DNA Electrophoresis Field Trip...and Turtles

The co-op we are attending this year has offered a wide range of field trips for our family to participate in, should we choose. I really appreciate this so much because a lot of times I just forget to plan field trips or I am to busy to make the phone calls or order tickets or plan outings.

As always, I've not kept a good record of late.  But while it's on my mind I thought I'd post pics of a few trips that we took and I actually remembered to grab a photo or two.

ONE: DNA Electrophoresis at the NC State Museum of Natural Science

This was a great one! I was impressed with the quality of the lab, lab equipment, and instruction.  For ten bucks two of my kids got to be real scientists and analyse the DNA of various corn kernels to determine if they contain a gene for fungus, which would in turn determine if the plant variety could be recommended for planting.

My 9th grader came out spewing all kinds of facts and gave me a lengthy, detailed description of the entire process. I retained about 12% of it.  But I was just glad to see that she was so excited about what she had learned, especially since she's doing biology this year! What a great compliment to her course work.  My son, 7th grade, also said he enjoyed it, although you'd never guess it from his body language.  I guess it's not always cool to like school, even (especially?) homeschool.

pics:

While these two were in class,I took my two littles to the other end of the museum for story hour...with animals!  They got to pet a bunny.  This is especially fun for us because the word bunny is pronounced "bundee" by our 2yo.   We  love to hear her say it. And she said it a lot on this day. It was super exciting for her.

Meanwhile, my 9yo had found a couple of friends who were also hanging around waiting for siblings to finish class.  So she hung out with them while exploring the museum.  Afterward the girls included my littles in a game of rock, paper, scissors.  Classic.

It was a fun day and we capped it off with a trip to Taco Bell on the way home (fast food is something we almost n.e.v.e.r. do at our house).  When we got home there was yet another fun surprise: a secret friend, who shall remain nameless, dropped of some valentine goodies: strawberries and a balloon!

What a great day!

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about the turtles.  A day or two before this field trip we met up at the co-op for a special after-hours presentation on turtles! The presenters were from the NC State veterinarian program who specialize in treating hurt turtles and returning them to the wild.  Very cool.  Turtles were a new thing for us upon arriving in North Carolina. But they are old news now. We see them all the time.  Still, very cool to see one up close and personal and learn more about how they are rehabilitated by skilled students who really do seem to care an AWFUL lot about turtles.