The children in our town all headed back to school yesterday and, in what has become a homeschooling tradition for us, we spent the day on a field trip. Typically we head to the beach, the zoo, or the aquarium.
Yesterday we headed to the Ecotarium in hopes of getting a glimpse at their new baby otter. Unfortunately, the otters were not cooperating and we never got to see them. Luckily, there were lots of new exhibits and a few of our old favorites to check out.
We saw lots of live animals.
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| This turtle cracked us up |
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| The porcupine seemed undecided as to whether or not he should go outside |
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| Alec sat in a mini class about camouflage and got to feel an arctic fox pelt. |
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| We saw an albino skunk |
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| For once the opossum was up and about; he came walking right up to the glass |
We also saw two other varieties of turtles, lots of frogs, a red tailed hawk and a sugar glider.
The boys learned about city life in their new exhibit. We learned about sewers and water treatment, noise and noise pollution, building bridges, and mapping too.
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| Learning about imports and how far away goods and foods travel to reach us |
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| Testing out various bridge materials to see which ones hold up best to vibrations and movement |
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| They experimented with different materials to build bridges over gorges and lakes too |
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| Ian's bridge may not have been very helpful for cars but it was very neat to look at. |
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| These computers blared out sounds and you had to rate how stressed the sounds made you feel. We were cracking up at some of the actual sounds on there and, occasionally, about how they made one of us feel. |
With the summer sunshine still going strong, the Ecotarium had their bubble centers set up and it seems like no matter how many times we play with them bubbles are just fascinating!
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| Even with the wind Alec was able to get a good window of bubbles going |
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| Evan helped and they managed to get the bubbles all the way to the top |
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| Alec is now so tall he had to crouch down to surround himself with bubbles |
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| Ian made some giant bubbles |
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| I just happened to catch this one in mid- pop! |
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| Seeing what happens with different shapes in bubble solutions |
The boys also learned about dinosaurs, looked at dust under a microscope, read about old growth forests, and the destruction of beetles.
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| Learning about dinosaur digestion and poop |
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| Reading about old growth forests and how to determine if a forest is old or new. |
We walked around outside and played on the playground for a bit too.
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| Sitting inside the pavilion looking out at the pond |
It was a wonderful day!
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