So....what was this trip all about?

Reflection on my journey to Nova Scotia....Have you ever thought what would happen if we lost these .....a white tail deer,

the Atlantic seacoast that host a ton of living organism in this habitat

Frogs eggs....

Big words come to my mind as I reflect back to everything we have done here...

Scruffing the vole

A pile of snowshoe hare poop

(thats a pile of 100)

This long journey hopefully will answer these questions:

So, why catch, trap and release voles, chipmunks and mice, and then also count snowshoe hare poop, and deer poop? Why look for the field damage signs? Why did we have to repeat these investigations in two different sites? Tick drag (alot of us have never even heard of it)?
We did agree that its for SCIENCE - but bottom line, my one major goal is to connect this to the big word - CONSERVATION. Conservation is a big word that we have to discuss and think about.

In your own words, not the dictionary, what do you think conservation is, taking into account what I have done over the last two weeks.

My last blog for the night! I am packing up and getting on that plane in a few hours. BUT, I will be checking in on Sunday!

All the best - onwards we go boys and girls!

Millie Tang

The Panthers are thanking their generous donors!

The Panthers are coming Home!
My deepest gratitude goes out to both the Earthwatch Institute team and Wells Fargo Bank for such a great indescribable opportunity.


It has opened the sleeping giants within us, most especially, in me, to go out and teach more. With this burning urgency to go back into the classroom, I am hoping that I will leave an impact or legacy with the future conservationists of the world wherever I go or whomever I come across in this planet.

Wells Fargo Bank and Earthwatch Institute video

Wells Fargo and Earthwatch Institute - what a great experience - Thank you once again!

Countdown to go home

"Are we there yet?" I wonder how long this will take for me to make it home from Nova Scotia to Moraga, CA?

My best rendition of The Hills of Moraga while waiting to work on the traps!

Onwards we go...see you in a few days!
MTang

Found a local to talk to us...

Lobster traps

Look how tall and wide these traps are as compared to the height of our Panther ( he was a stowaway in my luggage)
Not your regular bouys but these are individual ID buoys for each lobster trap.

Local lobster man, Tanner, shared a few crustracean secrets with us.

1. One of the largest industry for Nova Scotia is lobster trapping from November to around May each year.

2. After lobster season, they fish for the different fishes to sell to the local market.

3. Lobster likes warmer water, and will come closer to the shore line and spawn their eggs.

4. He drops his 250 traps in the morning and leaves it overnight before he comes back in the morning to pull in his catch. He does come back in the afternoon to check the traps. More often than not, he will find at least one catch per trap when he pulls it in.

5. Tanner has a GPS system in his boat that plots all the traps he "throws" into the water. Imagine if you can not find those! He also baits his trap with chopped up mackerel or some kind of fish.

6. Interesting fact- these lobster catchers do not like SEALS. They actually can shoot these seals and will not get in trouble for doing that. They have no use for these dead seals either. Just this year alone 800 seals have been killed and thats even lower than how much they were expecting to kill!

Though we are studying the climate change for the small land mammals, climate change has also affected the aquatic life. We will investigate that tomorrow when we visit an adjunct coast - interesting - I didnt know what ADJUNCT meant also and had to ask Dr. Chris Newman about it.

Your task is to think why these fisherman and lobster catchers do not like seals AT ALL. Give me at least 3 good responses to it!

I will be waiting!

ps...did you know that when you click on most of my pictures it will give you a larger image of it!

The Panther Turning tourist for a few hours here in NS

Panther visiting the coastline of the
ATLANTIC OCEAN

The team had a few hours to catch up on work today, Thursday and I decided to prowl through the little town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. This is where our "base camp" is located. This is a very small, quiet town, the coast stretches along the road as we drive up and down everyday. But this PANTHER defintely spotted quite a few differences between our town of Moraga and the California coastline as compared to the Atlantic Coastline. Trust me, I also have fallen in love with this coastline out here but the windfactor was going 50 miles an hour and I could not get my hand to take a steady picture nor keep myself from blowing over!

