Salmon in the Classroom

Recently the salmon were released in North Creek. Take some time to apply what you've learned about the environment this school year to try a simulation as a Coho Salmon. Good luck!

Review: What happened to the shake test?

We looked briefly at the shake test from yesterday and witnessed that the materials in our stream table models settle differently. The sand settled to the bottom much faster than the clay. You can clearly see this separation in the picture below.

The Mystery of the Play Field Steps

Every school year I notice changes around the school yard. Sometimes I'm able to make connections with what's going on at our school with what we're studying in class. For example, the picture below is a mystery. I'm not sure what happened, but I have a theory as a scientist. I'm thinking that this connects to the Landforms Unit. Are you able to make any connections? Look at the stairs to the Play Field. There have been changes that have occurred over time to the earth that borders the perimeter of the stairs.

Q1: How did so much sediment end up on the sidewalk leading to the stairs?

What happened to the materials in the stream table model?

We revisited the stream table models to determine what happens to the materials during the time we poured 1 liter of water, representing 1 million years of rainfall, over it. We noticed that it moved the material from the water wearing it away, erosion. The video shows this process.

Now consider,

Q1: Where did most of the material end up? Remember this is called deposition.

Q2: What landforms do you see forming?

Let's look even deeper to find out how the sediment moves in the models. The stream tables we built are made out of sand and clay. Today I put the materials through the shake test. I simulated the material getting disturbed by flowing water. As you can see from the picture below, the mixture has a mocha look. What would you expect to happen to the materials?

A Day for Science and MSP Reflection

Science
Today we continued our work with the Landforms and Models Unit. We reflected on the following question. "How was the Grand Canyon formed?" After running an investigation using a stream table model, we learned about the impact that water has on our environment. This helped us to begin to make connections with the concept of erosion. We looked at how this is connected to our own backyard with Mount St. Helens.

Here is a picture of one of our stream tables.

Think about the following questions as you look at the image. Record your reflections in your Science Journal.

1. What happened to the earth material in the stream table that once filled the sand and clay plateau that is now a canyon? What happened to the material in the Grand Canyon?

2. How are your stream table models like the pictures we've looked at of the Grand Canyon? How are they different?

MSP Reflection
Also, today was a day to reflect on the MSP. The pictures below illustrate how we felt as a class about the MSP. It shows how we agreed with the statement, "The Reading/Math/Science MSP was easy for me." The purpose was to begin to understand how well prepared we felt for the state exam. This will lead us into discussions on what might be done in the future to prepare students for the test.

Reading Results










Math Results










Science Results