SeaTurtle Time - Real World Data in the Classroom

Recently I had the opportunity to go to the NSTA regional conference in Richmond, Va. There I met up with Megan from the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher.  Fort Fisher is a beautiful aquarium near Wilmington, NC.  Coincidentally I once attended a wedding at the sister site near Nags Head when my children were little.  I have fond memories of the boys at the shark tank during cocktail hour. They were mesmerized by the sharks, the turtles and the touch tank.

I attended her session that was entitled Sea Turtles.
Now, some of you who have followed my blog know about my dear turtle Squirtle.  Squirtle is an aquatic turtle and not a sea turtle - he lives in our tank in the classroom and is a beloved classroom pet.

In her session she introduced us to her beloved turtle passion.  You see, at this aquarium they monitor sea turtles - loggerhead, green sea turtles and  leatherback.  Megan has developed an AMAZING sea turtle curriculum that is FREE for teachers. I highly recommend that you check it out at http://seaturtleexploration.com/ .  On her website you will find lesson plans, video links and even virtual lessons.  Some examples of the lesson plans include:

Sea Turtle Hatchling - the kids will create a turtle hatchling out of rocks. Then they will learn how to measure the hatchling like a real turtle scientist. I can't wait to do this with my kids.  I have bought the rocks and have the glue guns ready to go! They will love this.





                                         Another really cool lesson is You make the Crawl. 
In this lesson the kids make tracks in salt dough to represent the tracks the Sea Turtles take when building their nests.  I think this is great because the children get to create it for others to guess what it is.

She also showed us a real sea turtle shell and taught us about the sea turtle's form and function.

This website has so many things on it that you can use all year!  The part I took home an implemented the very next day was the tracking of a hatchling over the course of a year.

So,this already is enough to get me excited! What a great resource of lessons that are developed in an engaging, real world context. But the next part is what really got me out of my seat....

Every year the aquarium keeps two hatchlings left over from the bottom of the nest.  These turtles become "mascots' for a year.  The scientists research and study their growth and development.  After a year at the aquarium, they are released into the ocean as a yearling.

While they are at the aquarium, however, your students can "adopt" them.  Yes, adopt them!!! (virtually, of course)  In the lesson From Hatchling to Yearling you can find out how to adopt either Turtle A or Turtle B and observe their growth all year long.  At the aquarium the scientists measure the hatchlings each Wednesday and then Megan writes a blog each Thursday.  The kids will see how their turtle is growing and they will learn about what's going on at the aquarium.  For instance, this week we learned about Junebug a three flipper sea turtle.  They were so excited to see the infrared photos from the nighttime journey!

In my class, we adopted Turtle A.  As a class we brainstormed names for the turtle - which brought up a question....do we know if it is a girl or a boy?  We emailed Megan who answered us quickly and described that it takes years to figure out the sex of the turtle (male turtles have longer tails eventually than female). While Megan voted for the name Rosie, the children eventually chose Chris.

We set up a data station in the room where we can track the turtle's growth.  I printed off a few pictures from the website and then created two graphs for data collection - a bar graph for length and a line graph for mass.

In Virginia we need to learn to create two types of graphs in math and in science. They understand bar graphs pretty easily, but line graphs are another matter.  I have also noticed that once they learn how to create the graph, they may not understand how to analyze and interpret it.  Why? Perhaps because we don't put it in a real world context. That is why when I saw this I jumped on it!  I can not wait to see where this will lead us this year.

On another note, check out the cute turtle we made out of a pumpkin!

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Earth Day is coming...

I have been really busy lately and admit I am behind on my postings.  Having said this, there are many exciting things going on at my school for next year - including a new STEM lab, a restructuring of our instructional day, and more!

So I thought that I would repost my favorite lesson for Earth Day from last year.  This is a GREAT activity that really makes its point!



I love the Lorax!  I have ever since I was old enough to read it...I remember watching it on TV long before there was such thing as Earth Day (or at least one recognized in schools!) I loved the idea of helping the planet then, and I love the idea of helping the planet now.  So when I saw an article using this book highlighted in NSTA's magazine Science and Children this month,(April/May 2012)  I knew I had to duplicated it in my classroom.  The article, Truffula Tree Troubles, was written by Robert Snyder and addresses the issue of tree harvesting. My class had just finished reading Owl in My Shower which is a great book that also addresses the issue of logging rights vs. ecological issues.   We were already familiar with the idea that there are two sides to every story.

Anyway, you can find the article for purchase at the NSTA store and I highly recommend you do that to get the full lesson plan.  The article gives objectives, materials and a detailed lesson plan that follows the 5 E's nicely (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate),  I will give you a quick run down on the "gist" of the activity...

You will replicate the idea of cutting down trees like the Oncler did using 5 different types of noodles.   I started off by reading from the book until they get to the section where the oncler starts chopping down all the trees. At this point I have the children get into small groups. (My students already work daily in cooperative science groups with rotating jobs which really helped with this activity.) Each group is assigned a card with a noodle attached. That is the "tree" their group will harvest.  I pointed out to them that just like a real forest doesn't have an equal amount of trees, either will they.  Some groups will have more than others.