What I want you do to is connect your schema about these pictures and think if you spot the differences between our town and that of Lunenburg and see if there are differences.

I will be waiting!

Onward we go boys and girls....

Mrs. Tang

Voles and Ticks and another day in the wet and wild Nova Scotia

My earlier blog about voles and tick was meant to be a joke - like a knock knock joke.

What is a vole ? "A Vole is a mole playing the violin!" smile....and laugh....

How do you know when a tick is around? "You can hear it go 'tick, tick, tick'...please laugh, I need to hear you!

Here's the data and info:

1. Red back voles are common, and found in both the United States and Canada. Voles can not see nor hear its predator. Lives in the thick understory and only eats vegetation around where it lives. It also is a slower creature as compared to a mouse or shrew. The physical difference between a vole and a mouse - voles have shorter tails while the mouse has a longer one that it uses like a rudder ( look this up if you dont know what a rudder is) to escape its predator.

2 Ticks - wood ticks love to burrow itself in something warm, like your hairline and skin and also feeds off blood. It will get "fat" from the blood but wont die from overfeeding itself. Ticks do get as big as a small grape.

You will not believe this but we did a TICK DRAG experiment ! I have never seen an experiment like this - How you ask?
1. We took a blanket, measured and transect the land, 10 meters by 10 meters for its perimeter.

2. Then we took the blanket and dragged it very SLOWLY. Think of it as a tick bus!

3. On a recording sheet, we still had to record how many ticks per drag and the time intervals. Furthermore, we tested the surrounding areas also. Not once but 5 times!

4. For this particular day, we didn't catch any ticks, because once again, ticks do not like cold, wet rainy days, but the day before, after trampling through the forest on a warmer day, we all had to do a tick check before getting on our van. Yes, we did find hitchhiking ticks on us!

Why do a tick drag?

1.Both scientists, Dr. Chris N. and Christina Beushing are aware that there are no scientific data out there on the tick population; this is the beginning of their investigations.

2. Wood Ticks do not carry lyme diesease, but deer ticks do.

3. But the ticks seem to be increasing in its numbers all over and our scientists would like to find more - what's causing the rise of ticks which in turn ends up preying on animals. Think what happens next.

Have you heard of the old saying "A Picture Says a Thousand Words"

Day 3 at Cook's Lake

But, as I mentioned in my other blog, everytime it rains, it creates different types of habitat all around Cook's Lake, we found this today. Mystery picture: Do you know what this is?

Team A once again hit ZERO on our traps for both the forest floor and the meadow floor. Today, Wednesday's weather condition was worse than Tuesday!
I was soaked through my bones! Forgot to pack real rain gear! Good thing I had rain boots, I was getting sucked in the mud by midafternoon after we had cleared some trails.

As a team, we did have 3 catches, 1 squirrel, and 2 voles today.

Yesterdays catch was 3 total.

Out of all these catches, we did have 1 recatch, which meant that one of the male voles went into another teams trap. Interesting isn't it how these voles work.....

Answers to my own questions from yesterday's blog.

1. We shut the traps in the evenings because we do not want to trap any of the meadow shrews because its metabolism is very fast, it needs to eat every 4 hours, and since we don't check the traps every four hours at night, it will die of starvation. If its a bigger shrew it wont be able to escape out of the escape hole on the sides of the traps.
2. The aluminum traps during a nice warm day will become a steaming oven if we dont cover it with the dry grass. Any trapped mammals will just die.

3. Rainy conditions - chances are these creatures are smarter than we think, they do not want to come out of their warmer habitats or their mousie / vole conventions and council meetings please smile at my jokes... UNLESS THEY ARE STARVING and have to search for food.

