We arrived and milled about, checking out various displays. Daegan really liked the rocket launcher (you select a load, an amount of fuel, and see if you can make the rocket hit the ceiling):

The scheduled day began with a presentation about life as an astronaut, with lots of NASA film footage and some artefacts for the kids to examine. Here’s Gareth checking out the macaroni and cheese packet, with velcro circles on the back so it can be “attached” the the astronaut’s special dinner tray (which uses velcro and magnets to keep items from floating all over):

We learned how astronauts do all the necessary things in space: eat, drink, shower, sleep, and yes, even use the bathroom. Remember, there is no up or down in outer space:

We then had a short break before the next class, allowing the kids to explore a bit more. Both boys loved the “how to fly an airplane” demo—there was a lot of wind blowing towards you (note Gareth’s hair) and if you manipulated the controls correctly, you could get the airplane to lift off the ground.

Then it was time to build your own launching rocket, using paper, tape, a film canister (remember them?) and ‘fuel’ of alka-seltzer and water:

Daegan’s finished rocket:

Gareth’s rocket being alka-seltzered and put in the pan in the corner, for lift-off:

Next it was on to a group project, to build a “monster machine” to help humans live on a new planet that has been discovered that can support life. The boys’ groups made a rover with solar panel and windmill for energy source, and it could plow snow as well as act as a heater. It was dubbed “Solar-wind rover…aka koala” so as to incorporate everyone’s ideas.

Each group then went up on stage, said their names and explained their monster machine. And yes, my little hams quite enjoyed having a microphone:

We had lunch, then headed off to Star Lab, a portable constellation dome they set up in a corridor of the airport. Yeah, it raised a few eyebrows.

Inside Star Lab the kids learned about constellations and their myths. Gareth was quite enchanted by this part, and came home to tell Jim about how the constellation Cancer has no stars visible to the naked eye—you need a telescope. I found the description of Leo’s stars as forming a backwards question mark quite amusing. That’s my sign, and at times I feel indeed like an enigma of an enigma.

In the final presentation of the day, we learned a bit more about NASA history (including the tragedies, something I commend them for not ignoring), as well as about Newton’s Three Laws. Gareth got to go up on stage to help demonstrate the second law, by shooting two differently weighted foam balls at a nervous volunteer (who was a great sport).

Daegan got to help demonstrate the third law, about equal and opposite reactions:

The day ended with a couple of complimentary rides. We all went on a space shuttle time travel one (which allowed me to confront simultaneously my motion sickness AND claustrophobia—you are completely sealed in the dark in that one—arrggh!). And then a flying one the boys did solo:

All in all, a really fun day of learning. My favourite fact of the day: I didn’t realize that Calgary airport is an emergency shuttle landing site (not that it matters now), as we have a runway the required length (5 kms). If you haven’t been to Spaceport before, go check it out. They have a homeschool day coming up in January. Give them a call (or check their website if/when they update it) for details.

There was a nice range of fossils for hands-on exploration:

There was also a section with minerals, as well as metals. Here, Daegan lifted the different metals, which were arranged from lightest to heaviest (left-to-right). Having played trumpet since I was a kid, I have to say I was quite surprised at how heavy a solid block of brass was!

The scientists and volunteers there were as friendly and helpful as always. This is the aspect of these shows I enjoy seeing the most: my science-loving kids interacting with mentors and role-models.

Gareth spent quite a bit of time with the microscope (note to self: time to buy one of these for our homeschool!):

And Daegan entered a contest to win a bag of fossils.

A fun way to spend an hour or two. Keep an eye out for their next show—check the library program guides. Or contact them directly, at Calgary Science Network. They do presentations for kids and schools.

We began our day with a stop at Horseshoe Canyon a little before Drumheller, in what seemed like gale-force winds. The badlands landscape is always worth the stop, IMO:

After saying hello to the family of ceratopsian statues outside:

We headed straight for the new Alberta Unearthed exhibit. I really enjoyed it. Some of my favourites were the 62-cm (about 25-inches) across ammonite; that’s my iphone in the second pic to give a sense of perspective. The pictures don’t do justice to how iridescent it was. Imagine the shiniest penny ever, with glimmers of green and reds and gold. Simply stunning.

