Drip Sand Castles and Crystal Jellyfish

I love words, but in this case, pictures communicate more. 

 

Last week, our school went on a field trip to the Delaware beach where we found turtles, crabs, crystal jellyfish, and horseshoe crabs.  That was our science class.  I taught my students how to make drip sand castles for our art class.  We played and dug in the sand, watched the tide come in, jumped in the waves, and collected shells and pebbles.  The older gentlemen dug a fire pit with a built-in circle bench.  In the late afternoon, we roasted hot dogs and s'mores there for our evening meal.  Traveling to and from in our very own new (to us) bus, we sang all our choir songs and reviewed all the Scripture memory songs.  It was a most memorable and beautiful day.  

 

An Edible Deer Heart, H2O Spice Drop Molecules, and the Aurora Borealis: A Week of Science

 

One of our school parents got a deer, and I was asked if I wanted the heart.  Well, of course I did.  I was also told that it was good to eat, so that became part of our dissection/experiment as well.  First of all we observed it and stuck our fingers in the valves.  Then we dissected it and explored the ventricles and atriums that we had learned about last year.  

Then it went onto the stove in a pot and simmered for a few hours.  The next day, I think pretty much all of us sampled deer heart.  That was a first for me.  I believe it tasted a bit like roast beef.  

As we were studying molecules and polarity, we constructed water molecules from spice drops, and then, of course, ate those.  We needed some dessert after the deer heart.  

One of the school moms put photos of the aurora borealis on the school moms' chat, so we all ran outside to see that.  That was also a first for me, and I'm so glad I finally got to see it.  I thought I was going to have to take a vacation in Iceland before that would ever happen.   

Above is one of my daughter-in-law's photos, and below is one of my son's photographs.  Hee hee.  And I have to share this true story I read somewhere.  An older couple went on vacation to Alaska.  After getting checked in at their hotel, the wife went downstairs to the front desk and asked, "What time do they turn the Northern Lights on?"  

Happy Shortest Day of the Year

 Tomorrow, December 21st, is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. 

In our lovely little borough of Terre Hill, Pennsylvania, it means that we will only have nine hours and nineteen minutes of daylight.  

Compared to the longest day of the year, July 2st (usually anyway), that is six fewer hours of daylight.  

For us teachers, it means that we will be arriving at school before the sun rises, and depending on how well our grading goes, we may still be at school when the sun sets.  

For our students, it means that we need to tell them about the shortest day of the year and how that happens scientifically.  

Happy shortest day of the year!  

Related Posts:  Welcome, Winter Solstice!  

                           Scientists Study Solstices

A Peek into Our Week

 

Here is a little video of what we did last week here at school. 

I hope you enjoy it. 

Science Girl

I have a wonderfully creative and artistic young lady in my class.  She's the only I know besides myself that picks up interesting nature stuff and does something like this with it.  Her cat killed the chipmunk, so she tanned the skin.  Then she mounted it (along with other interesting science finds from the summer) on a piece of cardboard, and brought it to school for me to see.  I think it's great.  Yay for science girls.  

Ear Wax Project -- Well, Sorta

Okay, so it is actually ear clay.  I was substitute teaching for Hilary Martin's fourth grade class at Shalom Mennonite School the other day, and as soon as I walked in the room I noticed these neat clay models of the human ear.  I asked her if this was assigned in the book.  She answered that it was not.  She is just a fine teacher and assigns creative projects to help her students comprehend their material in intriguing ways.  This type of project is especially helpful for visual and kinesthetic learners.

The Chickies

I was at school again helping Jeff clean up his room when I noticed the incubator in Whitney Burkholder's 7th grade classroom.  She is a great science teacher and something interesting is usually going on in her room-- that is why I always stop in to see her.  It was Friday and the blizzard was coming that afternoon.  We were all in a hurry to finish up and go home.

The day before the chickies hatched the blizzard hatched, too.  By the time the students returned to school on Wednesday they only had one egg left.  They got to see this last one emerge from its shell.  I have watched this many times (we used to have a small sheep and chicken farm; click HERE to read a little about that), but it never ceases to amaze me how something so cute and fluffy can emerge out of a smooth oval shell.   And it reminds me of how great our Creator is every time I witness such an event.

By the way, the students called them "the chickies" after Jeff began calling them "the chickies".  He says you have to pucker your lips and say it in a baby voice.  Try it.

Click here to read about our little farm.  

Bunnies!

One of the seventh graders at Shalom Mennonite School brought a few adorable little bunnies to school for her classmates to see.  I happened to be substitute teaching that day and got to hold one of the soft, furry, cute little creatures.  

A Super Slimy Sea Creature That Has Horrible Teeth and Bores into Other Organisms -- Yummy!

We studied these lovely creatures in our upper-elementary marine biology class last week.  Have you ever heard of a hagfish?  Hagfish are probably one of God's most unlovely creations.  He didn't create them to be pretty though, He created them to keep the oceans clean.  And here is how they do it.

Disgusting fact #1: They eat dead stuff.



And, to help them eat the dead stuff, we have disgusting fact #2:
They have these lovely mouths to bore holes into their, ummm . . . meal.
Then they really "dig in" to eat it, as pictured above.  Although they prefer dead or decaying organisms, they can attack and then devour live prey from the inside out.


And that brings us to disgusting hagfish fact #3:
They produce slime -- lots of it -- for protection.  Who would want to eat that?  They also use their slime to suffocate other fish, which they then bore into and devour.

There is one more fact about this "fish" from the class Agnatha (which in Greek means "without jaw").
Disgusting hagfish fact #4:
It can tie itself into a knot to clean itself of its own slime.  Lovely.
Feel free to share this with your students.  

Snake Eats Lizard

Can you see that?  The lizard was about eight inches long, too-- amazing!  This picture was taken by Kristin Miller, a fellow flautist friend of mine.  Her family recently moved to Bolivia and and their updates have been full of beautiful pictures.    Some of the following photographs were taken by Kristin, her mother, and her sister, Victoria.  Thanks for sharing, ladies!

  

OCD Weather-Watching Husband Scores Sweet Wildlife Pics

Jeff found an amazing article at weather.com. (Jeff is rather obsessive about knowing what the weather is going to be like.)  There are pictures of 20 rare animals at the top of the article including these swimming nautiluses, a baby northern saw-whet owl, and a pink dolphin.  (Keep reading, there is more.)

And at the bottom of the page are 29 photos of albino animals like this albino wallaby inside its mother's pouch.  It is amazing to see these wonderful creations of our Great Creator.   Click HERE to see them all.