Bug Collection

The girls have always been fascinated with bugs of all kinds.  I have a vast collection of empty jars of all sizes on hand to grab when the girls find something interesting to study. It's also nice for me in that I have a free spider removal service.  They don't like us to kill spiders and bugs found in the house...instead they will collect them and let them go outside. Works for me.

Over the past year, the girls' collection of bugs has increased....dead ones I mean. They would never harm a bug just because they wanted to keep it. These bugs they find already deceased.

This year the cicadas have been good to them, lol. Georgia can tell you anything you ever wanted to know about cicadas. She likes to learn more about the bugs they find.

Katydids creep me out!  The live ones, anyway... 

And yes that is a urine specimen cup on the left, lol.  Whatever works, right? (it has never been used, lol) Old jam jars, peanut butter jars, my tupperware! 

Mark and I are trying to come up with a way for them to display their collection. I was thinking of a shadow box display on the wall, but they need something that will allow them to take them out and examine them whenever they feel the need. Hmmmm....

We'll also need something for their feather collection, rock collection, nest collection, seed collection....

As I am writing this I hear Animal Planet's Most Extreme in the background talking about a bug, lol.

Goldfish Dissection

When one of Olivia's goldfish died she asked if we could dissect it and learn about the insides of a goldfish

Meet poor Brazil...who died on September 21, 2011.

We first used this image to help us identify external anatomy.

Then we used our exacto knife scalpel and removed the layer of scales, skin, and muscle.

We were able to identify the swim bladder, spine and spinal cord, and intestines. 

We removed the intestines and saw where it connected to the esophagus on one end, and the vent on the other.

Here is Brazil without intestines. We can see his heart near the gills.

Olivia was amazed at it all. Very interesting stuff!

We also got a glimpse of the brain, and took a closer look at the gills..but at that point Brazil looked pretty gruesome...so here's a photo of the eye instead....

 She said she wants to dissect a grasshopper, too. Pretty sure I'll need a sharper "scalpel" for that one!

Here's my little scientist....

Nature Class: Owls

Olivia had her nature class on owls.  This was an evening class. The kids learned all about the different owls we have here in Ohio. They learned about their diet, nesting habits, and listened to their calls.

The kids dissected an owl pellet. Both girls have done this before and it is really interesting. The regurgitated pellet is what the owl cannot digest properly. Lots of fur, teeth, claws, and bones in there.  The kids dug in and got to see what that owl had eaten. Olivia amassed quite the collection of bones...figuring out what bone it was, and from which animal.  Her owl had eaten a mouse...well....mice. There were a couple skulls in there!

Olivia made a nice paper bag owl. 

 While we waited for the paint to dry, the naturalist led us on an owl hunt. He had a gadget that made calls....and we waited to hear an owl return the call and fly overhead.  We saw bats....but no owls this time.

Chemistry



We somehow got into a discussion on molecules and atoms, and the periodic table of elements.  So we went to BBC and learned some more about them.

Compounds and Mixtures

The Particle Model

Atoms and Elements

The British accent made it all the more interesting!!

Elements, atoms, properties of matter, chemical bonds, metals, non-metals, compounds, mixtures, conductors, sonorous and non-sonorous, filtration, distillation, chromatography, evaporation, condensation...

Another site we visited was Chem4Kids.

Anatomy

Today, the girls were interested in what the liver does....so we read about the liver, and other organs, such as kidney, heart, and lungs....and played with the BBC's Interactive Body. From there, we also learned about some of the bones, and muscles.

Georgia told me about the organs in sharks and crocodilians, and how they differ from ours. She also talked about their sixth senses...how sharks use their Ampullae of Lorenzini, electroreceptors for detecting electric fields in the water, which living things give off when they use their muscles, and also how they can use the earth's magnetic field as their own mapping system....And she told us how crocs use their Dermal Pressure Receptors for detecting changes in pressure, making finding prey in the dark easier. That would be neat to have, huh?

We also talked about organ transplants.

Toucans and Amphibians

That was the theme in the new NWF Big Backyard magazine Olivia got in the mail yesterday.  We've already read it cover to cover.

It is really neat how things all come together when we are learning about new things. Olivia and I were recently talking about teeth...and how you can sometimes figure out what an animal eats by it's teeth.  Then along comes the toucans and we start talking about the differences in birds' bills for what they eat. (reminds me of reading about Darwin and his Galapagos finches)

And speaking of birds...I have been crocheting some birds just in the last couple days. I'll have to share them in a seperate post.

We also talked about amphibians...which reminded me of the gift the girls got from their aunt...a grow your own frog kit. We just need to send off for the little frog babies! How neat will that be!?

There was a story in the magazine about searching for signs of spring. We love doing that...searching for signs of the new seasons. We will definitely be doing it this spring, too!

Oobleck



I think I know what we will be doing today....

Soil Study

We used the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service's Web Soil Survey to see what type of soil we had around here. 

From their site:

Web Soil Survey (WSS) provides soil data and information produced by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. It is operated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and provides access to the largest natural resource information system in the world. NRCS has soil maps and data available online for more than 95 percent of the nation’s counties and anticipates having 100 percent in the near future. The site is updated and maintained online as the single authoritative source of soil survey information.

Turns out we have Crosby Silt Loam and Miamian Silt Loam. Now we need to find out what that means exactly, ha ha.

We also looked up different regions to see what types they had. I knew my mom's would be sandy!

Cetaceans

Georgia's new passion.

She's always been interested in whales.  Her favorite has alwasy been the Sperm Whale, ever since she read Moby Dick when she was 5 or 6 years old.  But with the Endless Ocean Blue World Wii game she has been collecting a list of cetaceans that she is looking up and reading more about.  We borrowed some library books on whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and her newest Ranger Rick magazine had an Amazon River Dolphin on the cover!

