Greetings from Maryland

Good morning, everyone. It's Sunday and I’m on my way to Maryland. My first flight was from Greenville-Spartanburg airport at 7:25AM. When I go somewhere, I tend to take a lot more stuff than I need. You all told me to take warm clothes, gloves, long underwear, and bunches of other stuff. I have a big suitcase full of warm clothes. When you fly, your bag can only weigh 50 pounds. Big Al, my husband, said mine would be too heavy and I would have to pay more. Guess what? My bag weighted exactly 50.0 pounds. Of course, I checked another bag and am carrying 3 more bags with me! I know of several things I forgot, too.


The temperature was 27⁰ F. when we arrived at the airport. Before we could leave GSP, the wings of the plane had to be deiced. A truck came out and sprayed the wings with some kind of chemical that melted the ice.
Two kick off questions:
!. What do airports use to deice the wings of the plane?
2. Why is it necessary to get rid of the ice on the wings? (Don’t answer that the plane will crash. Why will the plane crash?)
This site might help you answer the kick off questions. http://www.go-explore-trans.org/2007/jan-feb/winterflying.cfm


I’m sitting in the Atlanta airport now waiting for my flight to Baltimore. I’m kind of anxious about the week. (I know, Kaylen. I need to take a deep breath!) Some of the questions that I wonder about are: I’ll be rooming all week with a person I’ve never met. Will we get along OK? I’ll be working with real scientists. Do I know enough to do the research they want me to do? Will the other members of the team think I’m a good team member and that I do my part? Will my students be on their best behavior for Mrs. Bagnal and do their work?


I’m pretty jazzed about the experience, too. I like learning new things and I think I will be learning lots of things. I hope you will be learning, too. I’ve always been concerned about taking care of the environment. I want to know if global warming is really happening. What can I do besides recycling to help the environment? I have to sign off now because it’s time to board the plane for the second leg of my journey. More later.


Later (at 7:00 PM): I arrived safely at the Baltimore airport and met all the team. We had to ride about 35 minutes from Baltimore to get to where we are staying. I’ll show you pictures tomorrow. I laughed when we left the Atlanta Airport because we flew right over Clemson and the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport! You need to go to Mrs. Fechhelm’s (it's pronounced fek-helm) blog to see a picture of the snow from last night. There is still some on the ground and the wind is really cold. We had pizza for dinner tonight. Everyone is on a team that either has to cook or clean up for the dinner meal. My team gets to cook vegetable stir fry tomorrow night.


My roommate is Kate Bennett. She is from Massachusetts - about 50 miles from Boston. Her 4th grade class is studying the southeastern states. She has three children – 2 girls and a boy. They are all in their twenties. So far we’ve gotten along great! Do you think that’s something I shouldn’t have been anxious about?


If you want me to ask a team member a question, email me the question and I’ll see if I can find out what you want to know. You can also email me from your house. Just type in my address: pbpowell@greenville.k12.sc.us Ms. Rohrer’s class thought I would make good cookies!

Tomorrow we are learning about climate change. I need you to answer these questions in your composition book. To better understand what I'm doing, follow the link shown below to answer the questions:http://www.qacps.k12.md.us/bird/fragment/species_study/JWBI.htm
1. What is a fragmented forest?
2. What causes a fragmented forest?
3. Why are they being studied?
4. How big should a forest be?
5. Evaluate: Which species shown seems to be the most suited to a changing forest? SUPPORT YOUR ANSWER>