Salmon and Trout Education Project

For any of you looking for a great teacher training opportunity, consider the Salmon and Trout Education Project Teacher Workshop on Feb 20-21 in Santa Cruz. Many of our BioSITE teachers have participated in the past and have found it a rewarding workshop. A registration form and more information can be found here and here -- registration is due on January 20.

Reminder for ACE Teachers -- Activity after Day 1 classroom visit

Just a quick reminder for all of you who are involved with ACE -- Please have your students do the "Draw Yourself at the River" page after the Day 1 classroom visit. Have the students imagine themselves at the river site and draw some of the things they expect to see near the river when they come to the museum for their ACE Day 2. This makes a great transition between the two days -- and also reminds them about the program if there is a big time gap between your watershed lesson and your first field trip.

The journal page for this is about the 5th page in to the journal (the page just before the ones we wrote on when I visited the classroom).

Thank you to all!

Kit Showcase: Dissect a Feather

"A Feather is a Letter From a Bird" -- So explore one!! Our feather dissection kit includes feathers, magnifiers, and feather diagrams to help students improve their obervation and diagramming skills. This kit allows an exploration of form and function, and after they've finished their investigation, you can encourage students to explain how it is that a bird can fly.

 

View the kit activity card and list of materials in the kit.

For those of you in the Pioneer and Leland programs, this activity ties in with the bird unit later in the year; for all, it's a great kit to encourage students to make detailed observations of part of our natural world.

Kit Showcase: Satellite Image Watershed Exploration

A new kit for this week -- Exploration of our watershed using satellite images from Google Earth. Students discover what is to be found in our watershed by assembling a giant map of the watershed from 8 1/2" X 11" laminated Google Earth images of the south bay.

Some sample puzzle pieces include:
bottom of the watershed
 
middle of the watershed
 
near the top of the watershed
 

Kids can find the bay, local creeks, roads, schools, their neighborhood, parks, airports, mountains, gravel pits, and much more, and then see how the local water drains through it all.

ACE teachers will know this activity as their Day 1 activity in the classroom; our spare copy is now available as a kit for everyone else to check out for use with their classes. Please give it a try!

View the kit activity card and kit materials card. You can also get the .kml file for download to look at in Google Earth on your computer here.

River Of Words Contest

Are you truly hoping that they learn what it means to be River Guardians this year?

Are you looking for something to spark their creative minds?

Check out the River Of Words Contest details-- and explore the beautiful selection of student poetry and art. You will be amazed!!!

If you decide to participate in this inspiring contest- let us know. We would appreciate the opportunity to showcase your students' work here at Children's Discovery Museum for the 2010 BioSITE Open House in April.

Also, we have invited Pamela Michaels, Travel author and Director of the River of Words Program to lead a workshop here at CDM this February- we will keep you informed as that shapes up.

So are you ready to be amazed by your students creative talents? The contest deadline is December 1st. Check it out!
http://www.riverofwords.org/contest/index.html

BioSITE SEED Restoration Project

Pioneer BioSITE Native Plant Nursery

In the fall of 2008, with help from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the BioSITE program was able to embark on an exciting new project. In cooperation with Pioneer High School, BioSITE has created a Native Plant Nursery on the Pioneer campus.

Throughout the year, students helped propagate a variety of California native plant species while learning about their importance to the health of our watershed. In the spring, they gave away the plants they had grown to local residents at various community events in order to share what they had learned and distribute native plants across the valley. They gave away almost 3000 plants!

Fourth grade BioSITErs also contributed to the restoration of our local environment by planting wildflower seed and Valley Oak acorns. We were able to donate over 200 new oak trees to Our City Forest and the Santa Clara Valley Water District!

This year the Native Plant Nursery is still going strong. We are growing more species, building new partnerships, and finding more opportunities for students to participate in restoration all the time. If you have any questions or would like more information about the BioSITE Restoration Project, please contact Biret Adden, badden@cdm.org .

Kit Showcase: Sorting through Sediments

  

What is down there under your feet? In just one tray of soil you can find a variety of things to test your skills of observation. We will supply sifting trays, magnifiers, and other materials to turn your students into soil scientists; you supply the soil and enthusiasm.
Sorting Sediment Journal Pages