I also liked seeing the ‘Black Beauty’ skeleton. This is a T Rex that has been coloured by the mineral manganese seeping into the bones. One of the most distinctive dino skeleton fossils anywhere:

The kids were surprised at how big some dinosaur’s eggs were:

My very favourite fossil was this almost entirely intact Gorgosaurus:

I’ve never seen a better preserved claw:

And I loved the details about the find on the display board, with the highlighted / captioned sentence: “Nineteen people and two all-terrain vehicles were required to flip this specimen…”

Up next was the ‘Women in Palaeontology’ exhibit along a corridor:

It began with Mary Anning, as you’d expect:

But quickly moved on to unfamiliar (to me, anyways) names, like Englishwoman Mary Ann Woodhouse (wife of Gideon Mantell; she was the finder of the famous iguanadon tooth, as well as illustrator of his books); German Tilly Edinger, founder of palaeoneurology—study of fossil brains; and Canadian-born Karen Chin, the world’s leading expert on coprolites (fossilized poop).

It wasn’t the most kid-friendly (hands-on) part of the museum, but I talked to the boys about this section in great detail over lunch. Led to some interesting discussions about the nature of prejudice, the accuracy of ‘history’, the downplaying of contributions to world culture/knowledge from various groups (women, people of colour, non-Christians), etc. Daegan was so taken by the injustice of it all (‘Why do I know Gideon Mantell’s name, but not his wife?’) he told Jim about this display when we got home. Of course, lunch was also spent on lighter matters, like how to make letters of the alphabet out of french fries.

After lunch we spent some time with hands-on displays:

and even made our own hands-on display. Here’s Gareth using this microscope originally aimed at a mite on a midge trapped in amber to check out his new carnotaurus toy:

One of my favourite hands-on displays shows the role of camouflage in the evolutionary process. It’s simply harder for a predator (Gareth) to catch the camouflaged (red) butterflies among the red flowers, giving them a better chance at reproducing (a mix of yellow, orange, and red butterflies light up):

Total catch:

We also spent quite a bit of time checking out the best submissions to last year’s Prehistoric Arts contest. Daegan wants to enter this year:

This was the overall winner in the upper grades category. Impressive, no?

We then did one last tour of the museum, hitting some of our favourite spots:

Despite being through this museum several times in my life, I find something new every visit. On this trip, I learned why the K-T Boundary—the dividing layer of rock above which dinosaur fossils are not found—has a K in it. Since it divides the Cretaceous from the Tertiary period, shouldn’t it be C-T, not K-T?

And both boys spotted this display, of a tooth coming in in a dinos mouth. No doubt teeth are much on the boys’ minds lately, with Gareth recently losing his first tooth, and Daegan getting his orthodontic palate spacer appliance in on Tuesday:

On the way back to the car, after saying goodbye to the dino statue family:

Daegan found a cricket (grasshopper?), which he shared with Gareth, pointing out its long ovipositor, and beginning to lecture us about how the females use this in fall to lay their eggs deep in the ground to survive the winter. I was reminded once again of Daegan’s on-going dilemma: Should I be a palaeontologist or entomologist when I grow up, Mom?

We had a few minutes to check out the large retail store before heading downstairs for the factory tour:

The boys liked some of the displays upstairs, like this one showing cocoa beans and other ingredients Bernard Callebaut uses in their chocolates:

We then headed down a flight of stairs to a long narrow hallway. There were windows all the way along so you could see the factory, and different parts were labelled (e.g.,  “panning machine”, “cooling tunnel”, and “mould spinner”, which you can see in the centre of the pic (to the left of the fan) whizzing Santa’s around. Yes, Christmas season is such a large one that they are creating chocolates for it already!):

We were able to watch chocolate-covered pretzels being made, first by being placed on the conveyor belt to be covered in chocolate by machine:

Then white chocolate decoration was added by hand:

Lots of the white chocolate ended up on the belt not the pretzels, and it was collected in a bin at the end. I figured they’d melt it down and use it again, but the tour guide said that it would be thrown out as some milk chocolate was cross-contaminating it. Now you know where you can find some tasty treats dumpster-diving if that is your kind of thing!

There was also a collection of ‘reject’ pretzels, which looked perfectly tasty to me. Many were two pretzels stuck together because they went through the enrobing machine too close together. Hungry yet?

The acceptable pretzels were then bagged, again by hand:

On the other side of the hallway were pictures and captions explaining various steps in the chocolate-making process. Gareth wanted me to take a pic of this large bunny as it reminded him of Bugs (we’re also in a Looney Tunes phase right now). I learned they hold the mold closed with magnets, and you can see the little circle inserts on the edges where the magnets would go:

On the way back upstairs I asked the boys to stand by the carved chocolate inukshuk for a pic, and they hammed it up in a predictable way:

There were free samples as well (surprise! they disappeared too fast to get a pic!) and I bought the boys a small treat each: their ages. (Despite looking all dreamy-eyed at the 9, upon arriving at the cash Daegan decided he’d rather have a dark chocolate bar with hazelnuts. Fine by me, and cheaper too! ):

The tour was quick, and the boys enjoyed it. It was also uber-popular with local HSers (how many of us were in that hallway? 40? 50?) which made it hard to hear the tour guide. Jim said he would like to go sometime and the boys are keen to go back (more free samples!) so perhaps we’ll try to arrange another smaller showing. Thanks again to local HS Mom Jessica for arranging this! I feel so grateful to be part of such a strong and generous homeschooling community in this city!

