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!