Notebooks

Thursday, September 9. Today each student got a science notebook. These composition books will be used as Field notebooks, Lab notebooks, and Project notebooks. They will generally stay in the classroom so that students don't have to carry them around and they will be available when we need them. The plan is to use them when we go outside to take notes when we are taking an inventory of local species or when we go on a field trip to monitor stream quality. We will use them to document lab activities, collect data, and write conclusions and reflections. We will also use them for documentation of ongoing projects. The students will only write on one side of the book, leaving the other side blank for me to write comments, observations, and evaluations of their work. We will also do some peer reviews this way.
Today we took our notebooks outside and started our inventory of some of the local plants. These included White Clover, Japanese Stiltgrass, Dogwood, Tulip Poplar, and Sweet Gum.