wildlife_prosses

The History Of Our Project

by: Carin Wales

Tracing the sources in the watershed.	If you are reading this then you have seen the amazing work that my classmates and I have completed for benefit the Great Falls Discovery Center. This final product was achieved by a long series of events that left us all tired but satisfied with our own work. We first learned of this project on a fine sunny Monday morning. School started in a normal fashion, and we all expected another regular Monday meeting. During the course of the meeting we had to pick a folded strip of paper from a hat and were told not to unfold them. Then we were given five minutes to unfold, decipher, and trade with any person that also wanted to trade with you. For the full five provided minutes you could hear nothing but the words ‘who wants a –‘ or ‘who has a-‘, but in the end we got what we got. As I have mentioned earlier, we did this for the benefit of the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls. The first thing we really did was to take a field trip to Great Falls Discovery Center. When we were there we spent some time looking at their amazing displays and searching for our animal. The kind staff at the Discovery Center taught us about the watershed in general, how it reaches up into Maine and empties into the Long Island Sound. As a follow up to the field trip we spent a science class tracing the rivers in the whole Connecticut watershed. After we learned about the project, our first task was to learn about our animals in particular, we did so by gathering information about the taxonomy. Online research was the only way to find information then, later we had other sorces. The final posters were handed in and graded, when we had all revised and resubmitted them we started on the big research project. Each class took turns going to the library after we had a day and a half to find helpful books on the library website. Each class had two hours to stick our noses in books, as it were, and we all used that precious time gratefully. As we ransacked the books, we sorted our information on packets that our teachers had given us in to the four different sections, habitat, physical description, diet and feeding habits, and natural history. Little did we know that we were going to spend so much time and put so much effort into the writing for each of the critical fragments of the final outcome. We were finally ready to start writing, a process that took what seamed like decades. First, Mr. Leaf, our English teacher, gave us three sample papers that were about an animal’s habitat, we read them and listed the ‘good things’ and the ‘needs to be improved things’ that nights homework was to have a first draft of your animal’s habitat. The next morning we all came in with the best possible drafts we could muster, the shortest one was a sentence and the longest was four pages. We had what we call a student critique; this is when we split into pairs, and one person reads the other’s paper to them. The author took notes and listened. Once the reader was done he or she asked the author what they thought were the strong and weak parts of the paper. The author told the reader and wrote the feedback on his or her paper. The process was repeated with their author of the first paper now reading the previous reader’s paper, it sounds confusing but it really isn’t. We repeated these steps, with little tweaks here and there, for every of the four sections except one, as you have seen the diet and feeding habits is just a diagram and some bullet points, we had MCAS that week so the teachers decided not to give is real ‘think hard about it’ writing. After every first draft we had to type up the writing, and so we did. But that was not the last of the typing, after all the writing was submitted, we revised. Then once all of the writing, submitting, and revising, we had about a week left before our deadline. It was time to edit everything. So we went to work at our computers, spoken words were few and far between, but the occasional ‘could you come read this?’ would be uttered. So far you have only heard about the writing piece to this procedure, now for the paintings! When we went to the wildlife Great Falls Discovery Center we received little pieces of paper that had a picture of our animal on it. This was the first of many pictures that we would be given. One morning it was announced by our science teacher, Ms. Locke, that we would be having math/science/art all in the same class, and when we asked what was happening, all she would tell us was ‘wait and see’. So that is what we did, we waited until class. When we were all settled into class Ms. Locke began to tell us what was happening. She showed us a picture of a bird that she drew and painted and said ‘this is what you will be doing’. Well, as you can imagine we all groaned. She made us take out all of the pictures that we had of our animal; we did so with fear in our hearts. She told us to pick the one that we liked the best and put everything else, except a pencil, on the floor. We did what we were told. She came around with rulers and a piece of paper that had four rulers as the border of a rectangle photocopied on it. As we followed the instruction of our teacher, we cut out the rectangle formed by the copied rulers, glued the chosen photos into that space and drew lines on the photo at ever inch mark. We were then given a piece of paper that was marked at every two inch mark. We then had the chore of coping the animal onto the larger piece of paper using the divisions on the papers; thus making the original picture twice as large, and ready for coping! From then on we had the single, difficult task of painting, and painting, and painting. Draft after draft of backgrounds, grass, legs, heads, skies, everything that needed to be painted had at least two drafts. Mrs. Durkee, who normally only does high school art came in one day and taught us about different textures, fur, grass, scales, ect. As we gathered information about watercolors our paintings were looking better and better, and finally we were able to move on to finals. As you can see now we spent a very long, but fruitful, time on these paintings and also on the writing, so I hope you enjoy it. Have fun browsing!	More people tracing the sources in the watershed.
	Troy, mulling over a book.
Simon and Corey, conducting a student critique. Shannon helping Meredith with writing.	Zoë, typing.
Marty, working hard. The man of many trades, Mr. Leaf, helping Sawyer with painting.	The little brown bat, before and after. A bird, receiving its color.
Happy Ben!	Corey's bat, finally.

