Bagging the Bag ~ Infographic

As I've said before (and it's not an original thought)..."a picture is worth 1000 words."

This Infographic from the Reuse This Bag website highlighting the US's -vs- The World's plastic bag usage and subsequent bags does a spectacular job of saying it all!  Go to http://www.reusethisbag.com/reusable-bag-infographics/plastic-bag-bans-world.asp to learn more!

Source: Reusable Grocery Bags

Bridging the Content Areas with the Arts...and Eco-art-ism

Earlier this week we went on one of my favorite annual 3rd grade field trips at Eagle Cove School--we went to Sandy Point State Park.  

The reason we went to this Maryland State Park is because it served as the culmination of our bridges and river study.  As we have found, this park becomes the perfect end-of-unit getaway in that it offers us an "up close and personal" view of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the gateway that connects the Eastern and Western shores of Maryland.  It gives us a beach-side seat to discuss our newly acquired bridge terminology: bridge deck, piers, towers, abutments, truss, and suspension. 

But more than that, it also gives us an opportunity to tie the content areas to the arts as we go out into the world--yielding over-sized clipboards, watercolor paper, paint brushes, and paint.  We were also carrying a multitude of watercolor techniques. 

Additionally, our art adventure and Social Studies unit both lent themselves to an environmental conversation.  Sandwiched in between both of these golden opportunities was a chance to share some powerful Plastiki quotes from the David de Rothschild book Plastiki: Across the Pacific on Plastic: An Adventure to Save Our Oceans.  This in turn, made for a sensational segue into having our own personal beach clean up. 

We instantly noticed and were pleased by the pretty pristine-ly combed beach; yet despite that fact, purple sparkled in the morning sun.  Purple?  Ahh, a wayward scrap of foil from a random granola or protein bar wrapper.  Add that to the hundreds of other colorful dime-sized, plastic items we found.  In our little area alone, our crew was able to get a full grocery bag of tiny plastic scraps.  These scraps were only a wind-blown-gust away from the water.  Over time, that wind would ultimately carry all of it off to one of the 5 oceanic garbage patches filled with plastic trash, otherwise know as "mermaid tears," "nurdles," or "toxic soup."

The Plastiki had been on my brain for about 2 weeks prior to our bridge trip.  During that time, I had been aboard an airplane, and I found myself shaking my head.  The reason?  I was 30,000 feet above the ground, drinking from a plastic-encased bottle of water while reading the book "Plastiki!" (I was a thirsty girl from all that recirculated air--I needed hydration, and bottled water was my only option, despite my personal animosity to plastic!)  I think this is what they call "irony."

Yet, it was during this "anti-plastic yet plastic" moment that the book I was reading really hit home.  Perhaps this is why some facts are still sticking with me (as quoted from The Plastiki: Across the Pacific on Plastic: An Adventure to Save Our Oceans):

•  80% of ocean pollution begins on land; a plastic bottle can take 450 years to degrade;
• For every 1 ton of plastic we recycle, we save almost 2,000 pounds of oil;
• The exact amount of plastic entering the Pacific Ocean is unknown, and may be unknowable. But what is certain is that the Garbage Patch has grown in size, and so has the density of plastic within its vortex;.
• Each year, plastic litter in the ocean kills 100,000 turtles, dolphins, whales, and other marine mammals, and 1 million seabirds.

So, this 3rd grade field trip for me wasn't just a great field trip.  Instead, it became more like eco-tourism.  "Eco-art-ism" perhaps is the better terminology.  But isn't it true that this is what makes learning "real" to kids: True connections to real life.  Hands-on experiences. Taking in the beauty and nature that surrounds us.  Being active and taking action.  Gaining an appreciation for the Chesapeake Bay...seeing the fragility of our bay...protecting the bay.

Perhaps more of our everyday learning experiences should include "eco-art-ism."

Marylanders Grow Oysters à la Maryland Life Magazine

It's spring, which must mean that it's oyster season in 3rd grade here at Eagle Cove School. 

