Stream Ecology (Part One)
by Miss Baker
The first group to go on the biology field trip had a great time. Click on the PICTURES link to your right to see more pictures. After the second group goes on the trip April 15th, I’ll post their pictures as well.
Thanks 4th & 6th period for being so good-spirited even in light of the cold, dreary weather. I definitely feel very blessed to have you as my students!
April 4th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
HAH! I love that picture, where eveyone is bird watching, and Monica is the only one looking strait ahead while eveyone else is looking up, and it looks like Katie has her hand one her forhead!
It seemed like it was cold, and like it required some good spirits for the current weather out there, because I dont think the weather provided any relief. I cant wait to go on the field trip and connect with my nature side of the body and mind, and meditate in the woods-being in touch with the mind is as important as being in touch with the body, for in the words of Morphious “the body cannot live without the mind-” -from the Matrix. I hope all you guys had fun!
April 5th, 2008 at 10:32 am
I really thought this was a cool field trip. We applied what we have been learning all year out into the field of biology and really got to apply our knowledge to real life situations. It show be really cool to see all the data and analyze the information after the second group goes. Thanks for a great field trip Miss Baker!
April 5th, 2008 at 10:39 am
whoa those are great picutres. The feild trip was great but it was so cold. I know i learned a lot about birds and how to test the health of rivers. Hopefully when the second group goes they will get different data than we had because the weather will be warmer for them, so them we will be able to tell what all of the organisms living in that community are and which ones are more tollerant to bad weather.
April 5th, 2008 at 11:19 am
This field trip was very informative and actually really interesting!! I was surprised that we saw as many birds as we did because it was soo cold and drizzly outside. I can’t believe some birds actually stay here all year round. They are so little, you would think they would be freezing!! If I had wings like them, I would so be out of here!! But the part at the river was my favorite part. It amazed me how many macroinvertebrates we found with just the little time we were there. Some of them were so small I thought they were pieces of leaf floating around… until they started squirming. Some of them were a lot bigger and easier to see, and they were sooo cool. Testing the oxygen content and the pH of the river was so interesting. It takes so much work and you have to be very precise, plus some of the chemicals were dangerous so you have ot be careful too. Great field trip Ms Baker, you should definitely do it again next year…but maybe when it’s warmer.
April 5th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Those are some cool pictures. I had so much fun on that trip. I learned about all the different types of macroinvertibraes that can be found in streams. Our group found two huge fly larvas and some roundworms and a crayfish. Then we went bird watching and saw about 25 different kinds of birds. My favorite was the Gnat Catcher. The next group is going to have so much fun!
April 6th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
That field trip was a lot of fun. Thanks Miss Baker.
April 6th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Great pictures! I had a great time on the field trip. It was a lot of fun to apply everything that we had learned over the last couple of weeks. I loved getting to go around and spot all the different types of birds. I thought that it was just amazing how the lady who walked around with us was able to tell what type of bird it was just by hearing its call or by seeing it fly by really quickly. My favorite part was getting to get in the water and scraping off the rocks. It was amazing to see what you collected when you didn’t even realize you had wiped something off a rock. Getting to test the pH and the oxygen was fun too! I hope the next group has just as much fun as we did!
April 6th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
These are really good pictures! Our classes field trip is in two weeks and I’m really looking forward to it, it’s going to be alot of fun to be outside and observe nature with our class. When this group went it was very cold and windy but from what i’ve heard they had alot of fun even though the weather was against them. I hope my class gets some different data so we can compare it to ya’lls and see if there are any differences in it because of the amount of time between the observations. and hopefully it will be warmer too!!
April 6th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Thanks for taking all of the pictures and taking the time to put them online. They were great! I was really surprised because the field trip was a lot different then I imagined and I never even thought we would see so many different types of birds especially due to the weather. My favorite part was when one was right in front of us on a tree we could practicly touch it. It was awesome! It was cool to have an exspert also in both fields to help us name all of the different species and wild life. Thanks for the awesome field trip.
