Tuesday, March 11, 2014

We woke to partly cloudy skies, and we had on and off sunshine throughout the dayWe do homework in the morning at outdoor school, so all students wrote a letter home and a journal entry before breakfast.  Look for your child's letter in Thursday's mail.    After a hearty breakfast buffet, study groups five, six, and seven kayaked over the numerous kelp forests that surround this island.  Groups one thourgh four had lab rotations rotating between the plankton lab, invertebrate lab, and the oceanography lab.  The highlight of lab rotations was the opportunity to walk through a blow-up, life-sized California gray whale.

 

Students enjoyed a lunch of corn dogs, tomatoe soup, macaroni and cheese, along with a huge salad bar.  All seven study groups did a second snorkel dive this afternoon.  Today they explored the kelp forest, and all students enjoyed the abundance of marine life they observed.  With water visibility at 60 feet,this snorkel dive was treat.

 

Dinner was barbequed chicken and chicken nuggets along with all the side dishes and the salad bar.  Students are eating well and many are eating quite will.  One student managed to eat four corn dogs at lunch today.

 

As I write this, it is unusual to see students engaged in learning at 7:53 in the evening.  Groups one through four that I am with are learning about the adaptations of marine mammals.  In particular, they are finding out how a mother seal locates her pup.  Groups five though seven are in their Creatures of the Night lab class.  In this class, they explore how organisms adapt to living without eye sight.  The highlight of the class is to explore the maze which students navigate in complete darkness.  Groups one through four did this class last night while groups four through seven were in the Marine Mammal class.

 

We're certain all students will sleep well tonight as they have had an active day.  All students are healthy and well.  No news is good news, and we'd call you if their is a problem that a band-aid won't fix.  All three of us teachers are quite pleased with how well students are working with one another.

 

- Mr. Brooks