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
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