After each clean-up process is tested, four graders are seeing how much oil is left both on the shore and on the water in their models.  Using a tool to measure how much oil remains, they truly see how the amount of oil left affects the ecosystem.  

Less oil remaining means the ecosystem is impacted less.  But how can we reduce our impact even more?  Should we spend more?

Fourth graders continue to improve their oil spill clean-up process to impact the environment less, just like real environmental engineers!  Way to go fourth grade!

With their plans in place, fourth graders are cleaning up an oil spill with their groups.  They are trying to meet different criteria within specific constraints.

Criteria:
1.  Leave as little oil in the water as possible to minimize the environmental impact.
2.  Prevent the oil from reaching the shore.
3.  Spend $20 million or less!

Constraints:
Materials--yarn, rubber bands, pipette, paper filter, cotton balls, felt, nylon and spoons.

Fourth graders had to not only decide the materials to use, but the order in which they would use them, too.  Since cleaning up an oil spill is a very expensive process, they realized just how quickly the money could disappear.  They will have a chance to redesign their process, noting how they could better meet the criteria of the challenge.  Should they spend less but risk impacting the ecosystem more?  Or should they spend more and impact the ecosystem less?  YOU DECIDE!

Fourth graders are truly becoming environmental experts.  Knowing how every organism is connected in a food web, they quickly realized that an oil spill can literally spread throughout an ecosystem by means of the organisms that inhabit it.  

With various materials to contain and absorb the oil, fourth graders are collecting data on which materials could serve each purpose.  Using a controlled experimental set-up (same amount of oil and same time to use the material), they're gathering evidence to support their decision to begin a real oil spill clean-up process.  

Fourth graders continue to dig deeper into their understanding of how an ecosystem functions.  After learning about the types of organisms in an ecosystem, each fourth grader was transformed into a producer, consumer, or decomposer in a river ecosystem.  Two students were also magically transformed into the river and the sun, two non-living factors that affect an ecosystem, too.  

Meeting and greeting one another, they learned the possible organisms they may depend up for food or to stay away from!  We created a model of a river ecosystem food web to see how everything from the sun to the river is actually connected.  Check out our food web design to the left!  We used string to represent the relationships between organisms.  It was "very complicated!" said a student!  Yes, food webs are quite complicated indeed!

With actual skulls from IL mammals, fourth graders are seeing first hand the differences between organisms in an ecosystem.  Because organisms depend upon one another in many ways, and because an oil spill can affect all living things in an ecosystem, fourth graders are spending time "getting to know" different organisms!

Besides investigating skulls, they are also looking at their pelts, or furs.  There are also rubberized molds of their tracks and scat for students to observe.  Soon we'll be seeing how every organism is literally connecting to another organism in one way or another!

As a way to showcase fourth graders' solutions to the problem in Greentown, they worked hard to identify realistic solutions to such serious problems in the pond and the garden.  Whether the solution was to develop a technology to clean the pollution, to hold a community meeting to discuss future options, or educate the community with signs, fourth graders created comic strips (or a small graphic novel) to tell their story.  Check out some of the examples provided here!

Fourth graders were asked to design a solution to the problem in Greentown.  Some of the answers could possibly happen, and were therefore classified as realistic.  Some of their solutions, after some in-depth discussion, were deemed unrealistic or unable to happen.  Students had the chance to argue their viewpoints and come to a group consensus as to which solutions were realistic and those that were not!  


Example:
Realistic solution:  Develop a technology to clean up the pollution in the pond.
Unrealistic solution:  Move the pond to a new location. 

Now that we've completed our pH tests on various sites throughout Greentown, we're seeing that some sites' pH results don't quite look the same.  How is it that one location, which may be far away from another site, be a possible polluter?

Mrs. Brinza set up a demonstration to show how liquid pollution responds to a rain storm.  Using blue food coloring as a model for pollution, she placed some food coloring on top of the sand to mimic someone dumping harmful chemicals into the ground.  With a water bottle "rain storm" about to come, fourth graders gathered evidence for what can happen to pollution underground.  Check out the pictures below to show how pollution can spread.

Mayor Higgins has recently contacted the fourth graders to help with a problem in his community of Greentown.  He notices changes in the ecosystem which include plants and animals such as frogs dying.  While his community could have many culprits, he decides to gather some evidence!  In fact, he has pH results from 3 years ago that can help.  The pH data comes from both water and soil-based sites.   Comparing the pH data from 3 years ago to today's pH data will allow us to see any possible differences and lead us to the possible cause of the pollution.  Can the fourth graders help Mayor Higgins figure out who caused the pollution?  I surely hope so!