Being Scientists

This week we started our unit on the scientific process, so we're learning the steps scientists use to complete scientific experiments. We started by talking about how scientists use their observation skills to notice things in the world around them and to help them make a hypothesis. We have been putting our observations skills to keen use by watching the bald eagles and their newly hatched eaglets!

You can check out the live eagle cam here!

Some of the observations we've made so far are:

• The eagles don't throw up the food for the babies. They just feed them small pieces.
• The eaglets peep a LOT!
• The parent eagles don't leave the nest for very long.
• They eat mostly fish, but they did eat a duck or a goose the other day.
• Eaglets are white and fluffy when they hatch.
• It takes a long time for an eaglet to hatch - several hours to almost a whole day!
• Eaglets are very wiggly, but they also sleep a lot.
• It's hard for eaglets to sit up when they first hatch, but they get good at it pretty quickly.

We are excited to see more of what we've learned about ecosystem in action as the eaglets, hopefully, grow up. But we know there could be some sad lessons about nature, too. We're keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best!

Here are some screen shots of the eagle family!

The parents sitting on the eggs on a rainy day

Daddy eagle checking the baby and the hatching egg. The hole is called a pip, and then the egg cracks from there.

The two eaglets waiting for mom or dad to come back from hunting

Ecosystem Expo

Thursday, March 9 was a very exciting day for us. After weeks of learning about ecosystems and a week of hard work creating ecosystems, we had the opportunity to present our animals and their ecosystems to friends and family. The students did an amazing job teaching our visitors about abiotic and biotic parts of an ecosystem and teaching everybody about the living things. I am so proud of everybody's hard work and thankful that everybody was able to come and share in our successes.

If you weren't able to attend, it's okay! Everybody will be bringing their boxes home on Monday, along with an interview sheet. You can conduct your child's interview at home just like we did here at school. In the meantime, enjoy these photos from the event!