Friday, October 31, 2014

Onondaga Lake Project Kickoff



WOW! How did we do all of that???

On Wednesday, October 29th we went on a whirlwind tour of many locations in the Onondaga Lake Watershed. 

We will be using these experiences to help construct pieces of our interdisciplinary Industrialization and Onondaga Lake Project that we will begin next month.

Here is a list of the locations that were on our itinerary: 


  • Honeywell Visitor's Center
  • Geddes Brook -a rehabilitated wetland
  • Onondaga Historical Association
  • Destiny USA
  • METRO Waste water Treatment Plant









We heard presentations from the following individuals:







  • Amy Rood - Communications Specialist, Brown & Sanford Consulting c/o Honeywell 
  • Natalia Cagide - Parsons Engineering
  • Dennis Connors - Onondaga Historical Association
  • Scott Peal - Onondaga Historical Association
  • Jim Jones - Head Operator METRO Waste Water Treatment Plant
  • Aimee Clinkhammer - Onondaga Watershed Coordinator, EPA
  • Freida Jacques - Onondaga Nation












Monday, October 20, 2014


Onondaga Lake Project Kick Off





Teachers are gearing up for our interdisciplinary project to analyze the impact of Industry and Urbanization in Syracuse on the Onondaga Lake Watershed. This is our 4th year working on this project. We are taking time out of classes on Wednesday, October 29th to visit locations and hear presentations about various aspects of the lake's history and recovery. More updates to follow.

Friday, October 10, 2014

  As the senior member of the 8th grade team, I am decidedly the "low tech queen." I believe that children need a variety of learning experiences to keep things interesting, and I am supplying the non-technical experiences.  Some of the things we have done in the first 5 weeks in Math 8/Algebra 1 include: "human angles": drawing 2 huge parallel lines in chalk on the carpet and using students as the corresponding, vertical and alternate exterior angles.  We have played "Math-O" (bingo) to review 2 step equations, had a scavenger hunt to practice the distributive property and combining like terms, had a relay race for simplifying radicals, used versatiles for many concepts, done a "placemat activity" for properties of numbers, and done several "pairs activities" where one student acts as "teacher" - asking questions, the other student answers, and they switch roles. I also use mini white boards on paddles for students to do problems and show answers as a formative assessment.

Mrs. Felice
 

Tuesday, October 7, 2014


BioBlitz 2014

The 8th grade classes went outside last week to collect photos of species found on campus with our ipads. This week we are using library resources and online identification sites to identify these species and create a Field Guide for the Jr/Sr High School.