April 6th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Those were great pictures! I had alot of fun on the trip and I learned alot! I think my favorite part was the looking for the macroinvertibrates in the stream. The water was really cold, but it was still fun. We found some really cool stuff like a really big crawfish, atleast 3 salamanders, and a bunch of other cool animals. Great field trip Miss Baker!
April 6th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Thanks for the opportunity we had to go on this field trip even though it wasn’t the perfect weather! Also it will help us so much for our test because we’re able to apply the information we tested. By testing the dissolved oxygen and the pH level of the water we were able to feel kind of like real scientists which I thought was pretty cool. As Roger said, going bird watching was alot of fun too because I wouldn’t have known all the names of the different types of birds without the expert there. Thanks again!!
April 6th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Those are good pictures, I’m really excited for ours. I guess the weather just didn’t work out for ours. But I think it should be a lot of fun, especially based on what these guys above me are saying. All the bird things sound pretty fun.
I actually have a question, Ms Baker, about birds. I know you seem pretty into them and my mom has a bunch of bird feeders in our backyard because she really likes them. I was wondering first, there has been a small bird with a black stripe on its head, a black chin and like white cheeks with a grayish body and my mom was wondering what kind of bird it was. Also, we used to get a lot of finches and we haven’t lately so is it just not warm enough for them yet or what?
April 6th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Wow (as most of everyone has said) those are really great pictures! Now Ms. Baker I have a question for when the other class does their field trip; how will we compare information? That was such a fun field trip. I loved the part when we went to the streams and even though they were freezing we found several bugs. ANd I am stilled amased that dragon flies actually lived in water when they were in their larvae stage ( they look so different)!
April 7th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Looking at those pictures just makes me more anxious to go on the trip. I cannot wait until next Tuesday when 5th and 7th period get to go. Hopefully the weather will be in our favor and we can make some fun discoveries and observations!!
April 7th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Thank for giving us the chance to learn a lot more about the enviroment around us. I really enjoyed learning about the different birds that live in different areas. Also when we went down to the stream I thought it was really cool seeing all the crustacaens and the different organisms that lived there. I thought it was great the way you planned our trip, even though it was cold. The field trip was right after the unit about the phylums. This helped a lot because it was fresh in our memory so when we discovered an organism it was easy to place them in their correct phylum. So Thank you Miss Baker for allowing us the chance to see all the different kinds of birds and organisms that live around us. By the way i liked the picture that shows jennifer and sydni using the net to catch the living macroinvertebrates in the water, because it shows the method used very well.
April 7th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
From the looks of these pictures, I cant wait to go. I hope that the weather is good, because i dont really like the cold. Also, is there a chnce we could see different animals because it is a different time?
April 7th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
UMMM… Hey Roger, that’s great you guys just had so much fun, but wow; 25 species of bird, and crayfish! I hope there was no chicken, because that’d be good eating! (just kiding)
April 7th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Seeing the pictures makes me excited for my class’s trip! It is a really good idea for us to put our knowledge about ecology to use in streams in our own community. I think it will be a really great learning experience for all of us. Hopefully it will be warmer though! I hope you guys had fun!
April 7th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
This field trip was so much fun. It was great to get out of the classroom and visually see what we were talking about in class. I had so much fun doing the dissolved oxygen experiment but I have to admit I was being extra careful not to get the acid on my clothes. When we went into the river to look for macroinvertebrates, I almost got to wet! I didn’t have the rubber boots on so my toes were alittle cold. The bird watching was expecially fun, it took me a sec to get the hang of the binoculars. My favorite bird was the Robin. I think they are so pretty. Thanks Miss Baker for this great opportunity!
April 8th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Wow! Those pictures were so great. When all the kids were watching birds. That was a very good picture. Everybody was looking for birds. The microinvertebrates looked like fun to look for. It looks like we have to apply every thing we learned this year and put it in this field trip. It looked like a lot of fun and I cannot wait to go onn it.
