Mountain Kid Messenger
S'more Outdoor Core - 2022-2023
2022 October
October is unmistakably fall. Hopefully you and your Mountain Kids are well settled into your daily and weekly routines. 6 weeks down. 30 to go. Not only has the fall equinox shifted our days to greater and greater darkness than light each day, but everything seems to notice it. Highs and lows are growing lower than we have seen since April. That has everything in a fit of change. These countless changes, and when they occur, is the magic of fall. Gardens are in their final period of yield. There is not an insect, reptile & amphibian, mammal, fish, or bird that does not know it. And of course the plants, native or not, will begin to show the shift.
October, has so much to offer. Remember that Outdoor Core is great homework too, because it doesn't feel like it. Exploring widely or just observing from a sit spot is great science, especially if a Mountain Kid repeats it again and again. Here are a few moments from my own neck of the woods:
- The Douglas Squirrels (Chickarees) are raining Ponderosa Pine cones and scales down on my roof at a frenzy. I have never had such a mess. Tree slobs, but I admire their work. And they do take breaks to chase each other. Once I raked up full cones, now it is cobs and I honestly have to wear my hardhat.
- I have Bluebellies at my house and I know them well. Western Fence Lizards, like all reptiles, are cold-blooded and so they depend on the sun to warm themselves sufficiently. In the morning when one of my bluebellies comes out, it is very slow. It just wants some warmth in the cooling morning, just like me. Then fully active... for a few more weeks at least.
- On the final day of September I heard the high call of Sandhill Cranes overhead. About 2,000 feet above me were approximately 50 Greater Sandhill Cranes circling but heading south.
Notable dates for the month of October include National Cookie and Pizza Month. Find a few more to celebrate from the list below.
- 2 - World Farm Animal Day
- 3 - World Habitat Day; World Nature Day
- 4 - World Animal Day
- 4-10 World Space Week
- 5 - World Teachers Day
- 7 - International Walk to School Day
- 8 - World Migratory Bird Day; B Rosemary Grant Birthday (1936) - Pulitzer Prize "Finches"
- 9-15 Earth Science Week
- 10 - Indigenous Peoples Day
- 10 - Erik Acharius (1757) Birthday for the "Father of Lichen"
- 12 - Old Farmers Day
- 13 - Birthday of the Happy Birthday Song
- 16 - World Food Day
- 17- National Pasta Day
- 20 - John Dewey Birthday (1859) - "Learn by Doing"
- 21 - National Reptile Awareness Day
- 25 - Howl at the Moon Night
- 26 - World Sustainability Day
- 28 - Jonas Salk Birthday (1914) - Polio Vaccine
- 29 - Edmond Halley Birthday (1656) - Halley's Comet
- 31 - Carve a Pumpkin Day
This Mountain Kid Messenger October Edition is intended to be a fresh and timely breakdown of the observable phenomena occurring locally that tie to each of your grade levels, highlight and celebrate local learning and fun from the field, and share timely resources.
Time for S'more Outdoor Core!
Hunter's Moon & the Monthly Changes - Moon Phases
Every month we enjoy another lunar cycle going through the eight named phases. Think about it, every month of your life and yet so few people can name them. Every day of school has a lunar phase and this brief observation and naming can lead a child into a lifetime of familiarity and awareness.
- New Moon
- Waxing Crescent
- First Quarter Moon
- Waxing Gibbous
- Full Moon
- Waning Gibbous
- Third Quarter Moon
- Waning Crescent
- New Moon
Changes - Fall Colors
We all have our favorite natives up here - California Black Oak, Big Leaf Maple, Aspen, Willow, California Dogwood. Watch the daily and weekly changes. Helen Lemnah's "Tag a Twig" works in reverse from the Spring budding. Tag a twig so that you can go to the same leaf and watch it go through its full change. And don't walk away when the color show is done. Abscission is the moment when the leaf lets go of the tree and falls to the ground. That, is the grand finale of fall!
Changes - Animal Behavior
Every species is out and about preparing to migrate, hibernate, or adapt to the hard season that is not too far away. Some of those changes are physical, but watch for the changes that are behavioral. What is a species doing now that it was not doing last month? From the behavior of building a wintering nest, collecting food storage, fattening up, flying south or west. Life goes on but the pace of preparation and the changes to get there are growing.
