Tag: creek

Waves in the Creek

Waves in the creek.
Waves in the creek.

We talked about waves today down at the creek. The water was fairly calm so we could make some nice surface waves using floating leaves to show the up-down/side-to-side motion as the waves passed. I gave them 10 minutes to “play”, and more than one team tried to make a tsunami.

Creating a large wave.
Creating a large wave.

Since it’s allergy season, one student who could not go outside, read the chapter on the characteristics of waves and prepared a short–5 minutes–presentation for the rest of the class when we came back in.

Annotated image highlighting the crests of the waves and the wavelength.
Annotated image highlighting the crests of the waves and the wavelength.

Water Levels in the Creek

A relict puddle at the end of the summer (mid-September).
A relict puddle at the end of the summer (mid-September).

It has been remarkable to see the drying of the creek over the relatively dry summer.

Spring.

Flooding creek after spring's showers (mid-April).
Turbid, fast-flowing creek after spring’s showers (mid-April).

Mid-Summer

Mid-summer.
A clear sedate creek in mid-July.

End of the summer.

The dry creek bed in mid-September.
The dry creek bed in mid-September.

T’s Apothecary

Specimen collection.

Environmental Science students have been working on a wide range of term projects. They’re required to use real data. Some are using the long term weather, climate and socioeconomic records from national and international data repositories. Others are collecting their own measurements — the ability to connect temperature, pH, and conductivity sensors to the new calculators have proven invaluable.

One project that I’ve been particularly happy that someone has taken up, because of its potential future use, has been to assemble a specimen collection cataloging the vegetative biodiversity in the area around the creek. With the help of TFS parent Scott Woodbury, who works for the Missouri Botanical Gardens, she’s collected, identified, and preserved dozens of specimens. She’s also compiled them all into an online phylogenetic tree (using mind42) that should serve as a wonderful reference for future class and student projects.