April+22nd

=April 22nd: A Cold, Wet, Windy Day on Cook's Lake =

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===Today was another cold, wet, windy Nova Scotian day and the team set out to Cook's Lake to perform the morning trap-check. So far it's been a running joke that Team B, (me, Mr. Gasteazoro, and Mrs. Wetz) have yet to catch a rodent in our traps and have to scruff "pity voles" which are voles that other teams have caught and allowed us to remove from the trap. We've had five false captures where the door was shut but nothing was inside, which is three more than the next group, but the other groups have around 3-5 rodents each. It was pouring rain and windy as we mucked through the muddy forest floor but we found two more traps with their doors closed. We were pretty cynical about our chances of actually finding one but we brought the traps back to the group to empty them anyway...===

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===After weighing, sexing, and clipping the voles we brought them back to where we trapped them to time the animals as they ran the timidity tray. Unfortunately, the voles seemed content to sit in the trays and clean their wet fur instead of exploring so both runs were recorded as failures and we physically removed the voles from the tray.===

===We then enjoyed a cold, wet, lunch under a tent that whipped and caved in the wind as if it was possessed by the devil and divided into two groups. The men grabbed shovels and started digging water channels along the dirt road to help drain the large, deep pools of rainwater and stream overflow while the women grabbed the saws and finished clear-cutting a new trail to the lake.===

5) Do you think the competition between teams was a friendly competition or a serious one? How can you tell?
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 * Mr. Long Voelken talks about yellow birch trees**

**Mr. Wignall and Mr. Gasteazoro have some fun on the road...**
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 * Of course it was all for fun, and in the end we dug out over 12 water channels and leveled a quarter mile of dirt road.**

__Science Questions__


1) What kind of eggs do you think Mrs. Hammitt found in the pond as she helped clear trees?


[|Click here for the answer]

2) Why is it important to check the traps even if it's bad weather? (hint: think about food supply and body temperature)
===3) During the last couple days it's been very cold and rainy. What effect do you think that has on cold-blooded animals such as frogs, turtles, and snakes? Would we be more likely to find them or less likely? Why? === ===4) When a wet vole simply sits in the timidity tray and cleans it's fur instead of looking for the exit, do you think we should include that time (probably a very long time) when calculating the average time for a vole to escape? Why or why not? (Discussion question. There is no right or wrong answer) ===

Mr. Pembroke from Chico, California sings a song about pi for Henry and the other math students
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4) If Team B wanted to reach an overall successful trapping percentage of 50%, how many traps in a row would have to be successful in order to reach 50%?
=__ANSWERS TO STUDENT QUESTIONS FOR OTHER TEAM MEMBERS __=

Mr. Wolfe answers Logan's question
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=__STUDENT QUESTION SECTION__ = = = "When it's raining do you guys have to do certain things to collect data with animals in the rain or just regular data?"(corinne)

"Have you caught any flying animals?" (Mia)

"How many animals have you caught so far?" ( Alex N.)