Dolphins on Finding Their Food: DolphIns have approxImaTely 199 TeeTh and are In dIfferenT colors (their body, that is, not their teeth)— WhITe, Black, Grey, Brown, YeLLow and even Pink and Blue!Like human beIngs, DolphIns are MammaLs and Nurse TheIr young wITh TheIr MiLk. They swIm In “schools”, also called “pods”, doIng some ThIngs on […]
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Scientist Bob McDonald in Victoria, BC, November 22nd
From mad scientists, to lunar landings, to outrageous weapons, science is gracing the big screen. But just what’s plausible, capable, or already happening? Join one of Canada’s best-known science journalists on November 22nd when the host of CBC’s Quirks & Quarks….http://thevic.ca/item/quirks-and-quarks For more info about Bob McDonald’s CBC Radio show, visit here: http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/host/. Bob’s Book […]
Continue readingEnd of Summer Oceans Quiz
Since everyone has either had fun by the ocean side this summer, or still dreaming about being by the Ocean side, here is a Fun End of Summer Teaching Oceans Pop Quiz, to keep the Brain Fresh for the upcoming classes in the Fall! 1. Sea Turtles live in all the world’s oceans except the ____________. […]
Continue readingSeptarian Nodules in The Earth’s Crust
This month’s Science focus is about a most interesting phenomena called a Spheroidal Concretion, and the special “animal” (though not an animal – or was it at one time?) is called a Septarian Nodule. In their raw found forms, one might think that they are eggs, with a living creature inside awaiting to hatch – […]
Continue readingMaking Your own Orgonite Generator
First, a bit about What is Orgone? And What is an Orgonite Generator? Orgone energy is a hypothetical universal life force that was first known coined by a 1930’s scientist named Wilhelm Reich. An Orgonite Generator is a homemade device using a container of inorganic and organic materials, that is designed to turn negative energy […]
Continue readingNatural Science: How Do Crystals Grow?
A crystal is a special type of solid where the particles are arranged in an orderly and repeating pattern. When solids are dissolved in water, they form a solution, like when salt and water mix. As particles dissolve in water, the particles of the solid separate and distribute evenly throughout the mixture. Sometimes two dissolved […]
Continue readingSpring Treasure Hunt: Wild Edible Science
For our Spring Treasure Hunt this year, we looked around the schoolyard and in our backyards for budding edible flowers and this is what we found so far – some being edible and some NOT. Blue-Eyed Grass (See Photo to left), Grape Hyacinth, Crocuses, Daffodils and Narcissus. Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrhynchium bellum) is a pretty 6-petalled native […]
Continue readingScience of Olfactory Response in Deer, Racoons and Coyotes – Saving our Edibles
In this article we discuss our landscape experiment of preventing racoons from reaping the entire harvest of the plum tree, while at the same time, welcoming and sharing the flowers with the resident deer. The racoons were eating all of the plums from the tree (not sharing!) and then leaving a huge mess afterward, with […]
Continue readingWhat makes Blue plant Oils Blue?
Answer: Azulene Have a look in your schoolyard and backyards, and see if you can find the Wild Flowers, Stones and/or Marine Life that contain Azulene (the chemical compound that would make them blue). Azulene is an organic compound, an isomer of naphthalene. Even though naphthalene itself has no color, azulene is dark blue, hence […]
Continue readingCreating a Platylope
How about a “platy-lope” – an animal that is half platypus and half antelope? This week, have your students create a new species, and write about and draw a picture of their animal. Have them examine the qualities of different species, and combine them into what they think would be the most adaptable survivable animal. […]
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