Burning the Midnight Oil

B is still working with Marty on his project. He's not ready to reveal the final written product, but getting very close :) Keep watching.

Marty in Silloutte
Programming
Testing
"The Thinker" rethinking.

Watch Marty work!!! Believe me, when B is ready to reveal the final product, you'll be much more impressed. But B does give a little clue in the video as to what he's working on. Can you guess??

Yet Another Live Project

So instead of waiting until St. Patrick's Day (ha, ha, to my CA friends), B started yet another live project today. This project is actually part of his school community service. At least that's how he sold it to me, but I know way better than that :)

Below is the new habitat B has designed and built for his Fire Bellied Newts. He thinks it almost looks like a zoo enclosure where you can see inside their hiding place (hold to the lower right of the tank).

B's plan is to get these newts acclaimated to their new habitat here at home (in the down stairs bathroom - bet the realtor loves showing this house). Then he is going to take them to the school library where they will be on display with a bulletin board type information display. Pretty cool project, if you ask his teacher, because it kills a bunch of birds (topics) with one stone. Like science, community service, research, and language arts. I say, "That's using your brain B!" Plus it's a pretty unique way to get a new pet without the parent saying no. All in the name of education :)

If you are interested in Fire Bellied Newts, here are a few sites you might visit:

care sheet - http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/salamanders/a/firebelliednewt_2.htm,

http://www.grizzlyrun.com/Pets/Amphibians/Newts/Fire_Bellied_Newt/Default.htm,

http://www.newts.org/~swan/herps/Cynops-1.html, and there are a TON more sites on the web.

The Gift that Gives off Light?? - GloFish

What mother wouldn't love to get a Glo Fish ecosystem for Valentine's Day??? Yes, only a gift that a mother could love. At least the mother of an animal/fish loving boy like B!!!

So what is it exactly that I got? I got a partially self sustaining ecosystem. Inside my ecosytem there lives 2 GloFish, a snail, a plant and a ghost shrimp. Plus a lovely, self made Valentine that described my gift. Below are the pictures of my actual ecosystem:

The fish are circled below.

So inside this styrofoam cube is an almost complete ecosystem for the 2 fish. The snail and ghost shrimp will do all the cleaning, the plant will provide the necessary oxygen, and all I need to do is feed the fish every other day. Simple and a very unique table center piece! (wonder what our realtor will think of this on the kitchen table?!) B definately gets credit for the most unique Valentine gift that I recieved.

Here is what my Valentine said (and below what it looked like):

"To: Mom, This present is a partially self sustaining ecosystem. It also shows our realtionship and our future. The fish are us; they are pink to show our love betwen each other. The plant is our house that shelters us from the weather. The snail is the garbage man and sewer system. The shrimp is the doctor and the dentist. The open water is opportunities awaiting us. From: B"

B says the opportunities are about selling our house. I've decided to name the two fish after us. They are Learning and Example. Can you guess which of these is who???

These fish were originally just plain Zebra Danios. But some scientist had the bright idea to genetically modify a zebra danio, and the result was GloFish - which come in three colors: red, green and orange. Now that was thinking - danios sell for .99 each, and GloFish sell for $5 each. Not a bad way to make a profit from genetic modification. That's not exactly why they were made fluorescent, but it sounds good, right?! Actually they were bred this way to be used in contaiminated waterways and the fluorescence made them easy for researchers to see. Then they became popular in the tropical fish markets.

Hope you are loved as much as I am, and that someone showed you!!! And I wasn't the only one who got treats today. I ordered B a heart shaped pizza for lunch with pepperoni and black olives (his favorite) and he got a small bag of Valentine treat candy. He probably would have preferred a live animal, but I wasn't that creative :) Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Oh, and an update on my live Christmas present. Remember my pink pea puffers? I'm happy to say that I still have 3 out of 4 alive. Thankfully, B takes very good care of them for me.

LEGO NXT LAB

Armed with new books and dad home for the weekend, guess what went on at our house?! "LEGO NXT Lab: My Boys Gone Wild," is what we are going to name this one :)

B got the robot built before T got home. B wanted help with the program. The robot is "Marty: A Performance Art Robot." (see we are trying to get more art in our curriculum, lol). So, meet Marty :)
B chose him specifically with a gift giving reason involved. So they have spent all day working on the programming and they are making progress. Come into the lab and take a look around.

