Field Trip

We took a field trip recently to a soil sedimentation lab. It is a laboratory run by the Department of Agriculture that does experiments on various things dealing with soil, water and small animals. Learning about dirt, water and various creatures - I knew my boys would love this field trip.

Our group was divided into small groups and we each went to different stations to hear about the different research the various people are currently involved in. This station was being done by a microbiologist who was studying the effect of algae. The children were allowed to look in his very high powered microscope. They were thrilled. James was all ears on this station and asked many questions.

At this station, the man talked about various reptiles that they had collected to study. He showed them to the children. I think we could have spent a whole hour with him. He had a rather large live
snake in the container next to him. We (the moms) were glad this snake had been caught.
We observed rain and the erosion effect it had on the different soils. They talked about how many worms were in an acre of a yard and why they were necessary. The children learned how they tested for the different types of chemicals that are found in our water. At that station the employee then passed on the data to another scientist , who was studying the effect of how much of the chemicals the plants absorbed. All of this data was used to educate farmers and other people in the area.

I think the boys favorite station was the one that was studying how the waves were impacted by the grasses. There was a giant wave tank with fake grass inside. A machine simulated waves and the Scientist took calculations. The fun part for the children was there was a small wave tank and they were allowed to make their own waves.Caleb made small waves, but James and Timothy tried to make as big of waves as they possibly could.

It was a fun and educational trip for us. I certainly felt very undereducated, but all of the employees did a great job of explaining things in words that were understandable for the children. My children couldn't wait to get home to do their own experiments.