Field Trip Archives

I have been fascinated with honeybees since I was in college. I owe that fascination to an amazing professor, Michael Burgett at Oregon State University, whom taught an introductory entomology course that I enrolled in my senior year. Had I taken that course earlier in my college days, I likely would have minored in entomology. Anyway …

Visit with an Apiculturalist

For a while now, I have wanted to introduce the kids to the science of bee-keeping. I have even hinted to my husband that I would love a hive of our own; that bees would make me happier than diamonds. A girl can dream, right?

We recently discovered that a family we know here in Northern California are apiculturists. When I made this discovery, I was full of questions. It was thereby no surprise when they invited us out to help them to extract the honey from their hives.

Here’s a peak at the **honey bee nature journal entries** we created upon our return home.

Beekeeping 101

The frames had been removed from the hives a few days prior and brought into the garage. This helped to provide a peaceful atmosphere in which to extract the honey for the bees gradually returned to the hive when the threat had moved on. The frame boxes were stored in the attic of the garage for it was very warm up there and the honey was thereby less viscous.

The frames were removed from the box, the wax caps (if any) were sliced off with a flat, knife-like tool which was heated with electricity, and the frames were set into a large kettle like device. We all took turns spinning the frames around … the honey would literally fly out of the hexagonal cells onto the wall of the extractor (presently muscle-powered but plans to motorize it spoken of). The honey then drips down the sides and through a hole in the bottom which then leads to a double filter to remove any wax or insect remnants that may be present. The honey is then funneled into jars for consumption.

Building **insect hotels or habitat for insects** is a great summer project for students learning about pollinators.

This year, the family has 13 hives but sadly, the dry weather through the summer and an area grasshopper infestation in July caused the nectar source to be rather dismal. As a result, they pulled only 81 frames in 9 supers with honey which will yield about 230 pounds of honey. The previous year, they family had a small fraction of the hives they do now and yet had a similar yield.

When we had spun out 18 frames, we took turns donning the bee-keeper attire and visiting the hives. The female worker bees, the drones (males lacking stingers), and of course the queen were identified. We also had the opportunity to hold a drone in our bare hands much as we would have held a small frog. This was such a strange feeling!

The Nature Book Club

Welcome to the Nature Book Club Monthly Link Up. Devoted to connecting children to nature, the monthly link up will begin on the 20th day of each month. We welcome your nature book and activity related links. Read on for more details.

Today, I would like to share with you an amazing book that delights readers of all ages. Using the book jacket and enclosed paper sheets, this book becomes a house for mason bees, which are non-aggressive, non-stinging super-pollinators. Mason bees pollinate far more than honeybees and their nest will give kids a chance to observe the insects more closely.

Turn this Book into a Beehive is written by Lynn Brunelle, author of Pop Bottle Science. Rich text teaches kids about the world of bees and numerous exercises, activities, and illustrations engage one’s imagination. Best of all, with just a few simple steps readers can transform the book into an actual living home for backyard bees.

The Nature Book Club is brought to you by these nature loving bloggers which are your co-hosts. Are you following them? If you don’t want to miss anything, be sure to follow each one. Here are the co-hosts, their choices of books, and activities for July 2019:

Pollinator Observation from Thaleia at Something 2 Offer
The Bee Tree Notebooking Pages from Jenny at Faith & Good Works
Flapping Butterfly Craft from Karyn at Teach Beside Me
Little Bee Online Book Club from Dachelle at Hide The Chocolate
Visit with an Apiculturalist from ME here at Eva Varga
All About Honey Bee Unit Study Resources from Jenny at Homeschool Educational Free Market

Party Rules

Choose an engaging nature book, do a craft or activity, and add your post to our monthly link up.

The link up party goes live at 9:00 a.m. EST on the 20th of each month and stays open until 11:59 p.m. EST on the last day of the month. Hurry to add your links!

You can link up to 3 posts. Please do not link up advertising posts, advertise other link up parties, your store, or non-related blog posts. They will be removed.

