Duck Pond Pictures

Duck Pond

    On December 5, 2012, we went on a trip to the duck pond. The reason we went on the trip was because it was one of the sites we choose a few months ago, and so we decided to go to it because we hadn’t been to a marsh or water body yet this year.  It was 26 degrees Fahrenheit and we saw a couple of birds. One of the birds we saw was the black-billed magpie and the others we couldn’t identify. We also saw a vole hole and lots of moose sign such as willow browsing. That trip was our first field trip with snowshoes. It went really well. It was kind of hard to get the snowshoes on and to walk up the hills but we had a lot of fun.

Pictures From The Moose Field Trip

Moose Carcass

We took a trip to a dead moose in the park on the 29th of November that was hit by a car  on November 9th. We went to the dead moose because we are studying animal sign and birds, and during the trip we saw bird tracks and wolf tracks by the dead moose and wolf scat . The moose was very smelly in some places and not so smelly in others. It was a  tremendous walk through snow, ice, water, and brush. The walk was 0.8 miles long one way. We know this because Greg told us.  We saw wolf tracks, moose tracks, moose rubbing, wolf scat, common ravens, magpies, an eagle, eagle tracks, and a dead moose. Jack was leading us with a compass through the woods and only had us off a quarter of a mile, but it was a fun walk back to the van!         

Motion Activated Camera Pictures of Glen's Ditch Beaver

Glen's Ditch Beaver

By: Faith

   

    In August a beaver showed up and started to try and make a dam in Glen’s Ditch. The dam was flooding the ditch and started to worry some people about their houses. The 4th-5th grade class really wanted pictures of the beaver so we set up a motion activated camera with Tania lewis’s help. We have some really good Pictures of the beaver so far.

    The beaver was accomplishing his dam building so some people had to discourage the beaver. The beaver started building another dam upstream from the first. That didn’t help people at all.

    Hank Lentfer was asked to live trap the beaver but he learned that if he tried to put the beaver in another pond the beaver would just get beat up and and be ran out by the other beavers. Other reasons were that the beaver could find his way back and build another dam and that trying to transport the beaver would stress it out. So we decided it would be best to use a conibear trap. Sadly the beaver might have to die.

    The beaver actually doesn’t have to die because the beaver left. Nobody has been seeing signs of the beaver for the past couple weeks so Hank hasn’t set the trap yet. Lori Ross did a really good job discouraging the beaver so we don’t have to deal with it anymore. I hope he finds a better home that won't be disturbing anyone.

Questions and Hypotheses for Year Long Study

These are our hypotheses and questions that are for our study.

 

Which plant community has the most animals in it?

We think that the conifer-dominated forest will have the most animals in it because it provides a wider variety of food, water, and shelter, which makes it so a wider variety of animals live there.

How many different animals are in each of these plant communities:  marshes/water bodies, deciduous thickets, conifer-dominated forests, and meadows? 

Mammals

black bear

brown bear

wolf

coyote

mink

moose

vole

shrew

squirrel

porcupine

beaver

river otter

short-tailed weasel

marten

 Birds

Wilson’s snipe

sooty grouse

common raven

Stellar’s jay

goshawk

northern harrier

red-tailed hawk

bald eagle

black-billed magpie

sharp-shinned hawk

short-eared owl

great horned owl

varied thrush

white-winged crossbill

pine sisken

dark-eyed junco

sparrows

winter wren

warbler

golden-crowned kinglet

black-capped chickadee

chestnut-backed chickadee

American robin

How Many Eagles Can You See?

Looking for Eagles at the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve

Klukwan, Haines, and Juneau

Yesterday we left Gustavus and went to Juneau on the ferry.  When we got there we went to go eat dinner at Subway.  Then, we went swimming at Thunder Mountain pool.  After we went swimming we dried off, went to the the hostel, had a little snack, Mrs. Cervin read us a story, and we went to bed.

In the morning we got all ready to go on the ferry to Haines and Klukwan at 4:30 in the morning.  Then we all got in the van and went to the ferry to go to Haines and Klukwan. 


