This meeting was a hodge-podge of things. Explorers learned how to calculate stream discharge and velocity using our April measurements. They also started writing down what all they have gotten out of our year long water monitoring projects ("My boots aren't tall enough" was a popular comment.), weeding our butterfly gardens and learning how to use the new stereo and compound microscopes we were able to purchase from our stormwater grant.
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The Center for Biodiversity at ECU is hosting an Earth Day Expo April 18 from 4-6 pm in the Howell Science Complex. There will be "interactive events for people of all ages. Various ECU researchers and local non-profit organizations will have displays and activities available on topics related to biodiversity. There will be live animals and plants, lab activities, natural history story times, and more! Participants from our Biodiversity Scholarship competition will also present posters on their research projects. Kids from various after school programs will be attending and the public is welcome!" Thursday turned out to be a wonderful day for monitoring GreenMill Run! We were joined by members of the City of Greenville's Environmental Advisory Commission and Principal Cayton. GTV9 also came along to interview us about the grant and what we have been learning about stormwater. Given that we have received little rainfall in the week leading up to our sampling, it is not surprising that the water level was lower than we have become accustomed to and that one half of the channel is now choked from sediment deposition. What grabbed our attention was the increase in pH and phosphate level. A phosphate level >1ppm indicates a problem and we sampled it to be 3ppm. We are interested to see if those values remain high when we sample in May. Despite the raised level, we did find quite a few things living in the stream: baby turtles, clams, wheel bugs, water beetles, a snake and a school of minnows. To watch the segment on GTV9, check out the schedule here. It is cityscene episode 206. And then watch it either local on Channel 9 or online here at the desginated times. Our segment is about 20 mins into the episode. And more pictures can be found on the EAC's Wiki. April is NC Science Festival time! There are many excellent science programs being offered throughout the month. At the site, you can search for events in our area. Many of them are free and open to the public! A Time for Science, a science/nature center in Grifton, is hosting some wonderful events. Two of them being "State Wide Star Party" on the 5th and then "What's Bugging You" on the 6th. I know we have several Explorers interested in space. John and Nancy Brey are the founders of A Time For Science and put on quality programs. If you are able to attend any of the NC Science Festival events, we hope your student will share what they experienced/learned at a Science Club meeting. Each of the students has something to share and the others gain so much from the sharing.
Explorers continued to work on their stormwater education posters. Almost everyone was able to finish up but several did take theirs home to put some finishing touches on theirs. If you student brought theirs home, make sure it makes it way back to Wahl-Coates by our next meeting. They drop them off in Ms. Moore's room. Topics ranged from: - Car washes - Paved surfaces - Dog poop - MacroInvertebrates - General Sources of pollution - Where runoff goes Explorers also tended to their Butterfly Garden raised beds. They were in much need of some TLC. Dead branches were pruned, dead plants removed and several cabbages planted. We hope to attract some Cabbage White Caterpillars so we can collect and rear them. Due to the last minute cancellation of a meeting, we shuffled projects scheduled and conducted the monitoring with an abbreviated group on a non-meeting day. It was interesting that it only took 3 Explorers <15 minutes to run all tests while when we have all 15 Explorers, it takes >20 minutes to run all tests. Guess we have some room for growth when it comes to group efficiency. Explorers began working on their stormwater education posters. They came up with some great ideas, facts and illustrations! To learn more about the project, click here. |
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April 2013
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