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.