First Day Doings!

Around 2:00 pm today one of the fifth grader’s said, “Wait.  Is today still the first day of school?!”  Yup!  And wow, what a day!  We journaled about our hopes for ourselves for the year, played a name-game with new peers and SGS faculty and staff, selected new reading books, learned our True Colors personality types and how that fits into working effectively in a team, sketched native birds and discussed how adaptations help organisms thrive, and thought of personal adaptations we are going to create to help ourselves thrive this year in 5^th grade.  Then we had lunch.  Phew!

Then we smeared our faces with Vaseline and let our community members place gooey strips of plaster on our faces.  Talk about stretching comfort zones, building trust and working as a team!  Every one stepped up in her own unique way, challenged herself and had fun.  Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Launching the Spring Sampling Season!

Despite the chilly, soggy beginning, we had a fabulous day sampling along the Duwamish River.  We got lucky with the weather and by the time we got our first sampling site in Tukwilla, the rain had stopped.  But most of the fabulousness came from the students whose joyful attitude and boundless curiosity made the day both productive and fun!

Plus, it's hard to not have fun when you're sporting neon colored safety goggles!


Today, the fabulous crew from the Source Project (part of Salish Sea Expeditions) joined in to support our research and loan us equipment.  We started near the beginning of the Duwamish River, historically the confluence of the Black and Green Rivers.   We climbed down muddy banks in Tukwilla and wadded out on to muddy "beaches" farther down river to collect our samples.  Every site starts off with field observations, taking note of our surroundings including weather, land use, and environment. 










Seven of the students tested for and recorded the concentrations of phosphates, ammonia, surfactants and copper, as well as recording other parameters such as turbidity and pH.

The girls will share the results of their research at our Culmination in June.












While the chemists were busy doing each sample in triplicate, four students collected, identified and recorded data on macroinvertebrates.  Today, since we did not need to worry about disturbing salmon redds, we used kicknets on a couple of sites.







Kicknets are really effective and using one was a big hit with our young scientists.  First, you've gotta find a good spot and jab the edges of the net into the sediment (in this case deep, slippery, ooey-gooey MUD).

Then you gotta jam your wellies deep into the mud and really stir things up!  This is some serious fun that elicits lots of squeals.

Then, you haul up your net... take a quick peek to see if you spot anything wiggling around...



... and take the whole kit and kabootle back on land so you can find your macros...

and sort them by type.

Sometimes you need to use the microscope to figure out what you are looking at... plus it's really cool to see the macroinvertebrates magnified forty times!

There is always a little time for play and exploration in the midst of some uber fantastic scientific endeavors.  One of my favorite "random happiness" moments was coming  around the side of a building to find a whole group of students just standing in a big puddle.  Testing the water proofing on their wellies no doubt!  And of course running through a blooming and budding wooded area is a must.  Fifth graders are SO fun!

You really want to know what we discovered don't you?  Well, we have another sampling outing next week, then we'll continue following the scientific method as we analyze and interpret our results and prepare to share our findings with the world... on June 5th!
   

Join in our Mapping Extravaganza!

As you know this year we have had the special opportunity to add a strong geography component to our study of the Duwamish and Cedar River investigations by working with faculty and doctoral students from the University of Washington. The context is an internet-based mapping program.  The mapping activities are being led by two UW geography professors, Sarah Elwood and Katharyne Mitchell, as part of their research studying Internet mapping, collaborative learning, and civic engagement in middle school education.  Their project explores links between students' increased sense of "place," the way that knowledge about those places is transmitted across generations (e.g. through mapping), and young people's interest in actively engaging (and improving) those places.  So how does this relate to the river projects?   The girls have created online maps to show important sites along the river.  The maps include data and experiences from our field trip sites, as well as current and historically important sites students discovered from online research.  These sites include images and information from about what happened to the rivers during different time periods.  Our theme centers on building a strong sense of what the rivers would tell us if it could speak about its past and present, and what we hope for future.

