Salmon Station Trip

Yesterday the Explorers traveled to the Richard Cronin Salmon Station in Sunderland. As always, biologist/educator Mickey Novak led the campers in a fun-filled day looking at salmon of all ages and a service project feeding fish and helping clean the raceways. Mickey is notorious for his jokes, and this time a camper had a new joke for him: What did the grape say when the elephant stepped on it? 

Answer: It gave a little "whine." 

Gone Fishin'

Here are two more photos of the Explorers' fishing trip Friday. Today the Explorers continue with their ichthyology learning at the Salmon Station in Sunderland. 

The Explorers were also treated to a visit today by Tommy the corn snake, Maddy's pet. Maddy's dad Joe came in with Tommy this afternoon, and campers got a chance to compare Tommy to Maizie, the Hitchcock Center corn snake. Tommy is larger, with a thicker neck and slightly shorter "tail" (distance between anal opening and tip of body). And of course, Tommy is albino - all white! You could still see the patterns on his body though. He is a very cool guy. Thanks for the visit, Joe and Tommy!

Maddy let us pat Tommy while he was draped around her neck (don't worry - he wasn't constricting her neck!)

Who Lives in the Pond?

Today the Young Naturalists went to explore the farm pond at Bramble Hill Farm, home of everything from ducks to dragonflies to tadpoles to turtles! Campers put their discoveries in white basins so everyone could see what they found, then returned them to the pond when they were all done.

The Explorers have gone on several adventures this week. Tuesday they all tried fishing at Cranberry Pond in Leverett. Despite rain showers, many campers caught fish, and they are all itching to go again tomorrow! 

Today the Explorers hiked Mt. Holyoke at Skinner State Park. Here is a shot of them climbing up the mountain. Everyone made it to the top!

Water, the Mighty Molecule

Today, in between raindrops, the Young Naturalists learned about the properties of water in an activity called "Water Olympics". Campers traveled among seven stations to discover what water can do. 

In this station, campers guessed how many droplets of water could fit on a penny, then added drop after drop until it spilled over. 

At this station, campers squeezed a seltzer bottle full of water with a dropper inside. When they squeezed, the dropper went down. When they let go, the dropper went back up again. Why did it do that??

 

At the "Water Maze" station, campers put a droplet of water onto the start end of the maze, and moved their maze all around to get it to the finish line.

At the boat-building station, campers made "boats" out of tinfoil with the goal of holding as many pennies as possible before the boat sank. The record was 103 pennies!

Each camper had a clipboard to record their findings!

At the "Magic Toothpick" station, campers added water to this toothpick arrangement. When they added water, a new shape appeared - ask your camper what it was!

At "Fold and Float" campers recorded how many times you could fold a piece of tinfoil until it sank, when placed on top of a tray of water. 

Honeybees and the Fort River

Baby crayfish!

Today is the last day of session two. Campers escaped the heat by going to the shady Fort River at Groff Park. It was an epic crayfish day - ask your camper if s/he caught a crayfish! 

A dragonfly exuvia (shed exoskeleton)

On Wednesday, the Explorers visited Hans, the farm manager and beekeeper at Bramble Hill Farm. Hans told the campers told the campers about the rewards and challenges of being a beekeeper, and let them sample honey - yum!

On Wednesday the Young Naturalists had a field trip at the Beneski Museum of Natural Science at Amherst College. Not only was it a nice air-conditioned building to get out of the blazing heat, but Fred Venne, the museum educator there, shared all kinds of fascinating prehistory with the campers. It was awesome!

What did cave bears eat?

Dinosaur tracks!

Watersheds Big and Small

This week our campers have been staying cool by taking shady, watery field trips and playing with water! A favorite activity was "River Village Creation" in which the Explorers built a watershed in the mulch, complete with a river and riverfront properties. The hose created the flowing river, and occasionally there were floods. Campers had to figure out how to make their homes erosion- and flood-resistant. 

On Friday, the Young Naturalists learned about the geological story of the Pioneer Valley, and hiked Mt. Holyoke at Skinner State Park. Everyone made it to the top, and took a while to enjoy the view at the top. Seeing the Connecticut River Watershed from above, campers observed how the river wound through the landscape.