Solstice Fieldtrip

This fieldtrip lead my fellow peers and I up the Santa Monica Mountains. There we
learned many new things about wild life, how precious life is, and conducted many experiments.
We conducted experiments to see if weather can contribute to a wildfire. We also collected
samples of water from a nearby river to determine if the river can support life.
(GLPOS) The student identifies, describes, and frames reasonable questions about an
issue and explains how that issue is locally, regionally and/or globally significant. Other students
and I conducted experiments to see if the environment is suitable for a wildfire. To do so we had
to take wind speed, temperature, and countless equations. The Santa Monica Mountains
unfortunately burned many times in the past and they are going to be burn again in the future.
The other experiment we conducted was taking water samples from the river down the
hill. We toke small cups and scattered around the river and toke samples. Some of my fellow
classmates found life in the water such as worms and snails but no fish. The reason why is
because the water is to shallow and the river picks up all the natural pollution from running from
the top of the mountain to the downstream. We also found that just a slight change in
temperature or the shade of life can be life and death for small creatures and we wont even
know.
After that experiment we had the chance to hike up the mountains with our guide. He
pointed different wild life such as colorful parakeets up in the trees and poison ivy in the
background. We had the chance to some exotic animals such as snakes slivering in bushes. Our
guide told us which plants are edible and plants we should keep away from.
This trip made me a more globally competent student because I had the chance to come
across different wildlife and communicate with different people from different parts of the world
to help us learn better of our environment. We learned how to use calculations to figure out wind
speed and to see if our environment is suitable for a wildfire. These skills put me a step ahead
from other schools and give me a better chance in achieving me goals.