 

All year in science, my 3rd grade students tend their wee oyster spat weekly.  They take water temperature measurements, salinity measurements, and oyster measurements!  The ultimate goal:  they are raising the oysters for spring release, when they've grown enough to be put back into the Magothy River. 

 

That trip for us is next week....so more on that then.

This week, it just so happens to be perfectly timed with the "Marylanders Grow Oysters" article by Jennifer Keats Curtis in the May 2011 edition of Maryland Life Magazine. See below the article copied in it's entirety. To view the article from the Maryland Life website (and much more!), go to http://www.marylandlife.com/articles/marylanders-grow-oysters.

 Marylanders Grow Oysters

by Jennifer Keats Curtis

May 16, 2011

Last year, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Oyster Recovery Partnership (ORP) delivered nearly 10,000 oyster cages and spat (grown at the University of Maryland Center For Environmental Science’s Horn Point Laboratory in Cambridge) to points along 19 Chesapeake Bay tributaries as part of the Marylanders Grow Oysters program.

And they’re doing it again this year.

At these designated drop-off points, volunteer coordinators help distribute the bivalves to anyone interested in growing oysters. They continue to do so until late spring, when the oysters should be large enough to be transported and planted in sanctuaries.

In Pasadena, the Eagle Cove School has become an oyster-holding and spat-distribution station for the program, a cooperative effort among the ORP, the University of Maryland, and the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

Eagle Cove’s staff, volunteers, and students work with the Magothy River Association to give away all of the oysters (save the ones that the third-graders grow and care for throughout the school year).

“All of the students get involved, beginning in September when the kindergartners use wagons to lug the oyster shells down to the water,” says third-grade teacher Vicki Dabrowka.

“Every Friday, the third-graders go out to the dock to analyze the oysters. They check the salinity and the temperature and they chart their findings throughout the year.”

The project ends with the students and oysters aboard a Chesapeake Bay Foundation boat.

“We load up right at the dock and take the oysters to the sanctuaries,” says Dabrowka. “The kids study the maps and talk about what needs to be done. We perform different tasks and then chuck the oysters over as the kids yell, 'Be free!'”

She adds, “In 19 years of teaching, I consider this the best field trip ever.”

Dabrowka’s daughter, Delaney, a third-grader, agrees.

“We’re in charge of oyster cages and if we don’t take care of them, then the oysters get bad and they could die,” she says.  “We all like to take care of them. It’s important.”

Chris Judy, Maryland DNR’s shellfish manager, notes that volunteers - who can help identify waterfront property owners willing to become oyster growers and/or deliver oyster cages - are always needed.

For more information, visit www.oysters.maryland.gov.

Springing out With May GTG's Newsletter

Ei yie yie...how did it not only get to be May, let alone well past the middle of May?!?

At long last, here is the May Monthly Green Team Gazette Newsletter. 

Feature this month are some good Earth Day follow Ups:

• Post-Earth Day May
• Home Aqua Audit (Do a home audit of your water usage)
• Green Forever Stamps (From the Post Office)
• Do the Math (turn your "Green Forever Stamp Study" into a math exercise)

To Land yourself on the GTG News- letter for May, go to 

http://www.eaglecoveschool.org/library/resources/GreenTeamGazettes/GTG2010-2011/GreenTeamGazette3.9May2011.pdf

Terrapin Talk & BRD's With ECS

Eagle Cove School, our science teacher and first grade were the focus of the local television program "Anne Arundel County Week in Review."

The point of this episode & interview:  a terrapin saving device that first graders learned about during our ECS "Bay Week" (concurrent with Earth Day).  BRD's are "Bi-Catch Reduction Devices."  This small metal item (that largely resembles a mail slot) is placed in the opening of crab traps. Why?  So that the air-breathing terrapins our first graders raise then release (to increase the terrapin population in the Bay) aren't captured inadvertently in crab traps. 

