Slideshow from Cleanup Day

Here is a Flickr slideshow from the awesome cleanup day we had last weekend. In total, we had nearly 40 volunteers come to help. Thanks to Lowes for the generous grant that paid for the materials! Special thanks to Big Apple Bagels on South Westnedge for the morning bagels and Water Street Coffee Joint for the great coffee all day!

Kindergarten Trip to the Farmers Market

Last week, all Kindergarten classes visited the local farmer market. They did this because they are learning about living things that we can use. What better place than the farmers market for something yummy and healthy!

Ronald McDonald Fire Drill

We had a surprise fire drill today as Ronald McDonald showed up with fire engines, Sparky the Fire Dog, and a whole lot of noise! The entire school assembled outside in front of the building as Ronald came to participate in our fire drill. Here is a short video with the highlights.

Reptile Visitors to Edison

The biggest news story in Kalamazoo this past week was the flooding. Not only were human lives affected by the floods, but many other living things had their natural environment interrupted as well. One example of this is the salamanders that one of our students found.

Salamanders are normally underground, but the flooding has brought many to the surface. A sharp eyed Edison student was able to safely capture three of these wonderful creatures and brought them to school to share.

In addition to the salamanders, we also have Edison the Iguana in the library and various little geckos. Reptiles are always welcome at our school...as long as they are in a cage!

These students are explaining to Principal Tansey what a salamander's habitat is, what they eat, and what they need to survive.

After a few days of observation by students, the salamanders will be released to their natural habitat.

Changing Environments Experiment

This week, third grade classes visited Mr. Johnson in the science lab to conduct a new experiment and check on their ongoing plant experiment.

Before beginning, the young scientists all wrote down what they predicted would happen. Then Mr. Johnson took a brine shrimp from an eye dropper and put it on a microscope slide. Using a special camera connected to a microscope, he was able to project the camera onto the screen for the whole class to see.

First, the students counted how many times the brine shrimp flapped over 10 seconds in its undisturbed environment and recorded the data. Then Mr. Johnson changed the environment by introducing the chemical caffeine. Caffeine can be found in many places, like soda pop and coffee and will make your heart beat faster. (Mr. Gettig perked up when he heard "coffee" mentioned!)

After introducing a chemical change to the brine shrimp's environment, the students counted how many times the creature flapped over 10 seconds and recorded the data again. They repeated this 3 times to make sure they had a good amount of data to analyze.

The results were amazing! As many students predicted, the introduction of caffeine caused the heart rate of the brine shrimp to increase.

After the brine shrimp experiment, the students observed and recorded data about the plants they are growing. They planted seeds in different kinds of dirt to see how they would grow. Some were planted in good soil, some in sand, some with fertilizer, and some without fertilizer.