April 8th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
The field trip looked like alot of fun. About the pictures, When you guys were bird wacthing it looked like everybody was paying attention and looking for birds. The pictures of looking for microinverterbraes were good too. It looked like looking for microinvertebrates was very fun. All the pictures were very good and the field trip looked like alot of fun. I cannot wait to go.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Our field trip was alot of fun! My favorite part was when we went to the stream and looked for the macroinvertibrates. We found alot of really cool animals such as a big crawfish and atleast three salamanders. It was also cool to see the things we learned about in class, like the pH of the water, being used in the real world. I also liked looking for the different types of birds. At first, I wondered if we were going to see any birds because it was so cold, but in the end we saw fourteen different types of birds! The lady that was with knew alot about birds which helped us learn more about birds and helped us identify them. Thanks Miss Baker for a great field trip!
April 8th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I can’t wait to go on the fieldtrip! I was already exited just missing a day of school, but I think it will be a really fun expierence. The pictures look so fun! Everyone that went said they had fun and the weather should be a lot better when we go next week, so I bet it will be even better! I can’t wait : )
April 8th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
That was one of the best field trips i have ever gone on. I loved it! it really helped me understand the importance of what we were learning in class because sometimes when your learning things you thinking whats the point of learning this i am never going to use this at any point later in my life but this realy proved what we would use this for. The pics are also great! and unlike kat i actually did get wet and i was freezing the whole time. i hope the next group has better luck with the weather. thaknks again i really had fun.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
I LOVED THE FIELD TRIP!!!!!!!!!! I (like almost everyone else has said) really enjoyed testing the water samples. I thought it was cool how there was a test that did not involve any complex machinery to measure the dissolved oxygen. I also, REALLY, liked the bird watching. I had more trouble seeing the birds with the binoculars than without. They were all so beautiful. It was so cool how our guide could figure which type of bird it was by the sound of its call. I was in the second group to go bird watching, so I thought it would be fun to compare the birds we saw with the other group and with others in my own. We saw:
1 Carolina Wren
6 Cardinals
2 Eastern Towhees
2 Blue-Grey Gnat Catchers
2 Tufted Titmouse
3 Red-bellied Woodpeckers
2 Downy Woodpeckers
1 Pine Warbler
1 Golden Crowned Kinglet
2 Yellow Bellied Sap Suckers
3 White Breasted Nuthatches
1 Eastern Phoebe
4 Yellow-Rumped Warblers
2 Brown-Headed Nuthatches
3 House Finches
2 Blue jays
1 American Robin
1 Carolina Chickadee
I also loved the photos. I wish I had brought a camera!
April 8th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I am actually really looking forward to the field trip. I was really bummed when I found out that it was canceled due to the weather. But you had a really good point Miss Baker… The weather will be warmer and we are farther along into spring, which means that a lot of our data that we collect will be different than those who went on the first day of the field trip. I also hope that we get to do the botony portion of the trip, I really love plants. Are we going to figure out our new groups when we get there? And what information will we be quized over when we arrive?
April 8th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Those are some great pictures! And Bryant, the reason I was looking strait ahead was that I could not find any birds, so I was looking all over the place to find a bird! Although, I finally did find a couple
I loved the field trip! It was so much fun. My favorite part was looking through the river and catching bugs and crayfish. I was better at finding bugs than bird watching. I also thought it was funny when the lady would use her recorded bird calls to attract the birds to her! I loved the trip, thanks Miss Baker!!
April 8th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I loved the field trip Miss Baker! Like Monica mentioned, I thought that the lady’s redorded bird calls were a really clever way to attract birds. She said that they would attract male and female birds because the females thought that it was a potential mate, while the males were coming because they thought that the “male” a.k.a the tape recorder was singing to females. I would have thought that it only attracted females, but it makes sense when you think about it. I also liked examining the macroinvertebrates in the creek, but it was pretty cold.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Wow! I had no idea that there were so many different species of birds and other river inhabitants at the river. I cant wait to see all the birds when i go to the river. I will definatly look for them!
