Outside Te Papa

 Outside Te Papa is a bush walk complete with a cave including glow-worms and stalagmites and stalegtites.

 we wandered over a swing bridge,

 investigated some rock and fossil formations,

 explored a cave or two! We walked amongst preschoolers from a Te Kōhanga Reo. It was wonderful to hear the little ones chatting(and even giving cheek to their supervisors!) in their own language.

 Te Kōhanga Reo is a total immersion Māori language family programme for young children from birth to six years of age.It was begun in 1981 by the Department of Māori Affairs in response to Māori concern to ensure the continuing survival of the Mäori language.At Kohanga Reo all education and instruction is delivered in te reo maori.
 

 Later in our New Zealand visit we were privileged to stay with a couple whose grandson is attending one of these maori language nests."More than half of the world's 7,000 languages are expected to die out by the end of the century, often taking with them irreplaceable knowledge about the natural world, Harrison said."Harrison and Gregory Anderson""Most of what we know about species and ecosystems is not written down anywhere, it's only in people's heads"Harrison and Gregory Anderson.When a language is lost, centuries of human thinking about animals, plants, mathematics, and time may be lost with it.(ref:http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070918-languages-extinct_2.html)

Para Wirra Recreation Park

We spent  a very enjoyable time at Para Wirra Recreation park. We have volunteered as part of a small group to do some weed clearing in this park. As we drove in we noted the results of a deliberate burn in October/November last year. We admired the new growth establishing itself. After lunch and a chat with the park ranger we went to mark the area we will be working in. Finally we collected some samples for our herbariums we will be making over the year.

learning about topographical maps with ranger Steve

marking our specific work area

looking into the centre of our area

another view of our area

still another perimeter marker

final marker

Journey North Week Six and Seven

Because we have been out so much doing lots of exciting things my time to write up and blog our Journey north data has been limited. so I am incorporating our findings for 2 weeks.

m/class    wk1  wk2      wk3       wk4     wk5       wk6      wk7       wk8      wk9      wk10

#1	10.29	10.41	10.54	11.08	11.22	11.36	11.51
#2	13.32	13.21	13.10	12.59	12.46	12.34	12.21
#3	11.20	11.25	11.31	11.38	11.45	11.52	11.59
#4	13.52	13.38	13.25	13.10	12.56	12.40	12.25
#5	8.45	9.12	9.39	10.08	10.38	11.08	11.38
#6	18.43	16.44	16.04	15.52	*14.59	14.06	13.15
#7	12.04	12.04	12.04	12.05	12.05	12.05	12.06
#8	12.49	12.44	12.38	12.33	12.27	12.20	12.13
#9	10.36	10.46	10.59	11.12	11.24	11.39	11.52
#10	9.44	9.53	10.06	10.30	10.54	11.19	11.44
us	14.46	13.37	13.26	13.11	12.56	12.41	12.26

 Using the data we determined that :
In the North West hemisphere were #1,#5,#10
In the North East hemisphere were #3,#7,#9
In the South West hemisphere were #4
In the South East hemisphere were #2,#6,#8,and us!
We were able to predict the degrees in all whose sunrise was on the 12th March in UT but not for the following whose sunrise was on the 11th in UT:#3,#6,#7. We think that's right! And so we colored the degree section that the others occured in on a map.(see image below).

As you can see 2 classes share the same "possibilities"!

Crystal garden

 Not a very good picture but as you can see our crystals are growing albeit not on the top of the seed but on the sides.

 Today we started another type of crystals. We used charcoal to grow the crystals on.

 The solution we made up of 2Tbs of salt,bluing agent, ammonium and water.

 Ds said the fumes were horrible! To add variety f colour and to make the crystals more visible we placed different food coloring on the charcoal before adding the solution to it.

Above is the result after a week. We think they look very pretty.Below in the right of the reflection you can see what was once the Home for the Destitute in Adelaide. The building might look very picturesque now but the conditions inside when it was functioning were incredibly harsh.We were privileged today to see a play  at the Migration museum that was based on the stories of the people who were forced to live there.

Growing Crystals

 Ds has been wanting to do some crystal growing for ages. He is wanting to use this experience to complete his scientist badge before he goes up to scouts(no pressure!)

 after carefully reading the instructions

 He opened the packet of ingredients!

 This is what we got.

 He had to use boiling water with the sachet.

Here is the result. Now we wait for  something to happen.
Note to all homeschooling crystal growers:Please share  links to pictures of your crystal growing experiences in  your homeschooling. We are keen to try different crystals. One really cool looking crystals requires allum. Where can I get this, any ideas?

Journey North Week Five

This weeks clue concerned the prime meridian. Younger ds was fascinated with the image used("how did they do it, how can I make a photo look like that, its so cool!"etc...I can see another rabbit trail developing!)

We were asked to discover:How far east or west of the Prime Meridian we lived (in degrees)? What our time difference from Greenwich (in hours and minutes) was ?

Waratah Adventurers at Botanic Park

We are part of a homeschooling group that meets in various parks to interact together and explore nature. This is our first excursion this term.

don't fall in!

then there were 3

now there are 4!

Don't you just love the hive of activity in the foreground and the uni students in the background looking tired from all their studies in the world of academia!

Waratah means red flowering tree

Journey North Week Four

"Looking for a Mystery Class clue?
This year's 10 Mystery Classes are located in eight different time zones. When daylight saving time occurs, the 10 Mystery Classes will be located in eight different time zones." This is our clue for the week.Below is our data for this week:

m/class    wk1  wk2      wk3       wk4     wk5       wk6      wk7       wk8      wk9      wk10

#1	10.29	10.41	10.54	11.08
#2	13.32	13.21	13.10	12.59
#3	11.20	11.25	11.31	11.38
#4	13.52	13.38	13.25	13.10
#5	8.45	9.12	9.39	10.08
#6	18.43	16.44	16.04	15.52
#7	12.04	12.04	12.04	12.05
#8	12.49	12.44	12.38	12.33
#9	10.36	10.46	10.59	11.12
#10	9.44	9.53	10.06	10.30
us	14.46	13.37	13.26	13.11

  And talking of time, care to share your favourite time titled/themed books for kids: I'm starting with "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeline Engle "Tom's Midnight Garden"by Philippa Pearce "Grimble" by Clement Freud

"Earthfasts" by William Mayne
"A traveler in Time" Alison Utley