Friday, November 22, 2013

Trimester Celebration

Today we sat down for lunch together in honor of all the hard work students have put forth in their first trimester of Middle School. Bravo Team Couloir!

Favorite Thanksgiving Dishes Spreadsheet

At the end of the Ecosystem Unit, students had a lesson on entering data on a Spreadsheet. Yesterday, students entered the data we collected on 'PH levels of ecocolumns' which we added pollutants to over a 5 day period. Students then created a graph to support 'the story behind the numbers'.
In addition, students collected data on 'favorite Thanksgiving dishes' and created graphs. It was quite telling!
Be sure to ask your child to show you their creations which are on their Google Drive.




Monday, November 4, 2013

Watershed Visit Part 2- How is the health of our river ecosystem?

Team Couloir students took a visit to the river this morning with teachers from 'The Watershed Alliance'. Students first drew the section of river their group was looking at; identifying biotic and abiotic things, noticing river flow, etc...Next they used a net and other tools to gather macro invertebrates from the river. Back in the classroom students worked to identify the macro invertebrates as tolerant or intolerant and used the data to analyze the overall health of the river.




















Friday, November 1, 2013

Watershed Alliance Visit

The Watershed Alliance visited Team Couloir this morning. The two guest speakers, who are juniors at UVM, brainstormed vocabulary connected to 'the water cycle'  and used a watershed model to demonstrate  how pollutants such as fertilizer, and road salt can impact the health of 'the water cycle' and therefore the overall health of an ecosystem.