The 2017-18 School Year is the 2nd year of our NOAA sponsored “Climate Resiliency Fellows” Program.  Our aim is to “Create a dynamic community of informed teachers committed to involving their students in learning about and engaging in local climate change issues and climate resiliency projects.”  Many thanks to all of our hard working teachers and students! 

We started this year by going out to our forest several times to remove invasive or weeds that had overran the plants.  I brought in specimens of different plants for my students to get to know. I want them to identify local trees and ferns.  They are very excited about knowing what leaves or branches belong to what tree.

We went water testing and students had a great time – even in the rain.  We test at Schafer State Park on the East Branch of the Satsop River. The water was low so we also did a stream flow.

I had gone up several days earlier and put leaf bags in the water.  Since it was raining, we just took the macroinvertebrates back to the class.  The students enjoyed trying to identify what they found in the water.

Students keep a science journal so they write their observations along with other details of their work down.  They love Science is what they will say.

We all had a trip to the Port Blakely Tree farm in Tumwater which helped reinforce their skills of tree identification.  The students enjoy being outside to learn about their environment.