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.

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.

And have a happy new year!

Expanding hagfish slime

Science 3-5, as promised, here are the videos about hagfish and their amazing slime.





Also, remember the makeup class is next Monday and if you can't make it, you need to pick up the worksheet and cabbage juice now.

Happy Holidays!

Hi everyone!

Today's food was gingerbread cookies (from a mix) and hot chocolate with extra cocoa powder. Cocoa is thought to have health benefits, including improving brain functioning.

And here's a video of a swimming anglerfish! Although people have examined numerous dead anglerfish, this video shows one swimming naturally in her normal habitat.

Glasswing butterflies

Today's food was cranberry sauce muffins. There's also a whole grain, oats, brown sugar version over at Serious Eats.

And now, here are lots of glasswing butterfly pictures. Scientists are still not sure how or why the wings are transparent.

Cookie videos

Hey everyone!

Today's food was storebought cookies for the animation kids over at Ashland library. Check out their videos!

Today's science fact is the slingjaw wrasse's existence.

You can probably tell why it's called that.

The slingjaw wrasse's telescoping jaw doesn't just bring the mouth closer to the prey. It actually creates suction, pulling in their food.

Mind-controlled robot arms!

Doesn't that look amazing? This is a robot hand that can sense the electric pulses in muscles, so people who've lost their hands can put it on and control it just by thinking what they want, and there are even tiny motors provide feedback to the existing so they can "feel" how hard they're gripping.



Today's food was crumb-topped apple pumpkin pie, minus the crumbs. I chose this pie because the very first published recipe for pumpkin pie was to cut up chunks of pumpkin, mix it with slices of apple and sugar, and bake. What we call pumpkin pie today was originally called pumpkin pudding.

Banana peel plastics!

Elif Bilgin, a sixteen year old from Turkey, discovered a way to turn banana peels into bioplastic.



Today's food was Martha Stewart's cranberry cobbler, with extra sugar and butter. I'd also suggest cutting the cranberries up so they're less tart. Happy Thanksgiving!

Real-life animated drawings

A cool look at how mixing animation and real life stop motion can produce surprising effects. The clear plastic sheets being held up are called cells and are what animators like Disney relied on to produce their movies.