Week 6: Close to Home (Eating Locally!)

For this week's environmental exploration, we talked about how food gets from the farm to the grocery store to our plate.

In our discussion, we learned that shipping food long distances uses a lot of fossil fuels (for gas and refrigeration), and that food that travels long distances loses taste and nutritional value.

Then we played a guessing game to match up a food to the number of miles it traveled. We had two kinds of apples, a banana, a red pepper, and an egg.  Most kids were surprised to learn that much of the food in the grocery store travels thousands of miles from the farm where it was grown. 

Noah plays "Match the Miles"

We were also surprised to learn that food grown in the U.S. sometimes travels farther to us than food grown in other countries. One apple in our game traveled 3,000 miles from Washington state while the pepper traveled 2,000 miles from Mexico. It's important to pay attention to labels, eat what is in season, and -- whenever possible -- know who grows your food!

We discussed why grocery stores are shipping apples all the way across the country when they are in season right here in our state! And, we talked about how certain types of foods -- like some breeds of apples -- are becoming extinct. 

A N.C. apple (L) versus a Washington state apple (R)

Luckily, some places are preserving vintage apple breeds. Check out these apples, from the historic Orchard at Altapass, right here in NC. They are called King Luscious and they are HUGE (and yummy)! The King Luscious is native to our state. It was discovered near Hendersonville, NC, in the 1930s.

Elena poses with a King Luscious apple.
(Told you it was HUGE!)

Evan enjoying a slice of a King Luscious!

Finally, we made a recipe featuring North Carolina's own King Luscious apples...a healthy apple dip. 

Will (L) and George (R) enjoying NC apples with dip.

If you'd like to make the apple dip at home, here's the recipe:

Cream Cheese Apple Dip

• 1 - 8 oz. package low-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel), at room temperature
• 1/4 cup non-fat vanilla yogurt
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 6 medium apples, sliced

Directions: Combine the cream cheese, yogurt and brown sugar in a food processor and mix until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I can't believe we have only two more weeks of Extended Day! Don't forget that next week we will meet on MONDAY because of Election Day on Tuesday. We'll be talking about the amazing world above us ... trees!

Update: Reusable Bags

When you finish your bag at home, send me a photo and I'll post it here on our Green Gallery. Evan and Elena finished theirs and realized they will make the perfect trick-or-treating bags! Hope you have fun finishing them and, of course, using them!

Week 5: Talking Trash

People don't spend much time thinking about garbage. But, maybe it's time we did. Every day, each American throws out almost 5 pounds of trash -- and over half of that ends up in the landfill.

Once we throw garbage away, we usually forget about it. But the trash can is far from the end of the story. Our class talked about the two most common ways to dispose of trash (burying and burning), and why both can cause problems for our planet. Next, we played a game called, "Reuse. Reduce. Recycle." We went through a bag of typical items people throw away, and figured out how we could have avoided the landfill by reusing, reducing and/or recycling. The kids had lots of creative ideas!

Hammond pulls a toilet paper tube out of the bag!

Noah, Will and George ponder how to 
Reduce, Reuse or Recycle a cracker box.

Evan and Porter find a new use for an old toy.



 Elena was surprised to find an old banana
in the garbage bag.We talked about recycling them
into banana muffins --
and then we ate some for snack! 



Enjoying "recycled bananas"

Finally, we took old T-shirts and transformed them into reusable grocery bags -- a great example of reducing, reusing and recycling. Most of the kids didn't finish the project, so here's an easy-to-follow YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv6JNEsOx3U

Next week we'll be talking about eating locally and how many "food miles" it takes to get our dinner to our plate. Plus, we will make a recipe featuring local foods. See you then!

Week 4: Super Sun!

After back-to-back Tuesdays with gray skies, we finally had sunshine. And, sunshine means it's time to talk about solar power and other alternative energy sources. Luckily, it also means it's time for solar s'mores!! (I might even be more excited than the kids about these!)

We started our classtime by putting the finishing touches on a solar oven (made out of a pizza box) and assembling s'mores. We discussed how the solar oven works -- by reflecting the sun's rays off the foil panel into the oven, where the black interior absorbs the heat.


