Salmon in the Classroom

Woodlawn is excited to join the US Fish and Wildlife Services' Salmon in the Classroom program this year.  We have created a salmon snowflake to show the life cycle from egg to fry to adult.

Want to see some happy engineers and scientists?

Looking for some excitement during the holiday break? Watch the SpaceX engineers and scientists celebrate the first launch and successful landing of of a first stage rocket. This milestone will help cut space transport costs and allow rockets to be reused.

Earthquake Slinky Science

Our students were able to demonstrate and collect data on the speed of earthquake compression and side-to-side waves with Slinkies.  By the end of the session they were able to identify which wave would arrive first and what type of damage each wave would inflict on a building.

Bubble of Darkness

This activity was designed by Patricia Cooke as an intro to light waves.  We adapted the lesson for our 5th grade constellation activity.  The students spend time in the Bubble of Darkness (tarps, duct tape, a fan, and pin holes) talking in small groups about what they see in the 'sky'.  Back in the classroom they created their own constellation based on modern heroes.

STEAM in Action

What if stars could dance?

Community Service, Environmental Science, Social Studies, Math, and Art

As part of the Rieke 4th grade class's Native American unit, the students were able to connect their studies of native ethnobotany with a community service activity.  The students were able to participate in an English Ivy pull at Stephen's Creek with the Portland Parks and Recreation SW Steward.  They learned about invasive species in the Park and effect of these plants on the native population.  After the ivy pull, they transported the vines back to the school for a social studies, math, and art activity.

To make a basket from the ivy vines, the students needed to know the math of weaving.  The art is focused on patterns, symmetry, and force.  First we reviewed the pattern of weaving - over, under, over, under.  While baskets and many of the weaving products are extremely symmetrical, there has to be a break from perfect symmetry in the spines of the basket.  If they use an even number, the pattern would be weak.  They would start weaving under, over, under, over around the circle only to end up with a repeat each row, causing some spine to bend out while the alternating spine bend in.  They need an odd number of spines to create a strong basket.  Finally, the students were able to experiment with force - too much pull on the vine caused it to break, too little caused the basket to have large holes.  By the end of the class, each student had a mini basket - a great use of an invasive plant.

Simple Machines

Today Rieke 1st graders were able to practice their engineering skills at the annual Simple Machines event.  They tested different levers with our giant teeter totter and catapults, moved a heavy box with a wedge and basic wheels, lifted a classmate with a pulley chair, and improved the design of paper airplanes and flying cups.  Special thanks to our wonderful parent volunteers who helped lead the students through the stations!

 

Let's learn about earthquakes!

P-waves, S-waves, surface waves?  What does that mean?

Check out this wonderful video by the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology:

Say tuned for our slinky earthquake lesson!

video credit:  IRIS

Math in our world

Math is all around us.  From a child's point of view so many moments in nature, at the grocery store, on the drive home - are experiences that they can stop and observe numbers, patterns, shapes, and rules.  This article by Deborah Farmer Kris describes ways to engage the innate creativity of children as they view our mathematical world.

Using Creativity to Boost Young Children's Mathematical Thinking

Let's build a planet!

As part of our STEAM program, each student will be able to invent a planet that they discovered.  There are no rules on what the planet needs to look like, everyone's planet can be different.  Each month they will be able to revisit their planet and apply their new science knowledge to their description of their planets weather, moons, habitats, food sources, animals, clothing, ...  Check out some of the planets that they have already created!

Woodlawn Planets

Exoplanets - 500 and counting

So far we have discovered over 500 exoplanets.  Here is an amazing poster by Martin Vargic that shows 1/4 of the confirmed exoplanets arranged by temperature (left to right increase in temperature) and density (bottom to top increase in density)

For every action

there is an equal and opposition reaction

- Newton's Third Law

The Woodlawn third graders are learning how the force from a simple kick can change the motion and direction of a soccer ball.  They also observed that the soccer ball does not keep rolling forever; other forces try to slow down the ball - friction, gravity, and the push of the classroom wall.  We practiced these words in the classroom with the fun game 'snapshot' where the student teams had to act out a vocabulary work in front of the class

Using their new vocabulary words, the class were ready to test Newton's Third Law with stomp rockets.  Each student was able to set up the rocket launcher, apply force with their foot on the rocket pad, and observe and measure the equal and opposite reaction of the rocket flight.  By the end of the class each student was able to predict which angle could make the rocket fly the furthest, either vertically or horizontally.

