Kerry's blog

Butterflies and Climate Change

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:23:00 +0000

Wow, it's been a while since we've had a regular learning lab. We visited the RACE exhibit at the History Museum, we had the STATS workshop, and we had a week off for Spring Break. But we are finally back!

Today we focused on our butterfly experiment. Some of the butterflies have already started to die from old age--they only live about a month. But we also saw some eggs that one had laid! Sadly, one of our frogs was missing. We don't know what happened to it. It's name was Gubby, and Lori and Tori had raised it from a tadpole. It's really sad that he is gone.

The Great Backyard Bird Count

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:56:22 +0000

Last Saturday, the C3 teens participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count. The GBBC is a nationwide program held over one weekend in February each year in which thousands of people across the country go outside, count birds, and then report their results to the Audubon Society and Cornell University. The GBBC is a major source of data for scientists studying birds. The C3 teens counted 9 different species in Forest Park. Here are some pics:

Painting for the Birds

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:53:24 +0000

Today we painted bird houses. Next week we will fill them with bird seed and hang them up outside the Taylor building. Some teens made extras so they could bring a bird house home. All of them are really colorful!

All the teens did a great job today taking care of their animals. Some of the newer teens picked their animals up for the first time. Everyone also learned how to use calipers to measure their animal's length and balances to measure the animal's weight. The teens are making great observations in their science journals.

Posters for the Summer

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:23:20 +0000

Last Saturday, the C3 component continued work on our posters. Each teen is making a poster of her or his animal to display in the room. Then, when other groups come to the Taylor building, they can read info. about the animals and then look around the room to try and find each one. The posters are turning out really great--Chastity brought bubble letters to make them stand out, and teens are also using special scissors to make cool edges around the text.

Teens also took care of their animals and made observations. That can take quite a while. We also discussed setting up a new experiment to see if caterpillars will go through metamorphosis faster if they are under a heat lamp. We will have to measure the caterpillars next week.

Welcome back, C3!

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:57:38 +0000

Today was our first day back in the lab after break. Everybody had to get back into the swing of taking care of their animals. It was an interesting experience for some new component members! We also researched our animals, so we can eventually make posters to hang up in our room. Finally, we watched a slide show about the C3 project. It was made by Cornell University, and we can use it when we talk about our project to other groups.

Copenhagen 2010

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:34:19 +0000

Last Saturday, the C3 teens participated in a computer game about climate change. It was called Clim'city, and it was sort of like Sim City. Instead of building your own city, you had 50 years to make a city more efficient. The game took 4 hours! But most of the teens got it done, and then we sent our scores to ASTC. Our scores, along with those of 6 other teen groups, will be part of a presentation at the climate change talks in Copenhagen. The game is designed to get people to think about all the ways we can combat climate change, but it also shows how complex and difficult the situation is. The game can be found at:

http://climcity.cap-sciences.net/us/inscription.php

A trip to an ecovillage

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:35:04 +0000

This past Saturday, the C3 and Science Corner teens took a trip to an ecovillage in the Central West End. The people there live on a large campus and share everything. They also grow a lot of their own food, compost their trash, and use geothermal heating to help the environment. We took a tour and then ate a vegetarian lunch. Here are some pictures.

Animals in and around Taylor

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:40:14 +0000

Last Saturday, we spent the first part of our science time taking care of our animals and making observations about them in our science journals. We also got binoculars to do our bird watching for Cornell. We didn't see any birds around our birdfeeders, though, and we only saw starlings in the distance.

The second part of the day was spent researching the animals we have in the room. Eventually, we will have a poster about each animal so that visitors can find out more information when they see our reptiles and amphibians.

The Farmer's Market

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:59:55 +0000

Last Saturday, the C3 and Science Corner components took a trip to a local farmer's market. It was the last farmer's market of the year at Tower Grove Park. The teens got to walk around and sample different foods. Some also got some free samples of homemade soap. We discussed how buying food from farmer's markets is better for you, better for farmers, and better for the environment. We saw lots of unusual things that you can't find in a grocery store.

Axolotls!

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:26:18 +0000

Last Saturday, we observed our bird feeders. We saw two kinds of birds--mourning doves and starlings. We also planted a tree outside to provide cover for the birds. Below I have attached a picture of an axolotl. The Life Science Lab gave us two of these salamanders. They never mature completely, so they always live in water and have those strange, feathery gills. They are also probably going to go extinct in the wild very soon, but researchers use them a lot in laboratories to study their ability to regenerate limbs.

Of Birds and Butterflies

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:56:34 +0000

The C3 teens have been on the news about our frog research, but now we are expanding to butterflies and birds as well. This fall, we will be watching our homemade birdfeeders and entering the data into Cornell's database. I have also attached photos from last month's butterfly field count at Valley View Glades Natural Area.

Magic Tricks with Air Pressure

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:05:05 +0000

Today in Learning Places, we continued our drawings of the Hurston room to scale. Drawing everything to scale was a little tricky. We also had a good discussion about the new curfew for teens in the Loop. The teens are really starting to express themselves more. Then we did some nifty tricks with air pressure, such as flipping over a jar filled with water without anything spilling out. You can do it by just putting an index card over the mouth, because the air pressure on the card is strong enough to hold up the water. We tried out a few other tricks, too. Lastly, we did a SCANS activity about STEM careers and the need for math classes.

Lightning and Thunder

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:58:19 +0000

This week was very busy for Learning Places. Brandon took three teens to Minnesota for the Youth Summit. Apparently, the Mall of America has a roller coaster in it. Brandon, Tim and I met with a representative from the Herp. Society to discuss putting a Learning Place in the Taylor Center that has reptiles. And in Saturday's lab, we created sparks to simulate lightning. This was followed by much popping of balloons, which was followed by the popping of paper bags. All in all, it was a very loud Saturday.

Temperature

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:45:35 +0000

This Saturday, we tested different activities relating to temperature. We discussed how cold and warm fronts relate to temperature, and we talked about the seasons. Winter comes when the earth's axis is tilted away from the sun, not when the earth is farthest from the sun in its orbit. We also mapped our routes to work, and we did an activity about setting goals. The best part was when we had a competition to find the "worth of words." Melvin won, with the word "supercalifragilisticispealadocious," which was worth almost 400 points!

Tornadoes

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:11:37 +0000

Last Saturday in Learning Places we did tornado activities. We tried out four different ways to make tornado models and decided which might work the best at our sites. We also decided what ingredients we would need to make the tornadoes look great. Then we wrote our results in our journals. We also sorted different examples of maps to decide what would make a good map and what would not. Lastly, we had a discussion about setting goals and the levels of college degrees. The teens seemed to be very familiar with college degrees already. Many already know what they want to do as adults. I'm amazed; I was halfway through college before I had any idea.