Thank you for helping replenish our saltwater tank and supplies. My students live near rivers and lakes, but some have never seen the ocean before. To be able to have a saltwater tank in the classroom helps them to experience the wonders of the coral reef without having to wait until they are able to travel to the ocean. The supplies that you have provided such as salt and water de-chlorinator help with the upkeep of the tank without having to come out of my own personal funds. I appreciate that as much as the students appreciate having the aquarium inside the classroom. ”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Edwards
This classroom project was brought to life by Disney's Planet Challenge and 7 other donors.
Your donation of the marine aquarium has significantly changed what my first graders understand about the ocean and its creatures. We studied the warm seas of the Paleozoic era and explored fossils of crinoids, eurypterids, horn coral, brachiopods and trilobites. We were able to read books, fossil hunt and go to the museum to learn about the ocean, but we live too far away to actually visit and experience the ocean.
Now we are so blessed to have an ocean of our own. We have sea anemone named "Good Guy Reefy," a decorator crab named "Cutey," coral named "Nylon," a hermit crab named "Big Boy Tat" and unnamed snails who have actually laid eggs in the tank! Each day, many children start their day by looking at the creatures in the tank and watching them eat, move and interact with each other. Their understanding of sea creatures is beyond what it would have been if we didn't have this tank.
Thank you for getting us started on this endeavor! We promise to take good care of our little ocean!
My classes, future classes, and I would like to thank you for your generous donations! My classes are already enjoying holding sea stars, sea urchins and hermit crabs. They love watching the fish and the invertebrates in the classroom and come in before and after school to be with the animals and feed them. They especially love feeding shrimp to the sea anemones. Having all this new life in the aquarium has led to the students being interested in all aspects of the ocean and now they love to help out with the maintenance of the aquarium including testing the salinity, nitrate and ammonia levels, water changes, and making sure that the temperature is right and that all the animals are healthy. The most rewarding aspect of the donations is that many students have now expressed an interest in oceanography, marine biology, and marine invertebrate zoology.
We're coming upon Thanksgiving break and research couldn't have gone any better! Students spent a week collecting data from the models as I slowly acidified two of them. As expected, populations of brine shrimp (AKA 'plankton') steadily declined with the pH in those models. During the week of the 'experiment' – we also did a lab on using indicators of pH during an acid/base reaction. This really re-enforced the material they were learning in the research in a dramatic fashion.
The week prior to starting the experiment, I gave them the recent article concerning Ocean Acidification published in National Geographic. They formulated a general hypothesis from that information, and learned that it takes several rewrites before you get a good hypothesis! Expanding from that beginning, we went to the computer lab for them to find two more published sources of background information. They quickly learned that Wikipedia is NOT an acceptable source. We also went over some 'how to avoid plagiarizing' guidelines – and quite a few students were surprised at what Universities will count as plagiarism. Tomorrow, they turn in their 1-2 page section of 'background information'. We have also learned how to use MS Excel to turn raw data into nice charts and graphs – which are the next section of the paper that is due.
After Thanksgiving, the students will take their first three sections that I've graded, put them together and add a Summary section, a Conclusion section and an Abstract. This will be handed in as the final research paper. So not only have they been shocked into realizing that their very lifestyles are having an impact on something so vast and far away as the world's Oceans which will in turn impact their lifestyles by the time they are middle-aged; but they have learned how in-depth and technical scientific papers have to be. They are now more informed citizens as well as much more college ready!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. P.
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