On the second day the class was able to measure a smaller 'reaction rocket' in the classroom and record the height of the rocket flight from different drop points.  We graphed their results and could make a hypothesis as to how high a rocket could fly from a 2m drop!

Check out more photos of our 3rd grade Woodlawn Rocket Launchers!

Just in time for Halloween!

It's as if the universe itself was trying to get into the Halloween spirit.

A large space rock resembling a skull narrowly missed Earth shortly after 1 p.m. ET Saturday. NASA says asteroid 2015 TB145 is a "dead" comet that once spewed debris across the solar system. In NASA terminology, that means it has "shed its volatiles" that would produce the visible tail seen on some comets.

It missed Earth by about 300,000 miles (slightly farther away than the moon). The rock, dubbed 2015 TB145, was visible to those with good telescopes.

Gianluca Masi, astrophysicist and curator of science at Planetario di Roma, featured a live stream through the Virtual Telescope Project in order to track the asteroid as it cruised by Earth. "I always like looking at those close approachers," he told CNN. "They (show that) we do live in such dynamic solar system, where collisions play such a big role in shaping planets, Earth included.

"Now we are aware of those brushing visitors and are studying them, but in ancient times they had such strong effects on life and evolution on this planet," he said.a

Water on Mars?

New findings from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.

“Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water -- albeit briny -- is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”

Dark narrow streaks called recurring slope lineae emanating out of the walls of Garni crater on Mars. The dark streaks here are up to few hundred meters in length. They are hypothesized to be formed by flow of briny liquid water on Mars. The image is produced by draping an orthorectified (RED) image (ESP_031059_1685) on a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) of the same site produced by High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (University of Arizona). Vertical exaggeration is 1.5.

Credits: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Full image and caption

Preparing for Space

What does it take to prepare for a trip to space?  What training do you need?  Ask Astronaut Jeanette J. Epps!

Life as an Astronaut

Every wonder what life is like on the International Space Station?  Dr. Don Pettit, Oregon native and astronaut is the person to ask!

Science off the Sphere: Space Soundwaves

Physics Central:  Science off the Sphere videos

NASA Walking on Air: Time Lapse images from ISS

Blue Skies and Frozen Water on Pluto

Nasa has unveiled the first colour pictures of the haze that surrounds Pluto, along with pictures of patches of water ice on the dwarf planet.

Pluto’s haze layer shows its blue color in this picture taken by the New Horizons Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC). The high-altitude haze is thought to be similar in nature to that seen at Saturn’s moon Titan. This image was generated by software that combines information from blue, red and near-infrared images to replicate the color a human eye would perceive as closely as possibleNASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Aim for the Stars!

Two budding Seattle scientists are making a name for themselves after sending a homemade spacecraft 78,000 feet above the Earth's surface on Saturday.

Sisters Rebecca and Kimberly Yeung are 10 and 8 years old. 

In a video posted to YouTube by their father, Winston Yeung, the girls explain their experiment, which they called the Loki Lego Launcher - after their cat. A cutout photo of Loki hitched a ride on the craft, along with a LEGO figurine of R2-D2. 

Rebecca and Kimberly Yeung, ages 10 and 8, of Seattle work on their Loki LEGO Launcher, a homemade spacecraft named after their cat. The girls on Saturday sent the launcher 78,000 feet above the Earth's surface. (YouTube)
 

The girls used wood and broken arrow shafts to create the body of the launcher, which they also outfitted with styrofoam padding in case of a water landing. They attached two GoPro cameras to the vehicle to capture Loki and the Star Wars droid's travels.

A weather balloon filled with helium served as the duo's rocket fuel and a flight computer tracked the aircraft. After the journey, which took more than four hours, the girls used GPS to find the downed launcher 50 miles from their launch site. 

By Crystal Bonvillian | cbonvillian@al.com 

Impact Craters

What can you learn from a crater?  Our students experimented with different heights and marble weights to see what size/depth/pattern crater it would make.  We were able to identify old and new rock areas within a crater site thanks to flour and cocoa powder.

Cosmic Rays and Particles

Over the last month, those of you living in the West have been able to observe how particles in the air can change how cosmic rays are viewed by our eyes.  This last weekend in Portland, OR, the smoke from the wildfires in the region were blown in and focused the Willamette Valley, causing unhealthy air conditions (151-200 Air Quality Index).  The morning sun was red and throughout the day, the clouds and sun looked orange.

