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Plainwell Community Schools GK-12 Project
What's New!
The district-wide science night on March 13th at Plainwell Middle School was a huge success! The event included projects from students from all five schools in the Plainwell district. This event also included hands on activities, as well as presentations by community organizations like the John Ball Zoo, Kellogg Bird Sanctuary and Dairy, SPM Wind Power, Baurer Power, and MSU Herpetology Club.
Sandy Breitenbach's AP Biology class took a trip to KBS, the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary, and Lux Arbor on May 19th. This included trips to field sites, visiting labs, taking samples, seeing animals, and many other fun adventures.
Lisa Wininger's 4th grade class and Jan White-Tran's 2nd grade class took a weeklong field trip to the Kalamazoo Nature Center. This involved lots of hands-on lessons, observations, catching organisms, collecting fossils, and many other cool activities.
Our district curriculum moodle website is up and running! This site gives the teachers a common resource for all their curriculum, activities, unit plans, and common assessments, as well as contains a blog where they can ask questions that the other teachers can read and answer. We are hoping that this new website will help connect teachers in different buildings and also allow teachers to have an easier time locating materials that they need for teaching different units.
The recycling program is expanding. The recycling program, which previously included paper at all the schools as well as lunch trays at Cooper Elementary, is being expanded. The high school has started collecting water bottles this fall, and the program is expected to be expanded to the middle school this spring.
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Project Overview
The GK-12 Project Plan at Plainwell Community Schools focuses on three goals for the 2006-2007 school year:
1. Collaboration between GK-12 fellow and teachers to supplement existing science units and create new science units.
2. Assist in the development of independent projects in the AP biology class.
3. Adapt the current science courses to fit with new curriculum standards and graduation requirements.
Visit Plainwell Community School's Website
Read Plainwell's GK-12 plan for the 2006-2007 school year
Read Plainwell's GK-12 plan for the 2007-2008 school year
GK-12 Fellow
Sara Parr Syswerda
Degree Program: Ph.D. in Crop and Soil Sciences / Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior / Environmental Science and Policy Program
Email: parrsar1@msu.edu |
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Teachers
| Gikey Elementary |
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Lisa Smith - lsmith@plainwellschools.org |
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Cooper Elementary |
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Rick Hurdelbrink - rhurdelbrink@plainwellschools.org
Kristen Dewitt -
kdewitt@plainwellschools.org
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Starr Elementary |
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Lisa Wininger - lwininger@plainwellschools.org |
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Plainwell Middle School |
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Marty Green (Mentor) - ggreen@plainwellschools.org |
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Maggie McGregor -
mmcgregor@plainwellschools.org |
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Jackie Warners - jwarners@plainwellschools.org |
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Plainwell High School |
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Sandra Breitenbach (Mentor) - sbreitenbach@plainwellschools.org |
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Scott Cool - scool@plainwellschools.org |
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Scott Evans -sevans@plainwellschools.org |
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Tom Rembowicz - trembowicz@plainwellschools.org |
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Chris Taylor - ctaylor@plainwellschools.org |
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Mike Wood - mwood@plainwellschools.org |
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Curriculum Director - Bob Van Dis - rvandis@plainwellschools.org |
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Lesson Plans
Comparison of historical lake ice cover data from three lakes in Michigan and Wisconsin
Abstract: Students will plot long-term data sets on duration of ice cover for three different lakes (Gull Lake, Fair Lake, and Lake Mendota) and examine variation at different time scales to see the importance of long-term data, as well as, the importance of having multiple sources of support for scientific hypotheses (in this case, global climate change).
Files: Lesson Plan, Student Handout, Introductory Powerpoint
Excel Data Files ( Standard, Simple, Teacher)
Sea Monkey Adventures
Abstract: In this session, we’ll explore the idea of stimulus and response. We will think of possible stimuli that brine shrimp might respond to, and then design an experiment to test the responses of the brine shrimp to the stimuli. Students can conduct an experiment, collect data, and then draw conclusions based on the data they collect.
Files: Sea Monkey Lesson Plan
Photo Gallery
Cooper Elementary SPARKS class
Plainwell Middle School Trip to Kalamazoo Nature Center
       
Plainwell High School Students Dissect Fetal Pigs
Plainwell Teachers
 
 
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