Week of February 25th: This week was very productive. On Monday (2/26), we planned out what we needed to do in our garden. We made a schedule so that we would not skip a step and our progress would be in a good time frame. On Tuesday (2/27), we assigned who had what job within our group and what the responsibilities of each task is. Katie is the team manager. That means she keeps the group in line. She makes sure that the tasks are being done on time and in the way the group planned to do them. Emily is the plant expert. She keeps track of what plants are in the garden and what plants should be added to the garden. She knows how to maintain each kind of plant. Ellie is the lead painter and designer. She comes up with creative ideas to make our garden unique and student friendly. On Wednesday (2/21) through Friday (3/2), we finalized our ideas and added everything to our website.
Week of March 5th: This week we started putting a lot of our ideas and plans into action. On Monday (2/5) we talked to one of our mentors, Dr.LB. We shared the plans that we have been making last week. She liked a lot of our ideas and was excited about our plans. We went up to the garden with her and she told us all the names of all the plants. A lot of the plants looked overgrown and there were a lot of weeds. On Tuesday (2/6), block day, we brought gardening tools are were working on pulling weeds and trimming down the overgrown plants. We did not finish but we plan to spend a weekend or two to complete the maintenance of the garden. On Thursday (2/8) and on Friday (2/9) we worked on updating our website and organizing our progress.
Week of March 12th: On Monday (12th) we worked on updating our Weebly accounts. We were keeping all of our progress up to date. On Tuesday (13th) we brainstormed what one of our experiments should be. Once we came up with an idea we went into the garden to start it. We decided to see how frequently bees were out in rainy conditions versus sunny. On Tuesday (13th) block day it was raining so we thought it was the perfect day to test. On Thursday and Friday (14th & 15th) we continued to work on the experiment lab report.
Week of March 20th: This week, it was sunny on Monday (3/19), so we decided that it would be a good day to finish our first experiment. We went to the garden to count the amount of bees that came to the garden in 30 minutes, and we counted three bees. On Tuesday (3/20) we went back to the classroom to update our websites and work on our lab write up. On Thursday, (3/22) we continued to work on our lab write up, and on Friday (3/23), we went back to the garden to work on weeding and planning.
Overall, this week was productive. We took the time to really complete our experiment and put together the write- up. We are struggling with the weeding, because the weeds are very large and and the roots are deep, and it is difficult to proceed until this is done.
Week of March 26th: On Monday (26th) we worked on the wright up for our lab. This helped us plan what we still needed to do for our test and what graphs we needed to add to the write up. On Tuesday (27th) we went into the garden and finished up some tests with the bees on the sunny day. It was a really nice day so we got good results. The time in the garden also helped us think of how we wanted to sketch the garden. On Thursday (29th) we worked on our weekly progress and updating our weebly accounts so that we could stay up to date and keep track of what we have done in an organized way. On Friday (30th) we worked on weekly progress and our weebly accounts.
The good weather this week was very beneficial to our experiment. Since it hadn't rained in about a week, the garden was completely dry, which made our data more accurate.
Week of April 2nd: On Monday (2nd) we worked putting our weekly update on the our weebly accounts. On Tuesday (3rd) we reviewed our sketches of the garden and thought of how we are going to put our plans into action, and spread out the time evenly for the end of the year. On Thursday (5th) we went back down to the garden to brainstorm possible ideas for another experiment; and then came back to update our google documents which we upload to our weebly. On Friday (6th) we worked on publishing and updating our weekly progress for our websites.
Although we didn't make any actual progress in our garden this week, it was still a very productive week. We did a lot of planning and brainstorming, which will make the time that we actually put into the building of our garden more effective. We also did a good job of documenting our work on our website.
Weekof April 20th:On Monday (16th) we went to the garden for half of the class and worked on our Lab reports. On Tuesday (17th) we worked on our weebly accounts and weekly progress updates. On Thursday (19th) we thought of how we wanted to build the burrowing holes and picked out our pieces of wood. Friday (20th) we worked on our weebly weekly reports and planned next weeks schedule for when we will work on the burrowing hole, finalizing our Capstone 4 project, as well as taking time to work on our group’s new website dedicated to this project.
This week we had more progress in building our garden. We started working on the burrowing holes, and planed out the month. Also, we finished our first experiment and put in on the website.
Week of April 27th: On Monday (23rd) we went down to the garden to record data for our second experiment, as to see which color plants attract more bees.Tuesday (24th) we researched and compared our data from our garden to other people’s research and compared results for our presentation. Thursday (26th) we worked on our slides and started to create our groups new website. Friday (27th) we worked on updating our capstone weekly/daily updates.
These week was very productive. We completed our second lab report, and gathered the necessary data. We also got some progress done with our slides, and continued updating the website.
Week of May 1st: Our group accomplished a lot this week. On Monday (30th), we worked on our websites and the slideshow. On Tuesday (1st), we cut bamboo into 6 inch pieces using the power drill, in order to make bee burrowing holes. We also cut a tree branch into smaller pieces, and then drilled holes into the pieces, for another type of bee burrowing hole. On Thursday (3rd), we used a hot glue gun to put all the bamboo pieces together, and on Friday (4th), we updated our websites and wrote this summary.
Overall, This week was very productive. We completed our burrowing holes and made progress on our websites. Next week, we plan to put the burrowing holes in the garden, and paint the benches.
Week of May 8th This week, we worked a lot in the garden. On Monday (7th), we planned out what we were going to do for the week. On Tuesday (8th), we went into the garden to begin painting the benches. We painted the first layer using yellow spray paint, and on Thursday (10th), we went into the garden to continue adding layers of paint to the benches. We realized that the spray paint wasn’t working as well we had hoped, so we planned to try regular yellow paint instead. On Friday (11th), we updated our websites and planned for the next week.
Although we did a lot this week, it still felt like we didn’t get very far, since we decided to change our painting method halfway through. However, we did get a good idea for how we wanted our garden to be.
Week of May 15th On Monday (14th), we attempted to give the spray paint another coat on the benches to see if that helped, but the paint was still too thin. On Tuesday(15th), we got yellow paint and borrowed brushes and painted the benches a solid yellow color. On Thursday(17th), the paint had dried and we started to paint the quotes onto the benches. On Friday (18th), we were able to finish all of our fun facts/quotes on the benches and made a list of what to get done the next week before presenting our project.
We felt a lot more productive this week, we stayed focus and got a lot of work in the garden done in just 4 days. We feel confident going into presenting our final product and future goals for the garden.
Week of May 21st On Monday(21st), we finished up details in our presentation and returned borrowed art materials to their teachers. On Tuesday (22nd) Katie and Emily (Ellie was gone due to eating bad sushi) presented our year long project to Mr. Tronconi and a few others. On Thursday (24th) we were assigned a new task to get funding for carrying out our project in the future and we brainstormed ideas. We had no school Friday.
Overall, this week was productive. We added a lot of important information to our presentation and successfully presented our project. We also were able to start a Go Fund Me. We feel very relieved to be done with our project.
Bee Garden Experiments
Click the buttons below to see the lab reports of the two experiments that we conducted in our garden.