Download Field Guide to our Rivers

Field Guide to our Quinnipiac River
Palms in the Classroom
Students Collect Field Site Data
• Palm cameras documented plant
life
• Probes measured water quality
• Trip Historian used Go and Tell
software
• Students collected
macroinvertebrate samples
• Soil samples were collected
Students Special Interest Groups:
research topics and design the field guide to post their information.
Geology
Plants
Critters
Birds
Bridges
 Water Quality
Web Cams
Geology Group
• Investigate various landforms
in New Haven
• Create virtual web cams
• Collect soil testing data
Plants
• Students use Palm cameras to
photograph plants
• Using field guides, they
identify the plants
• Students research the
“histories” of each plant
Critters
• Students use a kick net to collect
biological samples.
• Diversity and types of critters
collected are indicators of water
quality.
Bird Group
• Students used the Palm cameras
to get pictures of birds
• They used field guides to identify
them
• They searched on the Internet to
match up sound files with the
birds
Bridges
• Students took pictures of the
many bridges along the river.
• The K-1 class engineered their
own bridges.
Water Quality
testing.html
Palm Probes - Exploring pH
seconds
• Students brought in many liquids
to test
• Results provided a wide spectrum
of pH readings
• Students worked to understand
exponential qualities of the pH
scale
pH
1
5.188378
1.1
5.211804
1.2
5.230544
1.3
5.249285
1.4
5.27271
1.5
5.296136
1.6
5.314877
1.7
5.328932
Classroom Benefits
• Students took an active role in discovering science.
• Palms provided mobility and year-long access to data collection.
• Palms facilitated communication.
• Scientific data was permanently
stored.
Organization/Logistics
•
•
•
•
Teacher training
Student Palm contract
Introduce Palms slowly
Central computer for hot-syncing
Unexpected Benefits
• Increased student
organization skills
• Students became invested in
technology
• Students showed increased
responsibility
Handhelds Became Integrated Into Our Day
• Memopad for homework / spelling
lists
• Palm keyboards for Word-processing
- print to IRDA printer
• Calender helps students plan daily
schedules
• Palm-Reader and Palm eBook Studio
for reading and writing
• Fling-it for collecting Web data
mill.html
Funding/Budget
Core Equipment
• 20 Handheld units @ $199.00 each
$3980.00
• 1 Bluetooth Access Point @419.00
419.00
• 4 Palm SDIO Cards @ $129.00 each
516.00
• total funding request
$4915.00
Additional Accessories
•Palm probes kit@
$599.00
•Assorted Software@ $200.00
•Palm keyboards 5@ $99.00 each
$345.00
•total accessories request
$1144.00
Sharing our Project
with another school
Community Service Opportunities
• Working with the River Keeper to
clean the river.
• Touring with the park rangers to
identify plants and learn more
about geology.
Cold Spring School
263 Chapel Street
New Haven, CT 06513
203-787-1584
www.coldspringschool.org