Center for Urban Waters

The Center for Urban Waters is a 51,000 square foot office and lab building that houses the City of Tacoma Environmental Services labs and offices, University of Washington Tacoma researchers and the Puget Sound Partnership. The Alchemists visited to learn about what the center is doing to protect Puget Sound and the Foss Waterway as well as the amazing design of the building. The building is made from recycled materials, pervious pavers that capture rain water, rain gardens, and a planted roof top.

They also visited one of the UWT labs and talked to a scientist about how they test samples from the land fill to be sure that chemicals are not leeching into the ground water. The Center is doing some really interesting work.

Mentoring

Clearly there is nothing cuter than Prekindergarten and Kindergarten kids, unless it Fifth Graders mentoring PreK and K. Every week the Alchemists get together and take on a challenge with their little friends and act as helpers. It's a toss up as to who has more fun but the Alchemists are consistently great role models and mentors.

They have done many STEAM experiments, this week it was counting with dice to play a version of Yahtzee. As always, a great time was had by all!

Seattle Aquarium

As part of their study of Marine Biology and Puget Sound, the Alchemists made a visit to the Seattle Aquarium. They saw many animals from this region and presentations about the resident Pacific Octopus and Harbor Seals. But the favorite animals, by far, were the otters. All of the Alchemists fell in love with them and are begging for a "class pet".

Swimming

For several years Seabury has provided winter swimming lessons as part of Physical Education. The students go to the Center at Norpoint and work with trained swimming instructors. It's a lot of fun and an important life skill.

FISH Food Bank

The Alchemists latest visit to community nonprofits was a stop at the F.I.S.H. food bank in Edgewood to learn about the needs of the under-employed and hungry families. They brought in donations, weighed them and, after a tour of the food bank, placed the items they brought on the shelves. They also learned about backpacks that are filled with food for kids in need to take home on the weekends. As many as 100 backpacks are distributed in the Puyallup schools every Friday.

Pt. Defiance Zoo

As part of their study of Puget Sound and Marine Biology the Alchemists took a trip to the Pt. Defiance Zoo to check out their display of marine animals. We learned a lot about sharks, skates and stingrays and the animals that live in tide pools.

As long as we were at the zoo we visited the rest of the animals and spent a lot of quarters feeding the adorable goats.

Visiting Olympia

To continue their study of how governments work the Alchemists took a tour of the state capitol in Olympia. Prior to their visit a Seabury parent who works for the legislature came into class and talked about how a bill is passed. Mr. Matteson then led the class is a skit where they acted out the parts of a legislative committee discussing a bill.

The Alchemists were quite impressed with how beautiful the state capitol is and learned about its design and history. They visited both houses' chambers, and the offices of the Governor and Secretary of State.

The Alchemists learned more about the Judicial Branch of the state government then got to act out the part of attorneys arguing a case before the Supreme Court.

With Mr. Matteson's help the students also got to meet their state senator, Jeannie Darneille as well as their two state representatives, Jake Fey and Laurie Jinkins. The representatives talked about how the legislature works and some of the important issues facing the state including the justice system, funding education and homelessness.

It was an exciting day. And a long drive to and from Olympia.