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

[wpvideo WiviACJy]

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 […]

Don’t Blink or You’ll Miss The…

[wpvideo QMMBf3b4] I only got one short video last night before the trail cam batteries died. Do you know what kind of animal it is? The scientific name for this animal is Neovison vison. Google it if you’re not sure…

Trail Cam Fun

Mama always said, “Trail Cams are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” We put the camera out in the forest at Laurel Creek last night. Got this at 5:30 PM: [wpvideo XWqC3Wxb] Tonight I set the camera up beside the stream where beavers have been working. And I […]

Raccoon Video

I put the trail cam on video mode last night, and got 65 fifteen-second videos of animals coming to eat the sunflower seeds. Most of the videos were raccoons. Count the raccoons in this video! [wpvideo qi6zj4Zk] The raccoons came all night from 7:30pm to 5:30 am. Here is a rare non-raccoon video: [wpvideo LY7uv8QP] […]

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