You will put all the noodles on a drop cloth (I used a plastic table cloth) for easy harvesting (and clean up).  Then each group will send one member to the "forest" to harvest their trees for 45 seconds.  After that time, they will return to their group and record the number of trees harvested.  They will do this 8 times.

The students (like the once-ler) were very excited at the beginning to harvest many trees at once.  However, after several trials...they noticed that they were getting fewer and fewer trees...and suddenly ... the trees were gone!

What a great opportunity to discuss with them the idea of renewable and non-renewable resources.  We discussed that some natural resources are non-renewable - meaning that once they are used up they are gone for good.  That's what happened to the Once-ler and the Truffula trees.  However, we learned in Owl in the Shower that forests can be renewable resources if loggers don't just clear cut and move on, but instead replant after each cut.  That is what we are trying to do here in Virginia with our logging industry.

In the NSTA article, Robert Snyder had included some fantastic follow up questions.  In keeping with my science notebook process, I re-wrote the form to include his idea of a data chart, a line plot, a conclusion (my idea) and a reflection (his idea).

You will notice that I purposefully left the line plot unmarked - that is so you can hand write the trials at the bottom (# 1-8) and the amount of noodles on the side.  I had written only up to 40 noodles per handful (counting by 5's) and I have to say the kids far exceeded that amount.  When I do it next year, I will write the numbers by 10's up to 80 instead.  You can down load it for free at my TPT store.

Bird Treats for the Winter

Just before Christmas break, we spent some time creating bird feeders for our local birds.  Let me warn you...it did create a MESS on the floor.  However, my students were wonderful helpers with the clean up and graciously borrowed brooms from other classes to sweep it all up in no time!

Here's what we started with:

We made two bird feeders.  The first one was the typical pinecone feeder with a twist.  Because so many students have peanut allergies, I couldn't use peanut butter as the spread.  Instead we used shortening - generic for crisco. The crisco was much cheaper than peanut butter too!!! The students started with yarn and tied it around the pinecone, spread crisco on the cone and then dipped it in the birdseed. 

 

The next one was really fun...old fashioned popcorn strings with a twist!

Instead of using thread and a needle, we used wire from the craft store.  The kids could easily string the popcorn on the wire and no risk of getting cut!

 

Parents sent in popped corn for us to use.  They sent in a ton of popcorn!

 

After we finished, we took them outside and hung them on our local trees for winter break.

 

 

 

Hope you can use this too!

 

 

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Watershed Models

Do you build models of the watershed in your classroom? As part of our unit on natural resources, we teach students the importance of watersheds, forests, and mineral resources.  We are responsible for teaching the students about what a watershed is and how humans impact it.

So to start, we teach students what a watershed is.  They are all familiar with the water cycle model.  I use this to start as they can connect what they already know to something new.  When looking at this model I point out that water runs downhill towards a body of water.  When they ask, what about the water that just soaks into the ground - I remind them of ground water. Where I live we don't have city water - not even at our school!  We are very familiar with well systems...so they understand that there is water underground.

Next I want them to learn that a watershed is land. We all live in a watershed. A watershed is simply an area of land that leads to a body of water.  In Virginia where I live, we lived in the Rappahannock watershed that leads to an even bigger Chesapeake Bay watershed.  Because we often mention the river or bay connected to the watershed, students often think a watershed is a water source.  This is a common misconception, even with adults. 

So to help them see the land is the watershed that leads to the water source, I tried this experiment.  I found this idea while previewing the FivePonds science text book. I think this idea is genius! 

Materials:  Potting soil, text books (for stacking), paint liners ($1 each at Lowes) and water.

This model was easy to create.  It was cheap enough for me to purchase 5 - one for each group.  The students built up the soil in the paint liner and stacked one side with books.  There is already a built in collection pool (for the paint) where the water will run and collect.

 

My students were able to observe what happens when it "rains" on the watershed.

 

They noticed that the water "pushed" soil with it when it was flowing.

 

 

It was a great introduction to the watershed.  Some other ideas for extension would be to grow grass in one pan and compare what happens with grass and without grass. This would give them a visual of a true Riparian Buffer. 

 

I will also include some excellent watershed videos:

 

 

 

 

 

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Freddy the Fish...water quality

Back into my classroom....we are learning about watersheds.  Boy have we had fun! One of the activities that I love is the Freddy the Fish Story from the WUP center in Michigan.  In this activity, you read aloud a story about Freddy the Fish (see the green sponge?) and his travels down the watershed.  He starts in a nice cool, clean stream.  As he travels he encounters all sorts of pollution - from too much sediment, to litter, fertilizer, etc..

The materials you pour into the tank are easy to find at home and are earth friendly for when you pour the water out as well.  We used Koolaid mix, basil, syrup, coffee sludge, soil, etc...

The students really enjoyed this demonstration and were able to visualize the effects humans have on water quality.  When we were finished, the students then went back to their science notebooks and drew a picture of before and after.  They were able to add their opinions as well as noted observations about the quality of water and the effect on Freddy (he dies, by the way!).

