May

Systems:  This month in our Gray Area mystery, students conducted chemical and biological tests for phosphates and looked at the negative impacts of algal blooms on water life.  They also evaluated our chromatogram results for the oil found in the bay. This brought us to the end of our suspect list having investigated acid rain, chlorine, sediments, phosphates, and oil as possible culprits in our mystery. We had an emergency board meeting to go over all the evidence and draw conclusions about the most likely reasons for the dying fish.  Students justified their votes with evidence and found that the answer wasn't as cut and dry as they may have thought. As in real life, with so many elements at play, there is often a lot of "gray area" when it comes to making the best choices for us and our environment. We also looked at possible solutions to the problems we've discovered and pros and cons of those as well.  I was proud of all of the students’ work, ideas, ability to think through different layers of the issues, and the connections they made to our overarching systems theme.

We finished with a little year-in-review game.  Students answered some systems questions using Kahoot and their responses earned them some positive or not-so-positive inputs to their forest and pond snack ecosystems.  A little acid rain with that dirt dessert?!? :)

M^3 (Mentoring Mathematical Minds) Digging for Data: Our latest math focus has been on surveys.  Students have learned how to write effect survey questions, conducted their own electronic surveys using Google forms, and finally selected appropriate ways to organize and represent their survey results.

Critical and Creative Thinking: I am so excited by the growth I have seen during our morning morphic thinking exercises.  Students are consistently expressing their original ideas in clear and well constructed responses.  We have also made great connections as we finished our novel study of Listening to Crickets.  They continue to enjoy the brain stretching challenges we try to work into our days.  You can encourage them to beat summer boredom and keep up their skills using these websites!

https://www.setgame.com/set/puzzle

http://www.kidsmathgamesonline.com/logic/mastermind.html

https://sudoku.game/

Thanks for an amazing year!

 

Jones Gap

We had a wonderful learning experience at Jones Gap!  Students explored the river and forest systems of the park.  They were able to use field guides for plant and animal identification, conduct several water quality tests, and understand the important interactions between the two habitats. Thanks to all our wonderfully behaved students and fantastic chaperons!

 

April

Systems:

The Gray Area mystery continued to unfold this month as we considered the role of erosion in the problem of the dying fish.  Students tested the turbidity (amount of sediment) of the Gray Area waters and found that one in particular had a problem with soil runoff.  Our suspects became the local farm, cattle ranch, logging business, and surprisingly the growing deer population in the area’s wilderness park.  Students followed the chain of events from the hunting of the deer’s natural predators to the population boom, overgrazing, and lack of plant cover to stop the erosion of sediment.  They also researched the effects of dirty water on aquatic life.

Critical and Creative Thinking:

Students enjoyed getting creative as they were called on to design hats for our fictional friends the ATs.  Using this prompt they came up with many clever strategies to help solve their pest problem.

Can you design hats

For four-legged ATS

Who are bothered so much

By troublesome gnats?

They also created original haiku poems to describe their experience in Jones Gap State Park and continued in their novel study of Rachel Carson.

M^3 (Mentoring Mathematical Minds) Digging for Data:

Students continue to work hard on analyzing data in our math unit.  They have evaluated various charts and graphs for information that can and cannot be gained and practiced translating between modes of organizing information.

 

March

Critical and Creative Thinking:   We spent much of our time this month up to our knees in research as we prepared for our upcoming field study to Jones Gap State Park.  Students did a great job composing their expert cards highlighting one of the many living organisms that calls Jones Gap home. We also prepared by doing some vocabulary review.  Students can continue to practice the must-know terms at this link.  We also looked at water quality tests we will conduct at the park, layers of the forest, and life cycles of some of the macro-invertebrates we hope to find.  

Systems: We didn't neglect our Gray Area investigation.  Students looked at both chlorine and acid rain and new suspects in the mystery of the dying fish.  

First they role-played a reenactment of a meeting of the Gray Area Board of Supervisors where our suspect and owner of the water slide was consulted.  He shared results from chlorine tests conducted down the river from his business. Students took a closer look at the results from the chemical tests and performed a bio-assessment of their own on a macro-invertebrate called daphnia to check the more long term effects of chlorine on the area. They also examined some secret documents that provided further clues as to how the varying data could all add up.

Next, students looked at air pollution and acid rain as the possible culprits. They investigated pH testing and built their knowledge of acids and bases so they could apply it to the waters of Gray Area.  Finding the Gray Area rain to be strongly acidic, they then tested the various bodies of water in the region. They found some interesting results in that only one river in the area maintained an acidic pH.  This lead to further investigation into the geology of the area and the effects of acid on aquatic ecosystems. The owners of local factories as well as commuters were questioned and added to our pool of suspects.

Habits of Mind:

We continued to practice our habits of Mind by challenging ourselves with several new brain games in our classroom.  Students tried their hands at three dimensional puzzles, Rush Hour, Kanoodle, Brain Spin, and the Crazy Pig Puzzle. Much fun and frustration was had by all!

Systems Projects