From the Ithaca Journal:

Send us your 'First Day of School' photos

Do your children already have their "first day of school" outfit picked out? Are they proud of their keen fashion sense? Send us your child's best "first day of school" photo with a caption including name, age and school by Saturday, Sept. 8. Photos can be e-mailed to life@ithacajournal.com or mailed to c/o Life Editor Richetta Coelho, The Ithaca Journal, 123 W. State St., Ithaca, NY 14850. Photos will be posted in a "Back to School" photo gallery on theithacajournal.com and randomly selected entries will appear in Life on Tuesday, Sept. 11.

Welcome to the 2007-2008 school year. This year, through the continued evolution of teaching, grotonsciencegeek will now be offering online podcasts! (I need to stay ahead of Ms. Bassette). Welcome to the 21st century! Pretty soon my job will be taken over by small robots manufactured by Google. In the meantime, all you have to do is click this link and sign in as a guest. All podcasts will be in MP3 format so you can even listen to them before homeroom on your iPods...good times. See everyone in September...old and new.

I just noticed that the Ithaca Sciencenter has finished the Science Minutes winning entries. You can listen to KATIE's, SKYLER's, and MACK's research pieces at this website. You just need Quicktime.

Today was the last day of summer science camp. We checked our mammal traps and found a Short-tailed Shrew that was pretty smelly. This was the first short-tailed shrew I caught doing this lab. Later we hiked over to the new GCS nature trail and had a picnic and a camp fire (a small one however because it was over 80 degrees out). I hope everyone enjoyed camp this summer. Thanks for being such enthusiastic learners! Below are a few pictures from today.

Today we set up a worm composting bin for Mr. DeVoe's classroom this year. Remember your homework - tell your teacher this fall that you'd like to start one in your classroom. You will be cutting down on waste, raising new classroom pets, and have all the fishing bait you'll ever need. Tell your teacher to email me if interested. I'll provide a bin and the worms.