Week 5 - Water Week! with the Mad Scientists!!

Today's group shot - check out these Mad Scientists! They be cray-ze!

Oho! A whole week late! Here's what we did last week with the Mad Scientists!

We had lots of fun! We watched for the capillary action of water, water bending, and watched the Hank Green video like the Young Professors! We also continued on our Water Week journey by playing with some waterbeads, which I swear, these Mad Scientists would be content playing with these waterbeads hours on end!

Waterbeads! AW YEAH!

Alicen, Haley and Emily playing with some waterbeads!

Sara, (Chloe behind her!), Caleb, Justice and Chase - barely seen! and Kyleen!

Oh! And we were also informed by Miss Emily that Kyleen's birthday was coming up so we sang some impromptu Happy Birthday Songs! :)

I read to them a story from the book: The Kid Who Named Pluto - and the Stories of Other Extraordinary Young People in Science by Marc McCutcheon. What a fantastic book! Its a compilation of stories of young people discovering and creating things to do with science! I had to interlibrary loan it so unfortunately we don't have it here in Beaver Valley, but do look for it elsewhere! Or even come and interlibrary loan it here, like me!

 We read the story about Venetia Burney, who at the age of 11, suggested the name of Pluto to name the newly found Planet X in 1930!

There are many more stories in the book, of which I would have liked to read with the kids, yet alas! time is always of importance and unfortunately the hour we spend together goes by like lightning!

We ended playing some games! And of course by passing out some waterbeads for the kids to take home! Awesome!

Happy Reading!

Guest Wednesday! - David DeRosa of Teck Cominco Ltd.: The Bugs of Beaver Creek

Guest Wednesday!

Look at the lovely audience!

Last week we had a great Guest Wednesday to add to the fantastic group of Guests we've had all summer! Last week's guest? David DeRosa from Cominco! 

David is an avid bug finder and biology-nut! And today he shared with us some lovely samples of local creeks and marshes, in which some crazy critters were found!

David brought lots of tools and nick-nacks for the kids to explore the waters with! The kids loved it! We ewwwwwed and awwwwwed and macawed like cray-cray.... fish!

Here's some of our early birds going at 'er with some magnifying glasses and such!

Once we had all our Young Professors, Mad Scientists, guests and drop-in friends settled into the library and off exploring, we got everyone gathered and settled and David shared his adventures and travels into his field of study: bugs!

David spoke of the early spark of his interest in bugs as a kid bug-watching and net-building. He showed us some examples of the fantastic and easy-made nets that can be made at home with odds and ends. Dip one of these guys into some outdoor water source and get yourself a nice lovely bunch of bugs and such!

After his short presentation we were let lose again to explore the samples so generously brought in by David! Here's some pictures of that action!