On your next Wild Wednesday or Field Trip Friday go on a "Change Hunt" look for animal behaviors that are evidence of a change. Remember Claim - Evidence - Reasoning (CER) is a strong scientist habit and every Mountain Kid can do it.
Trail Tuesdays
- October 11 - Quincy
- October 18 - Chester
- October 25 - Greenville
- November 1 - CRC Portola
Learning Landscapes
A printed copy of this handbook will be gifted to each teacher
Mystery Science Support
If new to Mystery Science you can follow this link and sign up for your PUSD account
Nature Journaling - John Muir Laws Links
Nature Journal Connection
How to Teach Nature Journaling
Wild Wonder Foundation
Mountain Kid Miles
Kindergarten - The Garden Year
Kindergarten Outdoor Core Shared Drive
Follow the link to the PUSD Google Drive's shared drives. One of the drives is identified for your Outdoor Core grade level. These are your digital curriculum resources specific to your grade level.
On the PUSD Website and YouTube Channel live the video resources I have created and curated in recent years. Follow the link to get to the main page and then select your grade level. The videos are local phenomena throughout the year made by me as well as other scientists and stewards in the region.
TK-K Science
Science at the Kinder level is about the joy and wonder of exploring and discovery. NGSS is clear about it and I hope you are too. Being curious is who they are. Asking questions, which can be bottomless with the littles, is so essential to science. Your Mountain Kids are natural scientists. All they need to grow is time and outdoor space.
Garden Harvest Time - October
October is more than Halloween and pumpkins, but they certainly factor in strongly. This is the home stretch before the first frost appears. What are you still harvesting. I know tomatoes and zucchini and squash are still ripening and filling my plate. Please share photos of your school garden harvest.
Pumpkin Patch
I know many of your are pumpkin patch bound this month. Here is a nice little video about the life of a pumpkin
Pinecones & Acorns
Remember that harvest isn't just in the garden. Squirrels are harvesting food like "Blueberries for Sal", eating as much as they collect. Watch these industrious harvesters work. They are amazing! Besides the pinecones and their many seeds, the California Black Oak acorn "mast" is dropping and those meaty seeds. Acorns were the most important harvest for thousands of years for the Mountain Maidu of our area. Go visit an oak tree this October.
Acorn Mast Study
One of my favorite fall activities.
- Identify a nearby Black Oak
- Collect every acorn underneath the oak
- Count them
- Put them in a bucket of water
- Remove all of the floating acorns and count them (these have insects within and will not germinate)
- Count all of the acorns that sunk and stayed at the bottom
- Compare. What percent of the acorns are ready to become seedlings?
- Return the acorns beneath the tree
- Option: Keep enough acorns for every child to have one or two. Dry them and store them where they can freeze in the winter. You can germinate the acorns in the Spring and plant them
Children & Nature Network Gardening Resources
Richard Louv, who published Last Child in the Woods 14 years also helped to start this organization that doesn't great things for kids and nature. Use the following links to check out an article, an interview, and an entire Research Digest edition devoted to Gardening with kids. And if you don't feel like reading, think about eating and please watch this wonderful video about kids eating their education.
A few current events for you to explore
Piglet and the Cows This story tells of a wild piglet left by its "drove" that finds a new family among cows in Germany.
Bus Stops for Bees In England they are planting living roofs on top of bus stops to create more habitat in cities where there is a lot of pavement. Solving problems for important pollinators is something for all of us to try to do.
Weather Watch - First Frost
Weather happens every day and so you have daily opportunities to explore and observe. Keep it simple. Hot, warm, cool, cold. Windy. Cloudy. The big watch is out for our cooling temperatures, and specifically the "First Frost". This not only lets us know that winter is on its way, but also that our garden season is drawing to a close. Have the kids watch the daily lows, graphing the descent to the freezing point of 32 degrees.
Frost Cloth First Frost is also a great opportunity to share the work of engineers. Engineering is just problem solving and freezing temps are a problem for the gardener in the mountains. A frost cloth or blanket is a simple example of how to protect your garden at the edge of the season by keeping it covered overnight. Having kids deploy the frost cloth helps them to experience taking action to solve a problem and seeing how much longer the garden can grow before Winter really comes knocking.
