- Hey everybody.
Halloween is next weekend.
Something wicked this way comes because diabolical Doug
and Candy Corn Connor are here on the Bethel
School District Presents podcast.
But I'll tell you what though,
Connor in the podcast studio today,
the fouls denes in the air, the funk of 40,000 years
- .
- Sorry about that. Uh, guy. I had a lot of garlic at
- Lunch.
Well, you got a word off the vampires somehow I wanted
to kick the show off this week by talking about our favorite
Halloween costumes that we have as kids.
I've done my research,
which means I texted my mom earlier today
and asked for a couple of photos back from the good
old days in Pittsburgh.
So I have quite a few to choose from. From 1976 to 1988.
I need you to just pick a year.
Connor, what costume should I talk about?
- I wanna leave this one to chance Doug.
So I'm gonna spin the wheel
and it looks like it has landed on 1980.
- That's a great year actually.
And a really good chance to give my mom some CU Joes
for all the hard work she did,
making our Halloween costumes as kids. You
- Say Ku Joes, - It's possible.
Anyway, 1980, I was Batman and my little sister was bat girl
and my mom handmade the costumes.
So imagine Adam West inspired capes and cows
and for our staff.
We're gonna have that photo in staff news this week.
So you'll be able to see a young Doug barely five years old
ready to take on the Ridler
and any other issues that happen
to happen in Gotham City slash Pittsburgh.
- I've actually seen the photo
and boy that costume is something you'll want to see it too.
Alright Doug, I've heard about your
favorite Halloween costume.
You wanna hear about mine? Not really.
Too bad the world needs to hear this.
And while you are mucking around in the DC universe,
I was dipping my toes into Marvel Town.
My favorite costumes, one
that I actually don't even remember wearing,
but I have seen the photos
and the story of
that fateful Halloween night has become lore in the
Christofferson household.
This is a story of two photographs.
Let me paint you a word picture, dear listeners.
In photo number one, a young boy of three dressed
to the nines as Superman stares.
Daggers into the camera, surly as can be, desperate
to get his pudgy fingers on some chocolate
cut to several hours later.
And photo number two,
the same young man still in costume sitting on a toilet,
openly weeping face, absolutely covered in chocolate.
A pathetic display. I can tell you
that Night dug evil lurked.
Inside one of those photos will be included in staff news.
You'll have to click to find out which one.
- Wow, that was, that was quite the story Connor.
I don't know how we're gonna move forward after that.
Uh, just a little FYI.
Superman is in the DC universe, not the Marvel universe,
but I'm gonna let you go because you called it Marvel Town
and I think that's what they should change the name
of the Marvel Universe too.
Let's move on and let's head out
to Cougar Mountain Middle School.
Connor, you had a chance to head out there
and chat with a teacher and two students in
their science club.
They do all kinds of amazing things.
So you talk to 'em about that
and you also ask 'em
what their favorite Halloween costumes
were. Let's head out there. Now
- Joining us today is Cougar Mountain Middle School science
teacher Kim Williams, along with two
of her students, Marcel and Edith.
They're all part of the Cougar Mountain Middle
School Science Club.
So Kim, for those listeners who maybe haven't heard
of the Cougar Mountain Middle School Science Club,
can you give us a little rundown on what y'all do
and why the club's so cool.
- So we are like an environmental based club.
We go out and we work in our local community with uh,
the salmon population.
We partner with the Squa Indian Tribe
and the Squa River Education Project.
And we actually go out and test the water
quality in our local area.
We do some salmon habitat restoration
and we work with our students to present our findings, um,
at a local and state level to see the quality of our rivers.
- And how long have you been at Cougar Mountain
and how long have you been doing the science club?
- Uh, this is my 12th year at Cougar Mountain Mill School
and we've been doing the science club for about nine years.
- What I, I was going back over some of our Facebook posts,
which is how I know about the club
because I see these amazing posts
where you guys are out in the wild
doing these amazing things.
You've done water quality testing throughout the area.
You've built a native plant,
pollinator garden on campus here.
You're planting native trees along the qu.
You've sent student representatives
to speak at the South Sound Green Congress at
Evergreen State College.
You've even learned about aerodynamics
by doing indoor skydiving.
And my personal favorite is tossing those rotting
salmon carcasses.
What I think is so great about this is these are great
educational experiences but there's also a practical use.
You're not just doing this for the fun of it.
This data is being used by professional scientists
to solve real world problems.
