29 May 2014 SMA's 4th and 5th Grade Meet and Greet

Journal

Last Day of School

Visiting Mrs. Kasberg's class — PolarTREC teacher Lauren Watel visits Mrs. Kasberg's 4th and 5th grade science classes at St. Mary's Academy to talk about her upcoming expedition.

What a better way to spend the last day of school for the year than thinking about the arctic?! That's just what Mrs. Kasberg's 4th and 5th grade science classes did yesterday at St. Mary's Academy. They watched the expedition commercial last week and have been subscribing to the journal, and today was their chance to meet me in person, see some of the gear I would be bringing, and think about some of the animals I might see. They also asked lots of wonderful questions!

Showing off the gear — PolarTREC teacher Lauren Watel shows off some of the field gear she will be using on her expedition to help students understand what the environment is like.

I wore in my big rubber boots, bug shirt and one of my pairs of gloves. We used these to talk about some of the environmental conditions I would face- they all guessed correctly that the three big things I needed to protect myself against were bugs, cold, and wet! Great observations and inferences from these scientists.

Species Journals — Students created species journals of animals found in the arctic, as I see one I will post the species journal- keep your eyes open to see what else is out in the field!

We also hypothesized some of the larger organisms I would be seeing, and I gave them a checklist to follow along with over the summer. Earlier my high school students created species journals of organisms found in the arctic with drawings and information about the animal. I will be posting these on the journal as I see them (or after the expedition if I don't see them!). Keep an eye out for some of their fabulous illustrations and facts about these critters.

Thanks Mrs. Kasberg and her wonderful students, you were very curious and I hope you'll keep asking me questions on the blog so that I can answer them, and I will see many of you next year back here at SMA!

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