Katharyne and Sarah have created a way for you to access the class map that the 5th graders are working on.  We invite you to ask questions, provide additional information and/or make comments on the sites that the students have created.  They have provided a ‘parents only’ log-in that will allow you to view the map and add comments using the website’s comment function. You won’t be able to add new objects, just comments on existing objects the girls have created. They will respond to these comments with their own ideas and knowledge of the site.  If you need a tutorial, your favorite 5th grader is well-versed in the program and protocol, so you are in good hands.

The map website is at: http://128.95.212.135/ and the log-in is:

Username: SGS_parent
Password: sHa9T$n

A couple of notes: the mapping platform is fully protected by passwords, and the students' identities are protected with 'fruit' pseudonyms.  Please use these pseudonyms to identify yourself (e.g. Mango's Mom) when making any comments.   

We look forward to your comments and questions!  Have fun! 

Guests in the Classroom

We have had some amazing guests come into our classroom over the past few weeks, so I thought I'd share a bit of the wonder, perspective and inspiration they brought to our community.

In early February, we got to spend some time with Grace, a high school student from Rwanda.  Her attendance in school and visit to the US was sponsored by Richard's Rwanda.  She came to speak at Richard's Rwanda's major fund raiser, support the individual Richard's Rwanda chapters and experience our school for a few days.  She bravely shared her experiences growing up during the massive social upheaval and subsequent healing that has occurred in Rwanda.  She spoke of the tensions and prejudices that lead to the genocide, tearfully shared her family's experiences during that time and helped us understand how the people have come together to heal families, community and the country after such an unfathomable tragedy.  She also shared what her daily life is like in Rwanda - in some ways so similar to ours and some so different.  Our discussion was a powerful tie in to our Literature Unit on Building Relationships Across Differences.

Last week, we had the great pleasure of welcoming Seattle University Professor and author Katherine Schlick Noe to our classroom.  Katherine, one of Kat's favorite instructors, wrote our current read- aloud book, Something to Hold.  She shared experiences from her childhood growing up on several First Nation Reservations, including the Coleville, Warm Springs and Yakima Reservations.  The girls were excited to hear  how these experiences informed the characters and events of Something to Hold, especially seeing pictures from her yearbook!

We got the special treat of having Kathrine read us a chapter from her book and answer questions.

Not only did she share her memories, but she shared details of her writing, revising and editing process.  This was of particular interest to many students who related this information to their work on their folktales.  Yes, I took notes!  We are so grateful for Katherine's warmth, humor and her generosity in sharing with our community.  A fun, rich learning experience was had by all!

Today we had the incredible pleasure of meeting the legendary Dr. Estella Leopold.  Yup, the daughter of Aldo Leopold.  She is one of our Grace Hopper award winners this year.  At Community Meeting she shared stories from her childhood, memories of her father, Aldo Leopold, as well as her work as a scientist and as a conservationist.  She brought a copy of her father's book A Sand County Almanac for every student and charmed us all with her soft voice, warm demeanor and spot-on bird calls.  Afterwards she stopped by each classroom to see what we were up to.  She was enchanted by the excited, insightful questions the fifth graders asked, and in turn enchanted them with more stories and bird calls.  It's good to be a fifth grader at SGS!

UW Geographers in Our Classroom

As you may have heard, this week we welcomed three fun, fabulous geographers from the University of Washington into our classroom.  Sarah, Kathryn and Ryan helped us launch a new unit designed to explore the physical and cultural changes over time along the Green-Duwamish and Cedar Rivers and the cultural and environmental impacts of these changes.  The students are using an interactive mapping tool to organize and share some of the key pieces of information they have collected so far including their water quality data, facts, stories and pictures.  We are working on developing the platform so you can join in the evolution of this unique tool to support our spatial and temporal understanding of these two rivers so critical to our lives here in Seattle.  Until then, enjoy a few pictures of your girls learning with and deeply impressing these engaging researchers.