First Grade - Year of the Invertebrate
First Grade Outdoor Core Shared Drive
Follow the link to the PUSD Google Drive's shared drives. One of the drives is identified for your Outdoor Core grade level. These are your digital curriculum resources specific to your grade level.
On the PUSD Website and YouTube Channel live the video resources I have created and curated in recent years. Follow the link to get to the main page and then select your grade level. The videos are local phenomena throughout the year made by me as well as other scientists and stewards in the region.
The Big Changes this Month
Invertebrates, our spineless Sierra Nevada species which mostly are little creatures - insects, spiders, snails, slugs, centipedes, millipedes, and even crawdads are coming to the end of their cycles of life. We begin October with almost everything still out and about and around us. Bees, butterflies, dragonflies, grasshoppers, mosquitos are all in crawl and flight. By Halloween we will see few if any.
October brings Diapause
Diapause is insect hibernation and it is coming soon. Words are powerful when they help a Mountain Kid to describe something they experience and know. In a couple of weeks share with the kids that insects don't live forever. Some will migrate, fly away to a warmer place, but most are too small and have to adapt. Diapause is how most of our mountain invertebrates make it through the winter. Dia-pause means "through the pause/wait". Here is a little YouTube video to help explain.
Explore & Record the Last Sightings of the Year
While every observation is a scientific record, in October you are recording important Phenology data. This is the important noticing of the year. In the Spring it is exciting to record the FIRST appearance of a species for the year. Equally important is to record the LAST appearance. Insects are the most important group to notice because they are so sensitive. Entomologists all around the world do this first and last recording each year. Please do the same with your Mountain Kids in their journals and share with me. Simply record who they saw, where they were, and when they observed it.
Here are some recent articles and videos related to Invertebrates
- Flipping Spiders Acrobatic skills help smaller spiders take on larger prey.
- Honeybee Shimmering When honeybees do "the wave" they are do something important.
- Camouflage helps little things survive. When an insect can make itself look like something else in nature it has a much better chance of survival.
- Death's-head Hawkmoth Article on this nocturnal insects ability to fly straight in the dark and important skill for this moth.
- A lot of Ants Scientists have estimated that there are a lot of ants in the world. For every person there are 2.5 million ants. That adds up to 20 Quadrillion. And if you weighed them all, they would weigh more than all of the birds and mammals combined.
Astronomy
The beauty of studying the sun and moon is that they are up there every single day, so every day is perfect for exploring these objects and their phenomena. Of course while the sun and moon are always there, our experience of them changes every single day. This allows Mountain Kids to explore patters, cause and effect, change over time - all very important scientific concepts. Some of the fun phenomena are:
The sunrise and sunset times - Good homework is having the kids record what time the sun disappears at the end of the day. It will vary depending on where they live and the horizon line.
The sun angle and shadows - Because we travel around the sun and the earth is tilted on its axis, as we travel toward the Winter Solstice, the sun passes lower in the southern sky. You can measure this change directly, from the horizon to the sun position. Another fun way is to look at the cause and effect of this sun angle on the shadows around you. Use a tetherball pole, a basketball standard, a fence post or other vertical object that casts a shadow. Go out at the same time of day each week and mark with chalk the end of the shadow. Measure the length of the shadow. Record the change. Graph that change.
Celebrate Full moons & New Moons - You can count down day after day until you reach the Full Moon each month. Since they have names it is easy to celebrate and the names normally relate to the time of year and important outdoor events like this month's Hunter's Moon.
The Mystery Science Spinning Sky Unit also has new lessons to support Sun & Shadows and Moon & Stars.
Second Grade - Year of the Herp
Second Grade Outdoor Core Shared Drive
Follow the link to the PUSD Google Drive's shared drives. One of the drives is identified for your Outdoor Core grade level. These are your digital curriculum resources specific to your grade level.
On the PUSD Website and YouTube Channel live the video resources I have created and curated in recent years. Follow the link to get to the main page and then select your grade level. The videos are local phenomena throughout the year made by me as well as other scientists and stewards in the region.
Running out of Time
Our end of summer start of the school year led quickly into fall. We are still enjoying warm days and for now the lows are staying above freezing. That won't last for long now that we are in October. The lower the low temperatures get, the slower our cold-blooded reptiles and amphibians will emerge each morning. It's like they are sleeping in, but it is really that they are waiting for temperatures to warm up enough that it is safe to appear so that they can "thaw" out. Pretty soon, it will just be too cold and our herps will stay in hiding.