First graders, under the tutelage of Bay Week visiting author Jennifer Keats Curtis (http://www.jenniferkeatscurtis.com/), learned that the inexpensively priced BRD's can extremely help the terrapin population.  The reason is because a large number of newly hatched terrapins wind up getting into the crab traps.  Unfortunately, though, once the terrapins get in, they become stuck in the traps and die with their inability to get out as they rapidly grow.  First graders wrote letters to local governmental officials...and hence why they wound up on AA County, Week in Review.

If you are a crab fisherman on the Chesapeake Bay, follow our first grader's advice, and look into purchasing some BRD's for your traps!

To learn more about BRD's, go to http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/regulations/crabpot-trd/crabpottrd.html.

Video from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7A1LfTFWak&feature=related

Uploaded by AACTVWIRon May 8, 2011; Week of May 1, 2011 (First Aired May 6) - News and highlights from Anne Arundel County, MD.

Terrapin image from http://www.dnr.sc.gov/marine/mrri/acechar/specgal/diamterr.htm

Dr. Ben Carson: "Gifted Hands" & Rare Opportunities

I think today I had one of the most inspired moments of my teaching career.  Today, the 3rd--5th grade Eagle Cove School students went to The Johns Hopkins University to have a private audience with two amazing surgeons: Dr. Harold Fox (Chairman of Gynecology & Obstetrics) & Dr. Ben Carson (Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery).

The occasion: supreme luck on our part!  

Having read Dr. Carson's biography Gifted Hands, Kids Edition: The Ben Carson Story (by Gregg Lewis & Deborah Shaw Lewis) last year as a read-aloud in my class, I knew that this book would become an annual read-aloud staple for my 3rd grade class.  Dr. Carson's story of how he went (in his words) from "class dummy" to pediatric neurosurgeon through both the faith in his mother and her push for him to excel in reading is inspirational on many fronts.  This year too, in-class we watched the Cuba Gooding Jr. movie by the same name: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (available to rent through http://www.netflix.com/).  If you haven't had a chance to read or see either one, chose one, do it...and do it soon!  A purely amazing, phenomenal story of a true hero!!

So, back to the original question:  How did we find ourselves in such a rare opportunity, today?

As luck would have it, Dr. Fox has a close connection to one of my third graders.  As conversations of school events were shared, Dr. Fox was able to work some magic and arrange for us to meet with him for lunch at Johns Hopkins today, and sneak some moments from Dr. Carson's lunch before he started on rounds.

 How privileged were we, to be able to spend about a half hour with each of these fine gentlemen, to bend their ears with a battalion of student-led GOOD questions?!?  Between them both, they've seen and assisted with approximately 20,000 patients!  I can't get past how touched I was by both of their generosities, for Dr. Fox to clear his schedule, and for Dr. Carson (who's schedule was quite tight), who gave us 30 minutes of his undivided time.  

As I told my kids, one of the greatest gifts ever is the gift of time.  

Here is a snippet I found on YouTube that gives you a flavor of the content that Dr. Carson discussed with us.  No, it was not our exact experience today, but the sentiment, flavor, humbleness, and humor (as well as many similar comments) can be savored here with this video.

Some of my favorite take-aways from the day (paraphrased, of course, as I can't write that fast, but quoted as closely as I could, my hand flying trying to capture all the wisdom!)

From Dr. Carson~

• "In 5th grade, I didn't think that I was smart...but my mother did!  She assigned both my brother and I to turn off the TV, read two books a week, and submit a written book report.  I thought it was about the same as child abuse.  But I was transformed by reading.... Reading turned me around and gave me my confidence."

• "We are going to need very bright young people to help run our nation one day.  People with intellectual capability.  People who are caring and know how to take care of  people.  It makes all the difference in the world.  People who study & understand history to rediscover & remember how we as a country became so great, so quickly....As a country, we've gotten bogged down lately, and forgotten what it takes to be great.

• One of my favorite questions from the kids was "What does it feel like to be a famous neurosurgeon & author?"  Dr. Carson's response:  "It feels no different than it does standing here and speaking to you.  You need perspective and to see the big picture.  I'm just a small part of the big picture.  I believe good things happen as a result of God's hand [as he's very strong in his faith] and I cannot alone claim the fame as purely mine." 