That is because the radiation from our sun that we see as red and orange are long wavelength, low frequency cosmic rays within the human visible light spectrum.  These colors are less likely to be scattered by atmospheric particles compared with the other visible light colors (yellow, green, blue, purple).  On days with high pollution or smoke, the sun and the clouds will appear red or orange because the other colors in the light spectrum are scattered by the air particles.

For more information, check out "the Physics Classroom".  You can also model this effect by shining a flashlight through a glass of water.  Watch the color change in the steam of light through the cup while using a dropper to add milk to the water.  It's a sunset in a cup!

Scale, Proportion, and Quantity

Looking for a good example of scale - both physically and mentally?  Here is an excellent video showing how big things can get in our universe.

Everything you need to know: Perseid meteor shower | Astronomy Essentials | EarthSky

Turn your eyes to the sky tonight 

- it's the peak night for the Perseid meteor shower!

Everything you need to know: Perseid meteor shower | Astronomy Essentials | EarthSky

By Bruce McClure


In the Northern Hemisphere, the annual August Perseid meteor shower probably ranks as the all-time favorite meteor shower of the year. This major shower takes place during the lazy, hazy days of summer, when many families are on vacation. And what could be more luxurious than taking a siesta in the heat of the day and watching this summertime classic in the relative coolness of night? No matter where you live worldwide, the 2015 Perseid meteor shower will probably be fine on the mornings of August 11, 12, 13 and 14, with the nod going to August 13. On a dark, moonless night, you can often see 50 or more meteors per hour from northerly latitudes, and from southerly latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, perhaps about one-third that many meteors. Fortunately, in 2015, the waning crescent moon comes up shortly before sunrise, so you’re guaranteed of dark skies for this year’s Perseid meteor shower. Thus, on the Perseids’ peak mornings, moonlight will not obscure this
year’s Perseid meteors. Follow the links below to learn more.

When and how should I watch the Perseid meteor shower in 2015?
Don’t wait until the peak nights of the 2015 Perseid shower to watch for meteors this year. Start watching in the second week of August, when the Delta Aquarid meteor shower is rambling along steadily, reliably producing meteors each night. Then keep watching in the second week of August, when the Perseids are rising to a peak. The Perseid shower is known to rise gradually to a peak, then fall off rapidly afterwards. In early August (and even through the peak nights), you’ll see them combine with meteors from the Delta Aquarid shower. Overall, the meteors will be increasing in number from early August onward, and better yet, the moonlight will diminish until the new moon on August 14, 2015.

Don’t rule out early evenings As a general rule, the Perseid meteors tend to be few and far between at nightfall and early evening. Yet, if fortune smiles upon you, you could catch an earthgrazer – a looooong, slow, colorful meteor traveling horizontally across the evening sky. Earthgrazer meteors are rare but most exciting and memorable, if you happen to spot one. Perseid earthgrazers can only
appear at early to mid-evening, when the radiant point of the shower is close to the horizon.

As evening deepens into late night, and the meteor shower radiant climbs higher in the sky, more and more Perseid meteors streak the nighttime. The meteors don’t really start to pick up steam until
after midnight, and usually don’t bombard the sky most abundantly until the wee hours before dawn. You may see 50 or so meteors per hour in a dark sky.

General rules for Perseid-watching.
You need no special equipment to enjoy this nighttime spectacle. You don’t even have to know the constellations. But you’ll definitely want to find a dark, open sky to fully enjoy the show. It also helps to be a night owl. Give yourself at least an hour of observing time, for these meteors in meteor showers come in spurts and are interspersed with lulls.

An open sky is essential because these meteors fly across the sky in many different directions and in front of numerous constellations. If you trace the paths of the Perseid meteors backward, you’d find they come from a point in front of the constellation Perseus. But once again, you don’t need to know Perseus or any other constellation to watch this or any meteor shower.

Enjoy the comfort of a reclining lawn chair and look upward in a dark sky, far away from pesky artificial lights. Remember, your eyes can take as long as twenty minutes to truly adapt to the darkness of night. So don’t rush the process. All good things come to those who wait.

