Bay Bridge Construction WebQuest: Withstanding Earthquakes

http://www.eduweb.com/portfolio/bridgetoclassroom/earthmoves.html

Students, please click on the above link and complete the "Bay Bridge Construction" webquest.  After learning about the interior of the Earth, do you think you will be able to design a bridge that can with withstand an earthquake of 6.7 or higher on the Richter Scale in the San Francisco Bay area?

University of Colorado Fiske's Planetarium

Great Lakes Debate!

On Thursday students participated in our inaugural classroom debate, "Health of the Great Lakes Ecosystem." Students selected a position as a "Great Lakes Booster" or a "Great Lakes Doomer" whereby students used background information from our classroom work to debate the current health of the Great Lakes and created a mini-poster with claims.  Those students in two of the blocks were able to debate with and against with Ms. Bamford's class in a cross-program debate which was a unique experience too!  This was a great opportunity to hear the positions and supporting details of these young debaters!  The video segments did not turn out and will post a video when the next debate falls on us.  Thank you debaters for a fun day! 

Great Lakes Ecosystem

How should we best use and protect Earth's freshwater ecosystems?  This is the guiding question that students will research over the next two weeks in an in-depth case-study of the Great Lakes ecosystem.  Yesterday, we looked at the 1972 Great Lakes Water Quality agreement between the United States and Canada that took measures to start the cleanup efforts of the polluted Lakes.  The students are pointing toward a girl's shirt that says, "Happiness is Lake Erie!" How fitting after our study of the "Lorax!"