Today was a very exciting day for us because we got to be Scientists for an hour!
We had about eight scientists come in to work with our school today. We looked at the leaf litter from Ngawakahiamoe. Heather brought in samples from 2 different areas – one from a wet area that was lower and one from the bank which was higher and bit drier.
We were able to collect some of the leaf litter and put it into a petri dish. We then got to look at it under microscopes.
We got taught to use the microscopes you have to put your hands on the dials on the side to move the magnifying glass up and down, there were also little dials on eye parts that you could turn to enhance the view.
Some of things we found were: bugs, such as: snails, centipedes, millipedes, spiders, sand hoppers, land hoppers, ladybugs (both blue and red), ants, flies, bugs that light up and worms, mushrooms, sticks, leaves, soil and kahikatea berries.
Some of us, who were really interested in the science are able to go back after lunch and have another look.
Kia ora Poutama Class, thank you for commenting on our Marble Week post, lots of awesome questions we will reply to you our blog soon. Being a Scientist for a day looked so interesting! You found so many different creatures and plants. The microscope must be really helpful to be able to explore what you have found more closely. What did you see that was the most surprising? We were also wondering what a petri dish is?
thank you for sharing,
Room 6 @ Saint Patrick’s School
Kia ora Room 6,
A petri dish is a little round plastic dish with a lid that you can put organisms in to look at through a microscope.
The most surprising thing some of us saw in the microscope was seeing all the little tiny bugs and snails that we would normally step in without seeing them. Miss Salton HATED the spiders, so we had to keep them away from her!
We really enjoyed being scientists for the day and hope we get to do it again.
Kia ora,
Poutama