You arrive at the admission and gift shop building, where they also happened to be nursing an orphaned baby owl back to health behind the front desk:

You follow the red shale paths to see the birds—and the facility is much, much bigger than what I was expecting in a town of about 7000 people.

We were there just after they opened and got to see the eagles getting their water. The mature bald eagle (they also had a juvenile) was none to pleased as the worker approached, but he LOVED the water. He hopped right into the dish and took a bath, and he frolicked in the spray when she sprinkled him directly from the hose. I’ve never seen anything like it!

One of the best features of this centre is that you get to be up close and personal with (some of) the birds, like this barn owl, which both boys got a chance to hold. Daegan was sooooo in his element:

We also got to see a falconry demonstration. Here’s a Harris Hawk (not native to Alberta, but very easy to train) gulping down a dead chick as a reward for returning after his first flight:

After the falconry, we read about how power companies try to avoid conflict with osprey—a bird the boys were quite keen on after we had seen one for the first time on my birthday a few days earlier. In the same area, they had a mock power line and various baffles and deterrents to prevent birds of prey from injuring themselves on them:

We then visited the Natural History Centre on site:

Where Daegan and I both loved the owl wall (Whooooo Am I?). The answer key was found across the room, in a small picture frame:

They also had some hands-on materials by a microscope that the boys examined closely. I quite liked the leaf with all the chlorophyll removed. The boys liked the bones:

We then walked around outside checking out various aviaries:

My favourite was the Ferruginous Hawk, which I had never seen in real life before:

Quite an impressive facility given its humble beginnings, and the fact it receives no government funding. I feel it justified my splurging in the gift shop. The boys picked out a small toy each, and I found them some very cool T-shirts as well. I also found a lovely tea mug with birds painted on, and showed the boys. “Who do you think this is for?” I asked. “Hmmm…it’s got tea, and birds….YOU!” they both giggled.

On our way out the boys got to hold a burrowing owl. Gareth in particular enjoyed holding a bird scaled to his size:

We’ll be back!

The concert included a pair of dancers demonstrating how to waltz, tango, cancan, slavic dance, and so on. The conductor also talked about the different time signatures of the pieces: waltz is in 3/4 time, the tango in 4/4. Samba music, in 2/4 time, was incredibly lively and had lots of kids in the audience up and dancing at their seats. You can learn more about the types of music, and the dances in the curriculum guide here.

And then came the moment our family will never forget. After teaching the audience how to “wave their (imaginary) batons” to conduct in the various time signatures, the conductor asked if there was a child who would like to come on stage to conduct the orchestra during Scott Joplin’s ragtime classic, The Entertainer. Out of the hundreds (perhaps even over 1000) of kids there, who ends up on stage, hamming it up and loving every minute?:

Here’s Daegan taking his bow when done. All those drama classes prepped him to know what to do!

Again, many thanks to homeschooling Mom Jodi for setting up our HS group to go see these concerts, and snagging us such awesome seats up close.

The first adapted script they read from was Dr. Seuss’s classic Yertle the Turtle, in which Yertle stacks turtles to place his throne upon, so as to extend his lands as far as possible (as far as he could see). It was very well done, and had the kids giggling as they mimed the stacking turtles:

The kids enjoyed many of the songs and poems where they were invited to participate:

And the class ended by making a rainstorm, using their hands to rub (for wind), snap fingers (first drops), clap hands (heavier rain), slap thighs (pouring rain), stomp feet (thunder), exactly as we had done at the Calgary Philharmonic performance a few weeks ago. I love this activity, but someone needs to let folks know that many (most?) kids under 8 or 10 have a very hard time snapping their fingers! (Daegan made a clicking sound with his tongue instead, and all the other kids followed suit):

So, not what I was expecting, but my two didn’t seem to mind at all. And they spent some time looking for books at the library afterwards, a favourite activity.

The Cochrane Ecological Institute- Cochrane Wildlife Reserve Society is devoted to the preservation of North America’s biodiversity through the conservation and breeding of endangered indigenous species, environmental impact evaluation, ecosystem restoration through the reintroduction of extirpated flora and fauna, rescue and rehabilitation and release of injured and orphaned wildlife, public education and field research, and the monitoring of habitat and species through the development of non intrusive survey methods. 