Was that part of your original thought for the club?
That this wouldn't just be a strictly educational thing
but there would also be real world
applications for what they're doing?
- Originally the science club was just
because we didn't have a lot
of activities at Cougar Mountain.
It just kind of was like experiments
and random things that we did,
but it wasn't super meaningful.
And then we just kind of fell into a grant within the Squala
River Education Project, they fund
everything for the students.
So it's a completely free club
and it just allows them to apply themselves
to real world situations where they can go out
and be real cis and scientists
and actually experience science out in the
real world and in their community.
It's more beneficial for them
because they are able to actually see
how they can impact their local community instead
of doing just work on worksheets in the classroom
and experiments that don't really apply to their real life.
- So Marcella, of all those really cool projects I just
listed off, I'm sure you've been part of a lot of those.
What's been your favorite so far?
- Definitely planting the native garden.
That was like a cool experience just
to have it right out there and see it getting built.
And then when I, I didn't get to see it finally finished.
When I saw it finally finished I was like, yep,
this is how it was supposed to look.
- For those who don't know what a native garden is,
can you explain a little bit what it is
and what the process of getting it started was?
- So the first thing we had
to do was pick out the native
plants that we wanted to put in.
So we would like search them up on different websites
and finally we narrowed it down
to which ones we wanted to put in.
Oh, and you also made recommendations for
what plants you thought would go well in the garden
with other plants in there.
So you couldn't like put like a plant
that didn't cooperate well
with this plant in the same planter box.
- That sounds super interesting.
So Edith, how long have you been in the science club
and what drew you originally to joining?
- So I joined in my seventh grade year at Cougar Mountain
and what drew me in was most of my friends were in the club.
And so I thought it would be like a good experience
to like have to have more time with my friends.
But then I soon learned
that it was more than just hanging out with people.
You actually had to do hard work
and it like prepared you for real life situations
that would soon prepare you for real life.
- And do you think either of you have an interest in
pursuing a career in the sciences
or is this something that you're enjoying
as a middle school student
but you think you'll probably pursue something else?
Let's start with you Marcel.
- I've had ideas of other stuff to like go off of,
but mostly I've come back to this
and like other careers so I'm kind of in the air about it.
- And Edith, what about you?
Is this, could you see yourself being a
professional capacity scientist?
- Honestly, not really, but I feel like it would be fun
to be a science teacher.
I've always thought about being a teacher
'cause it's just kind of who I am.
So I feel like that would be fun.
But it's just, I'm kind
of just living in the moment right now,
just enjoying the time that I have
- Yolo as the kids say.
Yeah, . Yeah. Uh,
and you both got a chance
to speak at the South Sound Green Congress at Evergreen
State University in Olympia?
Mm-Hmm. . What was that
like? Was that nerve wracking
- For her?
It was for me it was just like almost like a,
I don't remember what day it was like,
but it was just like a normal day to me.
'cause I go up in front of the whole school
during assemblies and there was a ton more kids at
assemblies than there was there. So
- E Edith it was, it was tougher for you? Yeah,
- Definitely.
I mean I've gone in front of the school before
but I've never like been in front of that many people
and my knees were shaking the whole time.
Even though we had a script, it was still nerve wracking
'cause like I had the stuff I had to say,
but it was just like I couldn't make eye contact
with the crowd and I couldn't move.
It was scary to me.
- So Kim, how was it that these two young women were given
the opportunity to speak at the South Sound Green Congress?
- The Squala River Education Project actually reached out
to us and asked if I had students that wanted to speak.
They had just like had a really good experience
with our students being out in the field
and our students have been very respectful
and super involved and passionate about what they do.
And so of all the schools all the way down to Olympia Lacey,
um, into Pierce County
and Thurston County, we were chosen
to actually mc the entire South Sound Green Congress,
which is a pretty amazing thing.
The girls were amazing and they got up there with confidence
and just represented us super
- Well.
Even as an outsider, I can see
that this club is always out on field trips.
That's a lot of extra work for you.
What makes you want to keep doing this year after year?
- I keep doing this year after year
because it gives our kids opportunities,
like opportunities that they normally wouldn't have.
We have students that haven't left the Spanaway Graham area
and they're able to go experience, uh, different places
that they never would be able to go to normally.
- The other thing that I noticed on your Facebook
where I thought was really fascinating
and really cool was you guys studied aerodynamics
and instead of doing that in some really boring dry way
with textbooks no, you went indoor skydiving.
