We had a lot of different things going on last week at EcoRaiders. The younger members worked on mini herb gardens. We made the "planters" out of repurposed wood from the plexiglass window frame that was on the sign at the front of the school. Cans of beans served as the containers for planting the herbs. The mini herb planters will be sold at our Eco-handmade market which will be before the Winter holidays. The older boys worked with Ms. Sabena on creating the frames for covering the winter vegetables we planted last week in the raised flower beds. They created a frame using rebar and PVC pipes which will be used with a sheet of plastic over it. The 4th-6th grade girls were busy decorating their new, recycled notebooks and researching their own environmental action projects. More about this to come. To wrap up the session, Club members watched a short clip from "Trash Me", a project dedicated to raising awareness of how much trash the average American generates. Rob Greenfield is set out to wear a plastic suit filled with trash, adding piece after piece that he generates, for 30 days. You can learn more about this very unique project here: http://robgreenfield.tv/trashme/.
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It's amazing how much you can get done in one hour with the help of 35 kids and a handful of dedicated adults. This week we tackled the much overgrown, raised plant beds at school. At the end of our EcoRaiders Club session, we had cleaned them from all weeds and planted row after row of winter vegetables. The weeding was hard work, specially because of how hot it was, but it was also rewarding. In one of the beds, the kids found dozens of potatoes and some carrots and onions that last year's 2nd graders had planted, which was very exciting. Everyone took home a couple of potatoes and micro-carrots for dinner. AppState nutrition students Jenny and Ginny led the planting efforts. They had students planting kale, lettuce of different types, mustard, broccoli, rhubarb, kale, garlic and cauliflower. We learned things like how far apart to place the different plants and that you can just plop a clove of garlic in the ground to grow a garlic plant. Some of the older girls painted wooden sticks and we used them to mark the plants so the kids can learn what is what. Check out the picture gallery for the planting fun on an amazing Fall day. Thanks to Amy Sheffey and Angela for bringing tons of fresh oranges and tortilla chips for our snack. The kids really enjoyed it. We now have ten bluebird boxes up around the school campus! A huge thanks to Dr. Lynn Siefferman, ornithologist from AppState's Department of Biology who came to teach us about local birds last week, for putting together the boxes and bringing them over to Cove Creek for the kids to paint. She donated the boxes and not only helped with the painting, but also stayed after the session and hang all the bird boxes up.
Each team of students painted a bird box. They are numbered so that we can monitor bird activity and keep track of it using this collaborative spreadsheet. You can see the location of the boxes on the map below. Make sure to check them out next time you're in school, the kids are very proud of them. A shout out to Casey Tester, Olivia's mom, for bringing delicious clementines and juice for snack, and Melanie Hollis for helping out with the painting. As well as our usual Nature Team members Angela, Sabene and Amy. That was one messy painting ordeal! But well worth it as you can see in the pictures of the finished products below... I have recently interacted with Cove Creek School students quite a bit during snack and meals (lunch duty, field trips, school visits, EcoRaiders club) and I have noticed that a large majority of our students are lacking basic knowledge of recycling. They don't understand what materials can be recycled and often have bottles or cans mixed in with their uneaten food in their brown lunch bags and just dump the whole thing in the trash.
In preparation for our recycling campaign, which we will start when the weather turns colder and rainier, I visited the Watauga County Recycling Center last week. Ms. Heather Bowen was extremely helpful and informative, and provided me with some amazing recycling education posters, stickers, pencils, buttons and labels for our recycling containers. The EcoRaiders will be setting up two recycling centers to add to those around the school: one will be in the cafeteria, and the other by the outside picnic shelter. More to come! American robin, common grackle, American crow, American goldfinch, dark-eyed junco, song sparrow, Carolina chickadee, tufted titmouse, northern cardinal, eastern towhee, northern cardinal, eastern bluebird and pilated woodpecker... are some of the more common birds we might see around the Cove Creek area. Last week we were fortunate enough to host Dr. Lynn Siefferman during our EcoRaiders meeting. Dr. Siefferman is an ornithologist from Appalachian State University who is an expert on eastern bluebirds. Her research looks at how the magnificent blue and orange coloration of this species of bird evolved. Her work in conservation biology also takes her into streams, where she studies freshwater mussels! Dr. Siefferman taught the EcoRaiders about the most common species of birds in the area, she showed the different tools she uses to handle and tag birds, explained what to do if they find a nest, injured bird or fledgling, and why conservation of bird species is so important. She answered all the EcoRaiders' questions and listened to their exciting anecdotes about family members' encounters with birds. She even had them chirping away trying to imitate songs of different birds. It was a fun and very informative session. The students have been organized into smaller groups (with names of birds as their team names) and will work with their teammates on several projects in the next few weeks. Dr. Siefferman has put together some bluebird boxes that the EcoRaiders will paint and we will put around the school grounds. We are looking forward to learning more about birds through bird watching and monitoring their activity patterns. If you want to see some pictures of local birds we're studying, check out these "picture cards" we put together. Thank you to all the parents who continue to be an active part of the club through volunteering during sessions, bringing snacks, or simply by adjusting to a later pick up and encouraging their kids to be in the club. It's been a great ride so far! |
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June 2017
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