Colin Update 11/17/08

Colin at lunch with team.
At the end of PT today, Colin walked from the large therapy gym to his room in the Rehab Pavilion with Naomi only holding onto the canvas strap fastened around his chest. That’s a pretty long walk – his farthest yet. Then of course Naomi had to retrieve his wheelchair, but I’m sure she feels it was worth it. I taught a science lesson to Colin and some of the older students here at the hospital today. For my graduate course, Earth and Space Science for the Middle School Teacher, I have to involve students in an inquiry lesson. Since I’m on leave from work, Colin’s teacher, Tadz, arranged it for me to do my lesson here - thank you Tadz. The question for discovery is how acid rain affects living organisms. I set up shrimp brine eggs to hatch in three different solutions: a neutral pH of 7, a moderately acidic pH of 4, and a highly acidic pH of 2. We looked at samples under the microscope. Colin found living shrimp brine in the neutral solution. Christina found some hatched, but dead shrimp brine in the pH 4 solution. And we found nothing hatched in the pH 2 solution. So the experiment came out as expected and the kids liked looking at the shrimp brine swimming rapidly around under the microscope. I also wanted to test the pH of rain in our area. I put a cup out on Friday in the pouring rain to gather a sample. The grounds crew here does their job well. My cup was thrown away! We ended up gathering some of the snow from this morning, let it melt and tested its pH level. We got a pH measurement of 4; a positive sign that we have acid precipitation in our area. Yuck!In group today, Colin said he was working on drawing a picture for the next edition of the hospital’s student newspaper. He said he was drawing a picture of playing outside, and that it was difficult with his left hand. I am anxious to see it.Grandma Pat stayed with Colin while I went to class. I guess his group had a pizza party. Colin says he only had one piece of pizza. I’m shocked; usually he eats two or three! Grandma Pat told me they had lots of laughs with a girl named Jessica and her mother tonight. The joke is that Colin wants Jessica’s baked potato from her dinner tomorrow – she wants flowers in return.Freetime 11-17 through 11-21 Monday: 12:00-1:00; 2:00-3:00; 4:00-8:30 Tuesday: 12:00-3:00; 4:00-8:30 Wednesday: 12:00-1:00; 2:00-8:30 Thursday: 12:00-3:00; 6:30-8:30 Friday: 12:00-1:00; 2:00-3:00; 4:00-8:30
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Volume 0, Issue 0, Posted 10:48 PM, 11.17.2008