WE ARE BEING FEATURED IN A TEXTBOOK!

This is really EXCITING! Our MYCOLOGY PROJECT that was funded by a TAPESTRY grant from Toyota Motors Foundation, is being featured in a new textbook by Pearson Education. The textbook, "Environmental Science: Your World, Your Turn," 2011 Edition, is hot off the press this summer. Our project is featured on pp. 612 and 613 of the textbook. It is about students who are making a difference in the world. It is featured so that "their efforts can serve as an inspiration for you and your classmates." (p. 611) The pages show pictures of our project activities, as well as some of the wild mushrooms we have collected and photographed. We will be using the textbook in Environmental Science next school year. Check it out with an upcoming freshmen in the fall. HAVE a GREAT SUMMER!

We're Nearing the End of the School Year!

Our last mushroom foray at the Mt. Aetna Camp.

Spirit Week - crazy hair and clash day.

Crazy chemistry students and their equally crazy teacher on crazy/clash day.

We grew nameko mushrooms in the lab.

Making molecular models of amino acids and carbohydrate monomers.

A python visits our classroom!

A cool chameleon!

Emma likes handling the snake.

The 2009-2010 school year is coming to a close! I have thoroughly enjoyed teaching you this year! I loved going on field trips with you and enjoyed watching you grow and mature this year. Here are some random pictures from some of our classroom activities and from Spirit Week. Have a great summer! We'll see you again next year!

Field Trip to the Phillip Merrill Environmental Center

The Environmental Science class went on a field trip to one of the most environmentally friendly buildings in the United States, the Phillip Merrill Environmental Center, headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Students learned several energy-saving features of the building by going on a "scavenger hunt" and touring the building. They also canoed on Black Walnut Creek and seined for aquatic wildlife to determine the biodiversity in the creek. They found ten species in the creek, which is great for this time of year. A big thank you to Chesapeake Bay Trust for funding this trip!

Photos of Recent Labs

Students examine the results of arterial spurts (fake blood, of course) in a forensic serology lab focused on the different types of blood spatter.



A colorful display of flames of various metal salts in a chemistry experiment.



Environmental Science students dissect owl pellets in their study of food webs and trophic levels. By finding out what barn owls eat from their pellets, they will construct a food chain with the barn owl as the top predator.



Forensic science students break glass in a forensic glass analysis lab. They are studying how different kinds of glass (window, tempered, heat resistant) break, so that they may solve simulated crimes.

Science Sleuths

Forensic science students have been doing several labs lately. They have done labs on forensic glass analysis, blood analysis, and have solved a hypothetical case, "The Case of the Murdered Mayor," where they applied technical and theoretical skills they learned in the course. The case, which was their semester exam, involved examining evidences from seven different suspects and the victim. Students performed fingerprint, hair, blood, and impression analysis; and calculated the time of death using forensic entomology.