Science Zoo

Look who welcomed us at Beaver Brook! The caterpillar of Luna moth (Actias Luna)! 🐛 Beautiful lime-green with magenta/yellow spotting on the sides of the body. The one we met was the fully grown firth instar caterpillar (last stage of growth as a caterpillar) about 10cm. This beautiful creature will soon descend to the ground and use silk to bind dead leaves around to make itself a cozy home - cocoon, and starts its magnificent transformation.

Luna spend around 6-7 weeks in a body of caterpillar constantly eating and growing and then 2-3 weeks in a cocoon drastically changing its body to a new style, and, finally it is out for ONLY 1 WEEK in a body of moth dressed in a stunning green outfit with eyespots on both forewings and hind wings, and long, sometimes somewhat twisted tails! It is like if you would go to school in September in your regular body and then by the Thanksgiving you would fall asleep till early November and then suddenly woke up feeling yourself very light and new and attract a lot to the sky and certain trees so you begin to fly! Is not it amazing?! 🙂

Remember if you find one of those creatures, look at it and be amused by its story and then let it go where it belongs 🐛

Is not it adorable?! 😍

Right on little dudes! 🐢

Join Science Stroll at Woods Hole this Saturday 10am - 3pm! The whole institute will be there showing off their incredible work! Axolotl Lab will be there too :)

So much fun at the creeks or rivers right now! It is a mating season for jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata) and there are so many of them by the water! Also, lots of crayfish, just pick up rocks and most likely you can find one!

Beautiful Erosion "trees" at the Salisbury center beach! Can you find a pattern in those trees?

Do you take a piece of a broken ceramic cup and a glass jar with you if you are heading to the beach? :) We do take it with us!

Geologists use unglazed ceramic plate (it can be a piece of broken cup, bottom is usually unglazed) to check about minerals hardness which helps to identify them. This test is called streak test. It is super simple and fun for kids to use! Just scratch a rock that you found across that ceramic tile and see what happens! Do you see any color? If mineral is harder than ceramic tile it will not leave any trace on it and you will not be able to see any color. If mineral is softer than you will see a trace and sometime is has color! So out of your pile of rocks you can separate those that are relatively soft and knowing the streak color you can identify them!

Another useful tool is a glass plate (or any glass jar). Glass is harder than ceramic and if your mineral is able to leave a scratch on a glass it is quite hard one! Try it yourself and you will find out that not every rock can scratch a glass. If you happened to collect a bunch of white rocks, glass can help you to find out if you have quartz among those. Out of white rocks (might be calcite, gypsum, marble, quartz), only quartz will scratch a glass!

Enjoy collecting rocks on the beach and testing them out! We found quartz, hematite and coal this time :) Share what you found!

You can order ceramic and glass tile here.
These are amazing pocket size and easy to take with you!

https://www.homesciencetools.com/product/plate-ceramic-1-x-2-inches/

https://www.homesciencetools.com/product/plate-glass-1-x-2-inches/

Here is what kids think about Science :) And chocolate is important ingredient! Love it!

This is one of our favorite spots to visit in Florida! Rocks that you will find on this beach are called Coquina, made by shells and sand that are pressed together (compaction) and glued together (cementation). Coquina is a Sedimentary type of Rock (specifically Limestone). What is unique about this beach is that it has different stages of rock compaction and cementation at the same spot! It is so mesmerizing to see how time (million years!) changed slightly packed shells into a Limestone Rock where it is impossible to see individual shells! You can also find how time eroded Limestone Rock with almost perfectly cylindrical holes. Bonus: wildlife is abundant here! Our youngest crew member, Maria, met Great Blue Heron up close. They were about same height :)

When to visit. We keep visiting this beach for several years and during different seasons. It is always charming but can look very different from time to time! Rocks can be really exposed or covered up with a lot of sand if there were storms.

More information about Geology of this beach.
https://www.floridastateparks.org/learn/geology-coquina-rocks

Hello everyone! We are small Science Club that is focused on sharing Magic of Science! Join us to get connected to all our Outdoors Explorations that bring up different sides of Science and Kitchen Science that we love!