Last week right before I got sick during our WEEK of FIELD TRIPS! I kid you not, it was insane, three in one week. The first one was to Inner Space Caverns.
We’ve gone once before, but then the kids were a little young to absorb much scientifically, and they also were too scared of their uncle who kept grabbing them as sudden noises happened……… Yeah……. big brothers, they don’t seem to outgrow certain things.
We observed what our guide called the “chicken nugget bat,” which is different from the more common bat in the area, “Mexican Free-Tailed Bat,” but they also eat insects, so it’s a good thing in my book.
This has again brought up the idea of keeping a bat house in our backyard. Does anyone have one?
This cave was discovered when they were building the interstate near us, they were putting in sounding holes and found out it was hollow. So they drilled a big hole and lowered a guy on a rope with a flashlight. I don’t think I would have done that……..
We learned about the different formations in caves. The highlighted formation is called the “kissing column,” in about 60 years the stalactite and the stalagmite will have grown together. It’s not there yet.
I’m still trying to think of a good follow on activity for this? What can you think of?
Let’s see what others did this week:
Each week I’m spotlighting a few posts that were shared previously. Many posts get linked up later in the week and they don’t always get as many clicks as they deserve, so I’m trying to spotlight a few every week.
I love how Learning Table did a great hands on animal sorting into Kingdom, Phylum, etc…
Footprints in Time shared this great candle experiment to show light traveling in a straight line. It’s a really cool idea, and I could see it being used for astronomy too.
I love how All Things Beautiful shared a pasta dichotomus key sort. She did a great job of explaining this very useful science tool in a way that elementary kiddos will understand.
Thanks for featuring us this week!
What fun. You could grow your own stalagmites. https://chemistry.about.com/od/crystalrecipes/a/sodacrystals.htm Also Unit Studies By Amanda Bennett has a great Cavernous Caves unit study that just came out.
We learned about bats earlier this year and unfortunately I couldn’t find anywhere in GA to go view live ones at that time. But in a couple weeks a local nature center is going to have some bats visiting for a Halloween event and the kids are super excited.
Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett link https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?cl=149184&c=ib&aff=171270
I’d be excited to see them too. I think bats are fascinating creatures.
Spooky! Interesting!! I would probably go in the cave , but would be scared at the same time. Thank you for sharing.
This one is fairly wide open for the most part, so it didn’t feel too overwhelming, but I can think of some caves that I’d be freaked out by.
That’s so amazing to me that they make these discoveries by doing something like building an interstate. It’s weird to think about all of the undiscovered beauty hidden underneath us.
I know, it amazes me how some of our discoveries are made.
We don’t have a bat house, but I like the idea!
I do too. I’m toying with it, first I’d have to figure out where…….
How neat that you have caves close enough for a visit. This is on my list of things to do. Bat house sounds cool!
Thanks for featuring us. The trip to the cave looks fun. My son would freak out if he sees a bat in a cave.