I do not have questions for you to respond except for the mystery pictures. Go through the previous blogs and see if there are burning questions that I can answer. But if not, i will answer EVERYTHING when I see you on Monday!

Sing your "sun dance" for me, we need the sun or we will drown in this rain and mud!

Onward we go, boys and girls. Till the next time I skype with you all!

MTANG

Learning in the cold....brrrrr.....

COOK'S LAKE, is our present investigation site for us to trap small mammals using the same Longworth Traps this week. This property is owned by Drs. Chris Newman and Christina Buesching for conservation and scientific use. What is interesting about this location is - it has alot of habitats for different creatures - we spotted quite a few ponds that were formed naturally, the meadow, lake, and the forest - but this property also had a clear cut forest - which is a forest that has been cleared and replanted with plant life that will survive in this environment.

The goal once more was to trap small mammals that live on both environment here - the meadow and the forest.

Day 1 - we divided our traps into two different environments - 10 were set up in a grassland/meadow and the other ten were set up in the forest. After setting up, we closed the trap doors out in the meadows and opened it only when we left late in the afternoon. DO YOU REMEMBER WHY WE HAD TO CLOSE THE TRAP DOORS IN THE EVENINGS FOR THIS PARTICULAR TEST?

We also went back out to the forest to check our "A" line traps. The one big difference with this forest set up from last week was the ground was wet and muddy, like being in a bog. We had to chose carefully where to lay the traps. As for the meadow set up, imagine a meadow with no shade nor shelter under the big blue sky. Mr Pembroke and I had to cover the traps with dried grass to keep the aluminum traps from heating up like an open. IMAGINE WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF THE TRAPS WERE LEFT UNDER THE SUN?

This is the meadow site - Notice that we had to "ponytail" dry grass

and tag it for us to remember where we placed

the traps.

Day 2 - we experienced once again the traditional Nova Scotian weather - rain, cold and wet! BRRR...onward we go ....

Team A headed out to both sites- forest to check for closed traps, and to the meadow to OPEN the trap doors.

That video tells it all...

We had a few conditions that led to only 2 redbacked vole catches from the entire team's 100 traps at the end of day.

What do you think these conditions are that led to such a low result?

Here's what some parts of the forest floors look like now after the rain -

Your task - answer the 3 questions that I've underlined in purple.

On Wednesday, we will once again check our traps to see if we had any catches.

Onward we go - boys and girls!
Mrs. Tang

Just kidding....

Mrs Tang is having writers block right now because it was a long day out in the field. We had a combination of cold wind, cold rain, muck, and mud...so I need to defrost and start thinking of posting more data!
So...

What is a vole?
How can you tell that there is a tick around?

send me you answers!

I will be waiting!

BUT, I do want you to think about WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2009 is EARTH DAY !
What can you do or what will you do to help? You did promise to take the challenge at school.

"Who did it this time?" "Not It!"

"Look for Field Sign Damage." Dr. Beusching tells our team as we venture out on yet another adventure - what does this phrase mean to you "Field Sign Damage"?

These photos will give you examples of what is - Field Sign Damage

Evidence A and B

Evidence C and D

Evidence E and F

Scientists are expected to look for field damage as they are working out on the field for a few reasons:

1.To know which animals are active in the area.

2. Depending on a particular season, we will also know the variety of animals in a given season.

3. To accurately know the density or population of the animals.

4. To be aware of the predator and prey relationship in each area.

How did we do this?

1. We were divided into 3 teams in a given specific measured area and dropped of into our assigned areas( think like a survivor, who gets to bring home the most specimen)- this is also called "TO TRANSECT"

2. We walked, walked and walked but kept our eyes open to everything - from tree damage, poop evidence on the ground, burrows, and dens.

3. Eyes open, ears perked, we timed and recorded when we began to everytime we found an "evidence". we kept a log as we invesitgated

4. Any unknown evidence had to be bagged and brought back to Dr. Newman for analysis.

5. Curiousity will always be one of our greatest lifeskill - we investigated down low and up high and found great evidence - but I can only post so many pictures...

