Thanks Donors Choose for Our Netbooks

I appreciate all of the projects we've had funded by generous donors from Donors Choose. But I especially appreciate our netbook lab. Primarily funded by Disney's Planet Challenge, UPS, HP and Feed USA we now have 15 netbooks, so each student can use one. We no longer have to compete for limited slots in the computer lab. Here they are working on a virtual computer lab practicing their world and USA geography skills.

6th Grade Field Trip--Abilene Zoo and Abilene State Park

My kids are seen training Mrs. Villanueva's students on the use of the various water test kits. We completed 36 tests at two sites--Zoo Lake One, which is part of the Cedar Creek watershed, and towards the upper end of the Elm Creek watershed. Both of these sites eventually join the Brazos River watershed, just like our own stream study site. The students used electronic meters to measure water temperature, pH, electrical conductivity and total dissolved solids. They used chemical tests to measure ammonia, nitrates, nitrites and pH.

Mays Memorial Botanical Garden Goldfish Pond Water Survey

As shown in the last post, our primary stream study site is bone dry right now. But I needed to acquaint my students with some our water test equipment. This is a training the trainers session. My students are becoming expert teams at using the various tests, in order to train Mrs. Villanueva's kids during the field trip.

Walden 2.011 Initial Stream Study Survey

Walden 2.011 is a small pond, fed by the intermittent Cub Mud Creek, immediately to the west of Anson Elementary. Well, it's usually a small pond, but due to the severe drought it is little more than a shallow depression in the dirt in these photos. But as I write this we have had significant rain during the past 24 hours--hopefully it's looking more like a pond now.

Ready to Fell a Mammoth with the Atlatl

We end our Paleo-Archaic Natives unit with a Primitive Olympics. The students get the chance to actually use the atlatl and darts. The record throw this year was 62 meters, but a half-dozen kids threw in the neighborhood of 60 meters. They are ready to hunt mammoths and bison.

Thank You Donors Choose!!!!

I've been amazed at the generosity of the donors to our Donors Choose projects. We had 17 projects funded last year, and five so far this year--more than $13,000 worth of materials for the lab. This year we have received water testing equipment, macro-invertebrate collection nets, EarthBoxes for our gardening activities, owl pellets, wipe-off world and USA maps, and field desks. Thanks again to our many generous donors.

Mays Memorial Botanical Garden Clean Up

My students are helping Mr. Larry Bailey and the community clean up the Botanical Garden. The corner pictures with the bird bath show the area that my students will be planting as a butterfly/hummingbird garden in the spring.

Monarch Migration

The monarch migration was fairly active this year, due to heavy rainfall in the midwest and northeast. I took the kids out to the Mays Memorial Botanical Gardens to witness this miracle of nature. I just wish my photos were better.

Chemical Interactions

Various lab activities during our study of chemical interactions, elements, compounds and states of matter.

Dr. Steve Rosscoe of HSU Visits AMS

Dr. Rosscoe spoke to the entire sixth grade class about environmental science and conducting a stream study.