The Effie Kokrine Charter School is a free public secondary school (grades 7-13) within the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. While its curriculum is focused around the culture and values of Alaska Natives, all students are welcome to attend. Lessons are organized in three week thematic units with a focus on hands-on activities and community involvement. The school's small size, 150 to 200 students, allows for school wide use of Individual Learning Styles. Students are encouraged to use the learning style that suits them best, but also to adapt to other methods when necessary. More information can be found online at the following websites.
The FNSBSD website: http://www.northstar.k12.ak.us/index.php?&i_page=250
Alaska Native Knowledge Network http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/NPE/EKCS/
Continuing with oceanography in the Earth Science class, I did a demo to show how wind blowing over the surface of water causes waves to form and circulate the water beneath the surface. I used a fish tank for the water body and a hair dryer to generate wind.
One of the students is doing his project on how blood sugar level affects basketball ability, so he and a few other students went to the gym after lunch and shot free throws. He's off to a good start on the project.
I had a foray into the teaching of earth science today. The students are learning about oceanography, so I did a demo on how waters with different densities interact in a graduated cylinder and included a bit about some other things with different densities. The red water is heavily salted, blue water is fresh. I had never done anything like this before, so I just crossed my fingers and hoped that it would work.
They thought the demo was cool and a few asked some really good questions e.g. isn't that what happens when a river flows into the ocean, like the fresh water sits on top of the salt water? I gave them the example of a lake fed river running into a glacier fed river and how you see separation of the water at the confluence.
