hcescience's posterous http://hcescience.posterous.com Most recent posts at hcescience's posterous posterous.com Fri, 04 May 2012 09:20:00 -0700 Yeah for Earth Day http://hcescience.posterous.com/yeah-for-earth-day http://hcescience.posterous.com/yeah-for-earth-day

Last Friday, the Healthy Hunter Committee hosted a thought provoking Earth Day assembly.  To begin, the HCES Green Team of 4th and 5th graders, led by high schoolers Penelope and Jenna, performed a skit on alternative energy and shared their video on solar energy.  Next Steve Ritz from The Bronx Green Machine gave an inspiring presentation on urban farming and growing healthy food and healthy communities. Check out Steve and his students in these two videos.

 

 

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Tue, 01 May 2012 14:14:50 -0700 More 2nd and 3rd Grade Paper Clip Creations! http://hcescience.posterous.com/more-2nd-and-3rd-grade-paper-clip-creations http://hcescience.posterous.com/more-2nd-and-3rd-grade-paper-clip-creations

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Tue, 01 May 2012 06:08:11 -0700 Paper Clip Creations http://hcescience.posterous.com/paper-clip-creations http://hcescience.posterous.com/paper-clip-creations The paper clip take-home challenges are pouring in. It's only 9am and we have already heard a plethora of creative ideas.

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Tue, 03 Apr 2012 07:43:00 -0700 3M Observes Seedlings in Week 3 http://hcescience.posterous.com/3m-observes-seedlings-in-week-3 http://hcescience.posterous.com/3m-observes-seedlings-in-week-3

It's been 21 days since the tiny seeds were planted.  Check them out now!

Gallardia

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[[posterous-content:zmBnbrepHpJdlgmjAqgs]]Phlox
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Calendula
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Basil
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Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:53:00 -0700 Day# 14: 2G Observes Parsley and Basil http://hcescience.posterous.com/day-14-2g-observes-parsley-and-basil http://hcescience.posterous.com/day-14-2g-observes-parsley-and-basil

Parsley grown in the dark:

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Student observation of parsley in the dark:
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Parsley grown in the light:
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Student observation of Parsley:
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Basil
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At first some students were concerned that the parsley (in the light) was not successfully growing, but Kevin noticed, that according to our chart, it can take parsley 14-60 days to emerge from the soil.  It only takes basil 4-10 days to emerge. 

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Mon, 26 Mar 2012 06:30:00 -0700 Day# 14: 2D Observes Their Basil and Parsley http://hcescience.posterous.com/day-14-2d-observes-their-basil-and-parsely http://hcescience.posterous.com/day-14-2d-observes-their-basil-and-parsely

Basil

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Basil Illustration
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Parsely
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Thu, 22 Mar 2012 06:56:00 -0700 10 Days...Plants are Growing http://hcescience.posterous.com/10-daysplants-are-growing http://hcescience.posterous.com/10-daysplants-are-growing

Basil is sprouting its second leaves.

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Lobelia
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Some of the calendula seeds are growing on the capillary matting.
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Blue Flax
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Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:27:00 -0700 New Species of Frog Found in NY http://hcescience.posterous.com/new-species-of-frog-found-in-ny http://hcescience.posterous.com/new-species-of-frog-found-in-ny

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46739932/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.T2FsX5jv-xI

Check out this site to hear the "throaty croak" of the Southern Leopard Frog!

http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/detail.asp?recNum=AR0034

 

 

 

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Mon, 12 Mar 2012 07:53:15 -0700 More Planting Activity http://hcescience.posterous.com/more-planting-activity http://hcescience.posterous.com/more-planting-activity

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Mon, 12 Mar 2012 07:24:42 -0700 Sowing Parsley and Basil Seeds http://hcescience.posterous.com/sowing-parsley-and-basil-seeds http://hcescience.posterous.com/sowing-parsley-and-basil-seeds Today, Healthy Hunter parents Allison Foley-Graham and Meika Mustrani came in to plant herbs with the 2nd grade students. When the herbs sprout, students will be transplanting them into individual planters made of recycled materials.

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Tue, 06 Mar 2012 08:47:54 -0800 2G Collaborates on a Plant Model http://hcescience.posterous.com/2g-collaborates-on-a-plant-model http://hcescience.posterous.com/2g-collaborates-on-a-plant-model Students worked together to begin creating a large-scale plant model. Stay tuned for more photos next week!

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Tue, 06 Mar 2012 08:07:29 -0800 2D Begins a Plant Model http://hcescience.posterous.com/2d-begins-a-plant-model http://hcescience.posterous.com/2d-begins-a-plant-model Students worked as teams to begin constructing a larger-than-life plant model. More to come...

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Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:48:00 -0800 2nd Grade Thinks about Plants http://hcescience.posterous.com/2nd-grade-thinks-about-plants http://hcescience.posterous.com/2nd-grade-thinks-about-plants

Ask your student about what they think a plant is.  What parts do plants have?  Do all plants have the same parts?  How are plants adapted for certain habitats?

We will be answering these questions and more in our upcoming unit!

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Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:04:50 -0800 Great Article: NYS had one of the oldest forests in the world!!! http://hcescience.posterous.com/great-article-nys-had-one-of-the-oldest-fores http://hcescience.posterous.com/great-article-nys-had-one-of-the-oldest-fores

http://news.discovery.com/earth/devonian-forest-mapped-120301.html

One of the earliest forests in the world was home to towering palmlike trees and woody plants that crept along the ground like vines, a new fossil find reveals.

