The hook, how a bur sticks.

Probably every day a student goes home with a big wodge of burs stuck to them.  While I watched a student trying to remove some burs I got to wondering about the hooks that allow burs to stick.  What do they look like? So, I pulled out my the PNNL clip/laser pointer macro lens and […]

Eerie Trail Cam Video

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Now Arriving – Pine Siskins…

When I got out of my car at Blair this morning, I heard a familiar sound, a welcome one that’s been absent here for a while.  A flock of about a dozen pine siskins were in the tree tops, and eventually came down to dine at the nyger feeder.  Siskins are birds of the conifer […]

Better Get My Homework Done…

I have some Grade 1 classes coming to visit the Blair OEE Centre beginning next week.   At school they are, or will be studying two science topics – Characteristics and Needs of Living Things, and Daily and Seasonal Cycles. Miss Morsink’s class from Crestview P.S. have been brainstorming some questions to ask when they get […]

Some close-up photos

I have been playing with the PNNL 1 dollar microscope.  It certainly works but it can be tricky getting good pictures out of it. I was looking around the internet for ways to improve image quality when I stumbled on this instructable for making a smartphone microscope using the lens from a laser pointer.  http://www.instructables.com/id/10-Smartphone-to-digital-microscope-conversion/ […]

1 Dollar Smartphone Microscopes… thanks PNNL.

A while ago Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Tweeted about their 1 dollar smartphone microscope. http://availabletechnologies.pnnl.gov/technology.asp?id=393 It involved some small glass beads and a 3D printed clip to hold the bead in front of the camera on a smart phone.  The larger beads can give you 100x magnification, smaller beads provide 350x and even 1000x magnification!  Wouldn’t […]

Cranes!

This morning while studying habitats with a class from Forest Hill, one of the students pointed up and said ‘look!’.  We all looked up to see 25 Sandhill Cranes flying in ‘V’ formation over the farm field, over our heads, and disappearing over the forest – calling as they flew!  It was quite exciting to […]

Aerial View of Laurel Creek

People often ask me if we see fewer animals at Laurel Creek now that we are surrounded by housing developments. The answer is that, as the land around Laurel Creek has become more developed, the property around the Laurel Creek Nature Centre has become a more diverse environment. Laurel Creek was once a farm. In […]

Good Night Deer

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Creatures of the Night

Here are three trail cam videos taken within seven hours on Halloween morning. The camera was placed right beside Laurel Creek. [wpvideo vjFmcaXg] [wpvideo 9XiCz1MO] [wpvideo KnozNZR2] There were eleven videos in total with two different raccoons, two different beavers, and three different deer. On Friday, I dropped the camera on the floor and everything […]

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