From Dr. Fox~

•  "I thought I'd go into engineering, as that was what my dad did.  However, after volunteering in a hospital as a late teen, I found my love.  Eventually you will find something you really like and enjoy.  If you are happy in what you do, you are happy in life."

• "We all make mistakes.  We don't intend to, but we are human and we do.  Being a surgeon requires you to be able to think on your feet and fix as you go as you don't know what issues you may find once you are inside. As you are encountering the issues that come up, you do everything you can to find the solutions and fix what you can."  

As a "grown-up," I continue to marvel at this experience today.  I agree with Dr. Carson:  The brain is an amazing human structure capable of so much.  It houses and holds who we are, our personality, and it makes it possible to do so many unique and different things.  It gives our smile the tilted smirk, places the glint in our eye, holds our mischief, and houses our cleverness.  It is responsible for so many facets of making each one of us "us!"  It has a power that we should hold in reverence.  

Thank you Dr. Fox and Dr. Carson for giving us the gift of time, and the gift of you.

For The Johns Hopkins Bios on these two amazing men, go to:

• Dr. Harold Fox (Chairman, Gynecology & Obstetrics):  http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/gynecology_obstetrics/our_physicians/harold_fox.html

• Dr. Benjamin Carson (Director, Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery, Co-Director, The Johns Hopkins Craniofacial Center Professor of Neurosurgery, Oncology, Plastic Surgery and Pediatrics):  http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/neurology_neurosurgery/experts/profiles/team_member_profile/E83A85D46351E25BE722939B61854C65/Benjamin_Carson

To learn even more about Dr. Ben Carson, go to http://carsonscholars.org/content/dr-ben-carson/think-big.

Video from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuYmhJUeoBE (Uploaded to YouTube by mymarch on Dec 22, 2007)

Happy Mother's Day From the Animal Kingdom!

What a great way to commemorate mothers! 

National Wildlife Federation compiled this photo collection of mama animals and their wee ones in this slideshow!  Take a peek, and hug your mom today...but not necessarily in that order!

Happy Mother's Day! 
(You especially, Mom!  You're the best!)

To see the slideshow & fabulous wildlife images, go to http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/PhotoZone/Archives/2011/Mothers-day-slideshow.aspx

Turn, Turn, Turn!

The Song... 
Turn, Turn, Turn!

The Lyrics...from the Bible, Ecclesiastics 3: 1-15, making the lyrics potentially some of the oldest ever.

The Music....from Pete Seeger in 1959

The Mega-Hit...1965 by The Byrds, where it reached 1# on the "Billboard Hot 100." 

The Cool Coincidence...1965, the year my folks got married.

The Sentiment...Whether you are religious or not, the words are good reminders of all the wonders of life, and how precious life truly is.  Peace...that is the overriding sentiment.  And we all need a little bit of that.

The Video Here.. A great pictorial treat of nature and all that our planet has to offer.  Embrace it all.

The video from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB6jhbtDUZE&feature=related

http://www.vinylrecords.ch/B/Byrds/Turn/byrds-turn-turn-turn.html

Innovation, Hope, The Plastiki, & The Royal Wedding

"Our culture has been living as if we are forever young.  We throw things "away" as if there is no tomorrow." ~from the "Op- Ed" by William McDonough (author of Cradle to Cradle), page 61, in David de Rothschild's book Plastiki: Across the Pacific on Plastic: An Adventure to Save Our Oceans.

On a plane this past Friday morning, these are some of the words I was reading, and they really struck a chord with me.  I see this sentiment as symbolic of the expectations and the approach of the young, thinking that they will live forever. We all have done this...and sadly, with age, we learn that in the circle of life, this is neither true or accurate.

In the blink of an eye, babies all of a sudden are school-aged kids. Then, before you know it, those same kids "instantly" grow up and graduate high school then college (or, at least, so it seems). Our parents become grandparents, and our childhood memories become cherished memories as we suddenly are facing the loss of loved ones we never thought would grow old.

