Project Update: The project is underway with the following steps completed as of October, 1996:

1. Project Background. During early September, 1996, Martha Starks led her students in a discovery of plant communities by first introducing the concept of "family" as community and discussing the characteristics that make family members alike and different.

2. Field Trip. On September 17, 1996, the second and fourth grade classes at Kings Beach visited the project site to collect seeds. They were accompanied by Victor Ensara, California Tahoe Conservancy, Sue Rae Irelan, Tahoe Center for a Sustainable Future, and Nancy Davis and Robert Ball, Project Watershed AmeriCorps members. The students walked to the project site and were introduced to the site and to the goals of seed collection. The project team had prepared six paper bags with the plant to be located taped and labelled on the side. Victor demonstrated to the group how to collect seed from each of the plants identified. The two classes were then divided into six groups, mixing ages and language abilities so that each group included several students with strong bilingual skills. Each group was given a paper sack and, accompanied by an adult, spread out on the site to find the plant and collect the seeds. After 20 minutes, the groups exchanged sacks so each student was able to collect two types of seed.

   While at the site, other interesting things were noted and discussed with the students. They were: finding a grass snake and learning to respect it, looking at grasshoppers up close and identifying body parts, and finding the old dam and learning why it has altered the pond size and shape.

   The seeds collected were given to Victor to take to the Nevada Division of Forestry nursery for propagation. Some of the seeds will be returned so the students can propagate them in their classrooms and ready them for planting back at the site in the spring.

3. Classroom Investigation. Following the field trip, both classes have conducted in class experiments concerning seed travel. Additionally, the 2nd Grade class prepared a drawing/English language development lesson (Adopt-a-Watershed Plant Communities, Lessong One), drawing the Snow Creek site from memory.

4. Journals. Students in both classes are keeping journals of their work.
   
   
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   To Learn More Contact:
   Sue Rae Irelan, Program Manager, TCSF
   P.O. Box 1096
   Homewood, CA 96141
   phone: 916-525-1646 fax: 916-525-1613
   email: srirelan@sierra.net

   Last Updated on November 15, 1996