Monday, February 23: Yellowstone Food Web, Sandy's Bakery Problem Set

To welcome the students back, I set up a series of problems to be solved in groups of three, in which the students needed to calculate and scoop sand for various batches of Sand Biscuits, Sandcakes, and Gritty Scones. The students were reviewing past fraction skills as we head toward a fractions assessment that includes all skills learned so far. After that, we will be leaving fractions behind for a while (to the relief of all of us in the room, and maybe those of you playing along at home!). The students are to finish the problems in that set for homework tonight.

In science, we examined the relationship between populations in a community through two games. One was called "Oh Deer" and featured students running around as deer or habitat components like water, food, or shelter. The students noticed as the deer population fluctuated from one round to the next, and we took the data from each round and graphed it back in the room to serve as an anchor for a talk about the stability of a food chain and role of predators in that stability. Over the next few weeks, we'll be looking at food chain scnearios in different national parks throughout the country. Tonight, students will get familiar with the populations of Yellowstone National Park by constructing a food web featuring nine of the major players.