Tracing the sources in the watershed.

If you are reading this then you have seen the amazing work that my classmates and I have completed for benefit the Great Falls Discovery Center. This final product was achieved by a long series of events that left us all tired but satisfied with our own work.

We first learned of this project on a fine sunny Monday morning. School started in a normal fashion, and we all expected another regular Monday meeting. During the course of the meeting we had to pick a folded strip of paper from a hat and were told not to unfold them. Then we were given five minutes to unfold, decipher, and trade with any person that also wanted to trade with you. For the full five provided minutes you could hear nothing but the words ‘who wants a –‘ or ‘who has a-‘, but in the end we got what we got.

As I have mentioned earlier, we did this for the benefit of the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls. The first thing we really did was to take a field trip to Great Falls Discovery Center. When we were there we spent some time looking at their amazing displays and searching for our animal. The kind staff at the Discovery Center taught us about the watershed in general, how it reaches up into Maine and empties into the Long Island Sound. As a follow up to the field trip we spent a science class tracing the rivers in the whole Connecticut watershed.

After we learned about the project, our first task was to learn about our animals in particular, we did so by gathering information about the taxonomy. Online research was the only way to find information then, later we had other sorces. The final posters were handed in and graded, when we had all revised and resubmitted them we started on the big research project.

Each class took turns going to the library after we had a day and a half to find helpful books on the library website. Each class had two hours to stick our noses in books, as it were, and we all used that precious time gratefully. As we ransacked the books, we sorted our information on packets that our teachers had given us in to the four different sections, habitat, physical description, diet and feeding habits, and natural history. Little did we know that we were going to spend so much time and put so much effort into the writing for each of the critical fragments of the final outcome.

We were finally ready to start writing, a process that took what seamed like decades. First, Mr. Leaf, our English teacher, gave us three sample papers that were about an animal’s habitat, we read them and listed the ‘good things’ and the ‘needs to be improved things’ that nights homework was to have a first draft of your animal’s habitat.

The next morning we all came in with the best possible drafts we could muster, the shortest one was a sentence and the longest was four pages. We had what we call a student critique; this is when we split into pairs, and one person reads the other’s paper to them. The author took notes and listened. Once the reader was done he or she asked the author what they thought were the strong and weak parts of the paper. The author told the reader and wrote the feedback on his or her paper.

The process was repeated with their author of the first paper now reading the previous reader’s paper, it sounds confusing but it really isn’t. We repeated these steps, with little tweaks here and there, for every of the four sections except one, as you have seen the diet and feeding habits is just a diagram and some bullet points, we had MCAS that week so the teachers decided not to give is real ‘think hard about it’ writing.

After every first draft we had to type up the writing, and so we did. But that was not the last of the typing, after all the writing was submitted, we revised. Then once all of the writing, submitting, and revising, we had about a week left before our deadline. It was time to edit everything. So we went to work at our computers, spoken words were few and far between, but the occasional ‘could you come read this?’ would be uttered.

So far you have only heard about the writing piece to this procedure, now for the paintings! When we went to the wildlife Great Falls Discovery Center we received little pieces of paper that had a picture of our animal on it. This was the first of many pictures that we would be given.

One morning it was announced by our science teacher, Ms. Locke, that we would be having math/science/art all in the same class, and when we asked what was happening, all she would tell us was ‘wait and see’. So that is what we did, we waited until class. When we were all settled into class Ms. Locke began to tell us what was happening. She showed us a picture of a bird that she drew and painted and said ‘this is what you will be doing’. Well, as you can imagine we all groaned.

She made us take out all of the pictures that we had of our animal; we did so with fear in our hearts. She told us to pick the one that we liked the best and put everything else, except a pencil, on the floor. We did what we were told. She came around with rulers and a piece of paper that had four rulers as the border of a rectangle photocopied on it. As we followed the instruction of our teacher, we cut out the rectangle formed by the copied rulers, glued the chosen photos into that space and drew lines on the photo at ever inch mark. We were then given a piece of paper that was marked at every two inch mark. We then had the chore of coping the animal onto the larger piece of paper using the divisions on the papers; thus making the original picture twice as large, and ready for coping!

From then on we had the single, difficult task of painting, and painting, and painting. Draft after draft of backgrounds, grass, legs, heads, skies, everything that needed to be painted had at least two drafts. Mrs. Durkee, who normally only does high school art came in one day and taught us about different textures, fur, grass, scales, ect. As we gathered information about watercolors our paintings were looking better and better, and finally we were able to move on to finals. As you can see now we spent a very long, but fruitful, time on these paintings and also on the writing, so I hope you enjoy it. Have fun browsing!