By linking up with us, you agree for us to share your images and give you credit of course if we feature your posts. That’s it.

I am a native Oregonian. I was born here and though I have lived in California for a few years, I have spent the majority of my life in the Beaver State.

I have also homeschooled my children from the beginning and have thereby relished in the opportunity to explore our beautiful state through field trips and hands-on experiences that otherwise may not be possible.

I am super excited about the new Travel Oregon video, Only Slightly Exaggerated. Not only is the animation and musical score amazing – it highlights many of Oregon’s most beloved attractions.

Written and produced by Wieden+Kennedy
Animation by Psyop & Sun Creature Studio
Music by Oregon Symphony

Our Oregon

I shared this animation with my children and they were both impressed. My son enjoys creating short videos in iMovie and my daughter loves art. As we watched, inspiration came over me. If they were to create their own video – what locations would they feature? We began to reflect on some of our more cherished memories. I have gathered a few of them here for you:

Waterfalls

When people think of waterfalls in Oregon, they visualize the amazing waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge, and for good reason. The 620-foot Multnomah Falls is Oregon’s tallest waterfall and its most-visited attraction, seeing over 2.5 million visitors each year. Though the gorge should not be overlooked, there are certainly more waterfalls throughout the state that are just as impressive.

Magic Coast
We now live on the coast and can smell the salt air with each breath. We enjoy the bounty of nature’s blessings with regular clam digging and crabbing excursions. While these activities are also popular with visitors, there are many others. Geocaching, letterboxing, painted rocks, and Oregon Coast Quests are all popular family pastimes.

A great book to read with children – to learn more about the coast and cartography (the art of map making) – is The Coast Mappers by Taylor Morrison.

Along the Oregon Coast, there are four distinct ecosystems – each with its own unique flora and fauna. A visit to each of these makes a fun field trip for families.

Crater Lake

The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. The crowning glories of the Cascades are the major volcanic centers – Mount Hood, Mount Jefferson, the Three Sisters, and Crater Lake, which sits in the caldera created by the eruption of Mount Mazama.

The Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway brings visitors from around the world to these majestic areas. From high atop the rim of Crater Lake, you can see what a wonder the world really is. A hike down to the water reveals new wonders.

Forest Trails for Hiking and Biking

We always been avid hikers, though in the past we have focused solely on day hikes. In 2016, for example, we aimed to hike 52 hikes in the year. While the goal was lofty, we just missed it by eight.

We are now training to complete a 50 mile backpacking excursion in summer 2018. In preparation, we will be undertaking several overnight excursions. Backpacking with Teens provides many benefits – most notably connecting with nature and family.

image of teen boy ocean kayaking and harbor seal in background with text Our Oregon at EvaVarga.net

Wild & Scenic Rivers

Oregon’s Rogue River was one of the original eight rivers designated in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Known for its salmon runs and rugged beauty, the Rogue River was designated October 2, 1968. Aside from breathtaking views, Wild and Scenic rivers provide many benefits for wildlife and humans.

There are approximately 110,994 miles of river in Oregon, of which 1,916.7 miles are designated as Wild & Scenic.

In 1988, Pacific Rivers (then Oregon Rivers Council) took the unprecedented step of crafting the nation’s first large federal river protection act, the landmark Oregon Omnibus National Wild and Scenic River Act. To this day, it remains the largest river protection legislation in the nation’s history. It added 40 outstanding rivers totaling 1500 river miles to the National Wild and Scenic River system in Oregon.

When the children were younger, camping at Indian Mary near Grants Pass was an annual tradition (sadly, the tradition came to an end when we moved to California). These summer days along the Rogue River provided many of our fondest memories and greatest lessons on aquatic critters.

Whale Watching

People come from all over the world to learn about the gray whales that travel along the Oregon coast each year. Whales are visible from Oregon’s shores all year long although some months are better than others.