Our solar oven cooking the s'mores!

We found a sunny spot for our oven, and angled the reflector to capture the sun's rays. We also made some hypotheses about what would happen to our s'mores. Noah made a hypothesis that the s'mores would be yummy!

While we waited for our food experiment to complete, we talked about fossil fuels versus alternative energy and played "Energy Bingo." In this game, the kids got to mingle and find classmates who could answer the questions on their Bingo card, such as "Name a fossil fuel," and "Name a way you can save energy." Everyone did a great job working together!

Owen and Anika help each other with "Energy Bingo!"

Noah and Audrey playing "Energy Bingo!"

Finally, we checked on our solar oven, observed which of our hypotheses were correct and ate our delicious experiment!

Next week we will be talking trash! If you forgot to bring in an old, adult-sized
t-shirt, be sure to have it next week for our project about reducing waste.
Can you believe that our fall Extended Day session is already half over? I hope your kids are enjoying our environmental explorations so far!

Update: Ecosystems in a Jar!

Some of you have asked about caring for your child's ecosystem in a jar. They are designed to be self-contained, so you shouldn't need to water them often. I suggest checking on them every week or two by opening the jar and making sure the soil is moist and the plants look healthy. You also should be able to observe water droplets on the inside of the jar, which indicates there is sufficient water inside.

A note: If your child's ecosystem contains a plant that looks like the photo below, you may need to remove it from the jar. It seems to be ill-suited to the very moist environment and will start to rot. Sorry about that! Let me know if your child needs a replacement plant.

Week 3: Animal Rescue (Oil Spill Clean-up)

Today we had planned to capture the sun's energy to power our solar oven, but the weather had other ideas. So on this cold, cloudy day, we talked about other forms of energy ... fossil fuels.

First we talked about power. What do we use it for and why do we need it?

Then, we discussed different energy sources. Special thanks to our own expert, Hammond, who shared about when his family lived in a house powered by solar energy! But, we found out that solar energy (and other alternative sources) are rarely used. Over 90% of all the power used in the world comes from fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas!

We talked about some problems associated with getting and using fossil fuels. Then we did an experiment to see what happens when oil spills occur. The kids got into teams of two to simulate the effect of oil spills on water birds. They observed bird feathers when placed in plain water, and then in oily water. Finally, they cleaned the bird feathers just like real wildlife biologists -- with water and dishwashing liquid!

The kids are well on their way to becoming great environmental scientists. Keep your fingers crossed for sunshine and solar s'mores next Tuesday!

Notice!

For Week 4's Class (October 16), please bring an old t-shirt -- an adult size is best! We will be making a special project to go along with our "Do More with Less" (Reduce Waste) theme.

Any t-shirt will do ... it does not have to be a plain, white shirt. Feel free to bring colored shirts, shirts with logos or pictures -- any t-shirt that you don't mind getting cut up and repurposed!

thanks!

Week 2: Clean is Green

Today we talked about water pollution. This was a great follow-up to our first class when we talked about ecosystems, because the kids already understand how actions in one part of an ecosystem can affect another part.

First we talked a little about water -- why it's important to living things, and what happens when it isn't clean.

Then, we divided into small groups to conduct a scientific experiment to see how pollutants can get into our water. First, we made some hypotheses. The kids had great ideas about how litter, motor oil and chemicals get into the water! Then, we tested our ideas with a model of a watershed.

We observed how the rain water flows into the riverbed from uphill sources.

Then, we added a "pollutant" to the land uphill from the river. (It was green food coloring, but we pretended it was fertilizer from a lawn.) We observed what happened when the rain fell onto the fertilizer: it carried the fertilizer from the source, downhill into the river.

Check out these smart scientists: Hunter, Elena and Audrey.

Next, each group added soil to the land uphill from the river to represent erosion, and observed what happened when the rains came. (Did you know that sediment is the leading cause of water pollution?)

George is sharing his observations about soil erosion.

We had an interesting afternoon together. Next week, if the weather cooperates, we will talk about solar energy and make a snack with a solar oven!