Last night was the weekly Science Club meeting. I have a loyal group of about 10 students who are willing to give up sitting in front of a TV, or listening to their music player to spend two hours learning more about science. I don't think I'd want too many more, their questions are so numerous that I have a steady buzz in my ears when we are done.

    So it was time to get the learning adventure activity and displays planned and set. here it is two weeks into our second quarter of school, we need to get out to the elementary schools and TEACH! So I turned over what I had been working on over our intersession, display boards with laminated titles and subtitles, with corresponding ideas I thought they could run with. Each group chose TWO boards and they went to work planning their experience to share with the keiki. I was so happy, I almost cried.

    Because I looked up, from one station where my group of guys was busy planning ways to teach students about the rich biodiversity of the Bering Sea, and my students were working, and planning, and coming up with ideas that were so much more than I thought possible.

    And they were animated and excited about what they were doing.

    And I KNOW what they will share with the elementary students will be accepted and integrated. Like a big brother or sister teaching the younger ones.

    My guys decided to use bamboo fishing poles to have the keiki fish for models of fish caught in the Bering Sea. The fish models will have questions on the back and if the keiki answer the questions correct they will get a prize (sticker, or bookmark).

    One team of my girls (the artists) are drawing an elaborate food chain with oil pastels. They will make a diatom bookmark as a reminder of how energy is passed from the sun into the diatoms and ice algae for just a very short period during the Arctic spring. They have a krill puppet too, and models of diatoms. Such fun!

    This is what it's all about. I teach my students, and they teach others. The knowledge is passed along, like energy through a food chain. Students gobble up the knowledge and pass it along, like a knowledge food chain.

    (sigh and smile) 

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