You are expected to look closely at these, think, ponder, get your parents to help you!
What do you think these field damage specimens or samples are?

Which animal do you think did this? Post your answers by using my labels - Specimen A is....Try to guess all of my photos!

Good Luck !

Onward we go Boys and Girls!
Mrs. Tang

Finally ! Puff and Scruff!

It is not the mountain that we conquer but ourselves!
I DID IT! I DID IT!

Mrs. Tang conquered her squeamishness....

Did you know that....

1. These traps are called Longworth traps made in England for the purposes of trapping smaller mammals.

2. Each trap is worth around $80.00 EACH !

3. A vole's gestation period is 3 weeks.

Friday April 17, our team's schedule was to check the traps one last time in the morning before we packed up our gear to move on to a different trapping site for this coming week, April 20 - 24.

Team A, which was Mrs. Tang and my CA connection partner, Mr. Pembroke did not find anymore trapped mammals in our grid after the first initial find of a chipmunk and a redback vole on day 1. But our other teammates brought back theirs! We have ONE NEW capture and ONE RECAPTURE.

Heart thumping and nervous, I finally had the chance to undo the trap, check the tunnel,dump the nest into the plastic bag, scruff it, check its condition, weighed, clip marked ( getting a haircut) and released it using the timidity tray. No Name, a red back vole, weighed 18.5 grams, a male adult and took a little over 6 minutes to go into the maze and out the exit door.

Here are the findings for this 3 day trapping:

1. Based on the quadrat of land - 100 meters by 100 meters, we averaged that we captured 10 red back voles and at least 3 mice only.

2. We can not count the 2 squirrels as part of our capture because they are not forest floors animals ( think where you see Alvin all the time!) and they eat a different diet as compared to mice and voles.

3. Compared to 2008's data, our 2009 capture data shows no greater change between this year's findings and that of last year's data results.

4. The next few weeks will be very critical or important for the survival of these smaller mammals but it depends on alot of factors for survival.

Here are the following questions I want you to research, discuss, and respond to all of these 4 questions.

1. Convert meter to feet - what is the total perimeter of the area we researched on in FEET?

2. Technically, the longer we run this test of capturing the mice and voles, we have a better picture of the total mice or vole population or density in our 100 meter X 100 meter. We only trapped and observed for 3 days. WHY can we NOT run the test longer than 3 days. Think hard, think of their environment and habitat and think of 10 of our team mates on this forest floor. Give me 2 of your theories.

3. Why did our findings say that the next few weeks is critical for the survival of Ms Cali and No Name Vole and their friends. What will happen if these 10 voles die in the next few weeks?

4. What do you think Mrs. Tang learned with this week's capture and release research?

More on poop with my next blog....

Onward we go boys and girls!
Till the next time...

Mrs. Tang

Out and about...this mammal went 'awalkin...make the connections

What do these pictures have in common? What are these ?

Nova Scotia, aside from its pristine environment for research also has an interesting past. These pictures tell us one type Nova Scotia's industry as well as its weather and location in this world.

YOU will give me the answers to all 5 of these questions. PLEASE ANSWER ALL BEFORE YOU POST YOUR ANSWERS!

1. Which INDUSTRY would use these items that I have posted?

2. Weather - what is the climate and weather like here ?

3. Landforms - what kind of landforms will you find here in Nova Scotia?

- Name one of the bigger oceans that neighbors this province?

4. Nova Scotia is also populated with more than one biome that we have studied. Which possible biome(s) could it be that supplies resources to one of their major industries for this province? (hint...I have been in it for the last six days!)

Good Luck - I hope I have peaked your curiosity of this great province!

Onward we go boys and girls.