Programming Section of the Lab:

Testing Section of the Lab:

Slight thrill of victory on the face of my favorite robot engineer, B.
Okay, just get this over with :)

Can you tell what Marty is writing???? You'll have to check back on future posts to see the final product of B, T and Marty!!!!

Who knows what will come next?!?!

Inspired to Share

I have been inspired to look up opportunities to work as a citizen naturalist/scientist. So here is a list of what I found. If you are interested in any of these areas, check them out and see if you can get involved!!!

We have done the nest box survery with Cornell in that past. B built the boxes for screech owls, but we never got any to nest. The process was still fun though.

Citizen Science Projects and Opportunities

BIRDS
- Project Feeder Watch Cornell Univ. www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw
- Mich. Audubon Society/ www.michiganaudubon.org
- Kalamazoo Nature Center www.naturecenter.org
- Christmas Bird Counts National Audubon Society www.audubon.org/bird/cbc
- National Nestbox Network / The Birdhouse Network Cornell University www.birds.cornell.edu/birdhouse
- Misc. programs at Cornell Univ. www.birds.cornell.edu
including Finch Irruptions and Urban Birds
- LoonRanger Program Michigan Audubon Society
Michigan Loon Protection Association www.michiganloons.org
- Great Backyard Bird Count www.birdsource.org/gbbc
- Nation-wide volunteer bird-feeder count on Feb. 13 –16, 2004
- General Bird Watching American Birding Association www.americanbirding.org
- www.birdcount.org

BATS
- North American Bat House Research Project www.Batcon.org
- Bat Conservation International Austin TX World-wide bat education, Organization for Bat Conservation www.batconservation.org

BUTTERFLIES & DRAGONFLIES
- Journey North Web-based participatory learning, variety of bird & non-bird species, www.learner.org
- North American Butterfly Association Web-based life histories, 4th of July Butterfly Count, www.naba.org
- Monarch Larva Monitoring Project Life history of Monarch Butterfly / Milkweed patch study, www.mlmp.org
- http://www.fs.fed.us/monarchbutterfly/citizenscience/index.shtml
- Xerces Society / All insects and invertebrates, great links, www.xerces.org

AMPHIBIANS
- Frog Watch USA National Wildlife Federation & UGGS, www.nwf.org/frogwatchusa
- Michigan Frog and Toad Survey Michigan DNR state-wide spring frog and toad monitoring program, www.michigan.gov/dnr
- Frog and Toad Deformities Tracking site for frogs and toad found with deformities, http://frogweb.nbii.gov
- N. American Amphibian Monitoring Program Nation-wide amphib. Monitoring program. Great links page, www.mp2-pwrc.usgs.gov/naamp

Misc.
- EarthDial A planet-wide sundial network with coordination and tie to Mars probe.
The Planetary Society, planetary.org/mars/earthdial
- Lichen Mapping Example photos, maps and tracking site for lichens (Univ. of Kansas), www.Pathfinderscience.net
- Habitat Preservation The Nature Conservancy www.nature.org/michigan
- Or a local conservancy (like SW Michigan Land Conser.) www.swmlc.org
- Green Building technology and certification, United States Green Building Council www.usgbc.org
- Great Lakes Research and Education Center www.nature.nps.gov/learningcenters
- http://www.chicagowilderness.org/involve/volunteer/index.cfm
- http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/citizen_science/citizen_science.html (there is a star count here for fall 2008)

WARNING GRAPHIC PHOTOS!!!! - Feline Necropsy with 4H Vet Science

How cool is it when you get an opportunity to do a necropsy with a vet??? Well we had no idea until tonight. So first you might ask, "What is a necropsy?" It is an autopsy done on an animal.

The 4H Vet Science group that B belongs to focuses on - vet science (duh). For tonight's meeting we had a local vet come with actual specimens (cats) and did a teaching necropsy with a small group of students.

WARNING!!! The below photos are graphic so you might need to skip them!!! Not rated for those with a queasy stomach. Go NO further if you don't actually want to see photos of the necropsy!!!

Case Study Details - this necropsy was being done a cat that had been euthanized earlier in the day. The cat had been brought into the clinic the day before with complaints of the owner that the cat wouldn't eat. This cat had been a patient at the clinic for 1 1/2 with persistent urinary troubles and the doctor and owner assumed it was a blocked bladder. After palpatating the bladder the doctor found that was not the case. The cat's temperature was 92 degrees (normal is 100.2-105), so he was extremely cold. The cat's blood sugar was 32 (normal is 78-120), so that was extremely low. After 24 hours of observation, IV and heating pad therapy there had been no change. The owners felt with the cat's advanced age and continual health problems that it was best to let him go. The doctor brought this specimen tonight to see if upon performing a necropsy she could determine the real cause of the illness.

