Cherokee Site

Both groups have been working hard on our Cherokee Culture project.

You can see more here:

http://digitalheritageproject.blogspot.com/

Karla

Outer Banks Photos II

Hatteras

Outer Banks Photos

Here are some photos from the Outer Banks, where we visited Ft. Raleigh, a National Historic Site and the Roanoke Aquarium. We also went to Hatteras to surf -both on a surfboard and kayak. Everyone did great in water and David was successful in kayaking ocean waves.

Click on these links for more details about the sites:

http://www.nps.gov/fora/

http://www.outerbanks.com/ncaquarium/

Outer Banks by Andrew Berry

This expedition brings us to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It is one of Andrew's favorite places:


OBX

OBX (The Outer Banks) is on the eastern side of North Carolina. It is cold in OBX sometimes and other times it has warm weather. It looks like a big beach. My grandparents have a beach cottage in OBX.

The sea grass is sharp. Salt water taffy is found in OBX. Many boats crashed on OBX.

By Andrew Berry

Outer Banks Pictures

Costa Rican Adventure

The group went to Costa Rica last expedition. Dylan has posted some of his photos.
We also visited Cherokee during the school week and are continuing our documentary project.

We are working on a Cherokee website and will post the link when we finish the project.

Stay tuned!

Karla

The Oso-parie-soso.(lazy bear)

The Costa Rican monkey.( i touched his tail)

David on the 500m zip line.

This is a sunset of the Pacific Ocean.
-Dylan's pictures-

Dylan-

Cherokee Site

This week we have worked with both groups on our project with the Cherokee Indians.

You can see some writings and photos here:

http://digitalheritageproject.blogspot.com/

Everglades Photos

The group leaving Flamingo, Florida, after our canoe trip in the Everglades This is Andrew fishing at one of our campsites

This is the sunset at our first campsite when we came off the Chickee
This is a piece of wood we found when exploring on an island in the Everglades.
This is a dolphin that swam up to our canoes.

Photos By David Hollander

Sea Urchins
by Andrew Berry

This is what Andrew discovered about sea urchins during his last expedition:


Sea urchins by
Andrew Berry

Sea urchins are spiny, purple and red. They are in the echinoderm family. They live on the seafloor and they eat kelp. They are slow and lazy. They fight seals and sea lions with their spines. They lay eggs and you can eat them in Sushi!

_____________________________________________________________


Scuba diving with Jon Adkins:


Jon's scuba skills

Hello my name is Jonathan and I’m going to be discussing how my friends and I got scuba certified.
It all starts with learning the basics. Some of the basics are learning how to use a dive chart. A dive chart is what all scuba divers use to accommodate time spent at certain depth and residual nitrogen in our bodies after each dive and dive plans. We also had to learn safety checks for all equipment, safety rules, buoyancy and more. We had to learn how to do everything in a pool before we went into the water.

It’s important to understand the signs used under water such as the following:

- out of air
- - low on air
- - I’m ok,
- -get over here, etc.

You also need to know your partner’s preferences on equipment, time management, what to do in a emergency, and what you are going to do in your dive plan.

The Florida Keys experience by Dylan Smythe

The Florida Keys were more than I expected. The water was clear with 30-foot visibility, the weather was hot and the fish were colorful. I didn’t expect the warm weather in the middle of January.

When I first stepped out of the van at Camp Sawyer, at 10:37 P.M., I was surprised by the dramatic change in temperature! It went from 10° Fahrenheit to 70° then to 90°! Even at 10:27 P.M. at night, it was at least 85°+ degrees!

After I got my hammock and everything was cleaned up, (yes, mom, I slept in my hammock the whole two weeks!), we were finally allowed to go coconut hunting; we collected at least 50 coconuts before our time was up. The next morning, we were allowed to sleep in until 9:00 A.M. because of our 4:00 wake up the previous two days in a row. We explored our site and the near by sea.

I was sad to leave (my Irish skin liked the humidity). I started to turn my head into the direction of the Everglades for our next expedition. I hope the bugs aren’t as bad as they were in the keys. I wonder what kind of fun this experience will bring my group this time.

Thoughts about Rick Riordan

by
Michael Strange

Rick Riordan is one of my favorite writers.
The reason I like his books so much is because it makes me want to know more about what happens throughout the book. He keeps you turning the pages. I think his last book was amazing. The Battle of the Labyrinth was an exiting adventure filled with fighting and major battles. Soon there is a new book coming out called The Last Olympian (May 5, 2009) I’m so exited to read it I can hardly wait!


I’ve read the following books by Rick Riordan:

The Lightning Thief
The Sea of Monsters
The Titans Curse
The Battle of the Labyrinth



Facts about the Author

Rick Roydon was born June 5 in1964 in San Antonio Texas. He is the fantasy writer of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. He also wrote the Tres Navarre mystery series for adults and helped to edit Demigods and Monsters, a collection of essays on the topic of his Percy Jackson series. He published "Maze of Bones" for Scholastic which is the first in The 39 Clues series of books.
Here are some of the books by Rick Riordan: The Lightning Thief (June 28, 2005)
The Sea of Monsters (April 1, 2006)
The Titan's Curse (May 1, 2007).
The Battle of the Labyrinth (May 6,2008).The Last Olympian (May 5, 2009).

the peace of the keys

Fishing in the Keys

Andrew’s Fishing Adventure in the Keys.

The Florida Keys are a good fishing spot. I consider the fishing good because people can catch big fish there. Our group caught pen fish, barracudas, groupers and yellow tail. We saw a nurse shark and a needlefish.

