Today was our first harvest of the year from the newly-revamped "GCS Student Farm". This crop of spinach will be part of the salad bar at lunch today and tomorrow. We also took some time to weed, plant sweet corn, and transplant watermelon.

Some of you may have been told, as I was, that if I swallowed chewing gum it'd sit in your gut and clog everything up. Well, guess what? It passes right on through like everything else. So stop spitting it out on the warm sidewalk and sticking it under the chairs. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

GARDEN UPDATE: This year we have received 4 grants to help completely transform the GCS student "farm". Special thanks to Sustainable Tompkins, Ithaca Rotary, NYS Agriculture in the Classroom, and Clean Air - Cool Planet Inc for the funding to make the changes and help sustain garden activities for years to come and also to Mark Perosio for donating wood. Also, special thanks to Mr. Wiech and Ms. Fitzgerald for helping with the hoop house and garden projects. Updated: Groton Rotary also supplied us with a sweet water barrel!Students (and Mrs. Hume) get ready to plant melons in pots inside of the hoop house.
Preparing the tomato bed.
Approximately 10 tomato plants were transplanted from seeds started in the classroom. Check this week's Groton Independent for an article about the farm.

Thursday and Friday was the annual 7th grade Floating Classroom Field Trip. We were pretty lucky with the weather and we all had a great time while learning a lot about our local watershed. Lake visibility was around 5-6 meters and the stream was LOADED with aquatic insect larvae.

What an amazing science night! You should all be proud of your work
and I enjoyed looking at all of the great projects (grades 5-12).

Well, we did catch a mouse after all. This guy (Peromyscus leucopus)
was caught at location D last night. We will be compiling the data in
class next week and begin working on our lab writeups.

Dear Parents,

The Floating Classroom Field Trip next week had to be switched. The date on the permission slip is/was off by ONE day. After finalizing the schedule, my SECOND PERIOD WILL NOW BE GOING THURSDAY May 13 and my 1st AND 5TH PERIODS WILL NOW BE GOING FRIDAY May 14...so it is the opposite of what was on the permission slips. We leave school after 1st period and return after 8th so that the busses are free for morning and afternoon runs. Students should not wear open-toed shoes and should dress for the weather. Please keep in mind that it is often 10 degrees cooler and windier on the lake. Also, please plan on packing a bagged lunch that day.

Thanks!

Chad DeVoe.

Today was the day we let the trout go that we received back in
October. Here, Tena fishes out a couple trout.

Period 2 says goodbye to the fish at our site on Owasco Inlet.

Here is the Nitrogen Cycle in action. For the past two weeks our trout tank has been host to an aquaculture/hydroponic setup (growing plants without soil). Fish waste is high in nitrogen, which happens to be an essential element for plants like this lettuce. Nitrogen is VERY abundant in the atmosphere but plants need "fixed" nitrogen in their growing medium. These seeds germinated right away and are thriving...they just can't seem to get close enough to the window though!

I am so pleased with the variety of science night projects that you guys are working on. I realize that 2nd period is getting the short end of the stick due to the state exams but please feel free to come in during rec to use the laptops and work on your posters.

Saturday was a great day to pick up garbage! We had an overly-
cheerful adopt-a-highway crew composed of Lynzee, Courtney, Sarah, and
Mackenzie as we cleaned our 1-mile stretch of S. Main st ext. Thanks
guys!

After school, Darren and Alan stopped by to help out in the school
garden. Thanks guys! So far we have potatoes, lettuce, spinach,
garlic, and onions planted.

Today we set up our small mammal survey of the GCS woods. We measured out a 100m transect line and put traps every 10m. We are trying to figure out what type of habitat small mammals will be found in. Student volunteers will be coming in at 7:15 each morning next week to check the traps and record data. Above, members of 5th period measure out the traps and below, members of 1st period pose for a class photo on a fallen cherry tree.

Today some students began planting the GCS garden. We planted a bed
of potatoes for fall harvest and then beds of lettuce and spinach for
harvest this June. All of the beds should be finished by the end of
the week.

Today after school, Cross and Josh stayed after to help update our student farm. We're in the process of putting in raised beds after the amazing fence replacement from last weekend's Groton Make a Difference Day! The boys built a few of the boxes using rot-resistant wood that was donated by Mr. Perosio. Mr. Wiech and Mr. Hsu helped out as well.
New "Master Gardener" member, Courtney Coffey, helps shovel GCS compost into the garden beds. This is what your lunches look like after six months of decomposition. A healthy garden has a good mixture of soil and organic matter such as compost and/or manure.
The garden is looking great. In the end, we will have twenty-one 10' x 5' raised beds devoted to fruits and vegetables for our school cafeteria. Everyone is helping out, whether you build boxes like Cross and Josh or compost your lunch scraps in the cafeteria. We will start sowing seeds later this week.

For our annual Earth Day activity, the 7th grade planted trees around the school campus as part of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation's free seedlings for schools program. We planted about 100 trees of 3 native species that have high wildlife food value (mountain ash, crabapple, and highbush cranberry). Earth Day is a week away...what will YOU do?

The boys have been working hard getting hundreds of 2L bottles ready for our new greenhouse. It may take a couple years and 1,000 more bottles but we will eventially have a 100% recycled/reclaimed greenhouse for Groton Science classes.

Next Saturday at noon, roughly 100 Cornell students will be in Groton for a day of community service. If any middle school students want to help out, one of the areas scheduled for work is our school garden. We will be putting up the new greenhouse and redoing the garden fence. Please see me for more information.