Planting Flower Bulbs

Today's meeting was spent planting bulbs in the mild (and a bit muddy) conditions outside Parker Middle School. The bulbs were given to us as an added bonus from our flowerbulb sales campaign to raise money for the trip. Students decided that the flowers would be planted to honor Miss Peach, our cafeteria head-of-staff currently battling ALS.

The EcoClub's next adventure is to participate in this year's Festival of Trees hosted by the Reading Technology Education Foundation to be held on December 4th and 5th after Thanksgiving break.

Thinking about our Environmental Impact

Today's activities are dedicated to thinking about our environmental impact on our world. Mr. Friedmann is visiting us from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to talk to us about an opportunity to do a Reading cleanup. We will then take some time exploring our "carbon footprint" and thinking about the ways we can help our school reduce its environmental impact.

We will be using the carbon footprint calculator on ZeroFootprintKids.com to help us get a rough estimate for our carbon footprint. Each of us will then submit our scores into a google form to see which students and their families are the greenest!

Carbon footprint calculator

Submit your results to our class google form here.

Once everyone has submitted their results we can brainstorm about what we'd like to do next to help EcoClub and Parker families reduce their carbon footprint and impact on our local environment.

Register Now for Costa Rica April 2011!

Please view the information packet below to learn more about next year's adventure. Even though it says "March 2011", we are indeed traveling in April of 2011.

Parker 2011 Info Packet

The earlier you register your student, the more accurate information we can provide to Costa Rican Adventures to determine trip costs as early as possible. All students who are strongly interested in traveling to Costa Rica should register by June 18, 2010. Please click on the link at the bottom of this post to register your child for the trip.

Students who travel to Costa Rica will also be enrolled in Parker’s Eco-Club. The club meets every other week throughout the 2010 - 2011 school year beginning in September and students must attend each meeting unless formally excused. During these meetings, we learn about Costa Rica through the use of various technologies, plan the nuts and bolts of the trip, and get to know one another better. Attendance at these meetings is vital to the success of this international trip.

Register Here!

Deposit Due:  The first deposit (non-refundable but exchangeable) of $300 per student will be due in October 2010.

To learn more about the trip from the student perspective, check out highlights from the 2010 Trip!

Costa Rica Photos on Flickr

Videos

What a Week of Wonders!

What a week it has been. The experiences have been breath-taking and educationally enriching. All of the students have had a wonderful time but are also anxious to get back to the comforts of home after a week spent out of their comfort zone! We'll see you all Friday night.

Arenal Volcano

On our trip to costa rica we visited a volcano named Arenal. It has been active since 1968 and its erruptions are not explosive. Its lava just flows down the mountain. There is no snow on the mountain due to the hot weather and climate.

Andrew

Our Service Project

Hi. We`ve been having a great time. Today on Tuesday we had our service proect with the students of the Sandbox School.  The students helped us plant trees at a nearby river bank.  Sometimes the river floods and can reach the school grounds.  To help we all planted trees.  The roots will mesh together to eliminate bad flooding.  There were two groups working.  One was closer to the river and another was further back.  I was in the group farther away from the river.  In our group we had five students and five eco club members.  We were each partnered up with a student.  We practiced our spanish and really got to bond and get to know the students.  The weather was hot and there wasn`t much shade but we made it through the hard part and then back to the school ground for lunch.  Roberto, our guide turned into a chef to make a great lunch.  After, we gave our school supplies to the stidents and got to play around with them.  Some kids kicked around a soccer ball, others played with a football and some used a frisbee.  I think we all had fun getting to know and helping the kids of the school.  I have had a great time so far and can`t wait for friday to get home. 

From,
          Sarah

Flying High

I took a deep breath. Then I said to the man that I was ready and I was pushed over the edge of a cliff. However I was strapped to a zip line, so I soared toward another landing platform. As wind was blowing in my face, I gazed out at an active volcano and a giant river. In a few moments, I was cruising in the next landing area. The guide slowed me down using a rope that caught the cable. I stepped down from the small ladder that had been placed so my cable could be detached. I had flown through the air for about 20 seconds and traveled over one half mile and I was alive. Then, after every member of our group landed, I stepped forward to travel on the next zip line.

Nathan Terry

white water rafting

Hi,

Yesterday we went white water rafting for four hours. It was a lot of fun and the other guides were trying to push us into the river. They also kept on splashing us and they tried to get me in the river but they did not get me but they did get Andrew and it was very funny. We got to go swimming in the river too and it was very warm a lot wormer then the ocean down the Cape. It was awesome! The guides made our lunch and it was very good. After lunch we had to traval 2 more hours but it did not feel that long and surprisingly my arms are not hurting that bad but I did get sunburned a little. Can´t wait to see you hope all is well. Happy birthday Adam and Maggie. See you Friday.

