Trout Water

Trout Water

Lauren and Breya

For this project we raised the trout from their egg stage, all the way to full grown. We've spent much of our free time doing water tests(every other day), and water changes(once or twice a week), to ensure that the water was in pristine condition so that all the trout would thrive.  The overall goal of our project was to maintain the trout water, and to keep the trout alive. We had one incident where our tank cooler got unplugged which caused the temperature to go up and the dissolved oxygen levels to go down. This in turn killed 112 of our trout. Besides that, and a few jumpers, none of our trout died due to their water conditions. We made sure to feed them tons and give them the best possible environment so that they would thrive in the ravine. Once we released them into the ravine, we saw that their natural instincts kicked in and they were swimming in schools as well as hiding under big rocks waiting to catch their food. We got an update from Ms.Hill a couple days ago that the trout had swam towards the bottom of the ravine, near Lake Michigan and were ready to make their journey into open waters. By completing this project, we've learned the importance of being able to raise living organisms and just how much work one has to put in to keep their living conditions in proper order. Every free period spent doing water changes, paid off for us when we got to release them into the ravine, and watch them adapt automatically into their new environment.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dLQGZmYxGRnt4y-PiJv_vjrxEfNDDQcMHaUc2d8_Edw/edit#gid=0

How Important is Fresh Water? Take a look how drought affects California--and maybe YOU!

We will be posting some of the wonderful 2014 HPHS student projects. Check out: Spring Ephemerals and Birds of the Beach and also Blanding's Turtles, the Chicago River Diversion and Raina the Rainbow Trout!

Click Here to See the Story

A saltier lake? A recent report by WBEZ radio looked at how much road salt ends up in Lake Michigan from Chicago's streets. Not so much, it turns out, because most of the City's runoff goes to the Chicago River and (because the river is reversed) heads west to the Des Plaines on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. But we know that north shore ravines drain directly into the Lake. What does the report say about Lake Michigan salinity? Current Lake Michigan chloride levels are around 12 milligrams per liter(mg/L) (according to the IEPA), far below the USEPA's standards of 500 mg/L for "General Use Waters." However, if you measure the lake's springtime chloride levels, they have risen almost 50 percent since 1980. To see the full report click here.

Quick Guide to Conducting On Line Research!

Click here to learn about Primary vs Secondary Research

Fresh Discovery

The Great Lakes contain 95 percent of the U.S. supply of  fresh water.  Jim Tingey reported on his last visit to HPHS that new sources of freshwater have been discovered -- of all places -- under the sea.    For more info on this fresh discovery click here.

Fun Fact:   Spread evenly across the continental U.S., the Great Lakes would submerge the country under about 9.5 feet of water (Great Lakes Information Network)

What Do You Want to Know?

Tiny Plastics a Threat to Great Lakes

Think twice when you wash your face!  Tiny plastic beads included in many products for "exfoliation" are turning up in large numbers in Lakes Erie and Ontario.  The New York Times reports:

"In recent months, major cosmetics companies including Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble have pledged to phase out the use of the beads in favor of natural alternatives, though they say the shift could take two years or more.  The Johnson & Johnson statement says, in part, "Our goal is to give consumers peace of mind that our products are gentle on people and gentle on the environment."

Alternatives are already on the market.  Maybe one of YOU can build awareness of this issue with your year end project!

Read the complete article here.

Swimming Large

Jim Tingey visited the classrooms last week to introduce your awesome research projects!

Students let the trout fry out of the (nest) boxes to swim in the big tank.  Next, you will get a chance to test the waters, just like they did~

Read here to learn more about the Nitrogen Cycle in the trout tank.

Awesome work from HPHS students yesterday!

 

Check out this article to read how the project inspires HPHS alum!

Welcome Students!

We are looking forward to meeting everyone down at Ravine Drive this coming Tuesday!

To get you started on your ravine exploration, read about a mystery regarding the state of our Great Lakes:
http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/22941/20131009/a-mystery-at-the-bottom-of-the-great-lakes-food-web

Be sure to scroll down to see some of the awesome activities students took part in last year.