Thursday, September 3, 2015
Junior Scout Badge - Earth Connections
1. Be an Ecologist: Your Study Area
Visit a natural area to study an "ecosystem"
Visit a natural area to study an "ecosystem"
- List the plants and animals you observe. Try to count the number of different types.
- Determine if you have different levels of plant life in your ecosystem such as groundcover, shrubs, and trees. How do you think the different levels affect each other?
- Measure the temperature in 3 different locations at ground lvel and in the air about chest-high. Which is the warmest, coolest, and why?
- Dig a small hole in the soil. Note the different levels of soil, what it is made out of, and what it feels like.
2. Traveling Through Time
Ecological succession is when one community replaces another over a period of time. This is a natural process of change. A pond might fill in to become a meadoe, or a meadow might grow into a forest. Think of yourself as a time traveler. Draw what you might see in the fture for two of the following sites:
- Lake or pond that has a marshy area at one end
- Fallen tree
- Vacant lot or meadow
- Burned Forest
3. Identify That Tree
Learn to identify ten tree species using leaves, seeds, fruit, and bark as a means of identification. Describe the kind of ecosystem where each is found.
4. Reading the Rings
Find a tree stump where you can read the growth rings. A year's growth consists of a light and dark ring. In order to determine the tree's age, count the total number of dark rings, and add 5 for the early years when growth is hard to see. Wider rings represent years of rapid growth, while slower growth causes thinner rings. What might have caused the differences in growth years?
5. Eco-Games
Play a game that shows how plants and animals depend upon each other to help others understand relationships within an ecosystem.
6. Saving Animals and Plants
Visit a zoo or wildlife preserve. Find out why it exists, and if they are doing any research to learn about and preserve species.
7. Adapt or Perish
Look for some examples of how plants and animals have developed or adapted to survive in their habitats. Consider environments with a lot of water, or a little; those that are hot or cold; or those that have been changed by humans.
8. Plants and People
Identify 5 different plants that are native to your area. Find out if American Indians or early pioneers used these plants for food, medicine, bedding, fuel, or anything else.
9. Observing Change
Find out how animal or plant grounds change. Make observations over a period of time by doing one of the following:
- Return to your study area during a different season. Look for examples of change
- Keep track of the kinds and numbers of birds coming to a feeding station or special spot over several months. Are there differences at different times of the year?
- Choose a tree in your area. Record the changes you observe over a year. Include signs of wildlife or anything else you notice.
10. Earth as an Ecosystem
Consider one of the following problems and learn what is being done in this country to protect the earth's ecosystems:
- Air pollution
- Mass cutting down of trees in rainfoorests
- oil-spills
- overfishing
- Running out of landfill sites for garbage
Come up with ideas about what you might do as a creature in the earth's ecosystem to ensure the survival of your habitat and act upon one of them.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Friday, August 21, 2015
Junior Scout Badge - Water Wonders
Water Wonders
1. It's in a Cycle - Show your understanding of the water cycle. Describe each step of evaporation, transpiration, condensation, and precipitation. Don't forget the sun's role in providing energy.
2. The Water You Drink - Find our if your drinkingw ater comes from an aquifer, spring, river, reservoir, or another source. What is done to this water to make it safe to drink?
3. Not Enough? Find out about an area of the counrty or world that has too little ater. Learnw hy the are ais do dry, how the people that live there are affected, and what is being done about the problem?
4. Life Underwater - Visit a place like an aquarium, fish hatchery, zoo, or pet store to find three different aquatic animals that live all or part of their lives underwater, like fish, frogs, turtles, smails, se alions, or beavers. How do their adaptations allow them to live in the water.
1. It's in a Cycle - Show your understanding of the water cycle. Describe each step of evaporation, transpiration, condensation, and precipitation. Don't forget the sun's role in providing energy.
2. The Water You Drink - Find our if your drinkingw ater comes from an aquifer, spring, river, reservoir, or another source. What is done to this water to make it safe to drink?
3. Not Enough? Find out about an area of the counrty or world that has too little ater. Learnw hy the are ais do dry, how the people that live there are affected, and what is being done about the problem?
4. Life Underwater - Visit a place like an aquarium, fish hatchery, zoo, or pet store to find three different aquatic animals that live all or part of their lives underwater, like fish, frogs, turtles, smails, se alions, or beavers. How do their adaptations allow them to live in the water.
- How do they move?
- How do they breathe?
- How do they protect themselves?
5. Water Food Chain - Find out about a water ecosystems's fppd chain by doing one of the foollowing in a body of freshwater or slatwater. In each case, find illustrate a food chain thatw ould include the animals you have observeed. Would YOU have a place in such an food chain?
- Drag a plankton net in the water and obsevre what you capture using a agnifying glass or a microscope.
- Take a bottom sample from a marsh. Place it in a white dish and look for signs of life
- Look under rocks, in a pool, in a stream, or in a tide pool. What do you see?