Yesterday we discovered the American Cetacean Society website.  She's been reading up about species there, as well as learning about the conservation efforts. They have a poster we are going to be ordering!

So neat to hear her talk about the ways different ones hunt or collect food, how they evolved differently from being seperated, why the narwol has a long tooth, their social activity, migrations, communication...and to know that she actually gets what she is talking about...not just remembering facts.  She goes into discussions about why something is or how it came to be.

We learned about the US Marine Mammal Protection Act.

We watched the TED talk on the Intriguing Sound of Marine Mammals, given by Peter Tyack.

Georgia and Olivia did some sketching yesterday...Georgia looked up specific species of whales so she could draw them accurately...showing their scars and all. She told me how she drew the further side of the tail smaller so it would look further away.  She also has been mixing colors to come up with the best one, and using different tools to come up with the look she wants.

SKETCHES HERE

Something else both girls really enjoy is the Safari Ltd Toob play sets.  We have the Jamestown and Powhaten sets from when we visited Jamestown on its 400th anniversary.  We have coral reef, ocean, horses, North American animals, and whales and dolphins. These sets are great for the girls to use their imagination and play out things they are learning about.  I love it!  Hearing Olivia ask Georgia, what did this one eat...they play it all true to life. And Olivia told me the other day that some whales have teeth, and some have baleen.



Winter exploration

Sleet, freezing rain, snow, winds...we went out to explore what nature has created...and destroyed.

our ice covered landscape

 snow drifts are always interesting to see

trees are budding...isn't it too early?

 finding tracks in the snow

doing a penguin belly slide

relaxing and soaking in the beauty of the season

improvised game of hockey

they found sticks from downed limbs,

cut them to their desired length,

used ice blocks as pucks, slid around on the ice.

(I'm in two of the photos, too...do you see me?)

they are so creative

We saw a red squirrel come out of here!

 saw a lot of limbs down...

we added some to their stick shelter (not pictured)

this was NOT fun to clean off

the tires were stuck in the layer of

ground ice!

Aquatic Life Exploration

Along with the girls' interests in learning about crocodilians and the oceans and rivers of the world, the girls have also been into learning more about ocean and freshwater creatures.

Georgia has been very interested in the Amazon River, and especially the arapaima, largest freshwater fish on Earth.)  Through her research, she's also come upon the ceolocanth, a fish previously thought to have been extinct! At PBS she viewed its' anatomy.

We made a trip to the Newport Aquarium where we all met Might Mike the American Alligator, on tour from Florida.  We also saw the....ARAPAIMA!!!  She was so excited.  Said while in the Amazon exhibit, "I know these fish the best, this is my favorite part."

We saw several species of shark, rays, jellyfish, freshwater fish from around the world and from our own backyard, shore life, coral reef life, and fish from the Amazon. We experienced the touch tanks both at the shore life gallery, and in the shark exhibit. We even got to watch scuba divers in the tank, as it was apparently cleaning day.

The girls have also been playing the game Endless Ocean, Blue World on the Wii. They have learned so much from that game! Not just about different types of fish, but learning about the different habitats, life in the deep verses the shallow regions, food webs, conservation, geology, salvaging, taxonomy, diving safety, budgeting and saving, geography, and so much more.  We keep a piece of paper handy while playing so the girls can jot down creatures they want to research further.

After playing, the girls gather their extensive collection of stuffed animals and small toys of the animals they were learning about.  They have quite the collection, too!  I love listening to them...Olivia asking Georgia about different animals, what they eat or where they live.  We just did some quick research this morning from their play...they wanted to know the life span of their animals to see which ones lived the longest!

They also enjoy the Zoo Tycoon PC games. They have learned SOOO much from that as well.  Again, not just about animals. That is another game that we really like.

Newport Aquarium Visit

We made it to the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky.  Georgia got to see all the Amazon fish she has been reading about, as well as visiting Mighty Mike the alligator, and all kinds of sharks.

Crocodilians

That has been a fascination of Georgia's for a few weeks now.  We've recorded a lot of documentaries on the subject, borrowed library books, and surfed the web for sites, photos, and videos.

One of her favorite sites is this site hosted by the Florida Museum of Natural History. (also found at http://crocodilian.com/ ) She has studied the species list and had me quiz her on the scientific names.  Phew...she got all but one of them...and there are 23 species! We looked up some of the scientific prefixes and suffixes and learned that suchus comes from Greek for crocodile. (and crocodilos from ancient Greek for lizard.)  She already knew what paleo meant. She also told me that the -ensis at the end is Latin and means that it is from that place, as in the American Alligator, Alligator mississippiensis.

She loves that site.  It has maps showing the distribution of crocodilians worldwide.

They talk about the taxonomy and how they are classified...and the debate about it.

And of course their species list, where you can click on a crocodilian to learn more about it.

There is also extensive information on crocodilian biology, including evolution and morphology.

And it wouldn't be complete without some mention of conservation.

Other sites to check out include:

The Visable Alligator Skull from the University of Texas Morphology Group

Gharial Fact Sheet from the National Zoo (we've visited there!!)

Gharials, Nile Crocodile, American Crocodile,  Saltwater Crocodile, American Alligator all at National Geographic.

Why do animals have scientific names? and Make your own scientific name from the San Diego Zoo.

And she made a salt dough crocodile that, once dry, she will paint!

 

This all of course led to other interests.  She's read up on estuaries, and she now wants to learn more about India and the Yangtze River in China.