Museum Projects of January 23, 2010

Hello I’m James Stiles. Last week the teens program worked on projects that includes ways you could save money and energy when using water, and for the girls a new American Girl Doll. We also interviewed each other and wrote about how Scabbers The Rat, he is our only mammalian subject in the entire musuem. On the 16th of January 4 of the teens went to the Chicago River Student Congress. At the workshop the volunteers talked about ways to save water and money. Some of the examples given to the teens were to presoak your dishes before putting into them into the dish washer to make it easy on your buget and easy on the dishwasher too. If it is not a full load don’t use dishwasher. You can also save moeny by using cold water when your washing clothes, when you do this is saves you energy. You can use more effecient shower heads and reduce the amount of time that you spend in the shower.

Skookie Lagoon.

On Dec 12, 2009 the TEENS took a trip to Skookie Lagoon. It was a cold day, with snow still carpeting the ground. Luckily for us, all the TEENS were dressed as warm and cozy as possible. As we all filled into the bus we anticipated the long trip to Skookie. When we finally arrived at our destination, we met up with Dave (who is the Site Steward). He gave us a quick overview of our task, how we should go about it, and how to keep safe during our job. Our task that day was to work on clearing the area of Buckthorn, an invasive species. Buckthorn is a Europe native shrub, it is identifiable by the thorn that stands between the split of two branches. The reason we were removing this plant was because it was fiercely smothering the native plants. Native plants have little to no defense against the Buckthorns abilities to boom early and last late the winter, cast a thick shadow, and grow insanely dense. That is why the TEENS set to work cutting down the Buckthorn with handsaws and giant pruning shires; throwing the shrub limbs into our controlled fire. While we went about our work we kept the following Leave No Trace ethics in our minds.
1. Plan Ahead-Booked the bus, dressed properly, and consulted with professionals.
2. Travel and Camp on Durable Ground- Used a naturally open plain and avoided making new trails.
3. Depose of Waste Properly- Brought disposal bags for trash, took everything with us when we left.
4. Leave What You Find- We took pictures and left footprints.
5. Minimize Campfire Impact- We used one large controlled fire to burn the Buckthorn.
6. Respect Wildlife- We Left Any Animals respectfully alone.
7. Be Considerate of Others- We shared our food, tools, and complements.
After a hard days work of rescuing the environment, we cleared our target area of anything we brought with us. Then we decided to put that fire to some good use, we sat down to enjoy some well earned hotdogs and s’mores.
Yum! Once again the TEENS save the day.