Okay, now I've given you ample time to back out of viewing this post if you can't stand medically explicit photos. I'll start slow, but it won't be long before you are going to see some gross internal stuff!!

First the students had to stretch the cat. Since this cat had recently been put down (euthanized), there was not much rigor mortis. But in order to perform the necropsy the cat needs to be laid on its dorsal (back) side and stretched so the thorax and abdomen area are easily accessible.

That young, lady with the + on her shirt is the veterinarian, Dr. Michelle. Talk about WONDERFUL!!! Not only did she talk to the kids like they had a brain, but she was so encouraging to them and really wanted the to jump right in. She was not limiting at all, answered every one of their questions and really welcomed them asking and learning. We could not have asked for a better teaching experience. Although I did comment to the leader that Dr. Michelle looked like she was young enough to be my daughter :) (showing my signs of age I guess)
Abdomen incision made with a scalpel. What you see is just fat deposits that have been removed by one of the students.
This would be the small intentines (which look normal and healthy) and the bladder red ball in the lower part of the opening). The bladder is clearly inflamed, larger than normal, and Dr. Michelle suspects this to be part of the problem.
Mr. Michell stops to answer all kinds of excellent questions from the students!

One of the students has removed one of the kidneys and is working on cutting it open, like Dr. Michelle said, "cut it open like you would a bagel." Once the kidney was removed the doctor thought it looked normal size and color, but was very 'lumpy' and she suspected that all played a part in the problems that this cat (Simon) was having.
Cross section view of the kidney.
B makes a thorax cut from the abdominal incision.
B is listening about the heart and lungs, which the female student closest in this photo is actually working to remove some of the fatty issue from around the heart.
Normal, healthy, feline heart.

Once they were done discussing the lungs, Dr. Michelle asked how many lobes of liver did a cat have? A cat has 5 liver lobes.
Normal, healthy liver lobe.
Once the necropsy was completed the students had to suture the specimen back up. About a year ago these students were taught how to suture and they have been (supposedly) practicing on their suture boards. Dr. Michelle gave them a refresher course.
And then they began.
Final findings: Dr. Michelle concluded that based on the cat's past urinary/bladder problems and current symptoms that Simon probably had an advanced double kindey infection, which was brought on by the long history of urinary and bladder problems. There is no way to know, without blood tests if Simon could have ever fully recovered or the extent to the damage the infection was doing.

The family who donated Simon for our teaching workshop was glad that these future veterinarian students could get the benefit of learning from their cat. Simon will be creamated sometime this week and laid to rest. We are grateful to Simon, his family and Dr. Michelle for making this learning project possible!

Now really, how cool is that??!!!

Birds of Prey

Thank you Huron River Watershed Council!!!! During their open house, which was held this evening, we were treated to a wonderful presentation and discussion about some of the local area birds of prey. The Leslie Science Center (some of you know that after about the age of 7 hasn't been much challenge for us) did a wonderful presentation tonight. Must be when they are presenting to adults the presentation is better. The woman from the center was so informative, and adults really do ask better questions than kindergarteners :) At the open house she was there with 3 birds and a few interprative items. Who knew the Leslie Science Center now had a raptor program??!!! Check out what we got to see below.

Great Horned Owl



Outside of a Great Horned Owl wing. Find out what is special about their wings here.
Underside of the Great Horned Owl wing
Talons and leg of a Great Horned Owl

American Kestrel Eastern Screech Owl Talons and leg of a Red Tailed Hawk

If you are really interested in owls, check out the Owl Page. There are TONS of pages on the web on owls, from info, to calls, to statistics, and photos - you can even get owl ring tones (who knew). You can even visit a virtual owl pellet dissection website!

Although the HRWC was doing this as an open house for their membership drive, we were happy to participate in the educational part of the evening. And might I recommend, if you are in the Ann Arbor area, taking another look at the Leslie Science Center. I think maybe they have upped their game a little (we plan to check out the outdoor bird enclosures sometime this week).

Just when you think you've heard or seen enough on birds of prey, you learn a little bit more each time you attend a demonstration!!!