Sheepscot Research and Public Relations

3/15/19
This department has been dissolved. The work we were doing in this group is now spread out among the other three groups. Lots of the work being done was for the groups anyway, so we decided to just do the work in the other three departments. Everyone is very happy about this and it seems like all will work well.

3/1/19
Abby and Noah had to get ready for our big aquaponics tour for Ms. Feise's Kennebec science team. The two of them had to write out the nitrogen cycle step by step and make a short 5-question quiz for the science students.

All of Sheepscot were tour guides for the science class. We had to do tours for 80 kids! Tours were done on the balcony and in our classroom. We told the science kids about the nitrogen cycle and they got to see it in action with our aquaponics systems.

We have Aquaponics To Go now, so the science kids were able to see a small system up close. It was explained to them how everything worked. The kids were able to touch the plants and the Hydrocorn.

Michael said he got a text after school on Thursday from one of the science kids who told Michael he had done a great job giving the tour. Way to go, Michael!


2/15/19
Payton and Mikey were the research team this week. They both worked on their advocacy research projects. Payton is working on teenage drug use.

We worked some more on the town histories. It was interesting how everyone started with one idea and ended up finding all sorts of cool things about the individual towns. Cemeteries were a big hit. Noah found an old picture of the meeting house in Harpswell. It had part of the old cemetery showing in the background. When Noah zoomed in on one of the windows in the picture, it looked like someone was looking out the window. Talk about creepy!

Ms. Feiss, one of the science teachers, came to our team and asked if we could teach her students about the nitrogen cycle. Of course we can! We will also be giving her students tours of our aquaponics farm and explain how it all works.


2/8/19

Abby and Blake were in our research/PR group. Abby created a brochure for the wooden baskets Team Sheepscot is going to be making and selling in the spring. The brochure is great! Advocacy reports were worked on, too. Abby is researching PTSD and has learned a lot. Blake is researching the effects of exercise on ADHD. Lots of great information is coming from that, too!

Abby mentioned that the whole Sheepscot team is working on the histories of our four towns. This is going to be an exciting project. Stay tuned for more information.

On Tuesday, everyone piled into the cars and went to CREA. We put on snowshoes and hit the trails. We were able to see the places we saw in the fall. The pond was frozen so everyone got to go on the ice. Blake got himself down into a gorge and almost couldn't get out. We walked 2.6 miles in about 2 hours. Everyone was really tired when we got back to school.

1/25/19

Payton and Noah were working on their health advocacy projects this week. Payton is focusing on homelessness. He has learned that in 2004 there were about 255,000 homeless people in the United States. Noah is learning about drug abuse. He discovered that 301 people died of drug overdoses in 2016. Payton also worked on his rock and roll band report. He is researching "Nirvana."


1/18/19

This week, we started working on a slideshow for the daily news. We did a health advocacy lesson to show health issues and we presented to show how we can help. Some teachers bought raffle tickets. For the raffle, the winner wins a breakfast for their advisory. Blake sent thank you notes to Mrs. Latti about the tank and Mr. Stevens for the pump for one of our fish tanks. Abby sent out an email asking if anyone wanted mint samples from the garden. Three people so far have asked for mint. Tucker started the Skeleton Creek billboard.


I am Hailey Wagg and this week I was in the public relations group, and I was in charge of the winter sports teams.  I had to make a news broadcast script of the winter sports events. I had to look at the boys and girls basketball schedule. I wrote six emails to the sports director and the basketball coaches.  I learned that the 7th grade girls basketball team has never lost a game and the 8th grade basketball team won their first game.