Hello everyone! Hey, great talking with you all yesterday. I think we can make this happen several times through the weeks ahead.

Now, I need to get some feedback from you all on my questions from yesterday. So I'll wait patiently on that. However, I feel the need to show you what we were doing today.

By the way, the sun came out! It seems it will be sunny for several days. Yippee!
This is a picture of our Principal Investigator (Scientist) Dr. Buesching, teaching us (Mr. P the student here!) how to set up the mouse traps so the little babies won't be hurt!
Ok. Here ya go. Mice population is very important. I know, it doesn't seem like mice are all that big of a deal.....get it? BIG of a deal? Anyway, we need to reset our thinking to the food web and how energy is transferred through Earth's systems through sunlight, photosynthesis, decomposers, scavengers, and of course, higher things on the food web. So, a mouse is quite high on the food web when you think of it. I mean, what if you were a seed? You'd feel that a mouse is quite large. Ok, my new friend Mrs. Tang, says, "No, a mouse is quite low on the food chain." And guess what? She's right! She's a fourth grade teacher in Maraga, Ca., near Berkeley. So we're the only two Californians on this expedition!

1. Ok then. Think about this. What if all of the mice were eradicated? What could happen to our natural environment? This is a question about how energy transfers through Earth's system. So, in your field journal, jot down "real" thoughts on how predators and prey systems would change if the mouse population were to fall off radically. Think about what eats mice and maybe eat what eats those predators.

Out in the actual forest, team A was me and Mrs. Tang, the California Connection, we were setting out our traps on a pre-determined grid.
2. Each trap needed to be about 20 yards apart in a relatively straight line. Two traps needed to be by each other. We had twenty traps. How many total yards were needed?
3. Tomorrow, we hope for some catches and some pictures of actual critters!!! Watch the video below and tell me what you notice is real science and accurate about it and what is sort of made up.

And by the way, we have some other schools with us. Evergreen in Paradise is watching closely. I'd like to welcome Mr. Hull and Mr. Holman's class.