Water Quality in our classroom and tomorrow out in the field

99 Steelhead trout sack fry in the 5/6 Hatchery. The kids are getting to do pH, Nitrate and Nitrite testing. When they are buttoned up, we'll get to feed them. The kids are learning all aspects of water quality.

PCEI came in on Wednesday to review the parts of water quality with the 5/6 and for them to put together their plan as we will head out to Heron's Hideout to test Paradise Creek, return for lunch, and the go to Pullman to test the water of the South Fork of the Palouse River. These indicators listed are what we will test for. We'll collect the data, analyze and present the results on Monday when PCIE's Jenica, Turner, and Nikki return--the scientific process continues...

The kids are working in the instructional groups set up from MOSS. This is Wild Waters working with Jencia on the plan for Friday.

Here one of the instructional groups with Jenica prepare the plan for Friday. 

The 5 days at McCall Outdoor Science School were MOSSome!!!!

 This picture is from Friday morning after Inquiry Presentations. We are minutes away from   heading back to Moscow. The 5 days were absolutely terrific. The kids were in 3 instructional groups and 4 cabins that I assigned. They got to work with these kids all week during the day digging snow pits and testing for moisture, doing water quality tests on Payette Lake, hiking into Ponderosa State Park to study animal adaptations and then back to cabins to socialize. Each evening we had a specific evening program tailored to what I have been teaching in our Water Expedition. The instructors were flexible and thorough in all they did with the kids. 


The 5/6 were engaged learners though out all the weather conditions. We had full on white out snow and wind, tons of ice and cold temps. They really helped each other and proved to be the best group of students the McCall School has had all year. That is what we were told by their instructors-- Shannon, Chelsea and Andrea-graduate students in Environmental Education, who have taught hundreds of kids this year. We loved the compliment!! Louisy the program director agreed and everybody applauded!!


My special thanks go to the chaperones who really helped the kids throughout the whole day whether in class or making sure shower time went smoothly. It was such a pleasure for me to get to know them all better too. 


Here are the names of the parents that helped make this trip possible: 
Betta Bunzel, Valeri Schillberg, Steve Flint, Debbie Berkana, Colette DePhelps, Ray Anderson, Paul Pierzchanowski,  and J.D. Wulfhorst 
We had a great surprise when Nancy Taylor came up from Utah and Mark Lesko came down from Moscow. 


This coming week at school we will be reviewing the content, revisiting the process,  working on our product and putting together thank yous and advice lists. 


Thank you parents for sending your kids with me to McCall Outdoor Science School!! 

3 Chairs Discussion

  Noah sits in one of the three chairs to give his facts and opinion to the discussion question: Are chemicals the biggest threat to water quality? He is sitting in the 'No' chair and speaking his opinion from  examining the expert and common texts  related to water quality. The kids had 22 texts from many sources and various reading levels to find information related to the Guiding Question of this expedition. The GQ is How does water quality affect the ecology of a community?
This discussion protocol I learned while at the EL National Convention in Portland over Spring Break.  As soon as I learned it, I knew this crew would love it.
It is a very structured format and each and every student speaks during this discussion. There are 3 chairs. One for NO, the one in the middle for posing questions to the group for clarification and deeper understanding, and a YES chair. For the YES/NO chairs, the student speaks and there is only listening from the group. The Question chairs allows the person there to pose a question that has come up for them about the topic and engage in conversation with the group.  Only one person comes up at a time. We had several good questions that allowed for interaction that was interesting and informative.
The crew really likes this protocol. The discussion lasted an hour and could have gone longer. After each person  had a chance to go to one chair, then the floor is open and each can come up again. They said they appreciated how each voice was heard and interesting to see how people thought about this one deep question. They also said that it was interesting to see which sources were used.