Can you tell me about that experience? Marcela, when
- We went there it was like really nice,
but when we actually got in the tube,
they had certain like guidelines
of stuff you could do and stuff you couldn't do.
And it was actually like pretty easy.
You would think it would be hard, but
it would, it was pretty easy.
You just had to do certain things
and they tell you what you were
doing wrong and you just fix them.
- And Edith uh, nerves skydiving
or speaking in front of people,
- The nerves of skydiving.
It's, it was terrifying to me.
I thought I was gonna fall through the net below us.
I have a slight fear of heights,
so it's like, I don't know what's gonna happen.
'cause like you're in this giant tube
and you don't know if you're gonna fly up
and fall into a wall or something.
But it was, it was a good experience.
I wouldn't do it again, but it was
good for the time that we did it.
- Check it off the bucket list
now you don't have to do it anymore.
Edith, what about you? What,
what's been your favorite project that you've worked on?
- Well, there were definitely a lot.
I enjoyed all of the projects that we did,
but probably my favorite was
probably doing the water quality testing.
It was just, it was so different.
It was such a different experience
and the fact that you got
to see the chemical change in the water you were using,
it was just so fascinating.
- Very cool. This show is gonna be our Halloween episode
and so this week we're talking favorite Halloween costumes
that you've ever worn.
So I'm gonna go around the horn here
and, uh, Kim, you're not off the hook
because I know you probably wore some cool ones in your day.
So what was your favorite Halloween costume of all time?
- Uh, well my mom continually put me in a vampire outfit
for probably about five years.
Some traumatized from that, but, um,
my favorite costume was a full size terrifying 1980s style
Easter bunny outfit with gray out eyes
that I wore many times throughout my life
just to scare people on purpose.
- Wow, that sounds like the stuff of nightmares. Oh yeah.
Uh, Marcel, what about you? You, I'm sure you haven't had
as many as as us, but what's your favorite all time
Halloween costume that you ever worn?
- Um, my favorite has to be when I was really little,
I was really obsessed with the Wizard of Oz.
So I would always wear every year Dorothy
with like a little basket that had toto in it
and it, I would just walk around and trick
or cheat with that little basket.
- That's awesome. What about you Edith?
- So my mom used to make my costume humming
and so probably my favorite was when I was like five.
She made me like a Scarecrow outfit.
So I had like a dress
that was made outta like the tool fabric that's like kind
of meshy and it was all glittery
and then I had like a fake nose and then a straw hat
and that was super fun and my brother and I were
- Matching and so you, you had almost half the cast
of Wizard of Oz there too , so that
that's you needed the Tin Man and you would've been all set.
Yeah. Well thank you all so much for joining us.
It's been great to hear about this awesome club
and good luck the rest of the year.
- I love hearing from the students out there.
It sounds like they're doing some amazing stuff.
Thank you to everyone listening
to our Spooktacular Halloween episode.
- Doug, let me stop you there real quick
'cause we have had some complaints about
your punting really?
Yeah, unfortunately we actually got a review on Apple
podcasts from none other than cold-blooded Lord
who in AEs scathing takedown of our podcast
entitled too many puns said,
and I quote, y'all should stop the puns
and actually talk about things kids like kill it with fire.
Also, why so boring? Talk with emotion.
Y'all need some decency?
- Ouch y'all. That's some vitriol,
but we're gonna move right through it
because I got some positive feedback just the other day.
This is in regards to our show about postgraduate success.
Quote. I continued the podcast in the car on my way to work
with my ninth grader.
It was perfect because we listened to all the things.
Join the clubs, join the groups, try the classes, find out
what you don't like now while you can, it was
so perfectly timed.
He's only ninth, but very academic focused
and college conversations most definitely have been
going on for a while.
And he was listening
to this unintentional Ted Talk end quote.
- So take that cold-blooded Lord.
And by the way, that's not the only good review we got on
the very same Apple podcast website.
We got another review from Cat ka ka cat cat two
who had this to say mids mid that ever mid destroy it.
- Connor, that sounds like another bad review.
- No, no, no. You just don't know the way kids talk.
That's actually a really good review
- And that's why I'm glad you're on the show
to point these things out to me.
If you wanna leave us a review,
apparently you can do it on Apple Podcasts,
I'm sure other places too.
You can also email us at communications@bethellisty.org.
Connor, it's been a blast today.
Happy Halloween. I'll see you next week.
- You better believe it. .
- There we go. Okay.