Today I went out to test the same by the blue river. I thought it was necessary to because a big rain that is predicted to happen tomorrow and Thursday. This way later I can compare the quality before rain and after rain.

My collection of plants and leaves for my Barium are going quite well. The season of hot and humid weather is going to an end and I feel confident in the number of things I have got. Hopefully there’s a couple more nice days out so I can go look for things I missed to get out on the property.

The 3rd grade lesson is about trees. This is my favorite lesson so far because the kids get so engage and excited about it. When we go out to our study place, the kids sit down. We teach them about how the tree lives/survives in nature and the different parts of the tree. Once they learn the functions\parts of the tree, we make a class tree. Every person has and part and does it’s own action to represent each part of the tree. I really think this is a great way of teaching kids because they get a visual example of what’s going on in order for a tree to survive.

Yesterday I went out to do my second water quality testing in the Blue River. In a week’s change, I’ve notice the turbidity due to leaves falling of the trees in time for fall. Also, the dissolved oxygen in the water has increased. Hopefully, next week I’ll start testing both sites!

For most of this week Mr. Spake has let me observe his teaching. The lesson we are currently teaching to our second graders is about how the plant works. They first figure out, depending on their card, if they’re a root, steam, leaves, or a flower. After that we go outside and make a class flower. The kids into a formation of a flower and pass eggs that represent water up the stem. It’s really awesome to see how kids learn and interact with these fun activities that they actually participate in. The next part of their trip is to go find root, steams, and leaves. When they find those they make a poster like example and explain which part of the plant does.

Today, I started my own water collecting data for KSU. The water stream I did today was from the Blue River behind the WCS property. I grabbed my supplies, data sheets, and kit at the beginning of the hour to start testing. The kind of data I collect is the turbidity, nitrogen, pH, dissolved oxygen, and phosphorus. Everything has its own different procedure, which keeps it entertaining to do.

Yesterday Mr. Spake took me out to test the water quality of the Blue River that runs behind the property. We got information on pH, phosphates, turbidity, and. conductivity. I really learned a lot and know how to properly do it step by step.

Today I fed the snakes. I just thought it’d be a great to share a picture.

This morning there was a lightning storm in Stilwell, KS. As I was walking around the property to observe and take pictures this later afternoon, there was lots of worms and night-crawlers on the paths from the rain. I also noticed a lot more spider webs that had been made across the trails since yesterday. I went to the site where we have a view of the Blue River. It wasn’t running very fast, but it looked like it was a lot higher.

On Labor Day it had rained quite a bit. Even though today was sunny, the prairie lands and grass were still flatted by the rain and wind the day prier. Observing the property I noticed a lot of different bugs and insects around that I haven’t noticed before on the path. Mostly, grasshopper and bees flying/jumping everywhere: on plants, the ground, and me! The most annoying thing I found was that there were spider/spiderwebs everywhere, especially on the paths. Sadly, I had to take down many spiders homes so I could enjoy the hot sunny day of the path.