The forest, which stood in what is now Gilboa, N.Y., was first unearthed in a quarry in the 1920s. But now, a new construction project has revealed for the first time the forest floor as it stood 380 million years ago in the Devonian period.

"For the first time, we actually have a map of about 1,200 square meters (12,900 square feet) of a Devonian forest," said study researcher Chris Berry, a scientist at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom. "We know which plants were growing where in this forest, and how they were interacting."

NEWS: Fossilized, 'Pompeii' Forest Discovered Under Ash

Fossil forest

The fossilized forest floor contained three types of enormous plants. The first, known as the Gilboa tree or Eospermatopteris, was once thought to be the only type of tree in the forest; quarry workers have been carting specimens out of the area since the fossil plants were first discovered. This tree was tall and looked like today's palm trees, with a crown of branches at the very top.

But an even stranger specimen lurked in this ancient forest. Amid the towering Gilboa trees were woody creeping plants with branches about 6 inches (15 centimeters) in diameter. These giant plants, known as progymnosperms, seemed to lean against the Gilboa trees for support, perhaps even climbing into them occasionally, Berry said. (Top 10 Poisonous Plants)

"Those trees were covered in little branches which sprung out in all directions and made a sort of thicket on the floor of the forest," Berry said. "That was a big surprise."

The researchers also found a fragment of a third type of tree, lycopsids, which would later dominate the Carboniferous period from about 360 million to about 300 million years ago. They reported their findings Wednesday (Feb. 29) in the journal Nature.

Understanding an ecosystem

The new view of the ancient forest is changing paleontologists' understanding of what the landscape looked like. The earliest researchers thought the forest was in a swamp, but Berry and his colleagues, including study leader William Stein of Binghamton University in New York, now believe the forest stood in a flat coastal plain near an ancient shoreline. It was probably buried and preserved when a river channel shifted, bringing in loads of sand to cover the forest floor.

Before the forest's death, it was probably chock full of millipedes and insects, Berry said. As they grew, the Gilboa trees shed branches, which would have littered the forest floor and created a perfect habitat for creepy-crawlies.

"I've spent 20 years trying to imagine what these plants were like as individuals, and yet I really had no conception of them as an ecosystem," Berry said. "Going to Gilboa and sitting in the middle of the forest floor, you could almost see them growing out of the ground. … The fossil forest came to life in front of my eyes in a way that has never happened before."

More broadly, a deeper understanding of the forest helps paleontologists piece together the ecology of the very earliest forests on Earth. The Devonian period marks a time when plant life began to shift from small, scattered vegetation to large-scale forests, Berry said. Plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and during the Devonian forest boom, carbon dioxide levels may have dropped from 15 times that of today to modern levels.

The arrival of forests changed the way the whole Earth system worked, Berry said. He and his colleagues are using the Gilboa site to understand how this ecosystem flourished.

"We've gone from knowing about plants to knowing about a forest," Berry said. "That's really been the breakthrough for me."

More from LiveScience:


Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Fri, 02 Mar 2012 11:16:00 -0800 WOW!!! The Puzzle is Completed http://hcescience.posterous.com/wow-the-puzzle-is-completed http://hcescience.posterous.com/wow-the-puzzle-is-completed Congrats to all the 2nd-6th graders who worked on the Element Puzzle! Everyone was so careful that no pieces were even lost...what a feat!

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Tue, 28 Feb 2012 08:47:07 -0800 2G Discovery Center http://hcescience.posterous.com/2g-discovery-center http://hcescience.posterous.com/2g-discovery-center
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Observing The Ant Farm and Few Remaining Ants

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Investigating Butterflies: Viceroy vs. Monarch

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Identifying Fossils

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More Fossil Work

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Classifying Dog Breeds

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Tue, 28 Feb 2012 07:52:00 -0800 2D Discovery Center http://hcescience.posterous.com/2d-discovery-center http://hcescience.posterous.com/2d-discovery-center

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Sorting Rocks and Minerals

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Observing a Horseshoe Crab

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Classifying Dog Breeds

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Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:14:37 -0800 Compost Changes http://hcescience.posterous.com/compost-changes http://hcescience.posterous.com/compost-changes

2nd grade students have set up small vermicompost bins. 

Each week the students observe and record the changes that have occurred. Here are some of students' labeled observational drawings.

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Here are Ethan, Tiffani, Skyler, Karina, Dean, Kevin, Ryder, Ben, Leora, Ian, and Jessica's observations:

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Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:32:00 -0800 WOW! WOW! WOW! http://hcescience.posterous.com/wow-wow-wow http://hcescience.posterous.com/wow-wow-wow

Congrats to all the students who participated in HCES Pigeon Watch.  All of the presentations we have seen so far have been amazing.  So far, the most elusive pigeons in NYC seem to be the REDs!

Ggpig_red

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Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:29:00 -0800 2nd Graders Meet the Worms and Dig Up Facts http://hcescience.posterous.com/2nd-graders-meet-the-worms http://hcescience.posterous.com/2nd-graders-meet-the-worms

Worms loosen soil and are called, "Nature's Plowers."

Worm poop is called castings.  Castings help fruit and veggies grow bigger and better.

Worms are invertebrates. 

Worms are annelids.

Worms can eat newspaper. 

An adult worm can have 120-150 segments. 

Each segment of the worm has small hairs called, setae (see-tee).

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