The Whale Watching Spoken Here program places volunteers at great whale watching sites during the two official watch weeks. The Spring 2018 Whale Watch Week will be March 24th – 31st.

Oregon is not only a great place for whale watching, but visitors also flock to our coastal cities to watch the winter storms.

? ? ?

As you can see, Oregon is known for its diverse landscape of forests, mountains, farms and beaches. Yet, there is so much more. I’ve lived here nearly my entire life and there are still corners and hidden gems I have yet to see.

How about you? What attractions would you feature in a video animation of your state?

The story of the Winchester Mystery House centers around Sarah Winchester, the heir to the Winchester empire. As a result of her husband’s death in 1881, Sarah inherited over $20 million dollars, an incredible sum, especially in those days. She also received nearly 50% of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and an income of about $1000 per day, which was not taxable until 1913.

Her wealth, however, could do nothing to ease her pain from the loss of her husband and her only child who died in infancy. Seeking guidance from a spiritualist medium, Sarah was informed that there was a curse on her family “… that has resulted from the terrible weapon created by the Winchester family. Thousands of persons have died because of it and their spirits are now seeking vengeance.”

If You Build It …

Sarah was advised to sell her property in New Haven and head towards the setting sun. “You must start a new life,” said the medium, “and build a home for yourself and for the spirits who have fallen from this terrible weapon too. You can never stop building the house. If you continue building, you will live. Stop and you will die.”

Believing that she was guided by the hand of her dead husband, Sarah moved to the Santa Clara Valley in California in 1884. She purchased a home that was under construction from a local physician and tossed away any previous plans for the house. For the next 36 years, she kept 22 carpenters at work, year around, 24 hours each day, building as inspiration came to her. The sounds of hammers and saws sounded throughout the day and night.

The results were chaotic, a veritable labyrinth, but also include many architectural oddities. Sarah also built into the design elaborate spying features by which she could spy on her servants.

Art Glass

What was most impressive to us was the mansion’s dazzling art glass windows. Many were made to order in Austria and imported by Tiffany’s of New York. They are spectacularly designed, utilizing both concave and convex glass “frames” inset with glittering “jewels.” Mrs. Winchester herself designed the special daisy and spiderweb patterns that are embedded in many of the window.

In the Grand Ballroom are the two leaded stained glass windows, each inscribed with a quote from Shakespeare. The first, “Wide unclasp the table of their thoughts,” is from Troilus and Cressida (IV:5:60). The lines are spoken by Ulysses, and refer to Cressida’s sometimes flirting nature. The second, “These same thoughts people this little world,” is from Richard II (V:5:9). The imprisoned Richard means that his thoughts people the small world of his confinement.

Today, the house has been declared a California Historical Landmark and is registered with the National Park Service as “a large, odd dwelling with an unknown number of rooms.”

Gun Safety

My little man is surrounded by avid outdoorsmen. His grandfather, uncles, and many cousins all hunt. Though my husband and I are not hunters ourselves, he has been around guns his entire life. He loves talking about guns and likely knows as much about guns as he does aeronautics or Legos. He absolutely LOVED our visit to the Winchester Mystery House.

The State of California requires all first time resident hunters, regardless of age, to complete hunter education training or pass a comprehensive equivalency test before purchasing a hunting license. Though a license is not required to simply accompany a hunter (unless you yourself are carrying) and his papa is adament about gun safety, his intense interest proved it was time he enrolled. He wants to go hunting with Papa. I want him knowledgeable and aware so he can be safe.

The Hunter Education course in which he enrolled consisted of ten hours of classroom, homework, and field instruction in the following areas:

firearms safety and handling
sportsmanship and ethics
wildlife management and conservation
archery
black powder
wildlife identification
game care
first aid
survival

After he completed the course of instruction, he took the final examination – an 100 question multiple choice exam requiring 80% or better to pass.

