martinzoo

Yeah, I know……. we’re hardly even through with Winter.

My thoughts…. if there isn’t going to be snow on the ground, then I want Spring. I hate to be uselessly cold. Bring on the snow, or bring on the Spring. I just want one good, decent sized snowfall each year. Is that too much to ask for when you live in the central part of Virginia?

Since our snow has been sparse,…. let’s say a dusting….., I’ve been thinking…. Spring. Last year GB and I did a few projects that we really enjoyed. So I think we’ll do them again, and maybe tweak them a tad.

First, we did the Great Backyard Bird Count. We had a really good time. And it helps GB to see all the birds in our yard. Back in ‘03, when Hurricane Isabelle came through here, GB was devastated to see all the trees laying on the ground. His first thought was for all the birds who had lost their homes. That year he went to the bus stop (he was in ps then) and told the other kids that they needed to ask Santa to bring bird houses for the birds. Since then he has populated our yard, my parent’s yard, my in-law’s yard, and several aunt’s, uncle’s, and cousin’s yards with his painted bird houses. It’s become a mission. Click Here and here to see our posts from the GBBC from last year. So we’ll definitely do that again.

Next, I signed us up to receive the kit from the Project Feeder Watch. This is done through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to help determine migration patterns and see which birds show up at feeders around the country. Martha Stewart had David Bonter from Project Feeder Watch on her show, and you can see the videos from that show by clicking here. What’s great about this project is that they’ve recognized that a lot of homeschoolers are doing it, and they’ve developed a whole unit study lesson plan to accompany the project. My friend, Dana, is going to do this with her daughter down in Texas. So it’ll be interesting to see her results. Especially since she always gets spectacular pictures to go with her observations.

We are also going to do the Tomatosphere Project again this year. You can see all my posts from last year’s project by clicking here. Once again, this is a project that has been recognized as a great homeschool project, so there are plenty of educational materials included on the website. Essentially, we will plant 15 normal seeds in peat pots, and 15 seeds that were exposed to conditions which simulate the process of aerocapture as the space vehicle enters the atmosphere of Mars. We won’t know which seeds are which until the results are tabulated. Our job will be to provide similar ideal circumstances for the seeds to grow, and then to observe any differences between them.

During the past few months GB and I have been studying Chemistry, more specifically polymers. One thing I came upon, during all the material that I read, was that diapers include an absorbable polymer to capture the excess liquid. That same polymer releases the liquid at a controlled rate when left alone. That absorbable polymer can be removed from the diaper and studied. So I thought another interesting aspect that we could apply to the tomatospere project, on our own, is to mix this polymer with soil, and plant a few seeds separately to observe whether the polymer additive helps the plants to grow better. We speculate that the polymer will keep us from going through those wet to dry phases and provide a more stable water level within the plant’s soil.

I also signed GB up for several nature classes at our nearby State Park. There are several Physical Science topics, and several Life Science topics. He’s mostly looking forward to any of them that offer information on animals, birds, and reptiles. And in one of them….. we’re going to build a bluebird house!….LOL! Right up his alley.

So now I guess I’m ready for Spring to get here…………… any day now…………… Oh, man! It’s only January…….