Springwater has once again joined forces with the Donate2Educate website to enhance fundraising for priority equipment andsupplies.  Donate2Educate.org essentially functions as an on-line pledge drive, where the school can list specific items needed and the associated costs.  Anyone interested in supporting the needs can simply "click" on the associated item and follow the path toward making a donation.  Since its start, Springwater has already benefited from over $750 worth of important school materials from Donate2Educate. 

One of the major acquisitions Springwater hopes to gain this year from Donate2Educate is a Smart Board.  This interactive whiteboard, joined with a computer and projector, offers creative opportunities to engage students via its large, touch-sensitive surface.  For example, a teacher can work naturally at the board with a pen, which is then transformed into "digitalink" for use in subsequent web sites, video files, etc.  Other items on Springwater's wish list include microscopes, compasses, binoculars, and stream nets.

As noted on the Donate2Educate website, the system is "a tool that allows teachers to easily communicate their needs and wishes in a format for anyone and any organization to view. School foundations, local & state non-profits, parent groups....relatives, businesses, and others who feel education is important all collaborate to fund requests. Together this community collaboration drives funding into classrooms without any one group having to do it all on their own."

It is wonderful to be in a school like ours, where staff can so readily apply the best thinking in the field to the benefit of our students.  Current research says that students need to be able to explain procedures and facts, justify and generalize their thinking in order to raise math achievement and increase transfer of math concepts to the real world.  To bolster students' ability to prove as well as develop mathematical argumentation skill, create an environment in which students must regularly explain and justify their thinking. (Hoffman, Brefogle, Dressler 2009).

What Springwater is doing?:

 6^thgrade:  Students are asked to reflect on the following when they come into class:

Explain the Greatest Common Factor - how do you find it?

One student responded:  "It is the biggest factor for (2) numbers you get by going through all of the factors of the numbers and picking the biggest one"

Example: 12: (1,12) (2,6), (3,4)

14:  (1, 14) (2,7),

  Greatest Common Factor is:  2

This student will work throughout his lesson to refine his written explanation and move from PF: Procedures and Facts to Justification and Generalization.

Springwater Environmental Sciences School is more than staff and students - it is a vibrant community of families and community partners, as well. This series of web articles will periodically feature members of our community who exemplify the shared values and habits the school embraces.

On September 11, a day where communities far and wide reflected on the momentous way our world changed eight years ago, Brian Rooney helped Springwater students, parents, and staff connect to distant communities on the other side of the planet.  Brian and his wife Aimee have two daughters - Jaida, who is a Dragonfly at Springwater, and 18-month old Gracie.  Brian is a captain with the Clackamas Fire Department, where he has worked for 16 years.  More recently, he joined the volunteer ranks at Medical Teams International (MTI) and now shares his experience in medical response and rescue operations with developing countries in Latin America and Asia.  Brian traces his interest in other lands to grade school.  "I was aware of Cambodian refugees coming to the United States during and after the Vietnam War," he notes.  He had the chance to visit Asia with Amy (they both enjoy foreign travel) and fell in love with the culture and geography.  Now, Cambodia is one of the primary places he travels to provide medical and emergency response training and support.  "To learn more now and see effects that continue 40 years later...there's just so much need," Brian observes.

Brian's first volunteer trip with MTI was to Peru, where he has since made repeated visits to help provide medical and rescue training to other firefighters.   Brian notes that many communities in the third world lack emergency medical systems and associated "911" communication systems. His training teams help create that capacity, including working with medical and emergency response professionals in a train-the-trainer mode.  "It's a perfect fit, sharing our experience with communities that need it. It's changed a lot of us."