The Herons have been really into puns recently which made this one very hard to resist. Waaaay back in January we had the distinct pleasure of having a group of St. Olaf biologitsts, under the leadership of Emily Mohl, come and teach us about invertebrates. It's amazing how much one can learn in an afternoon.
After mastering the concept of just what an invertebrate was and then creating a vast list of invertebrates, the Herons split into two groups. One looked at how invertebrates survive cold weather (burrowing, freezing solid and then unfreezing (crazy) and experiencing chemical changes that enable them to not freeze (anti-freeze blood...equally crazy.) The other group looked at goldenrod galls - splitting them apart and trying to find the larvae inside (many had already been discovered by chickadees). Most of the larvae we found were juicy gall flies which re-animated as they warmed up in our classroom (June found them delicious). One student found a different kind of larva which she identified using a dichotomous key.
It was an amazing afternoon - which sparked so many questions. A gall club was formed to collect more galls (five were found at the next recess and we promptly stowed them in the freezer, much to my colleagues' chagrin.) and our (long dead) wooly bear caterpillar was re-examined because we found out from Emily's students that the Wooly Bear has all three mechanisms for surviving winter - it burrows, has chemical changes and can survive being frozen solid. Crazier and crazier.
Speaking of crazy animal shenanigans - March Mammal Madness is about to start again. Fourth grade families, you can learn about it all here. Get your brackets set and let the games begin.
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