Week 6 at Drake Park

       An excited group of eighth graders ran off the bus, thankful to be in a place that is familiar to them, Drake Park.  Excited to step out of our comfort zones and ask people questions. We wanted to know what our community knows about water rights. We were those eighth graders.  Corralled into a circle by none other than Karen and Eli, for a quick overview of the schedule and an interesting... demonstration of how to survey our fellow citizens.
       So we were off! Half walked further down the trail, the other half staying near the downtown area. And when the time arose for us to stop a person and ask for a minute of their time a majority of us panicked. So of course we try again. My first survey was a rather long one. I was amazed at how many things I'd never thought of in regards to our water. After that survey, we'd changed. Built up some confidence. Pretty soon we were walking and talking to just about everyone.
       After a quick lunch and time for chit chat we repeated the surveying process at River bend Park. (Now nearly frozen from the morning air). And after we gathered an acceptable amount of surveys we circled up and reflected on our day. Overall it was a very productive day and an adrenaline rush every time we talked to someone.

Art Week 4

             The majestic view of the mountain over the river.                Karen is explaining what are the
                                                                                                                 expectations of this activity.

Art at Tumalo Creek


During art day out at Tumalo Creek, we focused on painting with watercolors. For example, we found a stick or leaf that we thought was a good thing to paint. We had about 20 minutes to get the painting done. What I chose to paint is the river with some rocks sticking out of the water and some currents.  The reason why we did this is so we can understand and connect with the area better.

Opening Circle week#3

Realms students paying attention to a reading.

Today we got into a standing circle in a whole new place. We were surrounded by many big trees. Our main concentration was to see how many different human impacts we could find. Like pipes sitting on the side of the road and constriction happening right in front of our eyes. Mr. Beck read a story written by Martha Campbell. Here’s a quote from the reading. "Other dangers lie not in the stream itself, but in the pipeline that runs from the intake to town.” Now we were ready to start focusing on the social science.

Data Collection Week 3

Tumalo Week 3 Data Collection

While collecting data on the third week we were entrusted with responsibility to collect reliable and accurate data. The tools that we used are called vernier probes. Vernier probes are a small computer like hand held object that has certain attatchments for different water quality factors.  Some of the things we calculated are the water temperature, air temperature, the pH balance, turbidity, and conductivity. I personally like how we were trusted to use really expensive tools, it brought about the feeling of responsibility and maturity to me which really made my day.I think that the main purpose for collecting this data is so we could compare this data with the past classes and the future classes can to. After a rough fire that destroyed the tumalo habitat central oregon joined hand in hand to restore this habitat to all that it could be.The main challenge we had was getting the most acurate reading that we could. The weather was cold and it was hard to stand so close to other people on a small bank of rocks. However we pulled through and collected the most accurate readings we could forgetting our lives back home, focused on the science.

Conner and Trevor waiting for the water quality results.

Week 3 Social Science

Page 1 (above) Page 2 (below)

Hanna's social science form where she captures what is most important
in terms of human interactions with Tumalo.

Social science is a realm all of it’s own, mainly, it is all about human interactions with nature. We where striving to understand why people did what they did pertaining to Tumalo creek, like the intake. We read articles by past 8^th graders and also articles by the Source, and the Bulletin about the history of Tumalo Irrigation district and the Surface Water Improvement Project project as well as the history of water rights. Then we determined importance and shared in our Ethnographer groups, and then, in the group we shared with the class. To help clarify the geographical side of the problem Mr. Beck drew a splendid map in the sand. In the end everybody left knowing the motives of  people and their actions toward Tumalo creek, that way we could better understand why people did what they did and helped us see their perspective.

Pipe laying along the road for surface water pipeline improvment project.




  

Bend Bulletin article about the controversial
pipeline improvement to bring drinking water to bend

Art Week 3

Tumalo week 3 Art

We were in groups of 4 and we painted water color

pictures short and long distance. At the end we will make water colors of Tumalo creek. This helps us understand the area better.

This is a few students working on some pieces of art

Week 3 Reflection

WEEK 3: REFLECTION
This week at Tumalo Creek we weren’t at our regular study site. After we went over our writing prompt and choosing a backdrop of the riprarian zone,the bridge creek fire and how the valley is important to bend, we split up. Not able to see each other, we wrote about how we felt about the new spot. Personally, I got distracted by the river calmly rushing by, like it had somewhere to be and
it was late. Finally, all was quiet and we could write. The only sounds were the river and the birds chirping noisily in the nearest trees. After a long period of time, Mr.Beck called us back for our closing circle.

Reflection

Week Three

“. This cold, bubbling stream spitting up water at every rock and turn that is left over from my so easily accessible water” ~ Mariah Brito
“As you walk away from one side of the river it is a grassy field with little burnt stumps rarely peeking out of the grass.” ~ Delaney Pogue
“Right now I have some kind of bird sitting on a log next to me, singing me a song.”~ Amelia Carlson
“There's a meadow here with tall bushes and many trees.”~ Bente shares ways this is different with are study site.

Cole deep in his thoughts about Tumalo

Stacia writing while she sat alone working on her reflection.