Water Systems and Watershed Sustainability

This year, the students would like to continue with the environmental focus they started in Grade 7. Last year, they started doing water testing of a nearby river (Crystal Creek) that is part of the Pembina Valley River System. They would like to continue their water testing in the coming spring, and have already sought out the expertise of a local Conservation officer. They will take several water samples in the spring, which will then be analyzed and become part of the data gathering and analysis of a local "RiverWatch" group.

The students are also interested in investigating a wind farm that is located in a nearby town and would like to research the pros and cons of wind energy, as well as learn how a wind turbine generates electricity.

This group is very keen to expand their knowledge of a number of environmental concerns, including wind systems, water systems, and the effects of human interactions with their environment. There are a number of environmental learning opportunities in Winnipeg that they are interested in participating in, such as the Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretative Centre, the St. Andrews Lock and Dam (the 'Winnipeg Floodway'), Fort Whyte Centre's "Blue Planet" program (learning about water filtration and purification), and an educational film at the IMAX Theatre. Given our distance from Winnipeg (over 2 hours), this would be a unique opportunity for the students to take in many learning experiences over a two day period which they would otherwise not have easy access to.

Update (May 11, 2011)

Wow have these students been busy! The students won their PowerPoint competition with Manitoba Conservation District - our class took home First and Second place prizes. These winning students were able to attend an awards banquet and had a fantastic time. Our grade 8s have also now been out on the bridge doing their River Watch program for the first time this Spring. They noticed the raised levels of water on the Crystal Creek and also noticed the layering of soils that had been deposited on the banks. The Grade 8s were also the "experts" this day as they took along a small group of our Grade 7s for training. We have journaled the days events on our wiki we are currently making about our interaction with the Manitoba Flooding. The 8s have also done a webquest on various Flood watch sites, and the 7s are doing a webquest on flood information this week as well. The Oak Hammock Marsh group came out to our school today and gave presentations to all of our classes - a great time had by all ! They do a fabulous job relating learning to our required curricular outcomes. The 7s dissected owl pellets this afternoon and the 8s learned about conserving water and sustainability. The instructor was impressed that the 8s already knew some of his "high tech" vocabulary from doing their River Watch Program. Upcoming: We have more pictures to take for our wiki (which I will share later on), we have an overnight field trip to Winnipeg in two weeks (everyone is excited to have an overnight trip when they are "only in grade 8"), and we have a variety of assignments to complete yet to finish off our "watery" year of learning. One of which will be to individually create a photostory of their field trip activities and fun. I am very fortunate to have an exceptional group of kids to work with this year, which has really helped to make all of this possible. I also have a very trusting administrator that has given me a lot of support for my ambitions this year. Grant money is awesome!

Update (June 3, 2011)

Hello all ! What a fantastic time our grade 8s had on their field trip to Oak Hammock Marsh overnight! The students did many hands on projects during our 2 days in and around Winnipeg. They completed a CSI science based program at the Museum of Man and Nature, they toured the Museum of Man and Nature, they went to St. Leon (our area) and learned all about the Wind Turbine energy AND they even got to go inside a wind turbine! A highlight for them all! The students completed 3 hands on programs at Oak Hammock, including Star gazing, canoeing, history of Oak Hammock Marsh, and doing many fun things inside the interpretive center. Many, many pictures are currently being printed by the individual students to make memory books for our luncheon to share our learning with the school board, other teachers from other schools, and the grade 8 parents. The students also went to Lockport in St. Andrews to see the Lock and Dam and also that is where the Diversion enters back into the Red River. Due to flooding, the Diversion entrance was AMAZING to see! The students had completed web-quests on each of the places we visited before hand and they all appreciated being able to actually go to all the places they learned about. Students loved canoeing, the camp fire, and the sleepover at Oak Hammock Marsh. Some of our boys even learned hoe to make pancakes !!! We spent some time at the Fort Whyte Center to see the southern part of Winnipeg conservation and sustainability of wetlands. They also did water testing and purified water at Fort Whyte. I had each student take along a Field Trip Assignment" folder and they did an excellent job at gaining information at each place. History, species, purpose of the area, economic impact, impact and relation to the water systems were all part of their learning. The students also were treated to a "watery" fun time when we went swimming at the Cindy Klassen Recreation Center. Pillows, card games and cameras were all busy on the long trip home ! Currently we are creating memory books, photo-stories, PowerPoints of the full year of learning as related to the sustainability of water systems, comic life posters, finishing off our Floodwatch wiki, preparing the wiki with pictures for presentation at the luncheon,and making slide.com shows. It is very busy, but WOW are they engaged !! Thank you very much for helping to fund our Program of River Watch and Water Sustainability this year. We have already been training the gra