Brumation
It is still a little early to use the B word but reptile hibernation is coming soon. Before the end of October some of our reptiles and amphibians will disappear until Spring. They don't leave Plumas County, they just go into hiding, a safe place that they can slow down and hibernate. Introduce Brumation as an important science term for the year as it will be the most important word throughout the Winter months ahead. This video from Nick, a reptile lover in Australia, gives a good explanation of how Brumation differs from Hibernation.
Reptile Awareness Day
October 21 is officially Reptile Awareness Day around the world. In Plumas County we focus on our own species. That is our snakes, lizards, and turtles. You Mountain Kids are likely aware of our reptiles and already have learned quite a bit but this is a chance for them to raise awareness in the school, with younger kids, or their families.
Keep Records
Your Mountain Kids can be a part of recording important phenomena as they see their first of each species of the calendar year. For each sighting they would record - Who they saw. When they saw it (date and time), and Where they saw it. Please share those with me and your 2nd grade colleagues around the region. Comparing and contrasting observations in different elevations and habitats is great science. And the most important times to record are the FIRST time in the Spring and the LAST time the appear in the Fall. So please record every sighting.
Water in October
Wo received a little rain in September but likely this month will shift out of our dry time toward a wetter Winter. When storms come go out and hunt where water collects and how it travels from the school toward ponds and creeks. These pathways are important for every living thing. And remember that it doesn't just travel where we can see it. It goes down, underground, and as the article below shares, it travels inside of trees.
A Few Current Events and Newsworthy Articles
- Trees Suck Water isn't just on the ground and underground. It is in the plants. And trees have enormous capacity to lift water up to the high canopy.
- Boa Squeezing Science The Rubber Boa is our only constrictor but this article and cartoon explain how Boa Constrictors can squeeze their prey without over squeezing themselves.
- Two-headed Tortoise Birthday This reptile just turned 25. Pretty old for living with two heads but not that old for its species.
- Two-headed Garter Snake A little closer to home is a two-headed Garter snake in Nebraska.
Third Grade - Year of the Mammal
Third Grade Outdoor Core Shared Drive
Follow the link to the PUSD Google Drive's shared drives. One of the drives is identified for your Outdoor Core grade level. These are your digital curriculum resources specific to your grade level.
On the PUSD Website and YouTube Channel live the video resources I have created and curated in recent years. Follow the link to get to the main page and then select your grade level. The videos are local phenomena throughout the year made by me as well as other scientists and stewards in the region.
Mammal Changes in October
October gets the attention of our Plumas County Mammals. The shortening length of the day and the lowering temperatures begin a lot of changes that we can observe and take notice of as this fall month deepens. Some of these changes can be seen in the domesticated animals in your Mountain Kid's lives. Ask your kids what they notice about their pets or livestock, especially the ones who are more outdoors. Thickening fur is an adaptation for the coming Winter. Dogs shed less and retain their hair. Above I already shared the activities of many species.
Squirrels, Pinecones, Acorns
The heading says it all, but Squirrels are the most simple to observe around us and likely in and around the school you can watch this activity. I have Gray Squirrels, Douglas Squirrels and Ground Squirrels all being equally active. Their ability to collect and store food for the winter is a super power. Try and find where they are stashing their cache of cones. I have tunnels filled with cones on my property!
Acorn Mast Study: Be Like a Squirrel
One of my favorite fall activities.
- Identify a nearby Black Oak
- Collect every acorn underneath the oak
- Count them
- Put them in a bucket of water
- Remove all of the floating acorns and count them (these have insects within and will not germinate)
- Count all of the acorns that sunk and stayed at the bottom
- Compare. What percent of the acorns are ready to become seedlings?
- Return the acorns beneath the tree
- Option: Keep enough acorns for every child to have one or two. Dry them and store them where they can freeze in the winter. You can germinate the acorns in the Spring and plant them
Roadkill
Now this can be a little morbid but the intersection of mammals and cars has always been a violent one. And when species increase their activity levels, it also increases the encounters between us. Spring has the greatest frequency as animals emerge from Winter. Second most common is fall, due to the Winter preparation activity. Squirrels are the greatest victims but yesterday I saw two Grey Fox. Nothing to celebrate, but it is science and it happens every day on the roads of Plumas County.
