Bats! The Good the Bad, the Scientific!

Today was super cool. Some guests from Fish and Game came to talk to us about BATS. Bats are often seen as SCARY, but we decided that they are the good guys!

With the Fish and Game guest speakers we dispelled the following myths about bats:

• Bats are NOT attracted to human hair 
• Bats do NOT suck human blood. Vampire bats only eat blood from domesticated animals. (They lap it up, not suck)
• Most Bats do NOT carry rabies, but we should never touch one just in case.

We were also really excited to learn about Bats in Alaska!

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  Only in the last year have we discovered the 7th type of bat found in Alaska, the Hoary Bat.

  
  
  

  

  Scientists are putting gates over mines and caves to protect Alaskan Bats from White Nose Syndrome

  
  

  

  On our Phenology hike today we found lots of ice! Sadly no Snow yet!

Bees as Agents of Change in Alaska [16 October 2014]

 Today a local beekeeper came to talk to us about the seasonal lives of bees.  In the Fall, the Queen bee kicks the male worker bees out to die- they won't feed a useless mouth!

There are 19 species of Bees in Alaska!

Bees will travel over 2 miles to collect pollen in their sacks!

Correct Prediction for 16 October!

Prediction: 21 Min 45 Max
Actual Temperature: Min= 20 Max 39 [Farenheit]

Weather in Palmer

Today we discussed weather patterns in Palmer. We recorded the minimum and Maximum temperature in Palmer, on October 9 for the past 5 years. We also looked at the coldest temperatures in October in general. Next we made predictions about what the actual temperature range would be today. Check in tomorrow to see if we were right!

Drawing Sound Maps. Some ice in the ground, but no snow yet!

Observations Week 5

There was lots of fog by the mountain, so we couldn't notice how much snow there was. Once the  lifted, we saw that there was a lot more snow than week 4.

How often do you have fog in Chimacum? _Sidney

Is it hot in Chimacum?- Olliver

Lots of berch seeds in water at creek. Ice in the water, lots of leves in water. Water is mudeer. Mose ear bark of tree.- Sam

Cottonwood tree has four leaves on the tree. In general all the trees near the cottonwood look like there tipping over.
Do you guys have any animals in Chimacum?- Ava

At the field the gras is stol green, about 5% at the ground.-Jess

We found an Oliver in the leaves!

The Science of a Sandwich

Today Miss Sarah had a weird case of amnesia, and completely forgot how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The Ravens class helped her out by writing step by step instructions. This turned out to be much harder than we anticipated!

There was peanut butter everywhere! 

Afterwards, we talked about how scientists have to be really careful when they write up their findings, so that someone else can replicate their work.
We decided that scientific procedures need to be:

• Exact
• Have lots of steps
• Be thoughtful
• You can't assume someone knows how to do your experiment
• Have someone else check your steps
• This leads us to our NIFTY SCIENCE WORD/PHRASE OF THE DAY:
• PEER REVIEW!

Do you have a favorite science word?

Sidney's Post about Animals at Spring Creek Farm

(Answering a question)
Yes! We do have animals here. We have two dogs on the farm, Otis and Taz. We also have a goat and a pig. The pig's name is Lefty and the goat's name is Louie.

Ava's post about Spring Creek

Hi our winter starts in October (or earlier). We get our snow tires  as early as September 15. The Spring Creek has more leaves than last week, and there was a little bit of ice on top of the water. There was less moss on top of the rocks, which we thought was cool.

Samantha's post about stink bugs and flowers

No, the stink bug's nest did not smell. We harvested some Calendula seeds today, enough to plant 200 ft of them next year!
What kinds of flowers do you have in Chimacum?

Jess's post about Cottonwood trees

Today the cottonwood has less than 30 leaves.   There is a big branch balancing high in the tree that we didn't notice before.  And there is some bark missing on the branches on the cottonwood.  The cottonwoods are called that because cotton fluff floats off their flowers in the springtime.

Oliver's post about Earthquakes

Our earthquake last week had a magnitude of 6.2. It was scary because the ground moved, for about 5 seconds and we didn't know what was going on. Since then we have felt multiple earthquakes. Maybe they were aftershocks.

Thankfully the walls for the fort stayed up despite the quakes!

Pictures from September

We made some artwork inspired by Andy Goldworthy

Fungus!

Hayfield (25 September)

Also at hayfield

WOAH SAP

TRACKS IN THE MUD!

Cody and his imaginary land :Ogygyia

Jess and her land

Sidland!

Sam and "Samya land"

Ava and "Dandelion Hotel"