Thursday, February 3, 2011

Journey North Time!


While we are still continuing with Secrets of the Universe (having embarked on Liquids and Gases) it is time again for Journey North.  Most of the offerings starting in February, but by far our favorite is the Mystery Class.
This is our third year doing this project--an excellent example of projhect-based learning.  Using sunlight and cultural clues, you try to locate 10 mystery locations around the globe.  It combines science, math, and geography into one fabulous project.  This Friday is the first data set so it is not too late to start.  Just click the Journey North tag in the right sidebar to see my blog posts from last year.

A few weeks ago we went to the Boston Museum of Science since they have free Omni Theater Fridays in January.  We happened to see Whales, which was not the best Omni production I've ever seen since I am convinced they tried to instill sea sickness in the audience by turiong off the camera stabilization.  However, a good part of the movie talked about the Gray Whale migration, the longest of any mammal, and that got me thinking about another Journey North project.

I happened to look today, just in time to see the Journay North Gray Whales project runs on Wednesdays starting in February.  After looking through the site, and seeing they had the lowest numbers ever in 2010, I am excited to see so far they are reporting record calves in Mexico so far.  And so I have downloaded the data sheets and out together our journal to follow along with this project as well.  I hope to let you know how we are progressing.