Mammal Specimens: Skulls, Pelts, Bones
I delivered a lot of mammal specimens this September. Please take care of them. Each is tagged by Dave Valle and his students from Portola High School. They are part of a wildlife lending program we started this year. If you have other requests, please reach out. I don't have access to all species but we can rotate them around so your Mountain Kids a=can explore some of the diversity.
A Few Fascinating Current Articles & Events
- ManBearPig is an ancient mammal but this article uses the extinct species to show how after the dinosaurs, placental mammals that were born more ready for action and matured quickly, had a much greater possibility to survive.
- Medicine Tree Do Mammals go to the doctor? Mammals in South America would rub their fur on a certain tree to maintain their health. It is like going to the doctor in a way. Check out this article and video. Maybe we have a medicine tree in Plumas County.
- Rats: Man's Best Friend Perhaps that is the dog's domain but according to this article rats may at least be Man's best historian.
- Bats Buzz Animals sometimes adopt the sounds or appearance of other species to avoid predators. This article looks at one bat's adaptation to avoid a predator owl common in Plumas County.
Weather Watch
Weather is a daily and even minute by minute phenomenon and an important part of the 3rd grade year. The weather will be shifting more profoundly in October and so observing those trends is essential. Even watching a local weather forecast is a good regular activity. I am partial to Dirk Verdoorn - one of my best friends growing up in Lodi. Here is a weather look at early October
Keep track of the basics:
- Temperatures (High & Low)
- Wind (Direction & Speed)
- Precipitation (Amount& Type)
- Humidity (The relationship between temperature and humidity)
And remember when you look up the weather forecast, those meteorologists are faraway forecasters. We get to check their accuracy here on the ground.
Fourth Grade - Year of the Trout
Fourth Grade Outdoor Core Shared Drive
Follow the link to the PUSD Google Drive's shared drives. One of the drives is identified for your Outdoor Core grade level. These are your digital curriculum resources specific to your grade level.
On the PUSD Website and YouTube Channel live the video resources I have created and curated in recent years. Follow the link to get to the main page and then select your grade level. The videos are local phenomena throughout the year made by me as well as other scientists and stewards in the region.
Tracking Changes Along the River
We can't exactly experience the changes that our submerged Trout friends go through, but the changes we can observe along the riparian area ripple above and below the water's surface. The changing leaves and their abscission (when they fall off) are a major change. The shade of the broad-leaved trees and shrubs along our rivers and creeks kept the water cool through the hot summer. And yet as we move toward winter that is no longer as important and ironically these same trees and shrubs shed their leaves to keep a little more sun shining through.
The falling leaves also fill the creeks and rivers, providing important food for many species who wait all year for the harvest of falling leaves. Specifically, the macro-invertebrate group known as shredders are in leaf heaven each fall and those same insects are essential food for our Trout. This video narrates a book you should have that speaks to this
Feather River Trout Unlimited
Ryan Thoni and the amazing volunteers of FR Trout Unlimited are one f the best parts of the 4th grade year. You and your kids get to learn from real local scientists and experienced anglers in the region. Most of you know Ryan and FRTU well. The name-link above will take you to his email address. Ryan is mostly around so reach out and get on his calendar.
Salmon Run Field Trip
The big October trip down to the Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville to kayak with the migrating Chinook Salmon is upon us. These amazing fish used to spawn up here, closer to where we live, before the many dams and other obstructions removed their historic spawning grounds.
PUSD covers your transportation. Captain Carl Memorial Funds cover the activity cost. Below are your essential links:
The Adult and Minor Waiver (required for each participant)
School Roster Template (Please do not fill in the school section)
- October 11 - CES
- October 12 - GES
- October 13 - QES
I also encourage a follow-up field trip to the Feather River Canyon to look more closely at the obstructions (dams) that keep our Steelhead and Salmon from returning to their traditional spawning grounds. Please reach out to me with your interest and potential dates. And don't forget the other FR Canyon field trip - The Belden Quest
Recent Events & Articles
- Fossilized Fish Look at ancestral fish, their relationship to us and our trout.
- Do Fox Fish? Article and video on fox and wolves who fish as part of their diet, a rarity in the dog family.
