Sea Star Dissection

Mikro continues to be interested in zoology and invertebrate anatomy. To further that curiosity, we ordered a sea star dissection kit from Carolina Biological Supply. If you are not grossed out by such things, you can follow along as we examine the gross anatomy and internal structures of this echinoderm in this post.

The Brain at the American Museum of Natural History

On Monday afternoon, we went to Mikro's most favorite place: AMNH. We wanted to see The Brain (or as Kev called it, "The Zombie Food Exhibit", before it closes on August 15th.

All of us learned something new, and there were plenty of hands on activities to keep Mikro's interest. He particularly enjoyed the light table where you try to make connections between neurons, and the stacking blocks puzzle. Kev was annoyingly proficient at the mirror drawing task, which Mikro gave up on, and I failed at miserably on both tries.





Afterwards, Mikro raced around the fountain while Kev and I rested our tired feet. To his great delight, before our timeslot for the Brain exhibit, we had time to tour the reptiles room. Here, on the theme of natural oddities, are a Surinam toad with her young emerging from her back, and Mikro, with a head massager for a hat. He got that, a skeleton model kit, and a "squishy brains" kit at the gift shop...

AMNH Members Holiday Party and Origami Tree

This weekend, we attended the Annual Members' Holiday Party at the American Museum of Natural History, which may just be Mikro Paleo Boy's favorite (indoor) place on the planet...

This year, the focus was on the brain (star of the museum's current special exhibit) and marine life (which makes sense, since the party is held in the Hall of Ocean Life). Mikro saw a real human brain (smaller than you would think, but this is average sized: 3 pounds), put together a model of the brain, and learned about what its various regions do. He was fascinated!



He got to touch baleen, abalone, walrus tusks, whale vertebrae, and a megalodon tooth, and look at various specimens and a dolphin skull model. And study the amazing dioramas around the room.











There was coloring, face painting, balloon sculpture and a station where kids could make star finders. (We later used ours to figure out where the constellation Gemini was, to try to see the Geminid Meteor Shower, but it was too overcast...)





We had a nice surprise and met up with homeschooling friends. Our boys had great fun together, and danced to just about all the songs performed by Danny Grover and Grover's Gang. (Maybe I'll post a video later...)



Afterwards, we saw the amazing origami tree, and succumbed to the lure of the science books in the gift shop... The origami tree was spectacular! Here come a huge number of photos...