What’s the source of the Perseid meteor shower?
Every year, from around July 17 to August 24, our planet Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Swift-Tuttle, the parent of the Perseid meteor shower. Debris from this comet litters the comet’s orbit, but we don’t really get into the thick of the comet rubble until after the first week of August. The bits and pieces from Comet Swift-Tuttle slam into the Earth’s upper atmosphere at some 210,000 kilometers (130,000 miles) per hour, lighting up the nighttime with fast-moving Perseid meteors. If our planet happens to pass through an unusually dense clump of meteoroids – comet rubble – we’ll see an elevated number of meteors. We can always hope!

Comet Swift-Tuttle has a very eccentric – oblong – orbit that takes this comet outside the orbit of Pluto when farthest from the sun, and inside the Earth’s orbit when closest to the sun. It orbits the
sun in a period of about 133 years. Every time this comet passes through the inner solar system, the sun warms and softens up the ices in the comet, causing it to release fresh comet material into its orbital stream. Comet Swift-Tuttle last reached perihelion – closest point to the sun – in December 1992 and will do so next in July 2126.

Although the Perseid meteor shower gives us one of the more reliable productions of the year, the ins and outs of any meteor shower cannot be known with absolute certainty. Forecasting the time and intensity of any meteor shower’s peak – or multiple peaks – is akin to predicting the outcome of a sporting event. There’s always the element of surprise and uncertainty. Depending on the year, the shower can exceed, or fall shy, of expectation.

The swift-moving and often bright Perseid meteors frequently leave persistent trains – ionized gas trails lasting for a few moments after the meteor has already gone. Watch for these meteors to streak the nighttime in front of the age-old, lore-laden constellations from late night until dawn as we approach the second weekend in August. The Perseids should put out a few dozen meteors per hour in the wee hours of the mornings of August 11, 12 and 13.



"Perseid Meteors and Comet Swift-Tuttle" by Aanderson@amherst.edu - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Commons.

Claudia Alexander, Beloved NASA Project Scientist, Dies at 56

Claudia Alexander, Beloved NASA Project Scientist, Dies at 56

by Sarah Lewin, Staff Writer, Space.com

Claudia Alexander, a beloved NASA project scientist who spearheaded NASA's side of the European Rosetta comet mission and the Galileo mission to Jupiter, has died at age 56.

Alexander died after a 10-year battle with breast cancer, according to a NASA statement.

Alexander was a well-loved and prolific planetary scientist, science communicator, and even science fiction writer and children's author. She has left her mark on the study of comet formation, Jupiter and its moons, magnetospheres, plate tectonics, space plasma, the solar wind and the planet Venus, and according to her NASA biography, she wrote 14 scientific papers.

"Claudia brought a rare combination of skills to her work as a space explorer," Charles Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in the NASA statement. "Of course, with a doctorate in plasma physics, her technical credentials were solid. But she also had a special understanding of how scientific discovery affects us all, and how our greatest achievements are the result of teamwork, which came easily to her. Her insight into the scientific process will be sorely
missed."

After a high-school internship with NASA, Alexander again got involved in science during college, after her parents convinced her to major in"something useful" like engineering, rather than journalism, at the University of California, Berkeley, according to The New York Times. From there, she moved on to Earth science and then planetary science. After that, she got a master's degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and then a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Alexander worked on NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter for many years, controlling the plasma wave instrument and eventually taking over as its final project manager. The mission discovered 21 new
moons — Alexander was amazed to find a thin atmosphere on Ganymede, which she had thought was frozen solid — witnessed a comet's destruction in 1994 and revealed Jupiter's atmosphere for the first time before plunging into Jupiter in 2003 to avoid crashing into and contaminating one of Jupiter's moons.

At the time, Alexander told Space.com: "It's a little sad to be present at the demise of a great spacecraft." But as it fell, she hoped to grab as much data as possible.

Alexander also served as U.S. project scientist for the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet mission, a 10-year mission to land a probe on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The spacecraft gained speed over the course of four planet flybys before entering orbit around the comet in 2014 and beginning to observe the changes it underwent as it approached the sun.

According to The New York Times, Alexander was used to walking between two different cultures as a black woman in a field dominated by white men. Over the course of her life, she also served as a bridge between the scientific community and pop culture by talking with the media and spreading a love of science through her fiction writing.

Alexander was named woman of the year by the Association for Women Geoscientists, and received the Emerald Honor for Women of Color in Research & Engineering from Career Communications Group, publisher of Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine.

