Chew Shellfish Research Center

The Alchemists went on an awesome field study to learn more about Marine Biology at the Kenneth Chew Center for Shellfish Research and Restoration. The center is working to restore native marine animals to Puget Sound through the use of aquaculture. The first thing we saw were huge tanks where they grow algae to feed the many animals they are working with. Holding huge amounts of water the tanks are lit by the sun and artificial lights and fill with algae within days.

The algae feeds the larvae of oysters, clams, sea cucumbers and other animals to promote research on the animals as well as restoration. The students saw the tanks holding thousands of tiny animals and looked at them under a microscope.

Once the oysters are big enough they are moved outside to larger tanks and eventually returned to Puget Sound.

The center is also doing research on sea cucumbers and the best way to help them reproduce. The Alchemists saw tanks full of sea cucumbers and got to touch one.

Finally, we saw tanks growing sea weed that is used for cosmetics. Off the coast of the center was also a salmon farm.

Thanks so much to Marine Biologist Ryan from the Chew Center and Mr. Winfrey, our class biologist, for a great, educational tour.

Seaburia

The Alchemists have spent the entire year learning about political systems. It began with our November elections, learning about political parties and the issues, and from there they have discussed the pros and cons of different kinds of governments. During this study the class has looked at historical examples of different governments from communism in China, to monarchies in Russia as well as current events in North Korea and Syria.
The culmination of this study is a five paragraph essay that discusses what would be the best government for the United States if we weren't a democracy as well as a simulation called Seaburia.

Initially the students were put in teams of two and given a country which they named. They were then allocated supplies, money and information on their countries economy. Every "turn" in Seaburia students must trade for food and oil to support their country and then produce a product designated by the Power Broker to earn money.

Then countries have to negotiate to solve problems in Seaburia ranging from crop failures and refugees to nuclear disarmament and natural disasters. Using skills they have learned about such as sanctions and treaties, the countries work together to solve each scenario and must come to some kind of solution.

This year we invited back the first class to participate in Seaburia and three of our now HS students came and taught the Alchemists a lot of about the art of negotiation!

NatureBridge!

We had a great trip to NatureBridge last week.  Here are the slides from the presentation the students gave in Gathering to the other students.  

Merrymere Falls Hike

When we were at Merrymere Falls we learned that if you stare at the falls and then the rocks beside it the rocks look like the rocks are moving up.

Free Time

In free time there was a lot of fun. We did lots of different things in free time. At the beach we made forts out of drift wood.

Beach Time!

Marine Mammals

One of the games that we played was Seal and Sea Lion. A seal on land moves without it’s flippers. A sea lion on land only moves with it’s front flippers. We were supposed to move like a seal one way and move like a sea lion. In another game we played, we each got a card and we put it on our foreheads. Then we gave each other hints and tried to guess what our card was.

Dolphin and Salmon Game

ORT!

 

At Nature Bridge there was this thing called Ort. Ort is left over food from meals. Seabury had 0 Ort every meal.

Games at NatureBridge

Where is Sheepie is one of the games that we played at Nature Bridge. It was a game that you line up somewhere on the beach. When the guide looks away you need to run and grab Sheppie. Then we had to get all the way back without the guide guessing who had Sheepie. The catch was that everyone had to hold Sheepie before we could win. It took about 4-5 times to come up with a strategy to get Sheepie back.

 Tide Pooling

On the first full day we were there we went tide pooling at Salt Creek. We saw lots of cool sea creatures like the blood sea star.

It was super slippery and we were basically walking on mussels. Lots of people fell in the water, including Mrs. Price.

Campfire!

Canoeing

We all had an awesome time canoeing,

we heard some awesome stories (which

you'll be hearing about on Sam’s slide. ) 

Story Time

The Soap Lady story:

One time on the lake there was 2 fisherman and they found a object in the water and is started to look like a person they ran back to land called the police and they pulled the body out of the water it was a human but turned into soap they found a golden braces in her mouth and sent a message to all dentist cause it was gold it was unique. Years later somebody said they made it so they investigated Monty her boyfriend who said she was in Alaska in 1944. They found Monty guilty of secondary murder and Monty was sentenced to like in WA penitentiary .