They say that wisdom comes with age.  You'd hope so. Yet there are still naysayers out there debating if global warming exists.  IF?!? So much for scientific proof.  (Find some pretty compelling, undeniable, undebate-able proof here: http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/).  

As those ocean levels are rising, warming, and increasing in acidity...glacial sheets are shrinking, extreme weather events are increasing, global temperature is rising, and arctic sea ice is diminishing.  All the while, the oceans are becoming more and more crowded with their growing "plastic to plankton" ratio.

Then you have David de Rothschild, who not only tried to think outside the box, but he reinvented the whole shape of the box--to the geodesic hull of the Plastiki.  Relying heavily on biomimicry, his designers shaped the hull using the natural references of the turtle's shell and the horseshoe crab.

"Experimentation and new thinking were woven into every facet of the Plastiki" ~page 53 of David de Rothschild's Plastiki: Across the Pacific on Plastic: An Adventure to Save Our Oceans.

Innovation. That's what it took, and that is what we need. In a world that watches in awe the royal wedding of England's Prince William to Kate Middleton, it becomes evident that the world needs and yearns for good news and hope. It's the same world that is bedraggled by economic downturns, natural disasters, world-wide skirmishes, repeated bad news on the nightly programming, and the inane "reality" shows which know and show nothing of true reality.  In our adoration of the royal wedding, we embrace the vision of hope it inspires. We are a world looking for--craving--hope and innovation.

Hope and innovation...it bears repeating.  Plastiki and its 12,500 plastic bottles and its voyage from San Fran to Sydney last year offered that. Our children offer that. The royal wedding does that...in fact any and all weddings do that.  But it is more than a mere fairy tale. It is a hope for mankind, and it is a belief in mankind. It is an awakening that perhaps we can do better. Think better. Be better. It is just up to each one of us to become creative and inspired people like David de Rothschild, to think outside the box and create brand new, sustainable paradigms.  

Doing this will undoubtedly leave the world a little better than we found it.

Images from: Plastiki Pictures http://www.theplastiki.com/; Climate Change Graph: http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/; Royal Wedding: http://stylefrizz.com/201104/kate-middletons-alexander-mcqueen-white-wedding-dress-as-designed-by-sarah-burton/

Poetry in Motion ~ Earth Is Haiku

For Earth Day, my class embarked on an ancient Zen tradition of haiku writing.  We were taking part in the 2011 Kids Count For Earth Day Haiku Contest.  If you recall, I made this the GTG headlines on April 13th. (http://greenteamgazette.blogspot.com/2011/04/earth-day-haiku-4-u.html)

According to WiseGeek.com: "Haiku is a very important form of traditional Japanese poetry.... It is based on a Zen Buddhist philosophy of brevity and simplicity and is believed to have originated in the 17th century. Haikus are designed to convey the essence of an experience in a short format. Traditional haikus frequently mention natural themes or images and are often yearning or wistful in tone" ~ From http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-haiku.htm

So my 3rd graders wrote Earth Day Haikus.  Easier said than done given the outward simplicity of the 5-7-5 structure!!  Here are some of their pretty amazing contest entries from my class (which closed on Earth Day).  Some pretty wise, young "sensei"s and poetry masters.

The Chesapeake Bay
Rushing water and oysters
Meet you at the Bay.
~ JB

Sun brightly shining,
No pollution is in sight,
The Earth is as peace.
~TD

Flowers beautiful
Blue, pink, and yellow—pretty.
Earth Day is special.
~ EA

Environments are
Getting destroyed every day.
Stop destroying Earth.
~ LB

Earth is planting trees.
Reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Help environment.
~ ST

Save the Earth every way.
Plant many flowers and trees.
Take care of nature!
~ MK

The environment
Is cool, and Chesapeake Bay
Is perfect for us.
~ KY

Environment. Good.
Smell the pretty flowers.
Rivers, very wet.
~ PK

I will plant trees here.
Terrapins are cool. The Bay
Is awesome and home.
~ DD

Water is nature.
Environment is haiku.
And haiku is Earth.
~ MB

Images from http://www.planetpals.com/earthdayhaikucontest.html and http://www.makeliterature.com

Garbage, Garbage, Garbage, Garbage... GARBAGE

When Linda Richards was here last week at Eagle Cove School's Bay Week Concert, she sang one of her usuals, and one of my perinnial favorites that she sings each year:  "Garbage, Garbage, Garbage."