My favorite part of the trip so far was seeing all of those eagles today and going swimming. ~SB

I liked meeting the Klukwan students. ~US

It was really interesting seeing the Klukwan School because it is all connected--even the gym!  When we got here they sang some traditional songs for us.  It was new to me.  I had never heard anything like it before. ~DW

The best part of my day was when we got to meet the Klukwan students and go on a scavenger hunt to look for eagle sign.  ~SH

So far, the best part of the field trip was meeting students from a school in the same district.  ~JO

My favorite things that have happened on the trip are swimming and hiking.  When we were hiking in Klukwan I thought that was the most bald eagles that I would see in my entire life. ~FW

Jumping into the pool was fun because you couldn't get out of the tornado-thing.  Being on the ferry was fun because the crew members were so nice. ~JP  

Year-long Study Questions

We  came up with our questions for our year-long study:

How many different animals are in each of these plant communities:  marshes/water bodies, deciduous thickets, conifer-dominated forests, and meadows? 

Which plant community has the most animals in it?

What Kind Of Tracks Are These?

2012-2013 4th and 5th Grade Year-Long Scientific Study

Hi!,  This is the 4th-5th grade class introducing our new year- long scientific study. This year we decided on birds and animal sign for our topics. We haven’t decided on our questions yet. Tania came in and gave us a great presentation about animal sign, so we do have our questions narrowed down to four questions

We have already been on four different trips for our scientific study to collect data for our topics. The trips we’ve been on so far to collect data were to the Crane Flats, the beach, the community garden, and the beaver dam on the Nagoonberry Loop Trail.

           

On October 16, 2012, we went on a field trip to the beaver dam on Nagoonberry Loop Trail. While we were there we set up a camera on a middle-sized willow tree hoping to get a picture of the beaver. The camera is motion activated so be careful when around it.

We’ve already seen a lot of birds on our trips! We hope to find many more birds and animal sign throughout our scientific study.  At the beginning of the year we started our bird lists. Bird lists are these lists of birds that we add birds to that we’ve seen. Once we find a certain amount of birds we get a certificate saying we found that many birds. Each time the amount of birds you have to find gets larger. We’ve already seen birds as big as trumpeter swans to the littlest birds like dark-eyed juncos.

On November 13^th-16^th the 4^th and 5^th grade class is going on a trip to Haines and Klukwan. Every year there’s an Eagle Festival in Haines. As you know we’re studying birds so it’s a great chance to learn about eagles and the eagle’s history. Were also going to go on hikes, go swimming, and learn more about Klukwan culture. It’ll be a lot of fun going on the trip!

Our Nature Journals (Gustavus Spruce Trees on Nagoonberry Trail)

Nagoonberry Loop Field Trip (March 29)

The 3^rd-5^th grade class went to the Nagoonberry  Loop Trail on March 29^th. It was windy and cloudy and kind of warm. It was very hard to get a soil sample because of all the roots.  Our soil samples were really interesting because you could really see the layers clearly. There was a little sand and a lot of clay. Desire noticed that at the top of the soil sample it was really soft and wet.  The soil would feel harder and harder as you went down the sample with your finger.  One group noticed that the soil sample had some reddish-brown soil and grey clay in it. 

The trees we recorded in the area were willow, Sitka spruce, jack pine, and cottonwood. We found two really big Sitka spruce trees.  One had a circumference of 251cm and we estimated it to be 55 feet tall. (It had a hunting stand in it.)  Another Sitka spruce had a circumference of 269cm.   

We noticed a lot of moose scat on the ground.  We also saw Carolyn hiking on the trail.

We were quiet for a minute and we heard a lot of geese.  If we keep doing a quiet minute we predict we will hear different kinds of birds migrating through Gustavus. 

When we were nature journaling, Sammy wrote some poetry about her observations:

The blue sky leaves as the dark clouds take over.

The wind is blowing, the trees are shaking, and everything is quiet.

NOAA BOOK

This is a link to a post about our NOAA book on a United States government blog.

