Water BBK
By: Eden Pinstein Our Water BBK activity helped us to build our understanding of water and helped us to see how our water is connected to all water and we are all part of "One Well." During the Water BBK activity, we had a big paper and had a picture, we identified what we noticed, what we wondered, and lastly, what we saw and what was different about each picture we got. This helped us understand more about water. |
Water Close Viewing
By: Vivian Coffin and Davis Blackburn The water close viewing was where we started our expedition. We got into groups of 2 and 3. Also, there was a picture of a water source. Each group wrote what they noticed about the picture and drew what it looked like. This helped us to really look closely at all of the different forms of water. |
Creek Naming
By: Vivian Coffin and Davis Blackburn When we viewed a map, we saw that the creek behind our school did not have a name. We wanted to change that. During the creek naming process, we wrote letters to Dr. Dude (City Schools of Decatur Superintendent) and Ms. Lofstrand (our principal) to convince them that the creek behind our school should be named Wolfpack Creek. We were successful and were able to send their letters of recommendation to the government. We are still waiting to hear from the government, but are excited that the creek behind our school might have the name that we created. |
Chattahoochee Nature Center Field Experience
By: Evelyn and Davis Blackburn At the Chattahoochee Nature Center, we went to a pond, and the expert said the pond was full of really small bugs. We had to take a net and scoop up mud from the bottom of the lake, and then dump the mud on a tray, and look for bugs with a plastic spoon. After we found the bugs, we looked at them under a microscope. This helped us to understand that water is really important to many small bugs and creatures. |
Stream Assessment with EPA Expert, Mr. Blackburn
By: Evelyn, Erin and Davis Blackburn When Mr. Blackburn, the EPA agent came, we investigated the creek with these checklists that had questions about the color, the temperature , and all sorts of things. Also, there were transitions, one of them was drawing the creek, Mr.Blackburn actually going IN the creek with rain boots (In the pictures, there's a picture of the checklist). We learned that the health of the creek is very important to many animals and plants. |
Halloween Candy PSA
By: Pax and Anna Charen After testing the stream, we made announcements so that people don't throw candy wrappers in the creek. If people do, fish might eat the candy wrappers and it could end up in the Pacific Garbage Patch. By: Finn and Anna Charen Our Halloween PSA's were a very good idea because the water we drink is from the Chattahoochee River and the trash that gets into the river would end up in our drinking water. I think that people who heard the messages listened because there were no candy wrappers in our creek after Halloween! |
Water Use
By: Vivian Coffin During the water use activity, we recorded how much water we use at home. We also learned that it usually takes 5 gallons to flush a toilet. To see how difficult it is go get enough water to flush a toilet, we used cups to fill up pints, pints to fill up quarts, and quarts to fill up gallons to make 5 gallons of water. It took a lot of work! |
Helping Puerto Rico Access Water
By: Charlotte We started helping people in Puerto Rico when we realized that people in Puerto Rico had gone through a hurricane. They did not have enough clean water to drink. Marcos's dad came in and told all about Puerto Rico because his aunts lived there. We wanted to help. First, we made informational papers for the second graders who wanted to help, too. We came up with ideas for fundraisers and then voted on them to raise money. The top vote was a movie night and a bake sale. But then we decided on something else-something sort of like the third grade market. Third graders could bring in things they didn't want anymore and sell it to younger kids. Even other third graders could buy things! Since this is the holiday time, we are giving some of our toys away. All the money will go to Puerto Rico. |
Water Pollution BBK
By: Charley To begin our Water Pollution BBK activity, we read "Pollution at the Well" from our anchor text One Well. We wrote down what we saw, what we wondered what we noticed and what the gist of the story was. When we wrote about the story we only got two minutes to write it down. We separated the different categories into boxes. We also looked at pictures of the Pacific Ocean Trash Island and animals that have been hurt by the pollution. |
Creek Visit with the WYLDE Center
By: Boone Pittman During the creek visit with the WYLDE center we tested the creek with pills. They had a slide show and told us how chemicals are really bad for the water and really bad for fish and how it kills them all the time. We learned about ground water and how it gets to bodies of water. We also learned that the creek behind our school is 100 percent healthy and clean. |
Ground Water Activity with EPA expert, Mr. Pope
By: Vivian Coffin and Charlotte Hoppin During the ground water activity with EPA expert Mr. Pope, we learned that humans impact our water because of toxic waste. We did an experiment to see what happens when toxic waste gets into the ground and it rains. |
Freddie the Fish
By:Vivian Coffin and Davis Blackburn Freddie the fish was very fun and helped us to see how humans do things that really harm fish. Freddie was a sponge fish in a bowl of water. Our teachers read through the events that Freddie went through when swimming beyond the his part of the river. Like, how he came across some animals and they left a stinky present in the water, or when a man started poring oil into the river. Also, when Freddie came to a part of the river were there were people cutting down the nearby forest. Each time we pored in what ever Freddie was experiencing. |
Water Hub Field Experience
By: Eden Pinstein and Davis Blackburn On our case study three, we visited the water hub! At the water hub, we learned that people are improving our water sources. People all over have been using lots, and lots, of water. At Emory, people built the water hub. The water hub is a little hub that can reuse our dirty water into water that you can use for washer machines, toilets, washing hands and more! We learned that four-hundred-thousand gallons were used at Emory a day! The Water Hub has-provided over half of that water! People at Emory use 40% less water than they would, and used to. They did some of those things that did not need the Water Hub to do, like using dirty water for toilets, heating air, and much, much more. People at Emory are trying to create more water hubs all over, so we can have a happier planet! We are increasing our water by re-using it! |
Q&A Sessions with Experts
By: Evelyn and Ellie and Anna Charen and Charlotte Hoppin When Dr. George Luber (Associate Director for Climate Change at the CDC) came, the Global Warming group asked questions like "Why do people use fossil fuels?" The answer to that was Fossil Fuels make people's life convenient. When Jonathan Yoder (Deputy Branch Chief of the Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch at the CDC) came, we all took turns asking questions about our topics, like "Are Oil spills rare in urban areas?" The answer was " They are not common." When Jennings Bell (Project Civil Engineer with City of Decatur Public Works Department) came, we learned about how to keep water safe, and we learned about the Environmental Protection Act. He also taught us about the clean water act and roles about how to keep water clean . When Oliver Holmes (Former Director of Facilities Planning and Design at RPI in Troy, NY) came, we also asked him questions about our topics. (Also, He was Mrs. Foster's Uncle) |
Creating an Informational Piece
By: Sage For creating our informational piece, first, we did our first draft second. After writing our draft, we got feedback from each other. We did our second draft using the feedback. We got feedback from our classmates and then our teacher and we used the feedback to make a piece that we could publish on our website. |
City Blueprint
By: Sage For the city blueprint, we got a big piece of paper that had tiny squares and we designed a city that was designed to keep water safe. We got feedback from experts (Mr. Holmes and Ms. Zender) and made changes. After that, we figured out the area and perimeter of impervious surfaces, green spaces, and water areas. |