Below, the song is performed with a little help from the perfect helper:  Oscar the Grouch.  

Interestingly in the video, it is during the Clearwater Concert to celebrate Pete Seeger's 90th birthday.  Pete Seeger adapted the 1969 Bill Steele version of the song by adding the 4th verse.  In a "1 degree of separation," Linda Richards has spent many years in the past as Pete Seeger's Chief On-Board-Educator on his "sloop" The Clearwater, a sailing vessel he co-founded in 1969 to use as a way to educate about the pollution in New York's Hudson River.

Definitely gets you thinking about the perils of over-pollution and garbage, garbage, garbage, GARBAGE!

Garbage Lyrics ~ Pete Seeger

Mister Thompson calls the waiter, orders steak and baked potato

Then he leaves the bone and gristle and he never eats the skins;

The busboy comes and takes it, with a cough contaminates it

And puts it in a can with coffee grinds and sardine tins;

The truck comes by on Friday and carts it all away;

And a thousand trucks just like it are converging on the Bay, oh,

Garbage (garbage, garbage, garbage) Garbage!

We're filling up the sea with garbage (garbage...)

What will we do when there's no place left

To put all the garbage? (garbage...)

Mr. Thompson starts his Cadillac and winds it down the freeway track

Leaving friends and neighbors in a hydro-carbon haze;

He's joined by lots of smaller cars all sending gases to the stars.

There they form a seething cloud that hangs for thirty days.

And the sun licks down into it with an ultraviolet tongue.

Till it turns to smog and settles down and ends up in our lungs, oh,

Garbage (garbage...) Garbage!

We're filling up the sky with garbage (garbage...)

What will we do

When there's nothing left to breathe but garbage (garbage...)

Getting home and taking off his shoes he settles down with the evening news,

While the kids do homework with the TV in one ear

While Superman for the thousandth time sells talking dolls and conquers crime

Dutifully they learn the date of birth of Paul Revere.

In the paper there's a piece about the mayor's middle name,

And he gets it done in time to watch the all-star bingo game, oh,

Garbage (garbage...)

We're filling up our minds with garbage

Garbage (garbage...)

What will we do when there's nothing left to read

And there's nothing left to need

And there's nothing left to watch

And there's nothing left to touch

And there's nothing left to walk upon

And there's nothing left to talk upon

Nothing left to see

And there's nothing left to be but

Garbage (garbage...)

In Mister Thompson's factory, they're making plastic Christmas trees

Complete with silver tinsel and a geodesic stand

The plastic's mixed in giant vats from some conglomeration

That's been piped from deep within the earth or strip-mined from the land.

And if you question anything, they say, "Why, don't you see?

It's absolutely needed for the economy," oh,

Oh, Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!

There stocks and their bonds -- all garbage!

Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!

What will they do when their system goes to smash

There's no value to their cash

There's no money to be made

But there's a world to be repaid

Their kids will read in history books

About financiers and other crooks

And feudalism, and slavery

And nukes and all their knavery

To history's dustbin they're consigned

Along with many other kinds of garbage.

Garbage! Garbage! Garbage! Garbage!

Video from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAyom4zZUM4&feature=related 

From Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Concert (Clearwater Concert), Madison Square Garden, 5/3/09. Featuring: Tom Chapin, Michael Mask, & Oscar the Grouch.

