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6/7/2010
Philippe Cousteau teaches Barrett Students
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Fourth grade students participated in a live Webinar via phone and internet with Philippe Cousteau to learn about the Gulf Oil Spill. Philippe, grandson of the legendary Jacques Cousteau, shared a video with the students showing his dive into the oil spill. He talked about how the animals are being affected by this environmental disaster.
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Posted by Laurie Sullivan at 9:00 AM
6/6/2010
Erosion and Wetlands
Second grade students learned about erosion and the role wetlands play in slowing down erosion. I shared with the students that when my sister and I attended UCSB, some of the nearby homes had problems with erosion. They also learned how wetlands can filter the water, up to a certain point. The students really enjoyed using our Wetlands Enviroscape Model, purchased with funds from our NASA Explorer School grant.
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Mrs.Dr. Sullivan shared erosion stories that took place near the university she attended
Mrs. Kerley shares her erosion story.
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Building the mountain
Observing and drawing how the mountain changes after being subjected to erosion by wind, rain, and river.
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Wind erosion
Erosion caused by rain
Erosion caused by river
Wetlands Model - Oil pollution
Soil that will be eroded from the construction site.
It's raining
The green sponges represent the wetlands
Observing the plant roots that have absorbed the pesticide
We observed the wetlands slowing down the water and filtering out some of the pollution.
We observed what happened when the wetlands were removed and replaced by a boat dock.
Posted by Laurie Sullivan at 7:00 PM 6/6/2010
Checking in on the Whooping Cranes
The whooping cranes that we have been following all year finished their migration back to Wisconsin. What are they doing now? We read a slideshow book by Journey North to find out. Then we acted out parts of the story. You can see the whooping cranes (children) roosting in our pretend wetlands and flying away from predators. You can also see the whooping cranes eating snakes, snails, and blue crabs. We watched a videoclip of the cranes dancing and some of our whooping crane children tried the dance moves.
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Posted by Laurie Sullivan at 6:00 PM 5/24/2010
1st Grade
Posted by Allyson Greene at 1:00 PM
5/24/2010
Barrett Students Win Trip to Kennedy Space Center
A team of fifth grade students at Barrett Elementary, working with Wendy N. Cohen, Resource Teacher for Gifted, and Barrett’s Project Discovery teachers, Laurie Sullivan and Allyson Greene, participated in a NASA Design Challenge and won a trip to the Kennedy Space Center as part of a national student symposium with thirty-four other schools from around the country.
Two Barrett students from the team were chosen to present at the student symposium at the Kennedy Space Center. The students, accompanied by Ms. Cohen, spent several days in May touring the facility, participating in workshops, and meeting former astronauts and current NASA employees.
The students’ project related to a problem that still eludes NASA scientists: how to get sufficient water for a lunar colony when only small amounts of water have been found on the moon and taking water into space costs thousands of dollars. Students took on this challenge and created a working prototype of a waste water treatment plant that could clean the waste water produced on a lunar colony.
Prior to building the model, students visited the Arlington Water Pollution Control Plant and conducted experiments on the effects of distillation, filtration, sedimentation, and separation by force on simulated waste water. Students also consulted with Wakefield High School chemistry teacher, Verlese Gaither.
Their design starts with a solar powered fan blowing the oxygen created in a lunar greenhouse into a distillation chamber. In the distillation chamber, solar power heats the waste water and creates condensation. This condensation then flows down a slanted roof to a filtration system using moon rocks. The final phase is application of ultra-violet light to kill any remaining organisms. The students’ prototype reduced the ammonia in the waste water and helped balance the pH level.
As Noel Rodriguez, a NASA engineer, commented following the students’ presentation at the Kennedy Space Center, “Hopefully someone will some day colonize the moon and use similar technologies as you described.”
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Posted by Laurie Sullivan at 9:00 AM
5/23/2010
Phinally Done (Ph.D.)
Last weekend was a very exciting time for me. I graduated from George Mason University with my Ph.D. in Instructional Technology with a minor in Curriculum and Instruction. My parents flew out from Santa Barbara for the ceremony. My sister and her family, who live across the street from me, joined in the celebration. It was fun last week when the students were calling me Mrs.Dr. Sullivan :)
Posted by Laurie Sullivan at 6:00 PM 5/22/2010
Be a Bat Researcher
Second graders participated in a simulation to study bats on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama rainforest. This rainforest has many species of bats. We watched a video to learn the methods researchers use to study these flying mammals. We saw Dr. Elizabeth Kalko use many tools and techniques in her research. Then we tried some of the of techniques. We caught the bats in nets and then measured the wingspan and weight. Next we sorted the bats into groups called guilds (that is what the researchers use to classify bats). We sorted by attributes such as color, size, and type of food the bats eat. Some groups also sorted by wing size, ear size, and where the bats find their food.
Dr. Elizabeth Kalko feeding a bat sugar water
We put a model radio transmitter on a bat. We used an antenna to track the bat. We found the bat’s home. It was in a termite nest! The researchers in Panama discovered that the bats hollow out the termite nest to make it their home. It was a surprise because most bats do not make their own homes. We also used the radio transmitter on the bat to find out if a bat was flying or resting. There were slow beeps if the bat was resting and medium beeps when it was flying and really fast beeps when it was catching the prey. The student holding the antenna had to analyze the data (the beeps) to infer what the bat was doing.
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Posted by Laurie Sullivan at 8:00 AM 5/19/2010
Where Does the Trash End Up????
Recently, first graders have discussed the importance of recycling and the use of natural resources. To facilitate this, Mrs. Greene asked each first grader to help her figure out what to do with the many packaging peanuts she received when she ordered some new science materials. There are way too many of them to keep in the Discovery Lab!!!!!
Therefore, in order to help with this, first graders saw a quick movie on landfills and then began an investigation as how the 2 kinds of packaging peanuts would react when put into a mock landfill.
Each student received a cup filled with water, a pipette, and both kinds of packaging peanuts--PUFFNS (made from corn) and styrofoam packaging peanuts. The cup with water was the mock landfill in which students got a very good understanding that the PUFFN packaging peanut was better to throw away than the styrofoam one! Many of the children used the words: dissolving, melting, dissappearing...and even biodegradable once they saw the PUFFN reacting with the water and becoming a gooey mess!
To make for a fast cleanup....the students put all of their 'trash' into their landfill and watched something happen that shows how we can be more aware of our environment.
Excellent work, first graders! Now, I know how to best dispose of these numerous packaging peanuts! I will recycle and reuse the styrofoam ones and use some water to dissolve the PUFFNS! {observing} {experiment} {Mrs.Liguidi} {observing} {Mrs. Bonifaz} {working}
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Posted by Allyson Greene at 1:50 PM
5/14/2010
Kindergarten Living and Working in Space
Today the space shuttle launched and is on the way to the International Space Station. This week the Kindergarten students learned about living and working in space. We watched a video showing astronauts working, sleeping, eating, exercising, and having fun in space. We also learned how it is a little tricky to go to the bathroom in space and to take a shower!! We talked about future exploration and possibly living on the planet Mars in the future!
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Posted by Laurie Sullivan at 3:10 PM
5/14/2010
Bat Researchers in Ms. Donovan & Ms Vazquez Class
Echolocation Song on YouTube
Posted by Laurie Sullivan at 3:00 PM
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