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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2018)
Wednesday, March 21, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon SCIENCE FAIR: Event focused on Outdoor Science this year Continued from page 1 which is actually a scientific laboratory!” Some exhibits were located down the school hallways, such as SHS “Star Lab” planetarium. And as an added attraction this y e a r, B r i a n Berry, director of classes and traveling programs at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), brought “Discovery Dome,” OMSI’s portable, museum-quality planetarium. OMSI is one of the nation’s leading sci- ence centers and is located in Portland. “We brought the porta- ble planetarium because we thought the night sky would be a really nice alignment for the theme Outdoor Science,” Berry told The Nugget. “Ours is different from the Star Lab because it is fully digital and is operated PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK April Toney feeds a mouse to Marley, in the care of Jim Anderson. by a laptop with an interactive digital night sky database.” With Mike Geisen, ECoS (Earth, Community, Self) teacher from Sisters Middle School at the helm, and a few volunteer students, kids of all ages were able to ascend a rope to see what it would be like to actually climb up to the forest canopy. “This is part of our ECoS program at the middle school,” Geisen said. “This is called the single-rope tech- nique for tree ascending. Most of the time there isn’t a lower branch on the tree, so we shoot a line of rope up in the tree and ascend the rope. We inch-worm up the rope and eventually you’re up in the canopies.” ECoS eighth-grade students explore sci- ence and life as a community of learners by imm ersing themselves in the natu- ral world. “ We go on f i e l d trips and weekend expeditions around Oregon. Our activities include backpacking, caving, rock-climbing, surfing, archery, tree-climb- ing, and forestry. We study all different kinds of science,” he added. Black Butte School from Camp Sherman had a dis- play table showcasing their latest scientific project. And sixth-grader Emily Bourdage shared her knowledge about kilowatts. “We plugged in a lot of different appliances and mea- sured the kilowatts of each. A kilowatt is a measure of 1,000 watts of electrical power,” Bourdage explained. “We were able to see which appli- ance uses more power.” Wes Estvold has been a technology teacher at Sisters Middle School for over 20 years, and his computer tech- nology classes are a favor- ite for many. And this year Estvold brought a fun interac- tive augmented-reality sand- box. The hands-on sandbox exhibit was on loan from the Redmond School District. “You can simply mold the sand by hand and the land- scape comes to life,” Estvold explained. “The sand is aug- mented in real-time with an elevation color map and topo- graphic contour lines. We are hoping to make our own in the Sisters School District.” Sisters naturalist Jim Anderson was on hand sitting by the Native Bird Care of Sisters display with Marley, a great horned owl living in captivity because of an injured wing. “Marley is about 12 years old now, and owls in captiv- ity can live up to 45 years,” Anderson said, as he handed a spectator mouse-meat to feed to the owl. Elise Wolf, a Sisters wildlife rehabber and direc- tor of Native Bird Care of Sisters, was educating folks about native birds of Central Oregon. “I have expanded ever since High Desert Wildlife Rehab closed in 2016,” Wolf said. “I have a rehabilitation facility on my property in Sisters. And last year I took in 200 birds and responded to 250 calls that I provided assistance to.” The Design, Construct, Compete (DCC) competition is always a highlight of the fair, and they were back again with hand-designed balloon cars created by students navi- gating around barriers, going the distance. The DCC race was held in the gym, con- ducted by Rob Corrigan. “This year we are mixing it up in a variety of different ways. The students have built See SCIENCE FAIR on page 27 GOT DENTS? 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