I strongly believe in the merits of this class. Though I sat in on the course with him, I did not help him with the reading material. If he wanted to hunt with Papa, he needed to prove he was mature enough to pass the course on his own merit.

The exam took him nearly an hour to complete. I was very proud when the instructor announced he had passed … a solid score of 95%!!

In the fall of 2012, we surprised the kids one morning with the announcement that we were going to Disneyland. As we live in Northern California, we woke them early (about 4 am, if I recall) and explained that their bags were already packed. Their response was not of delight and enthusiasm, but rather a subdued, “Really? Can’t we got to Yosemite instead?”

My daughter has never been interested in princesses. When we brought the kids to Disneyland the first time in 2007, she had just turned five and my son was only 2 1/2. She had no interest in a princess make-over or the pretty dress-up costumes and she was too young to enjoy most of the rides. My son barely remembers the trip. Though they enjoy Disney films, their favorite movies at that time were Samurai Jack and The Polar Express. In the end, we had a great time but the kids weren’t all that interested.

disney07
As they were significantly older and taller the second time, we expected to have a much different experience in 2012. We were not disappointed. They were able to ride all the rides, they lacked only courage. My daughter loved Space Mountain and went on it 4 times in succession, stopping only when her belly betrayed her. My son, on the other hand, was not keen on any of the roller coasters.

We did our best to encourage him but assured him he wouldn’t be forced to go. We would get in line as a family and when we got to the front of the line, we asked him one last time, “Do you want to ride or do you want to wait here?” He would begrudgingly choose to ride but made it clear that he wasn’t happy about it. When the ride was over, he would proclaim, “That was fun!”

We went through this every time we approached a new ride. Not surprisingly, he loved every ride he went on and thanked us later for encouraging him to push past his fear. Neither of the kids went on Screamin’ – we knew it would have been too much.

In the months and years that have followed, the kids have talked fondly about their experience at Disneyland and have inquired when we might go again. When my husband suggested to me privately that we go to Disney World and the Florida Keys for our spring vacation several months ago, I knew I wanted to try to surprise the kids once again. This time, however, I knew we had to do something different to build the anticipation.

disney12

I came up with a secret reveal countdown. Beginning on the first day of April, I hung on the wall 22 envelopes. Contained within each was a picture or message giving them a little hint of what was to come (I didn’t actually put anything in the envelope until moments before they were given permission to open it in case they peaked).

Image of a suitcase with text, “It’s no April Fools, we’re going on a family trip!”
Image of an airplane
A map of the continental US
An orange
A picture of a Seminole Indian
A picture of a barking tree frog with a QR code to the Youtube video
A picture of Juan Ponce de Leon
An alligator picture
Image of a mangrove forest
A picture of a manatee
A picture of a horse conch
A new fly for my daughter’s fly rod
Beach sand
The date “3 March 1845”
A quote by Ernest Hemingway
A picture of a space shuttle
The 5 flags of Florida
Universal Studios logo
A picture of our hotel at DisneyWorld
A picture of the monorail
The package we received from Disney with their tickets and the USB drive video
Our itinerary with their new trip journals

Our trip was incredible! I’ll be sharing highlights over the next few weeks.

In STEM Club, we are immersed in energy resources presently – so a field trip to a hydroelectric dam is the perfect field trip. Shasta Dam, the 2nd largest dam in the country (after Grand Coulee in Washington state) is in our backyard – so it is the perfect field trip.

Hydro Dams Shasta Dam is a curved gravity dam across the Sacramento River in the northern part of the U.S. state of California, at the north end of the Sacramento Valley. Like another curved gravity dam (Hoover Dam), it was a continuous pour concrete project, and in its day, ranked as one of the great civil engineering feats of the world. The dam is 602 ft (183 m) high and 3,460 ft (1,055 m) long, with a base width or thickness of 543 ft (165.5 m). The reservoir created behind Shasta Dam is known as Shasta Lake and is a popular recreational boating area.

generator at shasta dam

Hydroelectric power is universally known as one of the cleaned, most efficient and inexpensive ways to produce power. Hydroelectric power is electricity generated using falling water. At Shasta Dam, as water races down pipes (penstocks) towards the power plant, that water is directed at the blades of a water wheel (turbine).