6. A Balanced Life - Set up a fresh or saltwater aquarium. Balanace the numbers and kinds of living things with a healthy food and water supply,
7. Water Work - Visit a place where water has been put to work, such as a sewage or eater-treatment plant, an irrigation control center, a mining operation, a power plant, a fish hatchery, or a physical therapy center. Find out where the water comes from, how it is used, and what happens to it afterwards, What kinds of jobs can you observe? What things do people do, and how do they learn them?
8. Fixing It Up - Help with a project to improve a water related habitat, such as a shoreline clean up, plantings to filter water, filling gabions along banks to prevent stream erosion, or constructing and putting up birdhouses and nesting platforms.
9. Just Add Salt - Find our how saltwater and freshwater are different. DO at least two experiments to find out which:
- boils first
- freezes first
- yields crystals
- makes better soapsuds
- makes floating easier
10. Water Comparisons - Conduct a water taste test with others. Taste several different kinds of water (tap, bottle, spring, mineral water) and rate each on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best tasting. What did you find?
LnE Patch - Zoo
1. Visit Bear Hollow Zoo in Athens, Georgia. Engage in the Self-Guided Tour to meet the /rehabilitated animals and hear about the unique survival stories that brought them to Bear Hollow. 8/2/2015
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2. Visit ZOO Atlanta in Atlanta Georgia's Grant Park.
Monday, August 3, 2015
LnE Patch - Botanical Gardens 8/2/2015
1. University of Georgia Botanical Gardens in Athens, Georgia - Tour indoor conservatory, cactus gardens, orchids, outdoor Asian Gardens, Carnivorous Plant Pond, and Statue Garden. 8/2/2015
2. Enjoy afternoon concert in the Conservatory with the Athens Brass Choir. 8/2/2015
Monday, July 27, 2015
Junior Scout Badge - Rocks Rock 7/27/2015
Rocks Rock
1. Travel to Dahlonega, Georgia to spend the day learning about and experiencing firsthand the historical aspects of the first Gold Rush in America in 1828. 7/27/2015
2. Visit the Dahlonega Gold Museum State Historic Site and take a ranger-guided tour. Watch the film in the upstairs theater, view the exhibits, and interact with the artifacts located throughout the museum. 7/27/2015
3. Tour the Crisson Gold Mine, one of a few active mines still operating in this region of Georgia. View and interact with historic artifacts located on the property. Take both a walking tour and a tractor tour through the publicly-accessible areas. 7/27/2015
4. Pan for gold and mine for gems at Crisson Gold Mine. 7/27/2015
5. Take a guided underground tour of Consolidated Gold Mine, an authentic, preserved mine from the early 1800's. 7/27/2015
6. Pan for gold and mine for gems at Consolidated Gold Mine. 7/27/2015
7. Meet with a certified minerologist to learn about the minerals, gemstones, and metal ores we found. 7/27/2015
8. Go on a Fossil Hunt in the Wolf River in Pall Mall, Tennessee. 8/19/2015
1. Be a Rock Hound - Start a rock collection. See how many different kinds of rocks and minerals you can safely locate without disturbing the environment.
2. Geo Hunt - Search for clues in your community or other areas to locate the following.
4. Soil Sense - Collect two different soil samples
6. Wipe Out Erosion - Erosion
1. Travel to Dahlonega, Georgia to spend the day learning about and experiencing firsthand the historical aspects of the first Gold Rush in America in 1828. 7/27/2015
2. Visit the Dahlonega Gold Museum State Historic Site and take a ranger-guided tour. Watch the film in the upstairs theater, view the exhibits, and interact with the artifacts located throughout the museum. 7/27/2015
3. Tour the Crisson Gold Mine, one of a few active mines still operating in this region of Georgia. View and interact with historic artifacts located on the property. Take both a walking tour and a tractor tour through the publicly-accessible areas. 7/27/2015
4. Pan for gold and mine for gems at Crisson Gold Mine. 7/27/2015
5. Take a guided underground tour of Consolidated Gold Mine, an authentic, preserved mine from the early 1800's. 7/27/2015
6. Pan for gold and mine for gems at Consolidated Gold Mine. 7/27/2015
7. Meet with a certified minerologist to learn about the minerals, gemstones, and metal ores we found. 7/27/2015
8. Go on a Fossil Hunt in the Wolf River in Pall Mall, Tennessee. 8/19/2015
1. Be a Rock Hound - Start a rock collection. See how many different kinds of rocks and minerals you can safely locate without disturbing the environment.
2. Geo Hunt - Search for clues in your community or other areas to locate the following.
- Where a glacier was located
- Where a volcano erupted
- Where erosion has happened
- Where water once covered the area
- Where the Earth has shifted
4. Soil Sense - Collect two different soil samples
- LOOK: Compare the size and color of the grains. Small, medium, large? Light, medium, dark?
- SMELL: What does it smell like?
- TOUCH: What does it feel like? Rocky, pebbly, sticky, gritty?
5. "Geo" Careers - Can you imagine working with dinosaur bones or precious stones? Being an expert on volcanoes, the ocean floor, or faraway planets? All these careers have backgrounds based in geology, Learn more about: Lapidarist, Hydrologist, Geological Oceanographer, Paleontologist, Astrogeologist, Siesmologist, Vulcanologist, Mining Engineer
6. Wipe Out Erosion - Erosion
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