Great lesson!

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Wonderful new book!

So today I took my son to the Earth Day festivities in my hometown of Fredericksburg, Va.  While I was there, I bought a new book called ABC's from the Rappahannock River.  by Betty Lewis Ellett.  I loved this book because it shows real photographs of a river system and highlights the animals that live there, the weather that affects it, safety measures (including a great segment on life jackets), and also words like rapids, bridges, anglers and marinas.

I can't wait to share it with my students when we start our unit on Virginia's Natural Resources.  Rivers and watersheds are extremely important to our environment. 

Can you think of a connection to your classroom?  Could you have your students create their own ABC book for Earth Day? I have created a generic version of the ABC brainstorming chart that you can use for any content area brainstorming session.  I like to give these to cooperative groups to use as a preassessment on a new topic or a formative assessment before a test.  Enjoy your copy here for FREE...

We all live Down Stream...

This final activity involves making a class river.  The students were given the scenario that they have just been given a section of land right on the river that and unlimited income!  They can build anything that they want to on the water.  What would you build?

Students draw a plan of what they would put on this property...

A hotel and amusement park....

A school and hotel

Next, they go back and add pollutions that may happen from the construction, the buildings, the land use...as well as ways they could fix it. (Notice the Riparian buffer???)  We had a great discussion about whether their picture caused a lot of pollution or minimal...

Finally, they laid them all out and created a class river.

This goes along nicely with one of my favorite VA DOE activities...A River Runs through it.  This version actually has land use scenarios written for students to illustrate.  I do this lesson every year in my class.

And Riparian Buffers - a hands on lesson where you actually build a watershed with and without grass.  We will start this in my class shortly so I will post on this in the future.

Another great website:  http://www.watersheds.org/kids/  has activities, videos and simulations from the Missouri watersheds.

Water Uses...a Game!

This activity from Friends of the Rappahannock is an easy one to replicate!  The teacher made five game boards using the science fair type boards.  Each board had a collection of pictures from magazines showing water being used correctly and wastefully. 

As the kids move around the board they are given 10 beads to represent water drops.  As they move along the board, they can lose or gain water drops based on wasteful or conservative water use. 

It is a great way to show them how much water they waste daily!

Battle of the Bay...a watershed journey

This was a cool way to show the journey of raindrops from the land, to the stream, to the river, to the Bay...  brought to you by Friends of the Rappahannock.

Make circles that say creek in orange, stream in yellow, rivers in orange and Chesapeake Bay in yellow.  Because our watershed is based on four major rivers in Virginia she even labeled the rivers with the actual names (Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James).  The blue fabric was a nice touch, too, as the Chesapeake Bay!

Next, divide the children into four groups and place at the four corners of the room.  To progress along the watershed, they must complete a task!

Task one - make a food chain....
This one had pictures preselected and laminated with an orange strip to lay them on with Velcro fasteners.  Each of the four corners had a different food chain, but one you would find in our local environments.

Next, she collected all four food chains and made a food web. I love how they quickly fastened onto the poster with the Velcro and created a nice visual of how they are all connected.  Task one completed, they move to the next circle which was the stream.

Task Two - a puzzle.  She has a laminated map of the Virginia Watersheds with several questions based on the map.  The kids had to put the puzzle together and answer the questions.  Kind of reminded me of the show Survivor!

Puzzle complete they moved on to the rivers.  Task three - brainstorm all the different ways we use water at home and at school.  They had a ton of ways! This was fun and informative!

Finally they make it to the Chesapeake Bay...boy is it crowded in here with all the raindrops form all the many pathways! 

For more resources see:  Journey of a Raindrop from the Va. Department of Education and the online interactive Ways of a Watershed from the Alice Fergusen Foundation.

Watersheds Wednesday...

Our school division in partnership with Friends of the Rappahannock have offered Watershed Wednesdays for our fourth grade students.  It is a really neat program - the director, Cassie Pallai, brings four pre-service teachers from the University of Mary Washington to lead the students in four watershed activities. These students are doing their practicum for George Meadows' class on Science Education.  He is a real proponent of hands-on, quality science teaching!!

 I hope to share with you a few of these activities over the next few weeks.

Here is the first one...Interactive Watershed

It started with a beautiful sheet painted to show many different land use scenarios such as shopping, schools, factories, neighborhoods, roads, farms....and streams, creeks and rivers...which led to the Chesapeake Bay - our main watershed.

She had great signs that student volunteers held up as they stepped onto the map to represent the different areas.  We talked about types of pollutions get into the soil from each place - chemicals, liter, oil, gas, animal wastes, too much dirt, trash...etc...

As she mentioned each type of pollutant, the students dropped pieces of orange construction paper on the sheet as a visual representation. She shook the sheet and the pollutants ended up in the Bay...just as they would in real life.

Next, she added a riparian buffer to the watersheds. Riparian buffers are plants and trees purposefully planted along the shoreline.  These buffers hold back the soil, pollutants and keep the shorelines healthy.

Next the students put the pollutants down and sure enough...there was less pollutants in the water!!!

A very cool visual!