Tag: environmental science

Categories
Environmental Education

This Term at Lakehill’s Environmental Science Center

By Daniel Bracken
Director of Environmental Education, Lakehill Preparatory School
Kindergarten
Kindergarten learned about animal life cycles. They examined how some animals are born and grow while some experience large changes as they get older. Each student decorated a “metamorphosis cookie” using different types of candy to represent the stages of a butterfly’s life cycle.
First Grade
First grade learned how a bird’s diet determines the type and shape of their beak. Students used pliers, pipettes, tongs, chopsticks and tweezers to simulate beaks in order to pick up nectar, seeds, wax paper, Swedish fish, and rice (standing in for food sources).
 
Second Grade
Second grade learned about insect camouflage. They observed real insect specimens within their habitats and later created their own camouflaged stick bugs out of bamboo and leaves.
Third Grade
Third grade studied plant movement, learning about the different types of stimuli that induce plants to move. They set up an experiment to examine how light can cause plants to move. Pairs of  students constructed mazes that bean seedlings must navigate in order to reach the light source.
Fourth Grade
Fourth grade studied tree rings, learning how to determine tree age and the causes for the markings on their tree slices. By the end of class, they could describe some of their trees’ past experiences.
Fifth Grade
Fifth grade learned about soil nutrients, testing samples for nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and pH levels, and determining which plants are best suited to live in different types of soil.
Sixth Grade
Sixth grade examined the water quality of the stream and pond at the ESC, testing water samples from the each. They learned about the nitrogen cycle and discovered the levels of nitrogen, ammonia, dissolved oxygen, and pH in the water.
 
Seventh Grade
Seventh Grade identified and researched their assigned trees at the ESC. Their findings will be used to make a QR tree tag on subsequent trips.
Eighth Grade
Eighth Grade built model solar houses complete with solar fans and lights. They will conduct an experiment to investigate the efficiency of their houses on a future visit.
esc3
Categories
Environmental Education

Exploring Their Environment

By Jeremy Holman
Science Teacher, Lakehill Preparatory School

The Environmental Science class at Lakehill is learning how to grow a healthy, all-natural garden in their own backyard.  It is not uncommon for students in urban and suburban areas to be unfamiliar and somewhat intimidated with the concept of growing your own food.  I want to show them just how easy it is.

They are learning simple methods to keep unwanted insects, rabbits, birds, and other animals out of their gardens; how to determine what vegetables will grow well in a garden at different times of the year in this region; how to compost scraps, and how to determine soil health and replenish agents that the soil needs to remain productive.  I also want them to gain a sense of pride for building something that is useful in their own homes, and that can have tremendous health, environmental, and economic benefits if enough people get involved.

The AP Environmental Science class visited the McCommas Bluff Landfill that serves the Dallas community.  I think many of them expected to see heaping piles of trash and worried that they would gag from the odor as we approached the gate.  In fact, there was no odor until we drove up to an active cell where trashed was being stuffed into the ground by enormous Earth-moving tractors.

The outlying scenery was littered not with trash, but with lush vegetation highlighted by a wide-open view of the Dallas skyline.  Even the mound of trash was more like an oddly-placed plateau with small roads carved along the perimeter and covered with grass on nearly every slope.  If not for the the pipes and wells poking out of the ground every 30 feet or so (and the dozens of trash-toting trucks) you might easily be convinced that it was a nature preserve.

Speaking of the pipes and wells, we learned that these are for capturing methane (which gets cleaned in an area that looks like a mini-refinery before being sent off to the power grid for production of electricity) and carbon dioxide, and for injecting bacteria-laden juice into the cell of trash to speed up decomposition.

One thing we didn’t see, but were told existed at the bottom of each cell, is a sandwich of clay-plastic liner-clay-plastic liner that prevents any of that “trash juice” from seeping into the ground water.  In fact, there are a series of pumps and pipes that flush the percolated trash juice into a holding tank where it is diluted and pumped into other cells to keep on working.

It is really fascinating to see all of the technology in place at our local landfill, and comforting to know that they have plans to increase its efficiency in the near future.  Aside from the implementation of technology to reduce land-consumption for trash disposal, there are also plans to increase waste diversion from 30% to 70% in the near future.  In other words, about 30% of all trash deposited (by mass) at McCommas is either recycled, mulched, or composted, and there are plans to increase that number to 70%.

Oh, and that methane– enough is captured every year to supply more than 90,000 Dallas homes with clean energy. Overall, it was a eye-opening experience rather than a nose-pinching one!