- Trees Suck Water isn't just on the ground and underground. It is in the plants. And trees have enormous capacity to lift water up to the high canopy. October slows and even pauses that activity as leaves fall but the phenomenon will be back in the Spring.
Fifth Grade - Year of the Bird
Fifth Grade Outdoor Core Shared Drive
Follow the link to the PUSD Google Drive's shared drives. One of the drives is identified for your Outdoor Core grade level. These are your digital curriculum resources specific to your grade level.
On the PUSD Website and YouTube Channel live the video resources I have created and curated in recent years. Follow the link to get to the main page and then select your grade level. The videos are local phenomena throughout the year made by me as well as other scientists and stewards in the region.
PAS adds a lot of value to what you do as a 5th grade teacher. You not only have scientists behind you, you have an entire organization. PAS assembled the PEEP curriculum with us 5 years ago that still is a fundamental foundation for your Outdoor Core year. It is in your Shared Drive and a hardcopy binder should be in every classroom.
Liz Ramsey, has confirmed that you can count on one monthly visit each month to support your efforts. Most of you should have had some contact by now, but if not, please follow her link above to schedule.
Owl Pellets
PAS has ordered class sets of owl pellets for your dissecting pleasure. They should arrive in mid October so that you can continue this Halloween-time tradition. I'll reach out as soon as they are in and get them delivered to you.
Migration!!!
Yes migration is on! It is happening every day. around you and above you. Yesterday, while enjoying a hummingbird, Mountain Chickadees and Red-breated Nuthatches, I heard high above me, the call of Sandhill Cranes. I double checked my identification with binoculars, but passing southward were over 50 Sandhill cranes. Of course I opened up my eBird and documented the moment. Please get out at least weekly to do a point count with your Mountain Kids and always be a citizen scientist and upload your date to eBird.
October 8th, or the 2nd Saturday in October is the bi-annual World Migratory Bird Day. One in the Spring and once in the fall. Remember some simple ways that you and your students can help our migrating birds, such as turning out lights. And beyond migration here are 7 ways you can help birds all of the time.
Going after the Record
Paul Hardy, Plumas County local and son of retired PUSD teachers Richard (PHS Spanish) and Becky (CRC Elementary), is attempting to break the Plumas County record for the most bird species observed in a calendar year. Paul currently sits at 244 species. The record is 251. Can he do it?! Track his progress on eBird https://ebird.org/region/US-CA-063/ebirders?yr=cur&m=
I will have him do a video and possibly a live Zoom with 5th grade before the end of the year so that kids can ask questions.
Great Article
- Drumming Woodpeckers Don't tell woodpeckers that drumming isn't music. This article explores how woodpecker drumming activates the same part of a bird's brain as a songbirds singing. So acknowledge the John Bonham and Neal Perts of the world!
And speaking of dark skies... you study more than birds in 5th grade but there are interesting points of relationship. Nature is very connected. We do like to bundle our science learning so everything from birds migrating using the stars to constellations named for stars are easy connection points. Beyond that, the daily phenomena of the changing length of days marked by sunrise and sunset times, and lunar phase changes are simple access points to get the kids getting down with looking up.
Meteors and More
Building on last month's video on meteors we add some other observable night phenomena and revisit meteors once again to prime us for the meteor shower below. This video takes you from Asteroids to meteorites
One of the best meteor showers of the year are the Orionids. Peaking around October 21st, they will be an evening feast from the 16th until Halloween. With the new moon happening on October 25th, the sky will be most ripe for meteor watching.
How do Scientists Calculate the Age of a Star? This is a little heady for your kids but is a good article about the non-shooting true stars out there.
Sixth Grade - Watershed Year
Sixth Grade Outdoor Core Shared Drive
Follow the link to the PUSD Google Drive's shared drives. One of the drives is identified for your Outdoor Core grade level. These are your digital curriculum resources specific to your grade level.
On the PUSD Website and YouTube Channel live the video resources I have created and curated in recent years. Follow the link to get to the main page and then select your grade level. The videos are local phenomena throughout the year made by me as well as other scientists and stewards in the region.
Getting Started with Science Habits
FREd is where the year really finds its footing but please do not wait for camp to start. 6th grade is the capstone of elementary school but it is also a middle school science year. Getting them into a rhythm with regular science is essential as your kids will have science every day through junior and senior high school.
