Native Americans. Even Madame Dupee, our French teacher in Lower School, came in to talk about a Canadian legend of the discovery of the maple sap. After the discussion, we headed out to out little"sugar bush" in front of the Administrative Offices, and found the right kind of tree to tap. We looked for big branches that were opposite and also over a big root, and more on the south side of the tree. This is our state tree, the Sugar Maple. We used an old-fashioned bit and brace, and drilled a slightly upward-angled hole about 2 inches into the trunk. The sap flowed out immediately, even before I could remove the drill bit. Then we tapped a metal spile, or spout, into the hole and hung the bucket on it. Just a few hours later the bucket was a quarter full. The sap looked like water, but didn't taste like water. We learned that the sap right now is only 2.5% sugar at this point. So, now we are wondering how we will turn it into delicious, rich, thick maple syrup.

Crittercam Live Event

The 4th grade participated in a "live" broadcast from National Geographic and the JASON Project. It was hosted by Greg Marshall, the inventor of Crittercam. Crittercam is a research tool designed to be worn by wild animals. Our students accepted the Crittercam challenge and submitted videos and questions about what animal they would attach the Crittercam to, and what would they learn about the animal. Three of our students' entries were selected and highlighted during the broadcast. Check out the links to see the videos, or go to http://www.jason.org to see the archived live event.

Jack's video
Sloane's video
Emily's video