ICHSAP

2011-11-14T20:42:00.001-06:00

The Education Experiences that Change a Life

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/09/18/magazine/18mag-edExperiences.html?ref=magazine

I pulled this from the New York Times this morning. There is a long list of people who have listed the impact that a teacher had on their lives, as you have on your children’s. This one should especially inspire you. . .
Kathryn

Smaller, Better

By Caterina Fake,co-founder, Flickr and Hunch

When I was 9 and 10 years old, there was a program in the New Jersey public schools for “gifted children.” Several afternoons a week, we would be excused from our regular classrooms and go to a separate room with a separate teacher, Mrs. Lachel. One semester I wrote and directed a play, cast it, designed costumes, built sets and finally performed it for the whole school. Another time Mrs. Lachel and I joined a parapsychological society, then devised tests for telepathy and tested all the teachers and principals. (We found no evidence of psychic ability.)

The program was cut due to lack of funding, and by middle school I was back in the regular classes of roughly 25 students to a teacher. I continued to accumulate A’s, cutting classes whenever I could, learning nothing. It is because of the experience I had in the gifted program that I decided to home-school my daughter. That model — an adult serving a small number of children, helping them learn what they themselves want to learn — seemed the best, and maybe only, way to learn. I have little recollection of what I was taught in my class of 25, but I remember everything I learned in my class of 3.

2011-11-08T10:23:00.002-06:00

In September, the teens visited the wilds of Dow's Preserve. Here we found quiet and Johnson County's only outcrops of Silurian Dolomite. This is a very hard and resistant rock layer, so resistant even the Mississippi River is pushed eastward. The Silurian rocks are seen as the darker pink in the geologic map of Iowa below.

2011-11-02T14:06:00.004-05:00

We started out the 2011 school year with trips to Anna's Cutting Garden and to Judy Beuter's organic farm. One homeschool family brought homemade tomato sauce (from home grown tomatoes of course) and thanks to Anna's limestone oven we made pita bread pizzas! At Judy's farm, we visited nearly 600 downy chicks that will be raised with organic feed.
We even enjoyed a cool summer rain shower!

Owl Detectivies

2011-04-25T12:22:00.007-05:00

In April we visited Johnson County Naturalist Brad Friedhof to search the pine plantation of Kent Park for signs of our feathered friends the owls. Brad showed us how to look for signs of roosting: whitewash, a feather, and if you look closely, the undigested fur and bone pellets coughed up by resident owls. Here in Iowa several species of owl come to visit in winter (Snowy Owls, Northern Saw-whet, Northern Hawk Owl, Short-eared, Long-eared and even occaisionaly the Great Gray Owl). Most likely the owl pellets we found were from our year round resident owls the Great Horned, Barred or Eastern Screech Owl.

"Healthy people need a balanced diet and so do healthy ecosystems", says Brad. "One way to tell if our owls are eating a varied diet is to examine the owl pellets". So after thoroughly searching the pine needle duff, we took our pellets inside to dissect the furballs and identify the teeth of meadow voles, shrews, moles and mice. It was a beautifully blustery day, the wind sang in the tree tops and thanks to Brad we had an invaluable afternoon of learning.

(photos this post: Sarah McElligot-Hasan)

University of Iowa Power Plant

2011-04-25T11:51:00.008-05:00

In February
ICHSAP students of all ages took tours of the University of Iowa's Power Plant. This power plant has been recognized as one of the nation's top 20 on-site green power users for it's use of oat hulls for biomass fuel.

Thanks to our tour guides and all the staff at the UI Power Plant. For a look at their informative brochure click here.

Laura Ingalls Wilder Field Trips

2011-03-28T14:06:00.002-05:00

This fall we also took in many field trips in the theme of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House series.

From hiking to the Friend's Cabin to Pony and cart rides at Norman Bontrager's farm,

crafts at the center and live music by local legend Al Murphy and Mark Wilson

we enjoyed it all and learned so much!

2011-01-05T14:51:00.006-06:00

This fall we took several opportunities to explore the north fork of Ralston Creek looking for aquatic macroinvertrebrates (water bugs!). Aside from being just plain fun it is also one metric used to determine water quality. Using training and supplies from IOWATER .

We not only measured pH, nitrate/nitrite levels, phosphate levels, and dissolved oxygen, we also found several crayfish, damselflies, predacious diving beetles, dragonfly larvae and riffle beetle larvae! Look for more IOWATER trips this spring.

2010-10-12T11:01:00.006-05:00

Next was a trip to Judy Beuter's organic farm near Solon. Judy raises organic chicken, pork and beef. Thanks Judy!

A New School Year

2010-10-12T10:00:00.009-05:00

We've started the year with a whirlwind of fun activities. First was a trip to Anna's Cutting Garden in Oxford . Anna and Dave Geyer hand built their wood fired limestone oven and Anna allowed us to help bake

bread.

The oven temperature reaches 1000 degrees F!

2010-08-30T14:39:00.005-05:00

I've recently added a few photos and posts

that

had

been waiting...

Here's a few more: As long as the heat index lingers in the nineties, late summer and early fall is still a great time to go for a walk in Turkey Creek! We sure enjoyed it last spring.

2010-06-14T10:01:00.004-05:00

In late April we visited the Iowa City Fencing Center and learned a lot from founder/head coach Judy O'Donnell. Judy, who has a Masters in Education from Harvard and has coached nearly ten years at the Boston Fencing Club, has set up an amazing program here. For more about the center see: Iowa City Fencing Center .

