January/February

Systems: We officially embarked on our journey as environmental detectives! Students began the new year with a review of systems and a teamwork challenge to prepare themselves for their upcoming experiences. Students were introduced to the Gray Area and the mysterious fish kill that has been taking place there over the last five years. They met some of the key players (suspects?!?!) in the region, looked at maps of the area to identify factors that may be at play, and studied the history of the area as they compiled a timeline of events and developments over the past 100 years. Throughout this semester they will be acting as scientists, council members, reporters, and detectives as they conduct tests and research to uncover the reason behind the declining fish population.

With the bulk of our focus on water, students read A River Ran Wild by Lynne Cherry and saw the effects of disrespecting water as a resource. They also saw that there is hope for restoration of polluted waterways and how they can play a part in the solution. Research was done on watersheds and students got to participate in a simulation of pollution's downstream journey with our guest from Richland Soil and Water Conservation District.

We also looked at different tests that can be conducted to evaluate water quality. Some of these tests will help us identify our Gray Area culprit. We learned about turbidity tests to check for clarity and sediments, (helpful in the investigation of the erosion caused by the clear-cutting logging company) phosphate and nitrate tests to see if fertilizers may be causing an abundance of algae growth, (helpful in the investigation of the cattle ranch and farm) bio-assessment tests for macro-invertebrates, and pH tests.

Critical and Creative Thinking: This month students enjoyed practicing their critical thinking with Sudoku puzzles. We also had a lesson on idioms to help us use flexible thinking and solve our plexer picture puzzles.

M^3 (Mentoring Mathematical Minds) Digging for Data: In math students wrapped up their work on mean, median, mode, and range by completing a review Bingo choice activity where many great products were created! They also showed their stuff on our check-up assessment.

Habits of Mind: Students began our class novel study of Listening to Crickets by Candice Ransom. This book is a biography about author and environmental activist Rachel Carson. As we read, we are taking to analyze and respond to the text as well as pick out the specific Habits of Mind Rachel used to find success in her field.