The Yaquina Lighthouse Native Plant Restoration grant with the Bureau of Land Management was finalized as of February 18th. ECS will be working with the BLM in the gathering, propagation, and planting of native plant species at the Yaquina Lighthouse. This is a three year grant worth $10,000 and the possibility of more money with continuation of the grant for up to five years. The greenhouse already has around 150 plants and shrubs growing now. This is a very exciting opportunity for the students to be part of an iconic landmark on the Oregon Coast. The grant provides opportunities for upgrades needed to the greenhouse and expansion of our irrigation system. Many thanks to Ann Cook for suffering through the application process of a bureaucracy that exceeds the education system in its difficulty. A BLM news release can be found here:
http://www.blm.gov/or/districts/salem/files/npr_yhona.pdf
Successful sales of student maintained native trees to various watershed councils and individuals for riparian restoration of streams and rivers brought in additional needed revenue for the greenhouse. Close to six hundred trees have sold this year alone. The goal is to have the greenhouse be as self sufficient as possible. As education money continues to dwindle, this is now more important than ever. Vocational classes are much more expensive to support than classroom classes. The Benton County Soil and Water Conservation District were very pleased with the wild ginger the students gathered for BCSWCD native plant sale. They already placed an order for next year. The below URL will take you to a newsletter featuring ECS students gathering and processing wild ginger
http://www.bentonswcd.org/publications/Horizons_%20Winter_2010-2011.pdf
The Morris X. Smith heirloom orchard across the street from the church is finally close to completely pruned. A few errant, missed branches remain. The orchard once had a sign that dedicated it to the late Morris Smith. I am thinking about placing another one in his honor. We have over a hundred dollars in donations thus far. If anyone would like to contribute please see me. I don't have an exact amount of the cost since we are only in the preliminary stages of design. Obviously, the more money we can collect, the nicer the sign. I will use some money from the horticulture tree sales fund to ensure the sign equals the quality of the man to which the orchard was dedicated.
Don't forget the Spring Fling in May for your garden start needs. We will begin planting some seeds next month. If you have any requests or favorites you would like me to start for you please let me know.
Field Biology
Forest, river and lake ecology has been the concentration of study thus far in field biology. Several stream samples of functional feeding groups of macro invertebrates in the local streams for indicators of stream quality were made. Collection of monthly water samples of the Yaquina River and Little Elk Creek are continuing. We are collecting data on the changing dissolved oxygen, nitrates and fecal coli-form found in these water systems.
Recently, the class began breeding laboratory fruit flies, both normal and two types of mutated ones. Genetics and Mendel’s laws of heredity are the course of study.
This spring we will join USGS lake and stream ecologists in their continuing study of the coastal dune lakes. Part of this study is sampling native fish and mussel populations for DNA differences in these isolated, closed water systems.
Soon we will be raising steelhead, frog and salamander eggs in our chilled aquarium as well as field sampling the emerging small mammals from their winter rest.
In a series of labs in the classroom, the class measured the wattage and "solar flux" of the sun. Solar flux is the amount of calories the sun produces on one square centimeter every minute (calorie/cm^2 X min.) The sun was partially hidden by a haze which moved in just as we getting ready for our measurement. The result we computed in this semi-obscured sky was .5 calories/cm^2 per minute. The real measurement is 1.5 solar flux which given the conditions and the fact we used Styrofoam cups and colored water for our sophisticated, scientific instruments is not bad. The sun's wattage was quite startling and once again not to far off considering the tools, blackened tin foil in a beaker with a homemade Styrofoam lid. The sun's wattage according to our calculations is equal to 4,200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 watts. I wonder why one created scientific notation? (4.2X10^27) The current computed figure for the sun's wattage is 3.86X10^26. Our experiment was off by approximately one zero. I say not bad!
Integrated Science
StRUT (Students Recycling Used Technology)
It was a particularly good year for recycled computers. Corporate donations to the StRUT warehouse located in The Dalles allowed us to receive several exceptional machines. The class is refurbishing ten desktop machines with core-duo processors to replace aging computers in the library, and five laptops with dual core processors for replacement of teacher’s computers. The school budget allowed us to purchase the necessary hard drives to complete the transfer which is now on going. If you have ever loaded an operating system from scratch before and the assorted programs that go with it, you will know the amount of time it takes.
Independent study of visual basic programming language, Adobe Premier video software and Photoshop, and robotics using Lego robots fills in other times, not to mention maintenance of school technology.
Recently, a new internet filter system was brought online by the ESD, Educational Service District. The ESD controls the wide area network for Lincoln, Benton, and Linn county school districts. A network error occurred in the connection between ECS and the ESD. It caused our network to slow down to a snail's pace much to the concern of all. Fortunately, with the volunteer help of Lynn Smith from LCSD IT department, we were able to solve the problem and are back up and running at expected speeds. The filter system keeps wandering internet users from visiting certain sites deemed unnecessary or inappropriate for educational purposes. Although students may disagree, this is a good thing!
Integrated Science
The class recently changed from the study of matter to the study of energy. The unit begins with the basic laws of energy such as the law of the conservation of energy which states one cannot create or destroy energy, chemically. Since it is a law of science it can never be broken. To demonstrate that one cannot create more energy then one puts into the system, I use a bowling ball attached to a rope as a pendulum hooked to the ceiling with the ball extending to just above the floor, about ten feet. I then choose a student who I think will add a "special flavor" to the demonstration, such as whom I am having a current "altercation" with, and seat him in a chair within the arc of the pendulum swing. Placing the bowling ball so it just touches his nose, I ask him to trust the laws of science. The conservation law cannot be broken and therefore the ball cannot come back any further than the nose which it is touching. That is why it is a law! Well, at least we have not observed a case of this law being broken yet. Telling the student not to move, at least not forward, I release the bowling ball yelling once again for trust. I can't understand why the kids just don't believe! The demonstration always is good for a laugh and creates that learning window for the beginning of a unit which students tend to find quite interesting. A lot of current news events and discussions are about our dwindling fossil fuel resources and the potential and need of renewable resources in the future. This unit will teach about energy concepts and the advantages and the disadvantages of these important current and potential energy resources.
