Monday with the Honeysuckle Group

Monday May 13, 2013

Blog Post

1st Period

We all went to Chinese. 我的说中文说得不好可是我喜欢说中文。

2nd Period

Then we went to Wellness and Fitness and played capture the goal.

3rd Period

Next, we planned for the rest of the day, unable to go outside since Mr. Polk had a class.

4th and 5th Period

Finally, we went outside. However, because of the time constraints we had to go, retrieve all of our stakes from where we worked on Friday, and moved to measure the school’s side of the stream. This took two class periods but we got 35 plots, mind you not all of them were complete 25 by 25 square feet, but 35 plots done today. Grand total of… (Information to be provided at a later date)

These picture that follow are the faces of my group members done with that part of the work. A bunch of weirdos let me tell you. :3

Today's recorded work.

6th Period

Leif entered the rest of the data into a special spread sheet organized by Mr. Polk to be put into Google to make our density map.

Nic and I blogged.

Reflection

Today was a lot better than Friday but less impressive than Thursday. However, I think we had some good fun today. Everyone was here and we all got to participate. Job well done!

Friday May 10th with the Honeysuckle group

Friday May 10, 2013

1^st Period

My group and I learned that Leif was absent.

2^nd Period

I learned that Nigel had brought in an aluminum bat to “fight” the honeysuckle with. We set a goal to get more than 40 plots done, find some missing property, and look into mapping software. We went out to the area we left off with Mr. Polk. We found one steak (stake) in the ground of the four or three we had missing. We went to work, continuing measuring plots and counting honeysuckle trees. Below is an example of honeysuckle bush, taken on Thursday by me.

Aaron, Nigel, and Nic are in there. Can you spot them?

Funny Story: Aaron broke his hammer and the head flew into the creek, he then retrieved it and got all muddy and wet. I had to help him back up. I was going to have him recreate the scene in the afternoon but some outside influences prevented that.

We recorded eight plots this period. Grand total of 66 plots.

Lastly we walked back to the school.

3^rd Period

We, with Ms. Cook walked back out there and worked. Toward the end of the period Aaron took off his wet shoes.We tallied our newly recorded plots at about six more.

The Rest of the Day

The rain came along with it some lightning and we couldn't go outside. So…

• Nic moved our handwritten information into a spreadsheet. We had about 72 plots.
• I downloaded a mapping program from Arcgis.
• Aaron and Nigel worked on the first draft of our PowerPoint. 

Screen shot of latest data collected as of May 10th
From left to right: quadrant, mature honeysuckle, and young honeysuckle

First Slide of PowerPoint Presentation
Nice, right?

Reflection

We definitely did not meet our goal, however I think we spend some constructive time doing some catch up on technology based work we needed to do. We also got some time for relaxing and we also realized how important or rather how much each us was will to do for this project. We all were ready to brave the weather, but Mr. Polk, looking out for our well being, didn't let us kill ourselves going outside in the lightning.

Mound Laser Bioswale

Mound Laser Bioswale Field Trip

Purpose of the Trip

The Dayton Regional STEM School 10th grade walked to the Mound Laser Bioswale to plant some vegetation. Our "mentor" for the day explained, as I understand, that the plants around a sort of rocky trench would allow the rainfall to fall over the soil and to collect in  trench to be used by the rest of the surrounding environment. It is a revolutionary way to recycle water, to replenish the life, and decreased pollution  in and around an ecosystem.

Credited to: HGOR

In this diagram we learn that the water that goes into the bioswale is filtered by the plants that live there. 

Credited to: the Natural Resources Conservation Service of Iowa

 This diagram explains how the planting of vegetation improves the soil quality which benefits all of the ecosystem.

Credited to: The American Institute of Architects

Lastly in this diagram we can see how the runoff can be redirected to serve a community. 

For these reasons we went and helped. Now what exactly did I do?

What I did

Our grade was broken up into "shifts", one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I was apart of the first "shift" and so we set out. We walked to Mount Laser from the school, through the mud! Then when we got there we were given a presentation to help us understand what and why we were there. Then we got to work. In partner groups (me and Matt Miller), we got a bucket and shovel. The bucket person went and got some dirt while the other person got some plants. We then proceeded down the sides of the bioswale to the rock bed and across to a place we were told to put a plant at every blue dot. The ground around the planting places was the worst, completely muddy. I thought I would sink. But we took the shovel, dug a hole about  foot in diameter and half a foot deep. Then we took the plant out of its container and placed it in the hole. Lastly we broke up the clay-like soil and lightly packed it around each plant. We did this about five times for each of the five plants we had been assigned. We planted half of all the plants and mulched well over everything. Then we returned back to school. Job well done.

Guiding Principles

• Conservation- This principle applies in that if this was a NAF trail project because it is definitely helping to continue and rejuvenate the ecosystem. This bioswale will benefit the animals as well as the plant life in that it gives them almost pollution free water to live and grow in. 
• Sustainability- Another fun experience that I had was at one point we dug up the remains of what seemed to be a ceramic piece of pottery. We were unsure of what to do with it so we asked the "mentor" and he told us we could just reuse it in the rock bed, when he proceeded to grab it and toss it in. This is an example of sustainability because it is the reusing of materials found there. Also, Mound Laser wasn't trying to bring in such unusual or foreign things into the bioswale, they wanted to leave it as natural and in its original a state as possible, so we planted plants and they made a rock bed, which is quite frankly better than some concrete like we have. 
• Environmental Impact- All of the work we did amounted up to bettering this environment and making it self-sufficient. The work we did will influence that ecosystem, probably for decades if not hundreds of years. 

Reflection

This was a memorable experience because it was fun and we got permission to take our soaked and muddy shoes off. I loved it because we were making a difference and planting pure, unadulterated life. This was like a pre-nature and fitness trail project. It also helps me to understand what it really means to "Love. Not Loss."

Not to mention, I also helped, almost everyone clean off their shoes. 

Picture

Job Shadowing

Job Shadowing

K12 Gallery

This was one of the most exciting job shadowing yet, in my experience and with my deep sense of creativity. I was especially honored they let us come, and so many of us because they aren't open on Fridays normally. Here is how the day went.

First, I arrived outside the K12 Gallery. Then I sat down and our mentor discussed what K12 was, we got to ask some questions, took a tour, discussed some of the programs, events, and art pieces. (below)

All the following art pieces are credited to the K12 Gallery 

Mikayla and Noah in front of a painting of chairs

Finally, we started on the main event, making mosaic lanterns. Each person started out with a sketch and just went with it. Me being a slow artist only got to one of the three sides of my lantern. 

I started out with this idea a picture I had drawn a long time ago of a heart, a heart with intense muscle lines on it. Then I was really just in a Japanese sort of mood so I played around with adding in layer of fabric like how a kimono is, and it just evolved into this thumbnail. After about three to four hours of work, I got this.

Devon in front of an art piece that is painted and mosaic