Monday Journal

Journalists: Patrick Harris, Jason Suchy, Brennan LaVan, Dillon Quick, Aaron Johnson, Trent Tomford, Zach Baardsen

Orange Group

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We woke up at 5:00 to be at the school by 6:30am. We drove from Parkers to Lake Benton to see wind turbines. It was VERY windy there, with 40-50 mile per hour winds. We learned that when it got up to 60 mph the turbines would shut down. We also learned that the black blades attracted lightning, therefore there weren’t very many ones with black blades. One turbine can power about 500 houses with the cost being only 7.5 cents per kilowatt to the consumer.

Next we went about 20 miles to Pipestone. We learned what cross bedding was. (lines crossing in the rock). We saw faces in the rocks. We also saw bones in one of the caves. (We determined that they had to be from a coyote or wolf.) We learned what a talus was- it was broken rocks that had fallen from other rock formations. Most of Pipestone is an outcropping.

Our next stop was Devils’ Gulch, SD. We were told a story about Jesse James by Cassie. She told us about him jumping 20 feet on his horse over the river. We also saw a really pretty waterfall. We learned how the rapidly moving water eroded the rock faster than the slower moving water. The rock was made of quartzite here just like in Pipestone. We also were fascinated with the water coming out of the cracks in the walls of the rocks.

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