"In my job, I get to meet some pretty amazing people," Janet Vertesi, a sociologist at Princeton University, said in NASA's statement. "Even in a field of superstars, though, you are often fortunate enough to meet people who stand out as truly exceptional human beings, whom everyone admires and who somehow manages to achieve the work of 10 people effortlessly while making everyone feel excited to be working together and along for the ride.

"Planetary science, the community I have worked with for the last nine years, lost one of those people this weekend," she wrote.

Photo credit:  NASA

New Horizons' MOM

During the New Horizons' press conference this evening one of the shining stars was Alice Bowman, the Mission Operations Manager (MOM).  She inspired me with her words to students and people everywhere:

"Please tell your children and anybody out there, do what you are passionate about.

Don't do something because it's easy. Do something because you want to do it,

give yourself that challenge. You will not be sorry for it."

 
And it gets even better further into the mission update when she was asked about being nervous as they waited to hear back from the spacecraft today:

"Back to the parent and child story, you have a lot of faith in your children,

but sometimes they don't do exactly what you expect them to do.

It's sort of that feeling; you want them home at 8 o'clock,

but they're not there and so you worry.

In this instance, our spacecraft did exactly what it was supposed to do

and the signal was there for us to capture, it was great."

Alice Bowman, mission operations manager for the New Horizons mission. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Conjunction of Venus and Jupiter


Last week both Venus and Jupiter could be seen in the evening sky.  This photo of the event was taken by Woodlawn parent Sherylita Mason-Cruise.  You can see Venus in the foreground and Jupiter (with 4 of it's moons!) in the back.


Explanation of the conjunction by Joe Bauman:

"For many months, an impressive conjunction has been forming with the greatest solar system planet,Jupiter, and Venus, the brightest planet as seen from Earth. Huge Jupiter, with its orbit of nearly 12 Earth years, has remained relatively stationary. In a 225-day orbit, Venus zips around much faster. Lately, Venus has been edging closer to Earth, climbing higher in the evening sky. Tonight, Venus and Jupiter will form astunning duo just after sunset. They'll be about a third of a degree apart as seen from our perspective. The combination would be different observed from anywhere else in the solar system; Earth’s orbit around the Sun creates the alignment."

Building Critical Thinking Skills: Is Purple the Perfect Color?

Here is an article I wrote for the TalkSTEM site:

Building Critical Thinking Skills: Is Purple the Perfect Color?

As an elementary science teacher and mother of two young boys, I love hearing, “Guess what I just discovered?”. It often occurs when curiosity, wonder, and knowledge collide and can provide the foundation of a lifelong love of science. Recently a student had such a eureka moment and announced excitedly, “I found out that sapphires are really just blue emeralds”. I was intrigued by the statement though my limited knowledge of geology suggested it was incorrect. Maybe I was wrong and would learn something new. When asked where they found this interesting fact the student replied, “Online!”.

The saying, “You cannot trust everything you read”, is particularly true for online sources. Yet this often takes students (and adults) by surprise. In an age where Google is the go-to-source for general scientific questions, how much confidence can be had in data found online and how does one decide what is a reliable source? In scientific research, Peer Review helps ensure confidence in the scientific literature. Before publishing new data and conclusions, it is reviewed by a collection of other scientists to gauge the quality of the work and ensure all conclusions are supported by the data. Only work that meets the high standards of a field is published. Unfortunately, while Google uses an algorithmic approximation of peer review called PageRank to rank websites by importance, the question of accuracy of information isn’t directly considered.

To get students thinking critically about information online I tell them that I could post online that purple is the perfect color. Does that make it true? Is it a fact or an opinion? What if I was the main sponsor for purple items or had some other conflict of interest? Does that change how they would view my comments? Generally after answering these questions, it does. Another factor to consider is the relevance of the source. For instance, the student who noted “sapphires are really just blue emeralds”, found that ‘factoid’ on a website for a video game describing their virtual Chaos Emeralds.

All students should be trained to develop critical thinking skills including how to gauge confidence in online sources by accuracy and relevance. Its a requirement for those intending to pursue STEM careers and it benefits all students.

