As an extension of their study of geology and rock types, the sixth grade mined for semi-precious gems this week at Morefield Gem Mine. The girls enjoyed hunting for the stones and found Amazonite, Amethyst, Garnet, and Quartz along with others. The day was beautiful and the experience was educational and exciting.

Click on the picture to watch a video from the Morefield Gem Mine trip.

As an extension of their study of geology and rock types, the sixth grade mined for semi-precious gems this week at Morefield Gem Mine. The girls enjoyed hunting for the stones and found Amazonite, Amethyst, Garnet, and Quartz along with others. The day was beautiful and the experience was educational and exciting.

Click on the picture to view photos from the Morefield Gem Mine trip.

Last week, the 7th grade went on an awesome field trip to Fox Island, a small island in the Chesapeake Bay. In Science, we’ve been studying the Chesapeake Bay and its watershed, and we were all so excited! We stayed for three days at a renovated duck hunting lodge that was (literally!) on the water. To get running water, there was a stationary bike that someone had to ride, and there was only electricity in the kitchen, dining room, and the “kick-it” lounge. Instead of TV, we had an aquarium called the “MTV” where we could put animals that we found. There was even a crow’s nest on the roof! We did a myriad of activities, but some of my favorites were crabbing, scraping, and the “Marsh Olympics”. When we went crabbing, each of us got our own crab pot, and we were each given a dead Menhaden, a type of fish. For good luck, we had to kiss our fish on the lips, but then, we had to rip it in half—because crabs like fish guts. One at a time, we threw our crab pot into the bay. The next day, one by one, we each reeled our crab pots back in with a giant hook. Some people got as many as 6 crabs, but some weren’t as lucky. After all the crab pots had been reeled in, we went through all of the crabs with Captain Bob. Most of them were “sooks,” or female crabs, or too small. In the end, we only ended up with four crabs eligible for eating, but we threw them all back. Even though we didn’t get to eat any, it was still fun! After that, we went “scraping,” which is where you connect a net to the boat and drive around for a few minutes and then drag the net into the boat and look through to see how many different species there are. We found blue crabs, pipe fish, shrimp, blow fish, and even a turtle! After that, we all changed our clothes and went to the marsh! There was a giant “pond” of mud, and we all swam in it and got filthy! We also did a lot of other things, such as canoeing, looking at constellations, going on night hikes, seeing the sunrise, and much more! Fox Island was an awesome field trip! We all had a great time!
–Rachel Birkholz, 7th Grade

Click on the above picture to view the video of the seventh graders at Fox Island.