Reflections and Presentation

A few reflections on our week at TSS. The last video is our presentation to another school. You may have to turn your computer's volume way up!

The Watershed Debate

Last night the evening program focused on issues facing watersheds. We played a couple of games that demonstrated to students how little fresh water is available on earth. Then we had a debate on a proposed dam in the fictional town of "Blue River," Montana. Each student represented a perspective on the dam. Carley played the role of a golf course developer. Nick aka "Johnny Bravo," owned a fly fishing shop. Ezekiel aka "Robert Bravo," represented the power company. Stella worked for the water company. Indigo was an environmentalist representing the "Blue River Coalition." Lucy was a homeowner whose house was threatened by the dam. Scarlet owned a paper mill. Ruby was a farmer. Lily aka "Willy," owned a rafting company. We had lots of laughs and learned a lot.

Cut and Plant

The Buried Treasure






Willow Poles

From Ezekiel, Indigo and Lucy:
Today we did something very exciting. We replanted willow sticks to protect the banks of the stream from erosion. Overgrazing had seriously damaged the stream. We used our research from yesterday to figure out which willow poles to cut and where to plant them. We almost found buried treasure, but it turned out just to be a old post buried underground (see above). We planted 40 willows along Cody Creek in the Conservation Research Center. After all the planting and cutting we got in the van and drove to the National Elk Refuge. When we got there, we saw mountain goats jumping from big rocks. We also saw a lot of bison. They were very interesting. Of course we saw elk. Then we got back to the campus and cleaned out the van. Some people cleaned boots. For dinner we had pizza and it was really good. After dinner we came back to our dorm and continued to play a card game called Caps (shown in top picture). The loud eighth graders had an early evening program so we had the living room in peace. Its really nice just to have the place to ourselves and be as loud as we want to! After the game, we are going to the evening program and we are going to have a debate about watersheds. For those kids on last year's field trip, Zeke, Scar and Indi, it might be like the town meeting in Glacier. We are giving a presentation to the eighth graders tomorrow. We will be talking about the research we gathered on Wednesday and Thursday. We will do it all together. It will be short and sweet (hopefully). We are all happy and having fun, so don't worry parents. We will be home safely and will see you soon!

Wonderous Willows

From Carley and Nick:
Today we started our research project about willows. We started the day in the outfitting room, trying on big yellow boots for going in shallow water and mud. Today we went across the highway to the Conservation Research Renter to study the growth of willows in the area. Before the CRC bought the property, it was used for grazing cows. We used our journal and found a table telling what we needed to find out today. We had to find a willow tree that was marked red, orange or pink and find the GPS coordinate of the area around the willow. We had to find out if the willow was alive or dead. We had to find the distance from the bank of Cody Creek to the willow. We had to find the depth in the ground, the stem-diameter, and the presence of browse and girdle. The goal was to collect data and make recommendations to the scientists of the CRC about where and how to plant willows to restore the stream. Even though now we know cows are very bad for the environment, we are going to eat some hamburgers.

See you in two days!!!

FUN IN THE SUN!

From Scarlet and Ruby;
Hi! Today we spent a day learning about glaciers and snowshoeing under the Grand Teton! It was very sunny today and we enjoyed a delicious lunch at Taggart Lake. We competed to see who could throw snowballs the farthest. So far, Nick is in the lead but Scarlet wins for left handed throws. We learned a lot about how glaciers affect mountains. We all learned about a certain aspect of glaciation and taught it to the class. Nick and Lily did a wonderful job teaching us. We played a super fun game of camouflage to put ourselves in the shoes of prey and predators. By the end, we were all soaking wet but full of smiles! We drove towards the science school and cleaned up the lunch boxes before settling down to inform you about our day.

Hello from Tetons (second day)

From Lily and Stella:

Today we woke up with a knock on our door. We ate breakfast then dashed back to our rooms to prepare for snowshoeing. By 9:30 we were passing moose, bison and elk on our way to see the Jackson Lake dam(it was a dridge- dam bridge). Then we headed out to Oxbow bend. There we observed Canada geese, moose, and swans. After that we went on an adventure snowshoeing up a hill while observing many different animal scats and tracks. We stopped for lunch under a big tree looking at the Grand Tetons. We followed instructor Kelly to identify some trees surrounding us. As we headed back to the van we tumbled down a couple of hills (Indigo got the award for most creative fall- face plant. She came up smiling)! After falling head-over-heals we made models of mountain landscapes out of snow and drew it as a topographical map. It was a big day and we're about to head off to dinner. Excellent food!