On Wednesday 4-18-12 we had class in the park. We wanted to give our students experience with material that they were learning about in the classroom. We went from 9:00-1:00. We had approximately 80 students that we divided hetereogenously so that we had students of all different levels in each group. We had three projects that we worked on. We did a water quality lab,figured out the board length of a tree in the park, and filled out a senses worksheet that was used to write a descriptive paper and a haiku.
Mrs Booten worked on geometry to get the students redy for the board length activity. I taught the students to use the probes. We prcticed with the temperature probe by taking the temperature of water at room temperature and then recording change when ice added. We practiced with conductivity by comparing the conductivity of distilled water to salt water ( the students were amazed with the jump in conductivity. This surprised me). We learned about the ph probe by getting a reading on distilled water then adding lemon juice to make it acidic. The students then had to get the ph back to the original level. We practiced using dissolved oxegyn and turbidity using Ohio River water. The only probe we calibrated was the turbidity probe because of time constraints and the age of students. I decided that I needed to give the students the figure from table 4. The students use tables enough to get q-values and I decided that it was better to take this chart out to allow students to be succesful.
The field trip went great! The students worked hard and were excited. We had a light rain at times and it was a little chilly but I heard more about how much fun they were having instead of complaints about the weather. I had the science group and I was very happy at how independently that they were able to work with the probes. I made sure that the Vernier units were set up ahead of time to allow them to follow along with the worksheet. The students were in 5 people groups which allowed the students to help each other. If they could not figure out we stepped in. I thought we would need a lot of help on this activity but the board length actually needed the extra help. The board length group was next to me and it was really cool seeing the students spread out in the park doing measurements on the trees. We had many helpers including TISes curriculum coaches and of course Steve. Most of the help was needed with the board length activity because the groups were smaller and the trees were further apart. The last activity took place in the rose garden. I did not see this activity but was told it went well. They said the rain was helpful because the roses look even prettier. The teachers talked about how could you describe the looked of rain on a rose. The descriptive papers are looking better than the ones they had done in the classroom.
After the trip we talked about the educational field trip and the teachers thought it was so succesful that they not only want to do this again next year but they want me to set up one for the fall anyone have any ideas. I am posting the worksheets we used in my pages under field trip worksheets
