Teresa Gonzales - Farwell Playa Festival

This was a very productive Festival! The 45 fifth graders that attended were excited to be there and well prepared by Ms. O'Hare and other teachers. The students' nature journal covers illustrated a good understanding of not only what a playa looks like but how it drains into the Ogallala Aquifer. Inside the journal, I observed a (modified) Beaufort Scale for land. This chart is set up to identify force, windspeed and observational description. The teachers also included the vocabulary list that students seemed pretty familiar with as they used it in their interactions with their peers and during feedback. It was very clear that Farwell used the available resources. Julie Hodges, The Ogalla Commons Education Director, is a great resource for teachers interested in preview lessons or follow-up lessons to our presenations. Not only has she developed a binder of great lessons and ideas to piggy-back off of but she developed a trunk with experiements that will save educators much needed time in planning and preparing for projects. Notify Julie Hodges for more information. Julie's presentation was very effective. The students were able to pull from prior knowledge as their teachers set the foundation before we arrived. The students were quite proud of the journals and were ready to learn more about what goes into the journal and how this will help them in the future. Julie does a great job of including art and mapping in her presenation and discussing the importance of gathering information on paper other than in text text form. Assignment:  1.Complete daily log 2. Find an unusal object 3. Ask yourself a question about this object 4.  Draw the Object  5. Write a reflection With instructions in hand the students were eager to load the bus and go out to the Ogallala Classroom! Gail Barnes with the South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Lubbock, Tx. was good enough to come out and share some wonderful raptors with the students. She brought five owls that are very different in nature but beautiful to look at and ask yourself questions about. I was honored to assist her in her presentation. I was allowed to have a beautiful bird I have only seen in pictures actually perch on my hand . The owl understood "up, up, up" meant cool it and "wings down." of course meant please don't try to fly away. They also like a soothing voice which was good for me cause I needed to know that it was a calm raptor! I hope I get to have that experience again. Wow. Jim Steiret, author and waterfowler shared his playa buffer demonstration and discussed ratios. The best ratio for a playa buffer is 3:1. Of course, not everyone can do this; 2:1 is okay and 1:1 is much better than nothing to protect the playa.. He is great at what he does. I learn more each time I observe or assist in his presentation. His waterfowl presentation is always interesting with his sound effects to identify bird calls, feathers, and his carved birds for his display. Students identify feathers to models and learn how the birds were named...by their markings. Students were very attentive. Julie Hodges and I worked on the "What is a playa" and the "Soils" presentation. This was a big hit because we were able to utilize the outdoor classroom for our demonstrations. The students enjoyed the information boards and even took pictures of them.. For our nature walk, the students gathered plants, soild and observed the deep cracks in the ground from the contracting clay beneath their feet. I'd like to mention the two young fifth grade scientists that stood out in my mind are Clay and Thomas. Clay has some great questions and was eager to participate in discussion and Thomas was a great gatherer of information. He has a great attitude toward learning and I forsee great things for him. He volunteered to collect soil for his teacher for their own "playa jar" and class project! These students are excited about learning thanks to the enthusiasm that their teachers bring to learning. Great job, Farwell!