I've been back to school for Sept, working at Wendell Elementary, a science and art magnet A+ school. This residency was another multiple grade science integration adventure. This is the 3x5' mosaic assembled by 3rd grade, "Lifecycle of a Seed". We learned about how a seed grows in the soil (humus, clay, and sand), needing water and sunshine, develops a root to absorb minerals in the soil, and shoot that pushes out of the ground, and then a flower or fruit develops with seeds, to start the process all over again.
This is the 4th grade panel, showing different types of fossils to align with their rocks and minerals curriculum. We learned about how fossils are formed; trace fossils (dino footprints), casts/molds (trilobytes and ammonites), carbonization (fern and ginkgo leaves), and permineralization (megalodon teeth, petrified wood, mammoth bones).
This 5th grade panel depicts the three main ecosystems in NC; mountains, piedmont, and coastal. We learned about how features in an ecosystem work together, and identified landforms, animals, and plants specific to each region. The mountain region shows a mountain and waterfall, trees (there are over 100 different species, which is more than all of Europe), monarch butterflies, and salamanders (another strange fact, more diverse species of salamanders in NC than all of the world). The Piedmont region has rivers and rolling hills, with dogwoods (state flower), oaks, grassy meadows, and our state fish. The Coastal region shows sandy dunes, venus flytrap and insects, the ocean, Scotch Bonnet (state shell), and shore birds.