April 10th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
This looks like alot of fun. I cant wait to go. I have always loved to study nature, its so fasinating. It looks like from what I have seen you did a great job with all of the research. Good Job, I cant wait to go. Wow and 39 types of birds that it is awsome great job.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Oh!!.. I really exacited from this picture.This pictures look so fun! Students look at the each other part and observated the ecosystem. I am very jealous first field trip people. Actually, i dont carry the weather. So, I was irritated about delaid about the my trip. I hope at field trip that it will be clear day and safely day. And we will be more learner than first field trip students. Also right now, i will find the weather in 15th. I cant waited the field trip missbaker!
April 10th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
That trip was alot of fun! My favorite part was using the nets to catch macroinvertebrates in the water. Our group even found a salamandar, a vertebrate! The bird watching was really fun, too, but after so long, my neck started to hurt! I can’t wait to hear what kinds of things the next group will find!
April 11th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Great pictures mrs Baker! if only other people could see how cold it was. It was loads of fun none the less though! Out of all the things we did i think my favorite part was when we found that big larvae in the creek, and then we had it in the container and it was wiggling all around and such. That was so cool to me cause ive been to so many creeks on hiking trips and i’ve never thought that those types of creatures could be found under rocks at the bottom! If you look closely i think you can see the little creature in a few of the pictures. I wish our group had found salamanders like the other group though, that would have been even more awesome.
April 11th, 2008 at 10:02 am
That was a great out of the classroom experience. It was a lot better then I expected. The bird watch was fun mainly because we pointed out what the birds looked like AND what they sounded like. The only bird I knew the sound to was the cardinal which sounds like two coins being hit together. I knew that because those birds are VERY abundant in my backyard and manage to wake me up in the morning, but they’re still pretty cool.
The microinvertebrates study was also neat and I learned what actually is living in a creek like the one we tested. I have a creek in my backyard, but it’s pretty unhealthy and not much lives in it. When I was younger, my neighbor and I used to test the water with the same methods that we used on our field trip. This trip brought back good memories
April 11th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Woah Katie that’s a long list of birds! I hope since the weather says it’s going to be sunny on tuesday that We’ll have a really great day out there and have lots of bird sightings to comapre with your massive lists! (hopefully the pollen count will drop too!!) Now i’m more excited than ever to go on this field trip!!!
April 12th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Through all these comments it seems like everyone that went on this field trip had so much fun! I can’t wait until Tuesday when my class gets to go! Looking through those pictures made me realize how blessed we are that all of us are able to be a part of something this incredible. Katie, it appears that you guys saw a TON of birds that I would have never known existed until now haha! Hopefully we’ll have good weather so we can do everything the other classes were able to do! Thanks for this opportunity Ms. Baker!
April 12th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
This feild trip really turned out to be fun. When we were looking for things in the stream with those nets i was surprised. I figured since i couldn’t see anything then there wouldnt be much if anything to be caught, but we actually ende up catching a lot of different macroinvertebrates. I didnt even think about all of the tiny organisms that we found, and we found all of those in just a few minutes. Also when we went bird watching i had no idea that there were that many different species of birds that lived in this area. Our list ended up having almost twenty different species of birds that lived in that one little area. Ive actually seen a lot of the birds that we saw that day in my yard, and before the trip i would have not been able to tell the difference between them at all. This was a really fun trip, hopefully we can do some more things like this before the year is over!
April 13th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Ill be going on that field trip tomorow and im pretty excited especially after reading those comments. My main concern about the field trip was that there may not be that much wild life but after hearing about it and reading those comments it seems that there is plenty of life forms out there. also all the birds katie listed are imrpessive and i hope that we willl get to see some of them while we are there. All the activities we are taking part in there also sound fun. I think it will be a good field trip