Marine science day

Today was our first homeschool workshop--marine science day at the local science center. Mi'ita went off to dissect squid, do fish prints on T-shirts, dig fossils, and such. I went to the parent workshop on how to teach science.

That was interesting. A big part of the workshop was how to build equipment to do field studies. I wish they had talked more about what to do with that equipment, but "there are a lot of materials online that address that." Mi'ita is not a field study type of girl. If she could do it with a group of her best friends, sure, she'd be all over it. If not, she rather sit and read about it. She's not a particularly active child.

Homeschooling is a natural for active children, though, especially ADHD boys. Very active children sit in classrooms and inwardly scream while trying to sit still all day. Outwardly they disrupt the class constantly, drive their teachers insane, and keep anyone from learning much. Take those same active kids outside, give them butterfly nets and turn them loose to capture and catalog bugs or some such and they are in their element, learning a ton, and teaching everyone within earshot what they learned.

(On a side note, while helping monitor recess at the school I watched one of the teachers chase all the boys out of a weedy patch in their field where they were trying to catch bugs. Why? They were well within the boundaries, doing nothing dangerous, and learning about bugs. Granted they were probably not particularly gentle with said bugs, but crickets and grasshoppers are hardly an endangered species.)

I'm digressing.

One project Mi'ita would enjoy that I learned today is using modeling clay to build undersea features then make a contour map of it.

Directions:
Build a seamount, rift, bank, and/or a canyon with modeling clay in a clear, flat-bottomed dish. Tape a ruler to the inside and a sheet of acetate over the top. (Cut a small hole in the acetate first.) Poor water into the dish through the hole in the acetate, half a centimeter at a time. Looking directly over the the dish, draw the waterline on the acetate (permanent markers work better then overhead markers because they don't wash off when it gets wet.) Repeat until everything is underwater. What you've made is contour map of a seabed.