While I attended the BioClub session at the NABT conference in Memphis and immediately signed up to join, I have had difficultly in finding the time to sit down and take all the steps to participate--I am sure that this has been the story for so many of you. After so many attempts and months, I feel like my students and I have arrived!
Let me start with a brief description of our school. Our school, Rickover Naval Academy, or RNA, is a relatively new public high school in Chicago. RNA opened as a new military academy in the fall of 2005 and we will be graduating our first seniors this year. We are a small school with a student body of just under 400 students and will not exceed 600.
Our first activity this year was to raise funds so that we could expand our activities or maybe go on a field trip. During the fall we made and sold handmade holiday cards and stuffed animals with candy. While our profits were small, we really generated a lot of holiday spirit.
Next, some members decided to participate in an environmental contest sponsored by the Chicago Botanic Garden, "The Fairchild Challenge." The Fairchild Challenge offers students several ways to express their attitudes or concerns about environmental issues through a variety of mediums. I have included the web site if you are interested in learning about this competition, just go to: www.chicagobotanic.org/fairchildchallenge
Three of my students decided to participate in the competition, "Commercial Design, Reinventing your trash." The students designed and made a tote bag from used uniform pieces, a t-shirt, overcoat and pocket from a shirt. We should find out if we are a finalists by April 20th-the awards ceremony is May 10th. (I'll try to post the pictures next time.)
Our most recent activity was a field trip to Brookfield Zoo. We planned our trip for Monday of our spring break, April 6th. While the weather was cold and at times there were snowflakes, we had a great time! We really wanted to see the dolphin show, but with the recent death of one of the dolphins all shows were cancelled. Although we didn't see the show we still enjoyed seeing these wonderful animals in the underwater exhibit.
The next project we have planned will be landscaping a few of the planting beds at the entry of our school. We received a grant from Greencorps, a division of the Chicago Department of the Environment, and are looking forward to beautifying our school's entrance and providing habitat for migrating birds, insects or other animals that come to our campus.
Sorry for the lengthy blog, but now that I have introduced my club and our activities, the next ones should be more frequent and shorter.
-Pat Palmer
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