Williams Elementary

This week at Williams, the ladies of Girlstart did quite a bit of traveling…well kind of! While exploring the interaction between humans and ecosystems, we learned about the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline.

Since the pipeline travels over 800 miles of Alaskan land, mountains, permaforest, lakes, and rivers, it was obvious that it was a part of multiple ecosystems! The girls were given a map with a trail of a pipeline they had to follow and materials to build their very own pipeline. Water was poured into their pipeline at the starting point in hopes that it would travel all the way to the end without any leaks. To understand how humans impact these ecosystems, the number of animals living in each area was decreased each time there was construction, or a leak. Although the girls were certain that their pipelines would pass the test without any leaks or issues, all the groups suffered at least one leak! This left the girls thinking of how hard everyone has to work in order to operate the Alaskan pipeline in the least intrusive way possible!