NOAA Book

Strawberry vs. Moss

We were talking  about our study and noticed that the strawberries and moss were green and no other plants were. We drew a picture of moss and strawberry plants and called it strawberry vs. moss. We drew them to learn more about them.

Strawberry Questions

1.      How do they survive in winter?

2.      Why does it have a giant root?

3.      Why does it have a shell (around the root?)

Moss Questions

1.      How fuzzy can it get?

2.      How does moss keep you warm?

3.      Why does it have all that fuzz?  Does it help it keep insulated?

  

Strawberry vs. Moss (Nature Journal Sketches by 3rd-5th Grade)

Field Report, February 9th (Behind the School)

On February 9th, the 3-5th went behind the school for a field trip, and on the way back we had to notice something that we didn’t on the way there. When we got back we wrote what we noticed in our journals. This is what we wrote:

On the way back from the site I noticed that there were buds on most of the willows that I saw. Also I saw cotton wood buds that looked like they were about to open. Hopefully that means spring is coming. (Tasha)

On the way back we saw a moose browsing on small willow trees, and a moose bed. (Marshall)

I noticed that there were a lot of moose tracks and other stuff like there were no pine needles on the bottom of the pine trees. (Jacob)

I saw a seed pod that had seeds really close to it and I also saw willow buds. What did you see? (Sammy)

I noticed a bunch of the trees were laying on the ground, they looked lazy. The snow was too heavy for most of the alders so they were touching the ground. That was interesting to me. (Faith)

I noticed a seed pod and it wasn’t opened yet. It was an easy guarantee that spring is coming. (Desire)

I noticed where the moose hang out. It has a big tree and moose go to the bathroom there. (Scherion)

I saw a chocolate Lilly seed that Jacob pointed out to some people and some willow nipped off the tree. (Sesylia)

I saw that the willow buds were opening. (Ula)

Halibut Road 1-12-12

The 3-5 grade class went to Halibut Road. It was really wet and cold. A water table is water under the soil but it is not all water it has soil mixed in with it. The water table can be a foot deep under the soil or deeper. Sometimes it can be over the soil. It was very cloudy and the water table was at the ground level. We saw some Sitka spruce, Jack pine, willow,and alder. And it was like a treasure hunt trying to find the hole that Greg dug for us.We found a worm in the soil. And the soil was really muddy.

January 5, 2012 Behind the School

On January 5, 2012, we went on a field trip behind the school. It was a sunny, but cold day. We went into two groups and each group went to a different site. The soil wasn't frozen at all! It was a huge shock to us.We found a dead worm in the soil sample. The snow depth at the second site was 11 inches, The first site was ten and a half inches. In a big group we talked about how snow insulates the plants under the snow. We left some plants uncovered so we could see what the difference was next time we went on a field trip. We think that the ones that are exposed to cold air might die. We had so much fun!

Questions and Hypotheses

After the long process of making and editing our questions we have finally moved on to our hypotheses! We had to make changes to the questions three times before writing our hypotheses. The questions and hypothesis are written below.


Question1: What do non-woody plants do in the winter? Do they die and turn brown or stay alive and stay green?

Hypothesis1: We think that many plants will be dead and brown, because non-woody plants don’t have as long as a life span as woody plants and don’t live as long in freezing temperatures.


Question 2: What soil contains more nutrients? Disturbed soil or non disturbed soil?

Hypothesis 2: We think that disturbed soil has less nutrients than non-disturbed soil when it gets moved. We think that some disturbed soil has more nutrients than non-disturbed soil, because things are added to it like compost, seaweed and miracle grow.


Question3: Are there different nutrient amounts in the soil in conifer-dominated, marshes, meadows, and deciduous thicket plant communities?

Hypothesis3: Yes, we do think that there are different nutrient amounts in conifer-dominated, marshes, meadows, and deciduous thickets, because of the diverse plants. The different plants that are in the distinct plant communities probably need different nutrient amounts concluding that there are different nutrient amounts in the various plant communities.