Unfortunately, there was a steady snowfall all day—that wet, heavy spring snow—so I didn’t take too many pictures. When we arrived we parked next to a 100-acre pen that bison live in, and they were right up at the gate to greet us, along with a moose (pic below) and an elk:

These snowy lumps below are about a half-dozen bison, ones that have been relocated from Elk Island National Park just E of Edmonton, where the vast majority of re-introduced bison across Western North America originate:

We began the program by walking around the facility, meeting a pair of deer that were orphaned last year:

We also checked on the lynx enclosure, but they were hunkered down avoiding the snow, and nowhere to be seen. We then headed into a straw-bale building (they left a cut-out section so you could see how it was constructed):

for a presentation about the centre and the Swift Fox. Swift Fox, once extirpated in Canada and nearly extinct in the US as well, have been successfully reared at CEI since the 1970s, and they have successfully re-introduced the species in several areas of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Montana. They have a remarkable 75% survival rate upon re-introduction, and pretty much ALL re-introduced Swift Fox in Western North America’s grasslands were raised at CEI. I was amazed to learn how small the Swift Fox is, averaging just 5 pounds (2.3 kg)—far smaller than a typical house cat!

The kids started getting antsy towards the end of the presentation:

so we headed outside to play a Swift Fox survival game. Half the group started as foxes, and half as “resources”—either food, water, space or shelter. The Swift Fox group turned around while the resource group picked one resource to act out (we had previously agreed upon actions, such as open arms for ‘space”, touching hands to mouth for “food”, etc.) While their backs were turned each Swift Fox decided which resource they were going to look for. They then turned around, and if they could find their appropriate resource, both people (fox and resource) became Swift Foxes next round. If the fox could not find its resource—if there wasn’t enough of that resource to go around, or if no resource person was acting out what they had picked, then the fox “died” and became a resource next round. As we played several rounds, it became clear that the population of Swift Foxes waxed and waned, just as in nature, as did the amount of resources. So in the first round, when the group was evenly split, just about every fox found its resource and both kids became swift foxes for round two. But that second round, with many foxes and few resources, resulted in many fox deaths, so round three began with few foxes and many resources, etc. One round the instructor told all us resources that there had been a flood, and so we all were ‘water’. very few foxes survived that round. Great game to explain the complex balance of nature to kids!

We then took a break for lunch, and afterwards toured some of the other enclosures and met some recovering wildlife, like the owls. We saw where orphaned bears had been raised the year before, and the damage they did to trees explained to me why bears need such a large habitat area in the wild. We got to go into the Swift Fox enclosure, and we saw some tracks and a feeding station, but no animals themselves amid the snow. (They are largely nocturnal to boot). The boys have asked to go back again in summer and see the facility in better weather—a great idea for a weekend drive. Oh, and I found out they accept volunteers of all ages at CEI, including families with young kids, so perhaps my Nature Boys and I will look into that further.

The show was broken up by a drama skit about a scout, who was seeking an extra badge. He chatted with the audience between musical pieces. Along the way we learned about all the instruments in the orchestra and heard their individual sounds—some of the musicians hammed this up a bit, like the timpani player banging out the opening rhythm to “George of the Jungle” (“George, George, George of the Jungle…)” a reference both boys caught and starting singing along to. There were also some cool audience participation bits, like when we created a storm, first by rubbing our hands together, then snapping fingers, then clapping hands, then smacking our thighs, then shaking our homemade instruments (which some school kids had done ahead of time, as per the suggestions on the curriculum guide, which you can find here.)

There is another Education concert coming up in early April, which we are again planning to attend—maybe we’ll see you there! And many thanks to homeschooling Mom Jodi for organizing these outings!

Daegan, in his element, chatting with fossil and science enthusiasts:

Gareth picking out tiny fossils to examine under the microscope:

Daegan and some kind of petrified log. Beside him on the table is a sample of Alberta’s oil sands:

My favourite fossil, which was a bunch of crinoids, or sea lillies. Daegan found a small fragment of one when we were in Nebraska last month:

Daegan and Gareth searching for, finding, and ID-ing various fossil fragments amongst the small rocks and sand in this kit. And yes, they’d still be there if we hadn’t pulled them away so other kids could have a turn:

I even managed to find some homeschool freebies: the usual pens and pencils, along with this cool keychain of trees of the boreal forest:

I also found out about a local science group that does free presentations for schools and homeschoolers, and about a palaeontology symposium at Mount Royal University—open to the public—next spring. The kids got some free fossils to take home too. All in all a great afternoon!