Mrs. Tang

Mammals of Nova Scotia with Ms Wong-Tang: It's all in the poop! Thursday April 16

Mammals of Nova Scotia with Ms Wong-Tang: It's all in the poop! Thursday April 16

It's all in the poop! Thursday April 16

Why use poop as part of our data gathering ?

How do you collect droppings? What is the scientific procedure to collect droppings?

"I am waitng for the rinse cycle" - letting go of Alvin

Our research and findings - 1

1. Timidity Trays - this tray was designed by Dr. Chris Newman himself, one of our lead scientist, to test the critters - either a vole, mice, and other small mammals' intelligence level. These small mammals are beginning to resurface from winter and looking for food this time around. Mice will look for insects but voles are herbivores. Any of these smaller mammals that survive through the winter season are considered more "intelligent" because it was able to weather through colder climates, had not depleted all of its food. Mice do not have body fat, but can hear, see very well. Its also quite agile and their tail also serves as a "rudder" which makes them run and escape faster, and also used as a defense mechanism.
The question was whether these mammals in a new trapped maze (environment) will be able to escape , esp. if these are the smarter critters that survived the winter, and how fast will it take for them to go through the maze.
No definite results for this test yet. Will keep you posted.

2. Porcupine - this was the mystery animal that I posted. But, now we have a debate that porcupines do live in California - more research is needed for this on both yours and my part.
Porcupines sleep in the day, its belly does not have quills which makes it the most vulnerable spot in its body. No presence of poison is found in its quills. Its actually hollow! When the quills break, infection builds and finds its way into the porcupine's system. It does use these quills as defense mechanism. Porcupines only have ONE young or baby a year! One predator of the porcupine is a marten called the FISHER, smart and nocturnal, it sleeps on top of trees, and head first down the tree and attacks the porcupine by "pushing it off" the tree as the Porcupine is heading up. Once the porcupine lands on its back on the floor, the fisher jumps on P's belly and the rest is history! Baby porcupines are called - "PORCUPET".

Any I wonder questions - get it ready for me...

Onwards we go - and more research for me!

Panther found it!

The Panther found the second closed trap for Team A! This was the second time in the day for us to check the traps in the afternoon- drumroll please.... Panther found one and it was heavier that the first trap we found in the morning!
Dr. Christina Buesching needed to open this since she knew which mystery critter was in it because of the traps weight!

Voila - it was a ground squirrel or a chipmunk!

Alvin was so friskie! We think he was curious and gotten himself trapped!

We still had to weigh him - did not scruff.

Alvin a boy ground squirrel, is an adult, and weighs 80 grams! imagine that!

Mr. Pembroke, my partner and I did the same - catch and release but this time we didnt test him out with the timidity tray.

Watch for the upcoming video on this!

Ohhhh...What a catch! April 15, 2009

First Catch for the Day - Yay Team A!

We headed out to our site this morning and

6 traps were brought in but two were "false catches"

The way we were taught to check the traps:

slowly undo the traps into a bag, check the tunnels and the nest for signs of critters. If successful, gently catch it by scruffing the neck and pull it out of the bag.

"Ms. Cali (named after California), is an adult Red Back Vole, 5 days pregnant and weighs 17 grams.

We weighed her, clipped her right hind side as a way of tagging her.

Time for catch and RELEASE! You see how squemish I got. Ms Cali was very frisky!

Timidity tray was used to time how quick, fast, agile and smart Ms. Cali was - the timing started from the entry door and exit - 9 seconds! She was fast as compared to the other team's observations of their catch!

Mrs Tang and a doll house?

Guess what this will be used for?

Pictures and more pictures

"Knock knock" "Who's there?" Tunnel / Nesting boxes - getting ready for deployment. The front of the tunnel is the entry way for the trap.

Mrs. Tang learned:

1. The bedding and the grain is to make the mouse comfortable when its trapped. We also do not want to freeze nor starve these mammals. Its cold and mice do not store fat in their bodies, the bedding will keep them warm and the food will help especially since they are scavenging for food.

