About ten Greenfield Middle School students in 7th grade science with Deb Roberts work with Technology teacher Gaby Richard-Harrington in a Deerfield River Watershed School Mini-Grant project to construct a giant topographic map of the Green River watershed. The goal is to understand why certain parts of town flooded in October 2006.
Click here or the image above to view a slideshow
of the map construction phase of this project.
Project Title: In Plain Site: Flooding and the Topography of the Green River Watershed Curriculum Area: Science, Mathematics and Technology Grade Level: 6 and 7 Greenfield Middle School (Gabrielle A. Richard-Harrington, 413.772-1360, X329)
Project Overview: Students learn to read topographic maps and interpret Colrain Hydrostation website data (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ma/nwis/uv?01170100) in order to understand why the Green River flooded in the fall of 2005 and why this flooding affected the residents of Greenfield (many of whom include Middle School students). They also explore the resources available on the Deerfield River Watershed Association website (http://www.deerfieldriver.org/). Science students work in pairs to create cardboard relief maps, which will be connected to complete a scale model of the Town of Greenfield and the Greenfield River Watershed from Colrain to the Connecticut River.
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Which are the areas most likely to flood when the river overflows its banks?
Students discovered several interesting facts as they worked on their relief map of Town of Greenfield and the Greenfield River Watershed. For example:
The town's sewage treatment plant is located right in the flood plain.
Both the Green River and the Deerfield River flow north toward the river the meet.
Flooding often happens at big bends in open meadows. Do you know why?
People can canoe on the Meadows Golf Course after a big rain because of its topographic layout.
Greenfield Middle School 7th graders say...
Thank You Deerfield Watershed Association for supporting us through this project and for covering the cost of project supplies!!
Project Title: Classification of Atlantic Salmon in the Deerfield River Curriculum Area: Science, Mathematics and Technology Grade Level: 4 North Parish School (Christa Gardner, 413.772-1390)
Project Overview: Students investigate the species of fish that reside in the Deerfield River to learn more about the classification of fish as vertebrates. They also identify the body parts of the salmon and create salmon drawings. They take digital photographs of their drawings to use as illustrations in their PowerPoint reports, highlighting the characteristics of the river as well as the classification of the Salmon and how the two relate to one another. Finally, they examine how flooding creates erosion, how it affects the water quality of the river, and how the complex interplay of these variables directly impact the salmon population.
Using all the information they have learned during the course of this project, students predict if Atlantic Salmon will be able to survive in the Deerfield River this spring.
Salmon are very fragile fish. They need good water conditions to be able to survive in streams and rivers. This past year, it has been very rainy and there has been lots of flooding in Greenfield in the Deerfield River. Flooding causes dirt and other things like sticks and trees to mix with the water. The water is cloudy and dirty. Normally the water in the Deerfield River is clean, but with all of the flooding, it is definitely cloudy. I predict that with the flooding this year, there won’t be many salmon traveling in the Deerfield River.
Fourth grader, Salmon Project, North Parish
4th grader's drawing of Deerfield River Salmon
On a class trip to the Turners Falls Fish Ladder... The Eagle has landed!
North Parish Students say...
Thank You Deerfield Watershed Association for supporting us through this project and for our new digital camera!!
Greenfield student Joshua Brandl won this year's Geography Bee Thursday at Federal Street School. Brandl took home a national Geographic Atlas and a National Geographic GeoBee Challenge Game after competing with five other third-, fourth, and fifth-graders. Second-place winner Yelitza Rosario-Santiago and the other finalists all received atlases, according to school secretary Brenda Lively. The school's Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) paid for the prizes in this year's contest.
The other finalists were: Nickolas Brandl (the champion's brother), Laura Campbell, Mark Conant, Dillan Shelkey, John Hallowell, Crystal Stevens, Laurana Bohannon, Julian Torres, Alysha Elie and Emily Gaimari.
Lively said the Geography Bee has been held at Federal Street School since 1988. The Federal Street School Bee is independent of the National Geographic Bee, although the questions come from the National Geographic Society, Lively said.
The contest was started by National Geographic to encourage teachers to include geography in their classrooms, spark student interest in the subject and increase public awareness about geography.
Students
drop handfuls of coins
into buckets in the cafeteria
as a fundraiser for Relay for Life. Photo by: Peter MacDonald. Greenfield Recorder, June 8, 2006
...A “coin war” at Greenfield Middle School last month pitted classes and faculty against one another in filling pails with nearly $465 for the “GMS Rappers” team.
“Some of my family members have had cancer, and they have made it through,” said eighth-grader Tom Gorey, whose class won by not only donating silver coins but also “drowning” other classes and teachers with pennies, thereby deflating their official totals.
Richie Davis Recorder Staff Greenfield Recorder, June 8, 2006
