Category
Scientist
-
11.15.09Dragonfly Sniffing
Scientist, bugs (4)Our friend brought a special surprise to school last week: dead dragonflies. He and his dad fished them out of his pool, and he was kind enough to share them with us. For the kids the highlight of the dragonfly examination was their smell. Apparently they were sorta stinky. I was more interested in the initiative that our friend took in presenting his dragonflies for peer review. He was very serious and scientific about his findings. He composed his thoughts and delivered his brief speech confidently. I applaud our teachers for encouraging the kids to bring dead bugs, animals and ...
-
08.16.09Fish Finding
Creeks, Fish, Fishing, Fishing tackle, Hiking, Scientist, documenting nature (1)Last weekend we took the same Butano Canyon hike twice. The first time we brought along our redwood boat thinking we might sail it on the waterfall pond. However, Seth promptly forgot about the boat (don't tell Daniel Beard) when we stopped at the second bridge and looked down. The deep spot under the bridge was full of fish! Not just minnows but huge fish! Some were gray and one was a salmon orange. There were crawdads and some fingerlings just to round out the population. It was fascinating to watch them interact. There was so much infighting, and what ...
-
04.02.09Dissecting Owl Pellets
Birds, Scientist, nature study (12)The boys know the owl. There may be two or three, even. But that owl, the one who hoots outside our window at night while I read bedtime stories, finally left us a pellet. We have been scouring all two acres of this place looking and yesterday they found this in the garden, matted, flecked with mulch and sunbaked: Nobody was as excited as I was, pulling out the tweezers and asking questions to get them thinking about the pellet. Was it a bird or a mammal? How do you know? How did the owl make this? How do you know ...
and follow the adventure:
