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Earth Science

Calling All STAR net Libraries: Help NASA Make a Better World Land Map!

2018-09-26T13:58:32-06:00

NASA needs your help photographing your local landscape through the new Land Cover tool in GLOBE Observer (GO). Why? One reason is to fill in details of the landscape that are too small for global land-mapping satellites to see. Land cover is critical to many different processes on Earth and contributes to a community’s vulnerability to disasters like fire, floods or landslides. Read more at http://go.nasa.gov/2NdWgwt. GO Land Cover kicked off with a challenge to map as much land as possible between Sept. 22, Public Lands Day, and Oct. 1, NASA’s 60th anniversary. Could you help by using the app to [...]

Calling All STAR net Libraries: Help NASA Make a Better World Land Map!2018-09-26T13:58:32-06:00

A Whale of an Adventure!

2018-08-01T22:44:47-06:00

Migration: noun. seasonal movement of animals from one region to another. "this butterfly's annual migration across North America" We recently addressed the topic of migration in a program, and it was a lot of fun. First, I asked the kids what it means to “migrate.” They came up with a very similar answer to the definition above. I asked what kinds of things migrate; they told me fish, birds, butterflies, bugs, “things that live in Africa.” I asked if people migrate, and they all said no… but then thought about it a little more. One or two of them said “maybe.” We talked about people who [...]

A Whale of an Adventure!2018-08-01T22:44:47-06:00

Animals in the Park!

2018-06-26T03:49:54-06:00

Summer Reading programs in the park have begun again for the year. So how to inform and entertain a variety of ages, in an outdoor setting? Animals! The theme for the second week was animals, and the first of the Tuesday/Thursday programs featured a live animal petting zoo. Well over 250 people showed up for that! We had two baby goats, two young sheep, a little pot-bellied pig, and a rabbit, all of whom seemed to actually enjoy the attention. Sunrock Farm, a local educational farm (https://www.sunrockfarm.org/), hand-raises the animals destined for both in-farm and outreach education, and they are used [...]

Animals in the Park!2018-06-26T03:49:54-06:00

Citizen Science at the Library: Science Action Club

2018-05-04T02:28:02-06:00

Recently, I've had the opportunity to take part in a great program sponsored by the California Academy of Sciences.  It's called the Science Action Club.  There are actually three different modules, or curricula, available - Bug Safari, Bird Scouts, and Cloud Quest.  I was able to receive the training for Bug Safari close to home.  At that training I learned that the last Bird Scouts training was being held the next weekend about four hours away.  I took the day off, got up really early, and took a road trip across the state to a great interactive museum, called the Discovery [...]

Citizen Science at the Library: Science Action Club2018-05-04T02:28:02-06:00

Rain, rain, and more rain. What will the worms do?

2018-04-05T02:29:08-06:00

  There's no way that anyone in my area hasn't noticed all of the rain we've had lately, but it wasn't until I was returning home from work one night to discover the steps to and my porch covered in a carpet of wriggling, desperate, earthworms seeking refuge from the water, that I realized just how much rain my community has received in the last few weeks.  I have often seen worms working their way across a sidewalk or driveway, hoping for drier earth on the other side, and I usually pick them up and give them a ride to higher [...]

Rain, rain, and more rain. What will the worms do?2018-04-05T02:29:08-06:00

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

2018-01-02T23:04:09-07:00

This is the time of the year when children in most every part of the country look forward to awakening to a fluffy white blanket of snow in which to play, to sled, to scoop into a bowl for snowcream, and most importantly, to get them out of a day at school.  In my part of the country these days, snow is fairly rare, and pretty much everything comes to a grinding halt as soon as there are a few inches on the ground. When I was a child, it seemed like there was a lot more of the icy white [...]

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!2018-01-02T23:04:09-07:00

The Science of Watersheds and Watershed Moments

2017-10-31T22:36:26-06:00

A few weeks ago, I was asked if I would be available and willing to help with a program for the local Boys & Girls Club. The friend who asked is a fellow Environmental Educator, and the Parks and Recreation Manager for the city of Covington, KY. She had been contacted by an employee of the Boys and Girls Club about providing STEM programs specifically related to pollution and trash and where they "end up." I agreed to help with the program as much as a favor for a friend as because I wanted to help provide the program. The program [...]

The Science of Watersheds and Watershed Moments2017-10-31T22:36:26-06:00

What is an Eclipse, Anyway? Create an Eclipse to Prepare for the Eclipse

2017-08-16T19:58:30-06:00

Like most everyone in the country, I'm getting ready for the eclipse.  The local science museum, about a mile away from my branch, will be hosting a viewing on the lawn on the day of the eclipse.  But me?... I'll be driving wherever I have to go to see totality.  I have my glasses (the proper, safe ones), I have my guide books to the best places to go to get the best view, I've rented a car that's in much better condition than mine, made my grocery list of snack foods to load into the rented car (some healthy, and [...]

What is an Eclipse, Anyway? Create an Eclipse to Prepare for the Eclipse2017-08-16T19:58:30-06:00

The Dirt on Soil

2017-07-15T06:38:52-06:00

This week at the Depot Park, we braved threatening thunderstorms, rain, and high humidity to learn the dirt on soils! Using both fiction and non-fictions books, we introduced the topics of soil, dirt, and mud before studying different types of soil, modeling the concept of percolation, making model soil horizons, and mud painting. Over the two days of the program, we introduced the theme with the books Mud Puddle, by Robert Munsch, and Miracle Mud: Lena Blackburne and the Secret Mud that Changed Baseball, by David A. Kelly. Both adults and kids were astonished to learn that the miracle mud of the story is [...]

The Dirt on Soil2017-07-15T06:38:52-06:00

Geology Rocks!

2017-06-23T22:03:57-06:00

This week, as part of my Summer Reading Depot Days programs in the park series, we addressed geology; and it rocked! As usual we began the program with some good books, including A Rock is Lively, by Dianna Hutts Aston, and Earthshake: Poems From The Ground Up, by Lisa Westberg Peters. A Rock is Lively gave us lots of good geology vocabulary, including discussion of sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rock, and the rock cycle. It talked about minerals, fossils, and more. Poetry from Earthshake included such concepts as the layers found within the earth, and reiterated about fossils, minerals, and the rock cycle [...]

Geology Rocks!2017-06-23T22:03:57-06:00
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