It’s important to bring an extra fishing pole with you when you go fishing. Mine broke but luckily SOAR had an extra pole I could use.

We kayaked four and a half miles to our fishing spot near No Name Key.
We spent about two hours fishing.

Fishing is AWESOME!


Here are some links to fishing in the Keys:

http://www.florida-keys.fl.us/fishing.htm
http://www.islamoradasportfishing.com/

Florida Keys Expedition 2

David Hollander

On our last expedition we went to the Florida Keys. While we were in the Florida Keys we all got scuba certified. Scuba diving is one of the coolest things I have ever done. Breathing under water is kind of scary at first, but once you trust yourself it’s an amazing experience. In order to get your open water certification you need to do a pool dive then four open water dives. An open water diver has the authority to dive with another open water diver, but a skin diver can only dive with an instructor. At first I thought that the pool dive was awesome but then I dove in the ocean, which was a million times better. I had a great time scuba diving in the Keys.

Week 1 Mini Expedition

Andrew Berry

This Saturday we visited Worley's Cave in Bluff City, Tennessee.
I researched Worley’s cave online and this is what I discovered:
Worley's Cave is known for its voluminous size. It has more than 37,000 feet of mapped passages on two levels. There are rooms more than 75 feet wide and 250 feet long, with high 100 feet.

I love Worley’s cave because you get to crawl through it. I like to crawl around in caves. We also got wet and muddy, as we had to walk through small rivers in the cave that were up to our knees.


David Hollander

On our mini expedition we went caving. We went to a cave in Tennessee called Worley’s. The cave is about eight miles deep. It is a very muddy and wet cave. About half way through our caving experience we started to hear someone yell, “help!” At first we thought it was just a joke, but we kept hearing someone yell help.

Our counselor Kit decided to go see what was going on. After about three minutes we heard Kit yell for us to come to him. We starting walking towards his voice and then his voice vanished. We kept calling his name and we got no answer. We then all thought that it was a trick and someone killed him. Thankfully, after about five minutes we heard his voice again.

Kit told us that a couple had been stuck in the cave since 10:30 in the morning; it was now 5:30. He also told us that the husband had fallen about 30 feet and could barely walk. He had a punctured lung and broken ribs. Once we got there you could tell that the guy was in a lot of pain and it was very hard for him to walk or move.

We decided to walk back to the opening of the cave while helping the couple through the obstacles. It took about four hours to get back to the opening of the cave. When we got out of the cave the couple both said that we had saved their lives. I felt very good knowing that I could help someone in this way.

Dylan Smythe

The first time I went to Worley’s Cave, my group wasn’t able to go through the whole cave. We were only able to sleep in the cave, but then we had to leave. This time we got to go farther into the cave because we were a smaller group.

While we were close to the ‘end’ of the trip, we heard a yell “help” that came from ahead. We found out that a couple was in the cave; the woman just had a hip replacement and the man had fallen 30 feet and had broken some of his ribs.

We backtracked the four miles to get out of the cave. After three hours, the couple was relieved to finally get out of the cave. Once everyone had changed into clean dry clothes, at 11:00, we started to drive back to base. I slept through the night because of the long, exhausting day our team experienced.

Jon Adkins

Hello my name is Jonathan. This is my first semester at SOAR. My group and I are going to go to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian this Friday. Here are some links for information on this museum:

· http://www.cherokeemuseum.org/
· www.cherokeemuseum.org/education-warriors.htm
www.cherokeemuseum.org/education-experience.htm


Here is more information about the museum:

The museum reaches beyond its walls to help tribal members revitalize traditions of stamped pottery, Cherokee dance, finger weaving with beads, rivercane basketry and more. By sponsoring the Warriors of AniKituhwa, the museum has helped bring to life Cherokee dances from three centuries ago, and has enabled these cultural ambassadors to travel to the National Museum of the American Indian, Colonial Williamsburg, Quebec, Germany, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and throughout the Southeast.
Learn more about us on our website, and visit us in the beautiful mountain homeland of the Cherokee. Denadagahoyv—We will be seeing you!

Michael Strange

This semester has been awesome so far. We have had one mini adventure to Worley’s cave. It is eight miles long and 37,000 feet deep.

Before our fist adventure we had first aid, CPR and life guard training, so we knew how to handle what was ahead. When we got to the cave our instructors Cassey, Kit and Amanda gave out headlamps and helmets to wear in the cave. We headed down the trail to the cave. We walked about 20 feet into the cave and then we saw a metal gate. As we went a couple steps into the cave we saw a bag - we didn’t touch it because we knew it was someone else’s property.

We went about two and half-hours into the cave and we had to go over a formation called the Sattle. (Believe me its hard). As soon as we took a couple steps I heard a cry for help. Kit, our instructor and an Emergency Medical Technician, said, “Stay right there” and climbed over the rock and disappeared. We had to sit for a minute and then we called for Kit.
Then Amanda said, “On the count of three we’ll call for Kit.” “One two… hey Amanda, Cassy - it was Kit! (Feeww!) Then we see Kit coming over the rocks. After that we voyaged on towards the hurt couple.

When we first went looking for the couple, we passed a rocky passageway that led into another room in the cave. We went into a room of the cave with a little stream going into it - we followed the stream back to the couple. The husband was trying to find the river and get out so he climbed some rocks and fell 15 feet straight down and then another 15 feet. He had a fractured rib cage and amazingly we all worked together. Even with our disabilities we made it through the cave; now we know “how to save a life."

For more information visit http://www.mtnadventureguides.com/sitepages/pid98.php