A PORTAL BACK TO THE TIME OF THE MASTODONS

Citizen Scientists at Work

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the word portal comes up in conversation at least weekly in our classroom. Playground games, stories, and plain old conversations are just peppered with this concept when you’re around 7-, 8- and 9-year olds. These kinds of discussions are one of the joys of my life at Parker.

Thanks to our fantastic science teacher, Katy Perry, the 2-3s are actually in a portal right now, looking back 10,000 - 14,000 years to New York’s Ice Age. The 2-3s are conducting a citizen science project, sifting through matrix sent to us from the Paleontological Research Institute and its Museum of the Earth in Trumansburg, NY. The Institute has worked in concert with Cornell University on mastodon excavations in Hyde Park and Chemung County in New York State. These digs have been going on since 1999. The Institute has enlisted schoolchildren and other civic organizations around the world to assist their research by sifting through, classifying and reporting findings from matrix pulled from these sites. 

 

The project is open-ended. The Institute has not prepared these materials with a predetermined discovery or outcome. Instead, the children are doing hands-on, authentic open-ended laboratory work.

The Institute’s Big Ideas for this project are:

1. The public can deepen understandings of the processes of science by participating in specially designed research projects;
2. Inquiry-based, hands-on projects can facilitate the understanding of how we know what we know about past environments;
3. Scientific research can benefit by the public being involved in data collecting and processing.

For the last few weeks, the 2-3s have been using toothpicks, plastic knives and small hand-held magnifying lenses to work through the matrix.  A couple teaspoons at a time, the children sorted their findings into the following classifications: shells, plants, rocks and “mystery items.” The group is now looking more closely at the sorts and refining the classifications. They are using microscopes to zoom in on the plant and animal materials. They are also using water, screens and filters to sift through the marl. It sure looks like they’re panning for gold!

The group will collect their findings and send them back – along with the matrix – to the Institute in the next couple of weeks. Close, careful observations are what it’s all about these days in science class.

 

FIGHTING THE FREEZE

Last week, during our arctic snap, the 2-3s asked if they could run around in the gym one morning. It sounded like a great idea to me since everyone had been cooped up for days. Soon, Darcy’s Health Class with the 6-7s entered the gym and we got ready to vacate. But Darcy and the middle schoolers invited the class to run around with them. A half hour was spent playing tag together. What a fantastic way to spend our morning and blow off some steam!! Everyone was much perkier after shaking off the big chill.