Down the Creek without a Paddle!

An enthusiastic group of twenty Thornton Creek watershed teachers, friends, and volunteers joined together Saturday, November 18^th for a “Long Walk” down the six miles of the North Fork from Ronald Bog to the mouth at Matthews Beach.  Fine weather found the trekkers exploring the streets, paths, blackberry brambles, and green spaces adjoining the creek as it works its way through the urban watershed.  Russ Hanbey and Meredith Lohr took half of the group on a detour to see a restoration site on the Littles’ Creek tributary, while Peter Hayes and the rest proceeded past the Jackson Park golf course on a quest for a hidden

message guided by clues in an “anonymous” poem!  Making new friends along the way, a fun and informative time was had by all!

Coming Events in 2001

Monthly Mappers (GIS for teachers)	January 18
Bird Monitoring Workshop	January 20
Winter Coordinated Monitoring Week	February 5-9
After School Watershed Orientation	February 8
An Evening of Oral History	March 1
Stream Ecology Workshop	April (TBA)
Spring Confluence	April 30

 

Please contact the Project for details about

times, locations and availability of clock hours.

Field Experiences Complement Science Curricula

Throughout the fall, many teachers and students have participated in activities with TCP which complement and provide local context for their science curricula. These activities include field trips to enhance the Land and Water science kit used by many Seattle fourth and fifth grade teachers.  Elementary school groups that visited different sections of Thornton Creek this fall to study land and water include Katie Renschler and Jenni Rosenstein’s classes from John Rogers; Nahnie Freemanson, Gail Blaine and Jeff Alysworth’s classes from Olympic View; Susan Ward’s fifth graders from Whittier School, Bill Neilsen’s Summit students, Donna Shy’s class from Bryant, and Liane Nolan and Julie Blystad’s fourth graders from Bertschi School.  During these field trips, students created maps of the creek, observed and measured its physical characteristics, such as average velocity, and generated their own questions about the interdependence of the living and non-living parts of the ecosystems.

Another example of how TCP is working to assist teachers is by providing resources and training to help them learn and teach their students about the complex factors affecting salmon survival.  The Project’s Salmon Habitat Report Card, designed as a compliment to salmon raising projects in schools, guides students through an investigation that leads to better understanding of what salmon need in streams.  Many teachers from all over the region received a copy of the Habitat Report Card at a September meeting at the Seattle Aquarium, and one drizzly afternoon in October, TCP staff led a workshop for teachers on how to use this tool with their students.  In early November, the Project also helped sponsor a training session on identifying and using stream bugs as indicators of creek health.  The instructor for this informative evening workshop was a local expert on benthic macroinvertebrates, Cici Kelling, director of SalmonWeb.  For more information on these projects, please contact Meredith Lohr at the TCP office.

 

Taking Stock – Giving Thanks:

As you read through this newsletter and the Thornton Creek Project’s recently distributed first and finest annual report, or explore the Project’s website, you may join me in looking at this hum of unique educational energy and activity and wonder, “hey, what keeps all of this going?”

Having watched and participated for the past eight years, I think the answer is fairly simple - - curiosity, enthusiasm, creativity, and undaunted optimism that schooling can and must continue to improve; the belief that cooperation across customary boundaries can work; and, most importantly, the willingness by many to generously help. 

But who is doing all of this helping, hoping, trusting, creating, and wondering?  Take a look and you will see that it includes students, from kindergarten to graduate school; teachers, in many disciplines and all types of schools; community volunteers of all types; educational administrators, public, private, urban and suburban, and leaders and staff from local businesses, government, and non-profits.  We all contribute to and benefit from the successful cooperation in the ways that we are able.  Every part is important and appreciated.

Once each year, the whir of work is stopped long enough to take stock of and celebrate what we have accomplished together.  It takes the form of the Annual Meeting and is supported by the Annual Report.  As the sun rose on November 15^th, representatives of the Project’s benefiting and supporting partners came together as the Stewards’ Council.  At this meeting, the group took stock of the work completed in the past year, reviewed and approved the budget for the coming school year, and considered and/or pledged how the group will participate in the year ahead.  The meeting was a chance to celebrate a year made remarkable by the continued growth and improvement of the educational program and the success of the cross-community partnership required to support it.

During this time of the year when many celebrate and give thanks, I encourage you to do four things: 1) read the recently distributed annual report and share it with a friend or colleague, 2) pat yourself on the back for the ways that you support this work, 3) make time to thank others for what they do to support the Project, and 4) take a look into the future and consider how we can use our current strengths and legacy of unique cooperation to have even more to celebrate and be thankful for in years to come.  

Best – Peter Hayes

Technology News -- www.thorntoncreek.org

The Project’s website provides information and resources for teachers who want to incorporate the watershed into their curricula.  The Community Library, separate from but related to the TCP website, is a place where teachers and students can share projects, research and creativity.   If you are interested in adding something to the Community Library, please contact Emily Inkpen via email at tcptech@nsccux.sccd.ctc.edu.

 

Here is a snapshot of what we have online: 

·         Events calendar: This is a schedule of upcoming events, workshops, and training sessions for teachers and community members.

·         Curriculum Resources: Here you’ll find resources and ideas for teachers about how to incorporate investigation of the Thornton Creek watershed into class work.

·         Water-quality monitoring data and collection sites: This on-line database with all submitted water-quality data is available to anyone for downloading.  An updated version will be out soon!

·         Community Library: This is its own website, and is currently being upgraded to a digital library by Matt Turpin, a graduate student of UW Library Sciences.  This is great place for students to share their projects and reports online.

·         Watershed Atlas: View many of the atlas maps online.  Atlases are available for loan through the Project. Call us (206-526-0187) to find out how you can use them!

 

Making and Using Maps

Using and creating maps are productive and interesting ways for students to understand their community and how different environmental, social and economic aspects are related.  Teachers interested in using a geographic information system (GIS) can get software, technical training and support from TCP.  For a preview of what using GIS is like, please see the Internet Mapping Server at http:// nsccux.sccd.ctc.edu/~tcp/mapping/mapping.html.

Profiling Technology in the Classroom

Teachers, if you have used the internet, a spreadsheet, computer mapping or another type of technology in a community-based project, we would like to talk to you!   We are looking to profile a couple of innovative projects that use technology in the classroom to share with other watershed teachers.

Monitoring Data--new database to be tested soon!

Students have been monitoring Thornton Creek over several years for many parameters, including flow, turbidity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and nitrate. Currently these data are available in an on-line database and in easy-to-download formats.  A new on-line database is currently being developed by several students in Bert Hoff's NSCC computer science class. This database will be searchable and dynamically linked with a map.  Look for this new addition in early 2001!

Are You Ready for Rudy?

What do David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and The Wild Watershed Adventures of Rudy and Gus by the sixth graders of Lakeside School have in common?  Works of great literature whose words changed the world?  Written by authors tormented by the sleep depriving, life-ruining drive for perfection?  Perhaps, but we know for sure that they share the fact that by meeting the world in serial form, they’re intended to drive readers crazy with anticipation!  Yes, it’s true: you can look forward to January and February being brightened by weekly releases of one chapter (4 versions) of Rudy for your reading and learning pleasure. Stay tuned to the TCP website and general listserve for the first installment.  If techno. details limit your participation, please contact the TCP office to arrange alternative ways to tune in.