Teresa Gonzales -- Abernathy Playa Festival

The Abernathy Playa Festival on 09/15/11 was focused on learning about High Plains water.  Fifth grade students from Abernathy Elementary and Kress Elementary attended this festival.  I had the honor of assisting Jim Stieret, author and waterfowler, in his presentation on playas.  He was very informative in explaining why playas are a keystone ecosystem and how to identify whether the indicators of a healthy playa are present.  He emphasized the importance of preserving our playas and discussed the effect of losing even one playa because they are all inter-connected.  He did a great job of explaining that playas are one of the few water sources in the world that "recharge." 

My presentation was on playa plants and soils.  Students did not observe playa plants due to the weather but observations/ field notes have been re-scheduled for next week.  Instead we discussed the frequently seen plant, "evening primrose." Consumers can buy this over-the-counter in the form of a vitamin.  They passed the bottle around to check out the ingredients and see the capsule. This activity was followed by a short powerpoint and some discussion how clay develops.  We used  T-charts, and made observations of clay and sand.
The high-light of the day was The Playa Raptors presented by Gail Barnes.  The students were very respectful of the quiet environment that is required for this presentation.  The students got a close look at how beautiful owls are and how different each type is.  I was very impressed at how quickly the students picked up the vocabulary; it was evident in their feedback .  I was also pleased to see how much of the new knowledge they were able to transfer from Julie's presentation on Bird Identification to the Raptor's Presentation by Gail.  Again, aquiring knowledge in a non-traditional way.