Monday, May 17, 2010

Geology class debate on Global Warming

Resources
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/basicinfo.html

From Mr. Craig Peck:
I do not have time to do complete research but there were a few things I could get my hands on quickly. I will try to answer some of the student questions and provide resources for the students to research.

I cannot address the health or social consequences.

I have attached 3 things that may be of interest.
1. The official American Association of petroleum geologists position paper.
2. The introduction and overview to a book published by AAPG -- Gerhard et al. (2001) pages 2 and 3, which diagram timescale of events may be useful.
3. The Spring 2007 Correlator. Pages 4 and 5 have some talking points that the students might be interested in.

Additional Web references:
Arctic Warming Report Flawed (this is not "climate-gate").
http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2005/01jan/gerhard.cfm
This shows, among other things, carbon dioxide levels versus temperature on a geologic timescale.

http://www2.brevard.edu/reynoljh/
Jim Reynolds, a geology professor at Brevard College in North Carolina, believes that CO2 will cause climate change, making it COLDER.

I suspect that the best Web references for the students to use are www.aapg.org. My search of their sites using the Google search engine provided substantial hits.
http://www.google.com/custom?hl=en&cof=AH:left%3BS:http://www.aapg.org/%3BL:http://www.aapg.org/images/head_pg2.gif%3BLH:55%3BLW:529%3BGIMP:%23cc0000%3B&domains=aapg.org%3Bsearchanddiscovery.com&sitesearch=aapg.org&q=Global+Warming&start=0&sa=N

Craig Peck
President and Chief Petrophysicist

Petro Isle, LLC

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Challenge 20/20 2009-2010 Reflection

Here is what happened at Casady School with a small number of Challenge 20/20 participants,


1. We did not have any contact with the Concordia International School Shanghai in China. We tried via e-mail several times with no response. In fact one of the Challenge 20/20 kids even wrote a letter in Chinese. The students from Millbrook School, New York started communication, but besides exchanging global warming videos nothing else happened. The Milbrook students did ask if they could send the awareness materials they were creating to our middle/elementary school students which inspired the Challenge 20/20 Casady kids to start brainstorming working with science teachers and 5th grade classes as well as to explore possibilities with our elementary school teachers. We tried several times to start a SKYPE conversation with the students from Millbrook, but they did not respond. I must also say that the small Challenge 20/20 Casady group also had its focus elsewhere and time just slipped away.

2. On behalf of the Challenge 20/20 team, I applied and we were accepted as the Oklahoma Pilot School by the Oklahoma Green Schools http://okgreenschools.org/ in June. In July, a new Principal arrived to Casady and decided that because we were undergoing a self-study for our ISAS 10 year evaluation, we did not not need to undertake other projects. We had to decline the opportunity to be the pilot school for the Oklahoma Green Schools. The Challenge 20/20 students liked the tenants of the Oklahoma Green Schools and embraced them "unofficially." They connected to the Oklahoma Green Schools resources and brought free recycling containers for plastics and cans. Due to their effort, we now recycle more than paper in the Upper Division. They also visited the elementary school that became the pilot school in Oklahoma City to learn about the "Green Schools Tool Kit."

Casady Challenge 20/20 spent most of the year selling aluminum water bottles and inspiring people to reduce their consumption of plastic water bottles via chapel presentations, using the YouTube video, The Garbage Patch, and connecting to the middle division science teachers and fifth grade classes. After they raised money to buy the tool kit, they promoted using a few tools during MLK Day. Since then, the Challenge 20/20 students have been brainstorming and implementing a partnership with our middle division 5th grade science teachers. On their behalf, I attended two trainings of the Green Schools Pilot Program, one on USE LESS STUFF, and another on preservation of our creeks and lakes by BLUE THUMB. All the information I gathered was provided to the Middle School Science teachers for their consideration.

During the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Challenge 20/20 received a donation of 10 Oklahoma trees from Up with Trees Tulsa through the Oklahoma Department of Forestry. They planted the trees in collaboration with the 5th grade classes. The Challenge 20/20 kids also brought alternative energy cars on campus to raise awareness of electric cars in the high school and 5th grade classes. As a result of the Challenge 20/20 interaction with the 5th grade science classes, a plastic recycling program started in the middle division. In the Lower Division, Oklahoma Green Schools information inspired the resurrection of their community garden. The community garden motivated a high school student, member of National Youth Advisory Board for the Alliance for A Healthier Generation- partnership between the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association that works to combat childhood obesity and promote a healthy lifestyle- to work with the after school program at the end of the year and with the high school next year. Challenge 20/20 is now carving end of the year time to SKYPE with Deer Creek Middle School to learn from their experience of using the Green Schools Tool Kit for audits of energy usage, water conservation,waste, recycling, environmental quality, and school climate.

The Challenge 20/20 kids also started to explore how older buildings could be refurbished to meet LEED standards. Our new headmaster is building the first silver LEED certified building on our campus. With Green Schools connections, the Challenge 20/20 brought a LEED architectural firm to answer the question, What is LEED? and promoted and implemented a field trip to their headquarters.

Find documentation of activities at the Challenge 20/20 2009-2010blog http://casadynaischallenge2020.blogspot.com/ and website http://web.mac.com/casadycrier/iWeb/Challenge%202020%20Website/Home/Home.html

The Lower Division Community Garden and Scotie

Scotie wrote the following e-mail to Mrs. France, “This is Scotie and I'm a junior at Casady. Zac in the 4th grade is my little brother. I am a member of the National Youth Advisory Board for the Alliance for A Healthier Generation which is a partnership between the Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association that works to combat childhood obesity and promote a healthy lifestyle. As a member I get to carry out a service project in my community. Over the last few weeks I have noticed the garden growing outside of Calvert. I really want to be able to teach the kids in Lower School about leading healthy lives. A Community Garden at Casady provides an opportunity for kids to learn about healthy eating and get some exercise at the same time. I would love the opportunity to talk with you at your earliest convenience about my ideas. Would it be possible to teach some lessons with the after school kids because it would fit well with my schedule and they are already in Calvert. I understand school is almost over, and this is short notice, but I would be so excited if we could work this out!” Scotie was a master teacher to the children. He had snacks waiting for them. Then, he had a brainstorming session, played relevant games through questions and answers, gave them a handout to take home to see what were their eating habits. To end, he took them outside to play at the community garden identifying what they had planted. Before Scotie left, he gave the kids pins and a card where they could go online to find out more information about his program.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Setting UP SKYPE communication with Green MD School Deer Creek


We left message and sent e-mail to Mrs. Vandorn, Science Deer Creek teacher to set-up time to SKYPE with the Casady fifth grade!

Alternative energy cars demonstration to 5th graders

 
 
 
 
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