2010-06-09T22:01:00.004-05:00

It's been a busy spring so here is the first update of many about our recent activities.

On Earth Day we helped Fred Meyer, Scott Koepke, and Joyce Carroll of the Youth Garden transform a side yard of Robert Lee Recreation Center into an edible landscape.

Stay tuned for calls to help tend the garden throughout the summer.

UPDATE: Weeding and Mulching this Friday, June 18th 10am-noon and 1pm-3.

Wear gloves and bring a trowel if you have them! Thanks!

Thanks Everyone for

2010-04-16T14:56:00.004-05:00

Thanks to our young crew for helping out Hickory Hill Park!

Spring hike into Hanging Bog

2010-04-04T14:31:00.005-05:00

Last week with temps in the upper 70's (90's reported in Washington, Iowa) we worried the Skunk Cabbage would be stewed into kimchi but we found it standing tall and strong. Now rare in Iowa, Eastern Skunk Cabbage was once as common as wet prairie swales over northeastern Iowa. Here at Hanging Bog, (a Nature Conservancy preserve: The Nature Conservancy in Iowa - Hanging Bog) it is one of many water loving plants (marsh marigold, jewelweed) that thrives here due to a perennial spring flowing through tufa soil. Tufa soils are most common in eastern Iowa where soil overlies dolomitic or limestone bedrock. Here's a nice explanation of tufa soils: Mandy's Greenhouses - Products - Tufa. We hiked carefully in the 16 acre preserve, Sherry even marked vulnerable plants with marker sticks! Gary stopped often and shared his local knowledge; here he shows us a Butternut (Juglans cinerea) shell. A.J. gets the prize for proper footwear and Carissa and Azaria found the best swing. It was a great day. Thanks everyone for coming out!

Ice Skating

2010-02-25T12:34:00.005-06:00

In light of the Olympic spirit the HSAP takes to the ice.

Iowa Trees

2009-11-09T20:12:00.004-06:00

Here's a sample of District Forester Mark Vitosh's tree hike with us at Ryerson Woods back in October.

He's answering Susan's question about Locust trees.

Mark started us out with basic Iowa native tree identification (along with some giant pine cones from Californina) and ended with an informative hike through Ryerson Woods.

Thanks Mark!

Prairie Fire

2009-11-04T20:50:00.012-06:00

Local landowner and UI Geology Professor Jeff Dorale was kind enough to invite us out to his 40 acre reconstucted prairie and pond. When Jeff first purchased the land, deep gullies cut into row cropped hillsides. Now, five years and many work days later, native prairie grasses and forbs cover the hillsides. Their deep roots are rebuilding soil and holding the soil to the land instead of letting it wash into the tributaries of the English River.Little Bluestem grasses gave a reddish hue to the hillsides as we collected seeds of Illinois Bundleflower, Coreopsis, Black-eyed Susan, Grey Coneflower and Partridge Pea.

After we had collected seed, Jeff checked for wind direction and then

lit the prairie afire! Fire has been part the tall grass prairie ecosystem

for millenia, recycling nutrients and clearing out trees.

Bur Oak, a native tree, is resistant to fire and together

with the tallgrass creates an Oak Savanna. Jeff has planted several

Bur Oak as well.

Jeff has created several fire breaks between prairie plantings which

worked very well. Within minutes the fire had consumed a nearly

100 foot strip of prairie.

The tallgrass prairie once covered 85% of Iowa, with woodlands covering

the other 15% of the land, mostly along riverways. Today less than

0.10% (yes that's one tenth of one percent) of native prairie remains.

Thanks Jeff for bringing back a small part of the prairie and for sharing it

with our homeschool group!

Bird Art

2009-03-02T13:23:00.006-06:00

We were artists, ornithologists and naturalists just like John James Audubon. We searched through bird books and sketched a favorite bird in our journals and then created an acrostic poem using the bird's name.

Owl pellets

2009-02-23T14:35:00.006-06:00

Hey all!

Your homeschoolers have been forensic scientists this month at the center. After learning about raptor adaptations, students examined owl pellets: balls of fur and bone that are

coughed up by an owl. The skull and teeth help identify the rodent as a shrew, mole, mouse or vole.

Owls

2009-02-05T13:23:00.003-06:00

Hi Everyone,

We had a good turn-out for our Discovery Day of Owls at the center last Tuesday. Your child was introduced to the owls in Iowa and their calls so they are ready to go out and practice owl calls.

Remember, the Great Horned owl hoots "Hey..you awake? Me tooooo", and the Barred Owl hoots "Who cooks for you?". Here's a website that has the sound clips of owl calls: http://www.owlpages.com/ .

We also dissected owl pellets and had a group reading of Owl Moon by Jane Yolen.

Owl Moon is a great read no matter how many times you've read it. Have you noticed the literary nod to Emily Dickenson on the last page? The illustrations are wonderful and a good motivator to get out and try your owling skills.

So now with the full moon approaching (next Monday) get out and share one of our last winter nights with the owls. If you have time and would like a more organized approach to owling check out Owls on the Prowl at the Hurtsville Interpretive Center on Saturday, February 21st at 6:00pm. For more info see: http://www.jacksonccb.com/

Happy Owling!

Sledding

2009-01-23T11:17:00.006-06:00

Yesterday we went sledding at Hickory Hill Park and had a great time. We're looking forward to more winter activities such as School of the Wild and the Raptor Center field trips.

ICHSAP Blog is LIVE!

2009-01-23T08:44:00.001-06:00

All, this is our new blog where we will post updates about what's happening at the center and our upcoming events.