The Great Lakes

"How well do you know the Great Lakes?" Just ask any 4th grader and they will amaze you with their knowledge of our Great Lakes. This unit was in conjunction with the Invasive Species curriculum from the Resilient Planet. Students started with some research about a specifis Great Lake, made a poster, and did a presentation to their class. Then in the science lab, students actually created a model of the Great lakes, determined the volume of water in each, located the cities with the most population, and calculated how many pounds of fish were harvested from each lake. As you can see from the picture, the blue squares represented the water, the post-it notes had the cities and populations on them, and the yellow squares represented how many pounds of fish were harvested. Students also figured out the miles of shoreline for each lake, measured a piece of rope using the scale of 1cm = 10 miles of shorleine, and laid the ropes out to show the outline of the Great Lakes. This was a great activity for the students to do to help them understand one of the greatest resources on our planet.

Whooo Is It?

There is a new member of the Lower School Science Team. A Great Horned Owl (mounted) now resides in the LS Science Lab. We have received special permission to have this owl in our school as an educational tool. The owl is a juvenile (5-6 months old), was found dead by the side of the road by Mr. Nosbush, after being hit by a car. Several classes have already visited the owl, and many more plan to use the owl in the future. It is a wonderful sight to see, being able to get so close to it. We also plan to have a "Name the Owl" contest real soon. So stay posted to learn the name that the children decide upon. Please stop by and take a look at our new addition in the Lower School Science Lab.

Happy New Year!

We are off to great start in the new year. The children are back, refreshed and excited. Science classes will take us to many new and exciting adventures. JK classes will be going on their winter walk soon. Let's hope there is some snow so we can look for tracks and learn about what is living in the woods. The first graders are beginning to study magnetism. They will be coming to the lab for the next several weeks to experiment with and investigate magnets. Mrs. Z. will also be reading a story to them called, That Magnetic Dog by Bruce Whatley. The second graders will be studying life cycles by observing frogs from egg to adult. As this process takes several months to complete, they will also be studying rocks and minerals. The third graders are finishing their simple machines unit, and then will take on the challenge of a scientific measurement unit before they head off to Mars. The fourth graders are still working on The Resilient Planet curriculum and will soon be looking at the Great Lakes in depth (no pun intended).