These daily science habits don't have to be massive but they should communicate the value of science in their school day. An easy way is with your morning meeting, or however you start your school day. Identifying the date and then the science of that date - Weather, Moon Phase, Sunrise and Sunset times, will set some foundation stones in place that we will build on all year long.
FREd
Feather River Education (FREd ) Camp is where we really lock in and set the foundation for the year. Our "breadstack" activity is when we really introduce the fullness of the earth and space science year to the kids. From the deep space beyond our sphere (astronomy) to the atmosphere (climate & weather), the geosphere (geology), and hydrosphere (hydrology), this is where we will explore this year.
I will be in touch with more information and an appointment to visit your class. Your forms are in your Google Drive's 6th Grade Watershed Shared Drive FREd Folder. Your camp dates are below.
- Quincy - October 4-7, 2022
- CRC - October 18-21, 2022
9 Miles - Spanish Peak
One last FREd prep is to remind that we will do a 9 mile hike in the Bucks Lake Wilderness to the top of Spanish Peak. This is a 20 year tradition and every Mountain Kid does it. It is not easy but it is easier if the kids are prepared. Just getting into one and two mile habits to your Learning Landscape site each week will help. Get the kids excited and hooked on counting steps or other fitness habit. This is where Mountain Kid becomes literal.
Astronomy
As I have shared, tracking the daily phenomena of changes in the 1) phases of the moon and 2) sunrise and sunset times to exporel light and night length are simple and profound. Please get them thinking in this daily way. Another phenomenon we study this year a bit is "shooting stars." This interview with astronomer Regina Barber delves into the misunderstood science of meteors. Here is a simple video on Meteors and more high flying phenomena - Asteroids to meteorites
One of the best meteor showers of the year are the Orionids. Peaking around October 21st, they will be an evening feast from the 16th until Halloween. With the new moon happening on October 25th, the sky will be most ripe for meteor watching.
Northern Triangle is a Milky Way asterism that is popular in the Summer but is the feature at FREd. Each season of the school year we will feature 3 new constellations. For the fall I choose the constellations of the Northern Triangle. The stars Deneb, Vega, and Altair reside respectively in the constellations Cygnus (the Swan) Lyra (the Harp) and Aquila (the Eagle). I introduce them at FREd but please reinforce them afterwards. 3 constellations each season.
Weather, Winter, & Watersheds
A big part of the year is climate and weather as it really drives the water story and journey we will be a part of all year. Winter specifically is our big season of noticing as winter snow becomes the river flow and everything beyond. Open Snow is my source for snow weather and forecasting. Even though we are still in summer's grasp, NOAA and other's in the meteorological sciences are using forecasting models to explore the coming winter. Check out their long-range winter forecast.
Field Trip Forecasting
For the short range, get into the habit of forecasting the weather prior to our field trips. Use a weather forecast to plan effectively for the conditions to come. Our Mountain Kids should be savvy enough to look up a dependable forecast and decide what to wear and how to prepare.
I am partial to KCRA's Dirk Verdoorn - one of my best friends growing up in Lodi. Here is his weather look at early October
Keep track of the basics:
- Temperatures (High & Low)
- Wind (Direction & Speed)
- Precipitation (Amount& Type)
- Humidity (The relationship between temperature and humidity)
And remember when you look up the weather forecast, those meteorologists are faraway forecasters. We get to check their accuracy here on the ground.
Recent Articles & Current Events
- 4th Year of Drought Article forecasts a fourth year of drought for California. That means lean Winter and lean Spring.
- How old Are the Sierras Really? UNR geology article digs into the age of our geologic home
- Two birthdays for the Sierras? 3-5 Million or 40 Million is a wide range. Compare this to the UNR article.
Watershed
I know have everyone booked for the year. That means October will have some trips that start us up at the high headwaters to begin the great water drop journey from the Plumas ridges to the Pacific reefs. Right now the first trips, post FREd, are:
- Quincy - October 26
- Portola CRC - October 27
- Chester - November 3
- Greenville - November 8
See you Soon!
Outdoor Core Mountain Kid
Email: rwade@pcoe.k12.ca.us
Website: https://www.pcoe.k12.ca.us/apps/pages/OutdoorCore
Location: Upper Feather River Region
Phone: 530 283-6500 5257