Love,
Justin H

A Day at The Beach

After a nice refreshing lunch at the Sandbox school, our little troop headed to the beach. It was not very crowded. In total there were only 15 people there including us. The breeze was slight and a bit cool. Surprisingly warm, the water was a great way to have fun. Especially throwing a hollow coconut at Andrew. I got bored of the water and started to build a small pool for myself. Eventually Brian started to help and then Sarah. We had a decently wide and deep pool when Mr. Musselman gave us the idea to make a channel connected to a small river behind us. Our little group was about half way done with that and we had to leave to go back to the hotel. It was very depressing to leave, but it was fun while it lasted.

Don Juan's Farm

We visited a farm for two nights and the owner's name was Don Juan. At one point we got to take a tour of the farm. Our guide, Roberto, had to speak translate for us because Don spoke very little English. On the tour, Don showed us many plants including a coco bean tree, which doesn't look anything like chocolate by the way. He even tricked us into having terrible tasting plants. Twice! One was extremely spicy, called amanato. The second thing that he fed us smelled like crap. However, we got to eat some things that didn't taste too bad. Spinich, which didn't tase anything like the way my mom cooks it, thank god. We also got to eat the coco bean. The third thing we got to taste was sugar cane. The juice tasted like canalope juice with sugar. The inside of the skin didn't taste like anything but Roberto said it was good for cleaning teeth. The inside seed tasted like a blast of sugar that you couldn't bite down on because it was too slipery. The inside of hat seed tasted a tiny bit like chocolate but not that much. Some of the things that we got to do on the farm were fertilize some plants and feed some cows. Don had three cows. Two of them actually being alive with one of the cows pregnant. Some of the food was like nothing I had ever tasted before. The rice that wa served there had such a different taste than rice I would eat at home, it was much better. We also had chicken with an O.K. sauce on it. My fvorite dish however, was pasta alfredo with ham and coen. I had four servings. After two days we had to go, to my sadness. It was probably one of the nicest places that we stayed at on this trip so far.

La Fortuna

We´ve arrived safely in La Fortuna at the base of the active volcano, Arenal. We spent the afternoon at Don Juan´s farm learning about organic ways to grow your food. Our students helped Don Juan fertilize plants, feed the farm´s two cows, pull some casava out of the ground, pick lettuce and spinach for our dinner, and everyone tried some very interesting, shocking and amazing leaves and other plants.

We´re now in the town of La Fortuna for an hour of shopping before heading to the other side of Arenal to try to catch a glimpse of the lava flow. It´s a clear night so luck is in our favor.

Tomorrow: Zip-lining! Miss Connolly can´t wait and I think everyone else is pretty excited, too. Here´s to finding another Internet cafe soon!

As always: Pura vida!

Breakfast!

Day 1: Up at 7!

We've Landed in Costa Rica!

After our adventures in the air and in Dallas, we've finally made it to San Jose, Costa Rica!

We're tired and excited...

And ready for a week of exploration, learning and fun!

We're not sure when we'll be able to blog again, but know that we are safe in our hotel with our guide, Roberto and driver, Mario. Pura vida!

Introducing the 2010 Eco-Club Travelers!

Exploring the Volcano

The one event that I am looking forward to most on our trip is our visit to an active volcano. This will be thrilling for me because I have never seen an actual volcano in person, let alone an active volcano. Though I may not see the volcano erupt, I will be satisfied just to be there to explore the area surrounding the volcano.

Nathan T

Fuddrucker Night

The Fuddrucker night was a success! We raised over $212 from the raffle and bake sale alone. We have no idea how much we raised from the restaurant itself, but it's probably a lot. Thanks to everyone who supported.

Fuddrucker Fundraiser Night

On Thursday, February 11th our Eco-Club will be hosting a fundraiser at Fuddruckers in Reading between 5:00 and 8:00pm. Any Parker friends or famiy interested in supporting our club’s service and adventures during our trip to Costa Rica should attend. To participate, bring the coupon available on the Parker Edline website and present to the Fuddrucker staff at time of purchase. 20% of your bill will go directly to the Parker Eco-Club! There will also be a drawing for a fantastic IMAX gift basket with two tickets to a future IMAX movie of your choice. This basket is valued at over $50 but can be yours free if your ticket is selected. A bake sale will also be held.