Lyrics from http://www.lyricsondemand.com/p/peteseegerlyrics/garbagelyrics.html

Oscar the Grouch pic from http://www.jambase.com/Articles/17878/Celebrating-Pete-Seeger-Voice-Of-The-People

Linda Richard pic from my camera when she was here last week during our Bay Week Concert

Cheers to MD Park Quest 2011!

Much like horses out of the starting gates, I knew about 5 folks (myself included) who were poised and ready this morning, waiting for the proverbial bell to ring. 

Stalking the computer, hitting refresh, ready to go when the moment is right.

On your mark....Get set....Park Quest!

Last year, "Team Dabrowka's" Park Quest antics were shared here, and shared often.  This year, under the new and creatively-improved name "Team Green Gators," more sharing shall continue.

"Park Quest," you ponder, "what is this?" 

Brainchild of Maryland's Department of Natural Resources and a growing MD phenomenon since 2008, Park Quest invites families to come together to come outside and play in their state parks.  Combining the philosophy of Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder with the No Child Left Inside Coalition, Maryland challenges all with "Park Quest:  Where A Family Becomes a Team."  Challenges, outdoor adventures, letterboxing, geocaching, history hikes, biking, canoeing, and more all make up the fun called Maryland Park Quest.  From Mother's Day to the finale in September, summer fun awaits...and for free--but only if you're registered!

So, to be fair, there has to be a uniform start to registration because only 1000 spots (up from last year's 750) are open.  This morning, April 25th, around 9 am, the bell rang and the gates opened up.

On your mark....Get set....Park Quest!

[Woo hoo...We were the triumphant Team #330!]

Clearly, more than just my 5 friends were ready and raring with their teams.  The Park Quest Facebook page had equally-ready stalkers and victorious announcements all day long about team names and the number they ranked on the sign up!  By 9:40 pm sign up day (aka, as I write), latest Facebook ranking placed teams up to #896.  Not too shabby for a 12-hour stint.  My guess, if we were to place bets, team #1000 will happen prior to midnight, perhaps with a few beads of sweat on their brow.  My #330 feels like a pretty comfy spot! 

So, mid-May, let the games begin, and the Park Quest stories to follow!  Hats off to Maryland State Parks and another year of fun ahead!

To learn more about Park Quest, check out http://www.dnr.state.md.us/parkquest/.

PQ Image from http://www.dnr.state.md.us/parkquest/
Horses at gate image from http://onwingsofpigs.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html
MD 330 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland_Route_330

Hoppy Easter...and Counting

My daughter likes to count the dogs she sees. One time when we were out and about, we got to a record sixteen.

This morning as I em"bark"ed on a 5-mile walk (training for my Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk for Breast Cancer this fall), I decided to follow in my daughter's footsteps.  I counted.  In the shadow of this past week's Earth Day, I decided to count the number of pieces of trash I saw on the way. After a mere 5 minutes, I was well over counting 100 pieces. 

Hmmm, given my walking pace is decent but not "Speed Racer's," I decided it'd be a pretty depressing walk if I continued this way. Especially on a gloriously beautiful Easter morning. Especially as I was walking without a bag and the ability to do anything about it.


So instead I decided to admire and be in awe at the scenery.  Gaze at the cherry blossoms.  The daffodils. The dogwood.  The violets.  The scampering squirrels.  The darting, singing birds.  The vernal pools.  The sights.  It was an amazing spring morning (one of the nicest so far), and it should be celebrated.  Not the morning to wallow in negativity.

It reminded me of the Edward Abbey quote to go out and enjoy what you work so hard for:

It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space."

"Hoppy" Easter...Happy Spring...Happy Earth Day Week.

It was the exact kind of thing, of course, that makes you think a little bit about Easter and the beauty of spring. THAT is something to count on...that, and perhaps plans for a neighborhood clean up later on.

 Image from http://www.socialexplorer.com/pub/blog/?m=201007

A Very Full Earth Day-Bay Week

When you start the week with children's author Jennifer Keats Curtis coming to visit and inspire us to write, then on Day #2 having a double showing of an original "green" theatrical treat of an eco-remake of "The Wizard of Oz," you kind of wonder where on Earth you can go during Bay Week as you progress to Earth Day.  

