Hunt for Hatchlings at Beczak

We went to a wonderful program at Beczak Environmental Education Center in Yonkers. Hunt for Hatchlings was about all the different creatures that hatch from eggs. We learned about Atlantic Sturgeon, Seahorses, Snapping Turtles, Garter Snakes, Ostriches (one of Mikro's very favorite animals), American Robins, salamanders (mudpuppies), crayfish, and the echidna and platypus (mammals who lay eggs). The kids got to hold models of the different sized eggs these critters lay. Then they were given an egg to decorate with paints and markers and take home. After that, they had an egg hunt for plastic eggs, which contained pictures of different types of animals. A few were "duds" and were empty. They found 59 of the 60 that were hidden, and I was quite surprised when Dorene told us that the one missing egg would have been the lone survivor in the wild, since it was not found by predators.

A is for April... and Art

I can't believe April is nearly over already. We spent a lot of time outdoors, playing in the yard, homeschooling on the porch swing, and watching the birds. For me, there was pottery (and I still have a couple of weeks left), and playing with leftover easter egg dye. I used the white crayon from the egg dye kit to draw pictures on white paper; then Mikro and I colored them in by dabbing egg dye on them with paper towel wads. Fun! I also dipped an old T shirt in the dye, and need to research how to set it... We both played with kiddie watercolors. Mikro tried oil pastels for the first time, and seemed to like them better than crayons. We did some crafts, read lots of books, and were so busy with field trips and classes with our homeschool groups that I'm thinking we need to start calling it Never-at-home-schooling. Well, except for the days when my arthritic gimpy body just refused to let me abuse it any further, and those days the porch swing was a great place to work on reading and science...

Spring!

Mikro has been enjoying the spring.

Project Feeder Watch Conclusion

Feeder Watch is over for this year, and our data has been submitted to Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Here is what we saw on our "count days":

Beczak Class: Food Chains and the Hudson River Estuary

Our homeschool group had a class on the Hudson River Estuary and its food chains at Beczak Environmental Education Center in Yonkers, NY. First the kids learned about the Hudson -- its source at Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondack Mountains, how it gradually widens downstream, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean, and its tides and changing salinity. The water in our portion of the river is brackish, meaning it is a mixture of salt and fresh water. Dorene, the wonderful educator at Beczak, demonstrated this with a model of the estuary, into which she had the kids pour cream at the Atlantic end to represent salt water, and water up at the north end to represent fresh water, which were mixed by tilting the table to demonstrate tidal action. She also used pepper to show how pollutants affect the river. A sponge "marsh" helped to filter the pepper pollutant, which washed off the land and into the water with precipitation. She talked about PCB contamination, which was graphically illustrated in the next portion of the program on food chains.









The kids started off with a huge cloth sack representing a striped bass, from which they removed an Atlantic Silversides (a smaller fish), from which they removed an Amphipod (or sand flea, a type of small crustacean), from which they removed Zooplankton (tiny animal plankton. Plankton means "drifter"), from which they removed Phytoplankton (plant plankton), which makes its own food via photosynthesis from sun, carbon dioxide and water. They then learned that phytoplankton take in PCBs with the water. This means that the PCBs go right back up the chain through all these creatures, and ultimately, into people, who eat the fish.

Homeschool Day at Liberty Science Center

March 30th was Homeschool Day at Liberty Science Center in New Jersey. (Yes, I'm a bad blogger! I'll be caught up soon. I just take waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many photos that I dread editting...) Mikro and I had never been there before, and had the fun of taking two new railroads to get there-- the PATH train and the Hudson Bergen Light Rail (which is really more like a trolley.) We met up with lots of friends from our homeschool group, and really enjoyed the day.

Near the entrance, there is a massive motorized Hoberman Sphere, which opens and closes over your head. Mikro loved that thing.





Our first stop was the Energy area, which is full of hands on activities for kids to try involving all sorts of energy. This photo shows Mikro and his friend A getting up close and personal with wind power and having a blast (Ok, bad pun, sorry...)



There was also a really cool exhibit on the Hudson River. Mikro played at dredging the shipping channel, saw fish and other critters, and demonstrated, with A, where all of us live in relation to the river. My very favorite thing was a computer simulation that showed you how the area has changed over time from billions of years ago to our times. There's a module on evolution, one on climate change, and one on continental drift. Really really amazing stuff. I admit to hogging that thing shamelessly.







Then we went to the "wonder" area, which has a collection of favorite exhibits, including a rock wall, air pressure and a demo of the speed of sound. There is also a giant sheet bubble maker, but I never could get a decent photo...







After that, it was on to Eat or Be Eaten, which showcases animals and their hunting and defensive capabilities. Really cool, though I despised the hissing cockroaches. Mikro liked the nasty things.



Then we did Infection Connection, where we designed a virus, played at diagnosing a patient, and explored the world of germs. It is only fitting that I contracted some awful kiddie plague and was sick as a dog for a week after our visit...





We went and played in the little kid area for a while, building cars and testing what happened when we changed the size of their wheels, looking at some critters, and playing with the awesome Rube Goldberg-esque machine.



We ended our day with a workshop on states of matter called "Sub-Zero" featuring liquid nitrogen experiments. Very very cool! (Gah, it must be the night of bad puns around here...)

Out on a Limb at Belvedere Castle-- Part 2

Desperately trying to catch up on my blogging... On March 28th, we went to the second part of the Urban Park Rangers Out on a Limb program at Belvedere Castle.

The first speaker was Susan Brandt, founder of Rational Animal, an organization whose mission is to increase public awareness of at risk animals in New York City. They hold an annual winter fundraiser called Gingerbread Homes for Animals fund medical care for homeless animals. They also organize benefit concerts, developed a map showing New Yorkers where to find pets in need of adoption called Trails to Tails, produce public service announcements, and run an orange ribbon campaign. The kids at the program received orange ribbons.




After Susan's talk, we headed out to the Ramble to meet wildlife rehabilitator Bobby Horvath and his animal friends.

WARNING: LOTS OF PHOTOS AHEAD!

This Eastern Screech Owl had a broken collarbone and can't be released back into the wild.













Diana the Redtailed Hawk is fifteen years old. She eats rodents and pigeons.






















This Peregrine Falcon was hungry and demanded his lunch loudly! Peregrines are primarily bird-eaters. They have a notched beak for biting the neck of their prey to disable it. JFK Airport uses Peregrines to hunt pigeons and other birds which are a menace to aviation.






















This little raccoon was car sick and not in the mood for show and tell, so he stayed in his carrier. He is partially blind and has been since birth. Raccoons are not purely nocturnal. It is fairly common to see them during the day, especially in the spring when nursing mothers need lots of food to produce adequate milk for their young.




The skunk was sweet and good natured and safe to be around since it was de-scented and kept illegally as a pet.
















After the program, we hiked the Ramble and did some bird watching. Then we hopped on the subway and went to Moon Rock Diner for dinner. They have yummy veggie pannini.







Mikro entertained us by making goofy faces while we ate...