In the Kitchen, with -- PappaZ?

Okay, we made the rocks, in class. We kneaded the soil, added water, and pressed the dough into a paper bowl. If they had too much water, the munchkins were instructed to sprinkle some sand, on top, to absorb the excess water.

It was kinda cool to hear kids say things like, sift the sand and knead the dough. If you wonder why we offer Family and Consumer Science (i.e.: Home Ec), there you have the reason. The life lessons taught by Mrs. Beard really do pay-off.

Since today's lesson was rockin', I played some tunes that featured the word rock. Elton John's "Crocodile Rock," and Elvis Presley singing, "Jailhouse Rock." Joan Jett and the Blackhearts', "I Love Rock-n-Roll" was equated to "Hey! That's on Guitar Hero III!!" -- Oiy, I'm gettin' old.

Have a great weekend.

Wow!! We Made Dirt Piles!

Wait a minute. We were supposed to have rocks! We mixed all the ingredients together, added the wet stuff, and set them on the windowsill to dry.

So, why did it come out the way we started?

Hmm. When you make cookies, unless you bake them, you have cookie dough. Perhaps, if we added heat, from friction, from pressure?

AHHHHH, we needed to knead the wet soil into mudpies!?!? We needed to squeeze out the excess water and pore spaces to permit the soil particles to bond and form rock.

So, guess what we will do tomorrow? We get to play with MUD!!!!!!!! By Monday, we will have rock.

Have a great night

Rock On, In Science

Making and examining sandstone. Tomorrow, shale and conglomerate. PappaZ would not answer any questions. My remark was, "Does your mama cook and serve your food? Does she pre-chew it for you, also?"

An Amphibian in an Age of Fishes

Yes, fishes. Fish is plural for a population of fish, but, fishes denotes a variety of populations. Therefore, an age of fishes -- the Devonian Age -- 350 million years ago, when Lycoming County was located about 20-degrees south of the equator and this region was a sub-tropical area receiving the surface runoff from a 40,000-feet high mountain range.

We learned this from a fossil dig conducted on Route 120, near Northbend in Clinton County.

The munchkins used the computer lab and held their hands to the computer screen to see the bony fin of a Hynerpeton Bassetti, was the same size as their hand. WOW!! Kinda makes a musky look tiny.

Better yet! Hyneria lindae -- a 12-feet long aquatic predator. The teeth of this bad boy were recovered and displayed in a photo slideshow presented by the Philadelphia Inquirer in December.

I got all kinds of links to this dig site, including a link to the Keystone Central School District (Lock Haven area), which featured this fossil find in a website the 5th and 6th graders created two years ago.

Go to my website and click on "fossils" in the grey column.

Have a great night folks -- me? Gonna dream about landing that Hyneria lindae in my dad's 10-feet long rowboat.

We Made Limestone

We made limestone, today. Which, led us to talk about how limestone forms in nature. Which led us to reveal our area was ocean floor 360 million years ago, which took us to fossils and from there, we talked about how Carbon-14 dating is used.

Have a great night.