The turbine is coupled to an electric generator by a long shaft. The generator consists of a large, spinning “rotor” and a stationary “stator”. The outer ring of the rotor is made up of a series of electromagnets. The stator is comprised of a series of copper coils. As the rotor spins, its magnetic field induces a current in the stator’s windings thereby generating electricity.

The five generators at the Shasta Dam have recently been upgraded by the Bureau of Reclamation, replacing the turbine portion of each generator. This increases the plant capacity to 710 megawatts, with each unit running at 142 megawatts. Utilizing the latest technology in design, the new turbines are more energy efficient.

Our visit this past week to the dam was not our first. We toured the Shasta Dam facilities when we first moved to California. Even so, we all learned something new and enjoyed the experience. One of the highlights was discovering that since the Shasta Dam is a curved gravity dam, we could hear our echo bounce back and forth when we yelled across the span. Additionally, one our first tour, we were most impressed by the train tunnel – as my son was passionate about trains at that age. He is now more impressed with engineering marvels and as a result, he stayed close to the tour guide the entire time asking many questions.

Minecraft Model Shasta Dam When we returned home, he created a model of the dam in one of his Minecraft worlds. Proving once again that Minecraft is educational. He is now brainstorming ideas to create a three dimensional model showing how electricity is generated and transmitted to our homes.

If you are interested in touring a dam in your area or simply learning about dams from the comfort of your home – I have created a FREE set of notebooking printables to guide you along on your study. These printables are a small part of my newest mini-unit, Alternative Energy Resources: Hydroelectric Dams, a 13 page ebook available for purchase in my store. In the coming months, I will be releasing a complete curriculum for energy resources.

A few months ago, we had the opportunity to see Nathan Sawaya’s “Art of the Brick” exhibition when it was at our local science museum. Like most young boys – my little man LOVES Legos so this exhibit was fascinating to him. My daughter loved it too!

Nathan Sawaya is a New York-based artist who creates awe-inspiring works of art out of some of the most unlikely things. His recent global museum exhibitions feature large-scale sculptures using only toy building blocks. Born in Colville, Washington and raised in Veneta, Oregon (My home state, yay!) Sawaya’s childhood dreams were always about fun. He work connects with us because he uses items we are all familiar with … his Lego sculptures captivate our imagination and everyone thinks to themselves, “I could do that!”

What I love about his work is that while his sculptures appear to simply be snapped together from LEGO bricks, there is a little more to the process. Like many sculptors, Sawaya makes preliminary sketches of his pieces. He also uses graph paper to translate these sketches into LEGO reality.

As a train enthusiast with an impressive collection of HO trains for his years, Buddy’s favorite piece (shown above) revealed a remote train depot, part of Sawaya’s ‘In Pieces’ series. The ‘In Pieces’ series features isolated individuals standing in recognizable but chillingly empty minimalist scenes with geometrical design, derived from common features of the American landscape. Incorporated into the piece, the figures have elongated limbs, referencing society’s idealized bodies. Juxtaposed against a desolate, American realist environment, the images are both appealing and ambiguous.

There were several other pieces in this series on display and we enjoyed each one. Using the style and content of the American Postcard as a reference, the photographic elements have been color graded with pastels. As the viewer begins to examine the piece closely, the series reveals its brick-by-brick fabricated construction. This process also represents the direct processes involved with digital photography today. Clear references to pixelation and technology are apparent through the stylized manipulation and digital enhancements.

If you are interested in seeing this exhibit yourself, check out Sawaya’s website, The Art of the Brick for more information.

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Field Trip Archives - Eva Varga

The Science of Beekeeping: A Visit with an Apiculturalist

Visit with an Apiculturalist

Beekeeping 101