2. The trap has 2 parts to it, the long side ( to the left ) called the tunnel and the more squarish box is the nesting box, we fill the nesting box with bedding and food, but the tunnel has to sit flat on its bottom with the box lifted up a bit to prevent the bedding from getting wet or saturated or else it will drown the critter in it!

Thats it for now boys and girls!

Do well!

Trapping - April 14th

Today was our first full day out in the field. We headed out to East Port Medway Research Site to build and deploy small mammal traps. Dr. Christine Buesching, one of our lead scientists, also known as our Principal Investigaor (PI), taught us how to properly set up a trap filled with hay, pine needles ( their bedding in other words) and a handful of grain and seeds. The traps were "deployed" in a protected site privately owned - size of the land - 100 meters X 100 meters.

Teams were sent out - Mrs Tang and Mr. P, also from California, known as Team A had to set 20 traps in about twenty yards apart, following scientific processes, we also had to label and tag each location. "THINK LIKE A MOUSE" that was the rule of thumb when we were setting the traps. We had to set the traps pushed up against fallen logs or ridges, giving us a better chance of trapping mammals. "THINK LIKE A MOUSE", they seem to love running an obstacle course, why is it they never run in a straight line in an open space?

We came back a few hours later - drumroll....we found 2 traps with doors shut...DRUMROLLL...NOTHING! This is called "FALSE CATCH". This is when a trap door closes accidentally with no catch. We are heading back out on Wedneday morning to check on the traps. That will be a good question to ask me on Wednesday!

Questions for you to think about and RESPOND:

1. Why track mice? What's the importance of mice in our project? (I asked myself and Mr. P that question also)

2. Why did we not catch anything today?

3. If we had to set 20 traps per team, 2 traps every 20 yards, how far do we have to go?

4. If we had 5 teams total, how many total traps did we deploy?

5. Why is important to set so many traps?

6. Imagine if each trap was $80.00 each, how much does our scientific equipment cost that's now sitting out there in the field?

7. Our trapping grid is 100 meters by 100 meters, What is the total area of our site?

8. Fraction problem - 2 false catches out of 100 traps set. What would the simplest fraction answer for this problem

9. What do you think caused those doors to shut? Think low or think high!

I've got so much more questions and data to share with all of you...

But, this is a good start for you all to start thinking before I see all of you on Thursday. Wednesday will be a long day for us.

Be good - THURSDAY, Room 22 you will have those visitors come through.

Answers, answers, answers....Onward we go boys and girls

Mystery Pictures

This is a birch tree that has been stripped by the mystery mammal.It loves the taste of this bark.

It's poop or feces is in a chain! We took apart this solid waste and can see the undigested bark in it.

Interesting ?

Let me know what you think of this !

Mystery Animal

Mystery Animal:

1. This is a mammal.
2. It only has one offspring a year. 210 gestation period. AHHH... what does gestation mean?
3. Considered a pest species here in Nova Scotia but still quite alot.
4. Not found in California! But in alot of our children's books! ALSO, TELL ME WHY YOU THINK THIS MAMMAL IS NOT FOUND IN CALIFORNIA.
5. It has poky things when its defense mechanism kicks in or feels threatened.
6. Its poop looks like a chain of "pearls"
7. Can climb trees and has damaged so much with the evidence we saw today.

Identify this mystery mammal for me. I can give you more clues tomorrow if you need more.

Schema on White Tail Deer

The white tail deer population has wiped out the moose population here in Nova Scotia because of a parasite known as "brain worm" that is transferred through the snails on the ground.
Ask your parents to help you find the scientific name of a "brain worm" and what else can you tell me about this

The deer, which is immune to this brain worm, brought this to the area. The deer's immune system can attack this parasite but the moose's immunse system can not detect this and will then infect the moose's immune system and brain. It makes the moose weak, then a coyote attacks the moose, or the moose dies on its own.

