Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Volunteer Opportunity

Here's a great opportunity to help out at Ravine Drive!  Saturday, March 17th Liz and I will be working with our Trout Unlimited Partners to do some clean up, "move some rocks" and conduct some water quality monitoring.  Come dressed to get muddy and maybe even wet!  Start time is 9 am and we usually go till 11 am.  Please RSVP to highlandparkravines@gmail.com.   

Thanks for all your great energy!  
Rebecca

Video Volunteers




We'd like to thank HPHS alums Nic and Dan from Bitter Jester Creative, a video production company that documented the morning classes at the ravines. We are looking for 5-6 students who would be interested in putting together a short video presenting what you learn  - editing the footage from yesterday with the help of Bitter Jester and then working together to create a student-generated short about the project and its impact.

If any of you are interested in helping to document the project in this way, please e-mail us (highlandparkravines@gmail.com) and we can put you in touch with them!



Thank You

Thank you so much for showing us a great time at the ravine.  We are very interested and determined to learn about our communities ecosystem and explore the layout of our local environment.  We can't wait to see you next time with questions and ideas! See you soon.

PS.  We are considering a new name for our team, we will keep you posted, we would really like a team name for just Mrs. Hill's class.  Thanks again. :) Love team ....ghotio (aka fish) <3

Thanks for a great day!



Jim Tingey of Trout Unlimited leading discussion of what we hope to learn through this project

We had a great first day with the Environmental Science classes of Highland Park High School! We discussed what we already know about the ravines and how this ecosystem was formed. The students then did a site evaluation of the area, taking note of sights, sounds and spatial qualities (cereal bowl vs. cathedral). We re-grouped at the end to discuss what we WANT to know, which we are most excited to start discussing and researching!


Thanks so much to the students and everyone else who endured the cold to come out and participate in our first group meeting at Ravine Drive. We are so impressed with your enthusiasm and are really looking forward to our next session. In the meantime, please post your photos/thoughts/questions/reactions and we will continue to do the same!

Running Water

Thank you

Thank you for yesterday, we had a great time and are excited to learn more information about questions that we have.  We can't wait to come back. 
Team CHILL

Monday, February 27, 2012

Welcome!

Welcome HPHS Environmental Science students!

We made this blog in order to create a space where we can describe our experiences of this project. We encourage you to post your photos, questions, sketches, videos, quotes - and we will do the same. The blog can serve as a way for us to continue our conversation about this important project in between the sessions we have at Ravine Drive. It will also serve as a way to archive our experiences and help shape how this project will take form in upcoming years.

So for tomorrow, please bring your notebooks, cameras, and clothes you can get a little dirty in as we first investigate the ravines as a group. We are really looking forward to it!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

“Scoop up a handful of sand on a North Shore beach and you are holding the sand washed down from the moraine of our last ice age. Pick up a rock and you are holding a remnant of glacial till carried here from Canada. The ravines and bluffs tell the evolution of our shoreline — and link us to our geologic past”

-Michael Chrzastowski, PhD, Chicago Wilderness, 2008

History of the Highland Park Moraines

Dr. Michael Chrzastowski, senior coastal geologist with the Illinois State Geological Survey, explains the geologic evolution of the area:

“About 14,000 years ago, the Lake Michigan lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet began to recede, leaving rings of glacial till called moraines (piles of clay, gravel, and sand) atop the bedrock. The Highland Park moraine, destined to become incised by the ravines, extended past our current lake’s boundaries and stood over 100 feet high.

“About 10,000 years ago, the weight of the still-retreating ice pushed down on the land so much so that it opened a lower-than-lake-level exit to the north, through Canada’s Ottawa River. The result: Lake Michigan’s water level dropped an astounding 250 feet in a very short time, exposing the older lakebed for 20 miles, to the shores of the now much smaller lake, which geologists call Lake Chippewa. Rain and melting snow quickly developed channels on the exposed lakebed floor. (Also interesting, a forest formed on the lakebed; tree stumps found at the bottom of today’s lake date to 8,300 years ago.)

“About 8,000 years ago, the lakebed streams’ headward erosion reached the Highland Park moraine. As streams touched the moraine, they washed out sand and gravel, cutting a V-shaped channel into the hill. Moraine erosion continued in two directions: run-off of rain and snow in streams from the top, plus “chewing” in from the bottom from the lakebed streams. And thus the ravines began to form. (Myth #2 says that glaciers formed the ravines; actually, glaciers formed the moraines, while streams formed the ravines.) The process was quick, lasting just 5,000 years, between 8,000 B.C. and 3,000 B.C. (This dispels Myth #3, which assumes that ravines are old— they’re actually quite young, geologically speaking.)

“As the glaciers at the northern end of the lake continued to melt, their weight decreased, allowing the land to gradually rise again, which closed off the water exits to the north. (This rebound continues today. Land around Hudson Bay continues to rise one meter per century.) Lake levels rose again, and by about 3,000 B.C., Lake Michigan had refilled close to today’s levels. Waves then chewed away at the moraine (which once extended farther east), forming the bluffs that we see today."



Coldwater River Video

 

Check out this video about the efforts that residents are making to protect Coldwater River in Michigan, including a group of high school students working on a project very similar to ours.

Ravine Restoration in Progress!

Welcome!