Snowshoe season has begun!

Today Mrs. Blue's 4th grade class went snowshoeing. Students made observations about our nature area and collected photographic evidence of animals in winter. We have a base layer of about 2 feet of snow- Perfect!

Kindergarten Winter Walk

Today our Kindergarten classes took a winter nature walk.  We looked for signs of life in winter.  Our students compared deciduous and coniferous trees.  we were Lucky enough to see lots of animal tracks in the snow, a few white breasted Nuthatches, and lots of other exciting things!

The Power of Water

Ms. Fischer's class learns about the power of water by creating their own water wheel


 

View Nest Cams On-line

One of our favorite web-sites is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology nest Cam site

The lab uses real-time Internet technology to observe and interpret the nesting behaviors of birds and promote understanding of their breeding biology.

A winter visit to the school yard

A fourth grade student in Mrs. Blue's class took this picture on Tuesday. the class saw the deer out their window and a brave student took the class digital camera out into the snow to get this great shot. Kudos to Mrs. Blue's class for being such excellent observers!

Bird of the week 11/28 Dark-eyed Junco

Dark-eyed Juncos are flashy little birds that fly about forest floors of the western mountains and Canada, they flood the rest of North America for winter. They're easy to recognize by their crisp (though extremely variable) markings and the bright white tail feathers they habitually flash in flight. You can learn more about this bird by visiting the All About Birds Website: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Dark-eyed_Junco/id

Second Grade Tulip Test Gardens

This year our second grade classes will work with classrooms in North America to track changes in seasons and climate.  In early October all second grade classes planted a tulip test garden. 

There goal is to learn about how plants are affected by climate all around North America.  In this collaborative experiment, student scientists across the Northern Hemisphere track the growth of the same plant, the backyard tulip.

Scientist of the Week

This week Lizzy a 6th grade student in Ms. Moran's class announced our scientist of the week on the WVLK TV news. Our scientist was Manuela Veloso.  This artificial intelligence (AI) researcher from Carnegie Mellon University programs small robot dogs to play soccer in international World Cup competitions. But soccer is not Manuela's real game. Her primary goal (pardon the pun!) is increasing the learning abilities of her robots.

Science websites for families and kids

Here are some of my favorite websites for families:
NASA Kids Club. The NASA website for kids, full of great ideas and activities

Lawrence Hall of Science Kids Page

Dragonfly TV

Bird of the Week November 21st

[caption id="attachment_78" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Male House Sparrow "][/caption]

The Bird of the week for 11/21 is the House sparrow.  

You can find House Sparrows most places where there are houses (or other buildings), and few places where there aren't. Along with two other introduced species, the European Starling and the Rock Pigeon, these are some of our most common birds. The Hose Sparrow is the bird we most often see at our feederwatch station at Weaver Lake.  When you observe house sparrows you will notice that the male and female look different.

Sixth grade Insect Fair

Today all our sixth grade students presented at the 2nd annual Weaver Lake Insect Fair we had 9 judges from the community interview students about their insect investigations.

Bird of the Week

From November to April every year each third grade class will participate in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Project FeederWatch program. Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America.

Each week students learn about a new bird that visits our feeder area. this week was the Northern Cardinal.Learn more about the Northern Cardinal here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Cardinal/id

A Visit to Rice Lake

This week our fourth grade classes went to rice lake. Students collected data about the water quality including; temperature data, pH, water clarity and water depth data.

After the lake visit students took water samples back to our science lab and looked for maroinvertibrates, another important indicator of lake health.  Fourth grade students used high tech tools like Verneir probes, turbidity tubes, pH paper and digital cameras.