1. Let me know your definition of IMMUNE:
2. The type of relationship (we've learned this in class) between the moose and coyote.
3. Let me know how the parasite can be found in the bodies of both the moose and deer.

Will be waiting for your answers.

First Signs that greeted me in the Halifax airport.

Nova%20scotia%20airport.pub

Similarities and differences between the United States and Canada.
Can you spot it and tell me what these symbols are?

If you have microsoff publication, then you can open this link, if not, let me know and I will repost it.

Dinner and ice breaker- getting to know all of us

The Panther Has Landed

Hello everybody:

After bouncing around three airports, I finally landed in the Halifax airport.4 hours later, we began our journey - 2 Oxford researchers, 10 teachers, and an earthwatch personnel.
Cold, snow flurries, and rain greeted all of us but we are hoping to head out to the field by Monday afternoon and start our mammal tracking.
Wish us luck !

One Day and counting. Thank You!

Boys and girls, thank you for participating and practicing how to access my blog. I wish all of you well, both in and out of the classroom. Be the best that you can be, use your lifeskills as best as you could, think before you speak or act! Make me proud of all of you!

Thank you - to all of my students and families for your support and well wishes.
to our school's principal, Mr Walters and the forces behind him, Chris and Rebecca,
to my tech friends who will help me through this - D. Ludwig, Courtney G and
the district's tech team.
to my classroom partner - Tracy C. for getting all of my paperwork together.
to our school district's Superintendent for supporting me on this endeavor
to my subs Mr. Matt G and Renie G. and Veronica E.
to my sister, Margaret, who nominated me.
to Wells Fargo Bank and Earthwatch Insitute for giving teachers this awesome opportunity.

My gratitude also goes out to friends and family who have offered to help out my husband on mommy duties.
Lastly - thank you to both my husband and daughter for their love, patience and support (especially on those crazy days).

Onward we go!

Millie Tang

Think Hard!

Adaptations and Accomodations - these two words are interrelated. How can you connect these two words together if we revisit the game "OH DEER"

Explain to me what would happen if a deer's ecosystem suddenly changes - heavy rain and flooding occurs because of climate changes- as compared to it having a lush vegetation, abundant resources for its food and home - What would the deer population have to do in order to survive? Please use the words ADAPTATIONS and ACCOMODATIONS in your explanation. use your textbook as a resource too 228-229.

Try to keep it as detailed as possible. You can write a short paragraph or you can list it.

last question:
Do you think it was helpful having the community meeting today?

Excellent Questioning!

Boys and Girls ! Excellent questioning! You guys are the best ! You were able to follow directions, take it home, and then post your deep bucket questions! I am very proud of all of your hard work!

Excellent Questioning

Excellent questioning boys and girls ! I am very proud of all of you! Some questions will have to wait until I start the expedition, some questions I can answer!

1. My sister who works for Wells Fargo Bank, which is my sponsor, nominated me for this fellowship. I then pursued it by answering Earthwatch's questionnaires(with Power Writing!)
I was very surprised to have been accepted into the program because I was having second thoughts about submitting my applicationv and going in the middle of the school year, and I also submitted it on the very last day!

2. Earthwatch has different fellowships and "trips" to other parts of the world - but this particular fellowship, entitled "Mammals of Nova Scotia" is a perfect match to our science program!
Yes, " CC " I would love to go somewhere warmer - I will save that for the summer - but this is one of the best and greatest opportunity a teacher can ever ask for! I cant turn it down!

Three more days to go, I am nervous but also feel very confident that all of you will do well while I am gone!
We will keep practicing posting comments, and skyping from the classroom!

Onward we go!

Mrs. Tang

I WONDER

Boys and Girls, I would like you to try to send a comment by posting an I WONDER question after our science discussion today on BIOMES - connect it to our BIOME discussions and your I WONDERS about Nova Scotia.

Thank you!