About Jamie:
Dr. Jamie Repasky is an independent science educator in Portland, Oregon, focusing on hands-on STEAM programs for K-8th grade students. She works both at Rieke Elementary School as a Science Enrichment Coordinator and at Woodlawn School as a STEAM Consultant. She holds a B.S. in Marine Science and Biology from University of Miami, Florida, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in Immunology from Yale University. Recently she was honored at the Sigma Xi Columbia Willamette chapter’s 2015 Outstanding Science Teacher of the Year.

Celebrate STEAM

E.T. Phones Home!

After seven months with no contact, Philae the space probe on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, woke up!

'Hello Earth!': Comet probe Philae wakes up

Solar S'mores

The sun is out and we are ready to enjoy a favorite summer snack.  Using poster board, cardboard, aluminum foil, glue, string, and clips, we created Copenhagen Solar Cookers for s'more science fun.  Once in the sun, the ovens heated up to 150'F in a matter of minutes and were able to melt the chocolate on our marshmallow fluff covered graham crackers.

Here is a video on how to build your own - How To Make Cogenhagen Solar Cooker.  We even made mini ones using 7"x7" poster board squares and 4"x4" cardboard center!

Future Solar Engineers

The Woodlawn students had a chance to experiment with solar panels and create a UV activated bead keychain at the "It Takes A Community" event.  Go Woodlawn Wildcats!

photo credit - Sherylita Mason

photo credit - Sherylita Mason

Come to the Woodlawn 'It Takes A Community' Event this Friday!  We will be running a 'Celebrate STEAM' table with science crafts and more information about the Planetary STEAM program.

Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink

Did you know that 1/6 of the world does not have access to clean drinking water?  That's over 1.1 billion people!  This week Rieke's 5th graders learned about the microbes all around us and which are the good, the bad, and the ugly.  Located near the school is Stephen's Creek watershed that has had high E. coli pollution over the last 10 years - E. coli is one of our sometimes good but sometimes bad microbes.  For this engineering challenge, the students were asked to purify the water from our creek with the SODIS method - using infrared and ultraviolet radiation from the sun to kill the microbes.  Each team chose a variable to test with their creek water - using baggies vs. glass bottles, black tarp vs. reflective surface, sari filtered water vs. SODIS treated water, aluminum foil boats vs. corrugated roof, ...  We allowed the experiment to run over the weekend and then the students tested their water with a bacterial/coliform petrifilm.  With these plates, bacterial colonies appear as purple dots on the pink plate.  E. coli colonies are purple dots with an air bubbles next to them.

Three days later, they observed the results.

Thankfully, our tap water did not have any detectable bacteria!

Stephen's Creek water - there are 8 E.coli colonies on this plate

From left to right - creek water, sari filtered creek water, SODIS treated creek water

From left to right - creek water, SODIS treated on a black tarp, SODIS treated on reflective surface

Can you create a constellation?

Woodlawn now has four constellations in the main stairways - Orion and Taurus in the south and Bootes and Ursa Major in the north.  We are inviting the students to create their own constellation.  They can submit a drawing of their unique constellation along with an essay explaining what is represents and the story behind the design.  Is it a story of a hero, an explorer, animal, location?  We have room for a few more Woodlawn constellations to be mounted on our 'stars'.

Beaver Engineering

Both humans and beavers are environmental engineers - able to modify a habitat which can change the landscape and species richness of a region.  This makes both of these mammals a keystone species and their behavior can affect the healthy and stability of their environment.  These Rieke kindergarteners were able to test their engineering skills as they took the challenge to use mud, sticks, and water to create a mini dam!

Hello Woodlawn Wildcats!

Here is a shout out to the Woodlawn students from American Museum of Natural History astrophysicists from around the world!

Cosmic Rays

How do you collect sunlight?  What can affect how much solar energy hits the Earth?  How can we save the energy from the sun?  These are questions that our 3rd and 4th graders asked as they collected data about our sun.  Using solar energy meters the 3rd graders predicted the best angle to collect the most watts/m2 and then set up an experiment to track the temperature and solar energy at a location for a week.  They found that temperature was a good prediction of how much energy they could collect from the sun but that clouds and pollution may affect how much radiation reaches the Earth's surface.

HOBO data logger graph - blue is temperature, black is volts

The 4th graders learned how to connect a circuit to use solar energy to charge a AA or AAA battery.  They made predictions on how long it would take to fill a rechargeable battery and collected data with a multimeter every 10 minutes over an hour.  It was a science/recess lesson!

Solar battery circuits chargers while the students played

Checking the connections after collecting data