New friend!

Our tarantula has been popular with all the kids at SET, but she's not enjoying herself. Every since we brought her back, she's spent all her time curled up in the far corner of her cage. She's had a long life as a school pet and it's time for her to retire.

In Rosie's place? This beauty.



Our neighbors found her and brought her over. Despite what everyone thought, she's not a South American spider that snuck into the country on some bananas. She appears to be a Dolomedes tenebrosus, a fishing spider native to the northeast. As the name suggests, these spiders mostly hunt water bugs and even small fish, although they're capable of hunting on land as well.

For right now, we'll be keeping her in a plain, water-free cage and providing her with crickets and mistings. If she seems to like the school life, we'll give her a fancier home and if not, she'll return to the forest.

Chestnut seedling update!

They're growing fast!

Well, two of them are. Something's wrong with the third, and it keeps sending up new shoots rather than growing what it has. Hopefully it'll recover!

We'll be taking them home for a little bit because they're not getting enough sunlight here. Even sprouted chestnuts are at risk of being dug up by squirrels and eaten, so they have to be kept indoors for now. We'll plant them outside when they're a little bigger, during our summer program.

The chestnuts are sprouting!

Last year, I talked about the American chestnut, enormous trees that were once the cornerstone of the eastern forests until it was wiped out by a fungal blight, and how after a hundred years of attempts to bring them back, researchers finally managed to genetically engineer a tree that was immune. We naturally backed the fundraiser, and were sent three wild-type chestnut seeds to plant.

Each of the science classes planted one of the nuts, and they've all sent up shoots!

These sprouts, beautiful as they are, are doomed.

They're not the genetically engineered nuts and have no immunity to the deadly blight. But with luck, they'll last several years before dying, long enough to crossbreed with the new breed of chestnut and preserve their genes. And we'll learn a lot about growing chestnuts from them, so we'll be ready to care for the immune chestnut seeds when they're ready.

Mr. Fluffercat

Creative Writing + Public Speaking

    “I'm late! I'm Late!!” Mr. Fluffercat yelled down as he raced down the streets of London. Forgetting to look both ways, he started to run across a road but skidded to a stop just in time to let a car pass though. After a while huffing and puffing he managed to reach his office building.
    Motivated by the sight of the elevator, he gained all of his energy back and Mr. Fluffercat anxiously waited in front of the doors while pressing his fists repeatedly on the button. After what seemed forever, the swoosh of the elevator doors opening rang in his ears and he scrambled inside.
    “Level 24! LEVEL 24!!” he screamed at the buttons as he aimed at but failed again and again to hit the 2 and the 4 with his big furry paws. Ding went the elevator over and over again at all of the wrong floors until by a miracle another businessman, a skinnier cat, got in the elevator and pressed the number 24. Finally, Mr. Fluffercat reached level 24 and bolted out, shoving the other cat to the side.
    Right, left, left, right, he ran until he reached his office. He sighed a sigh of the deepest relief, until he realized that he never stopped moving and was sliding down the marble floor of the office hall. “ Curse my over-fluffy paws!” he thought. Mr. Fluffercat let out a shriek and every cat peeped their head out the door of their office to see what the noise was coming from. He was red all over and decided to walk for the first time in the day back to his office. 

Once inside, the cat didn't even close the door behind him. As soon as he saw the printer he forgot all about walking and bolted to the printer. Mr. Fluffercat ripped the paper in his 

suitcase and put it in the fax machine. Then he went to the copier next to it and made 11 copies for the cats at the conference. Without noticing, his hands automatically rose up and his jaws automatically started nibbling. Once Mr. Fluffercat heard the last beep, he snatched all of the copies, stuffed them into his suitcase and went running to the elevator again.
    This time, Mr. Fluffercat managed to punch in the numbers, and he quickly got to floor 36, and raced all the way to the other side of the building until the door to the conference room was right in front of him. With pride that he had made it just 7 minutes late, he tried to open the door and found that it was locked! On the door Mr. Fluffercat found a stickynote that read “Meeting canceled”
    “WHAT?!”

Feb Vacation!

We had a busy, busy vacation week. Here's some pictures!

Happy Friday the 13th!

Did you know they managed to upload a worm brain into a computer and then gave it control over a Lego robot just like the ones we use?



We won't be having regular classes next week, but we will be running a special vacation program! There'll be a second one for April vacation, assuming that isn't canceled due to the snowpocalypse.

If you'd prefer to stay inside, perhaps you'd like the collaborative game DUST, where you'll use scientific data to try to solve the unfolding mystery. Involves one of the most awesome animals in existence, the water bear!

Cake!

Yesterday and today's food were Pillsbury boxed mixes. Pillsbury: for when you want cake without effort. Try it yourself, kids. Today's mini cupcakes were cooked with the Hostess Mini Cupcake Maker, which does indeed make mini cupcakes, and fast.

2015!

Welcome to the new year, everyone.

Here's a wonderful blog about local wildlife for you while you wait for spring: http://northeastnature.tumblr.com/

Due to global warming, it's now rare for us to have a snowy white Christmas, but as a result, you may find some of the early spring flowers sprouting any time thoughout the rest of winter, so keep an eye out!

Now is also a good time to put up birdfeeders. January has been warm in recent years, making it a good time to set things up, while February is still often quite cold, and animals will need a good stock of fat to make it through to spring safely. You might even see a opossum one night!