Well, let me tell you, there was no disappointment anywhere.  At Eagle Cove School, we were the eagles that just kept soaring!!

This week, we wrote letters to the director of Anne Arundel County Recycling as well as our county executive about why it was important to modify our recycling bins so as not to let a windy day pollute our bay.  We wrote Earth Day Haikus (which is trickier than it sounds) for the Earth Day Haiku Contest (co-sponsored by PlanetPals, The Haiku Society of America; With Words; and Sketchbook Haiku Journal), we've been reading Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French as our read aloud, we studied "rivers" in social studies and talked about the many ways rivers can be polluted.  

And then, the week, really rocked!  Quite literally!!

A major part of our Bay Week the last 4 years has involved a special visit from Linda Richards (http://www.lindarichardsadventures.com/song-gallery). Trekking down from NY state, Linda is a singer-songwriter-mega environmentalist extraordinaire.  Musically, she's amazing, but the truly fun part is that she gets each classroom together and inspires them to write "eco" parodies of familiar tunes and turns them into performers after a short half hour.  

So Wednesday, she had a whirlwind of a day, hitting up all 7 of our PreK to 5th grade classrooms, putting everyone into creation-mode.  Then Thursday, the Bay Week Concert occurred where, for an hour and half, we were in an environmental musical mecca!!  Singing old favorites from past years when she's been to visit (my personal favorite = "Garbage, Garbage, Garbage, GARBAGE") ... to sharing the newly ECS-created tunes.  Truly, I may have to digress later in another blog entry about the great, showstopping tunes she shared!!

But WAIT!  There's More!!

Given a winter of over-used snow days, we had to attend school today (Good Friday) for a half day.  However, when this day is also Earth Day, we knew how to soften the blow!  In honor of March 22nd's World Water Day, we broke our student population into 3 groups:  PreK/Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd, and 3rd--5th.  We led each group on a one-mile "Water Walk" with 5 buckets that as a total held 2 gallons of water.  Our mission:  to walk approximately that 3.7 mile journey that over 1 billion people world wide walk daily in search of clean drinking water.  Using teamwork and just plain determination, the youngest of our clients felt it the most, revealing that it was much harder than they originally thought.  

 

I had the perspective of seeing it all as I walked all 3+ miles, and even a fourth grader commented that although it wasn't really heavy, the pressure of the weight really wore on your arm.  There's no way to see someone else's life until you walk a mile in their shoes, and we did just that!!  We managed our mission with only a few drops lost; but even more, we worked as a community to get things done, gaining empathy as we went.  While the water walkers walked, the other 2 groups took part in community-building group games with our science teacher, Tim Decker, and Linda Richards.  True, little "book learnin'" took place during that hour and a half or so, but the life lessons were rich and community-building/awareness skills-learning were endless!

After our water victory, we united as a group in the auditorium to watch the Disneynature: Oceans.  Narrated by Pierce Brosnan, the movie has a very "David Attenborough" feel. In watching it, you get a sense of the vastness of the ocean!  The imagery is amazing...from diving dolphins to amazing octopus to soaring seabirds at a sardine smorgasbord!  It truly is amazingly mind-boggling the number of fish in a school!  Secondarily amazing was the sight of a gym/auditorium filled with 4 to 10  year olds in theatre darkness, completely glued to this nature movie, rooting for the baby sea turtles as they were making their way to the water while trying to escape the looming seabirds!!

All in all, our Earth Day/Bay Week at Eagle Cove School, the Maryland "Green" School I call home, was a grand success.  Once again, we managed to top the previous year!  For a time, you wonder if you'll be able to top it next year--at this point, I know we will!  

Happy Earth Day!

Images from:

Earth Day:  http://www.thegogreenblog.com; Earth Day Eagle:  http://www.zazzle.com; Earth Stamp:  http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/earthday/; Oceans: http://www.amazon.com; All other pics from my camera!