Teresa Gonzales - Great Plains Water Cycle

Students examine a Macro-invertebrate jar full of spike rush and tiny creatures. The playa jars are providing us with a glimpse of what a wet playa would look like as we are working in a dry playa in a drought year.

A student attempts to see how deep a crack in the OC Playa is.

We had the pleasure of meeting approximately 70 fifth grade students from Whiteface, Hart, and Nazareth, Texas. The students appeared excited to be allowed the opportunity for an outdoor experience. I am not sure they knew the treat they were in for. Once we completed the "classroom" instruction that included a great journal writing lesson and bird identification, the students proceeded to (what I hope) will be the one field-trip they will never forget. The day included: 1. The "Raptor presentation" What a sight to see! Live owls! I wonder how many parents are superstitious! 2. Field Experience included plant Identification and my first experience with buffalo chips and scat (I had no gloves.) Also, making observations and predictions about the playa landscape was fun. 3. Buffers/waterfowl presentations were great!
Overall, this group was pleasantly surprised and learned a great deal about the world around them. The playa trunk will definitely enhance the learning of this group.

Sara Hunter's fifth grade class from Nazareth, Tx. enjoyed a morning outdoors at the Playa classroom learning about the High Plains water cycle, raptors, waterfowl, shorebirds, plus soil properties, playa plants and journal writing. Nazareth was joined by 52 students from Hart, Tx. and Whiteface, Tx.

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.

Teresa Gonzales -- Ascension Academy Playa Festival Amarillo, Tx

The Playa Festival at the Ascension Academy in Amarillo, Tx on 09/09/11 was a great success due to the warm administrators and staff who are dedicated to the success of their students, the parents who volunteered their time to come out to photograph activities and promote their school, and lastly the students who were visibily eager to learn and welcomed a challenge. Students were engaged with nature after an overview of what playas are and how they got here. We took rotating groups out to the playa for hands-on experience with playa plants which the students illustrated in their journals. We also observed the ever-changing landscape where we found cracks as deep as three feet. The other group observed a rainwater harvesting demonstration by Jason and Julie Hodges and were divided into groups to compete against each other for which group could harvest the most water. The afternoon schedule consisted of three rotating groups which participated in Bird Identification, Plant Identification, and I assisted in Soil Identification. My favorite part of the experience was facilitating the students with Julie's challenge to engage them with nature thru creative writing. The students were engaged with making good observations and illustrations but poem writing proved to be where students wanted to spend more time and thought. These students acquired knowledge and were left to ponder the world around them and how we can best conserve our playas. I was extremely impressed with the positive attitude of the staff and students.